New Delhi: Days after announcing the transformation of the country’s eastern and western borders into ‘smart borders’ by boosting technology amid a tight crackdown on infiltration, Home Minister Amit Shah will visit the border areas of four states – Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tripura and West Bengal – next month to review their security.Shah will start with a visit to BSF’s Sanchu border post in Rajasthan’s Bikaner on Tuesday morning, followed by a visit to Harami Nala in Gujarat’s Sir Creek area on May 29.At Sanchu, the Home Minister will inspect the border post, interact with the BSF personnel on duty and launch welfare schemes for them. Later in the day, he will chair a meeting to review the security arrangements in the five border districts of Rajasthan. The meeting will be attended by senior officials of the Home Ministry, Government of Rajasthan, BSF and the concerned District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police.On May 29, Shah is going to visit Bhuj in Gujarat. He will inspect the BSF post there and also visit Harami Nala in Sir Creek area.In June, he is scheduled to visit posts on the eastern border in Tripura and Bengal. Shah will visit the border areas of Tripura on June 5 to assess the security arrangements.On June 15, he will stop near the international border in Bengal and inspect BSF posts there.Delivering the Rustamji Memorial Lecture at the BSF investiture ceremony here recently, Shah had asked the BSF to take up the responsibility of detecting and stopping infiltration and said it was aimed at bringing unnatural demographic change in the border areas. He called upon the BSF to join forces with the local administration and police to create a structured mechanism to prevent illegal border crossings and expel those who have already infiltrated.Shah said the ‘Smart Border’ on the eastern and western sides will deploy latest technological solutions like drones, radar, smart cameras etc. to detect and counter infiltration, drug smuggling, cattle smuggling, circulation of fake Indian currency notes and drones carrying weapons and drugs.He said that now with the BJP coming to power in the border states of Tripura, Assam and Bengal, “every single infiltrator will be thrown out of the country”.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his wife over dowry, highlighting how parents’ anxiety to save their daughters’ marriage can lead many women into a death trap by sending them back to matrimonial homes despite complaints of torture.Amid the rising number of dowry cases, the apex court began its judgment by opening up a question for the society to ponder over. “Could young Soma Acharjee’s life have been saved? Was Soma thrown to the wolves because of fear of social humiliation?”. a bench of Justices PK Mishra and KV Vishwanathan asked.The court said Soma had repeatedly informed her parents about the abuse she faced, but was sent back when the elders attempted to mend her relationship with her husband.Describing the case as an eye-opener, Justice Vishwanathan, who wrote the judgment, said, “She made repeated appeals to her parents to save herself and even came to her parents’ house and stayed with them for a few days. However, every time she raised the issue, efforts were made to broker a reconciliation and send her back to the marital home.”The top court said village elders were involved and the resolutions were passed after an alleged compromise. It said, “Soma’s near and dear ones naively believed that somehow the situation would turn out for the better. A false sense of optimism engulfed them. Their hopes were betrayed when Soma met a tragic end in her marital home.”Rejecting the husband’s plea that Soma died by suicide after her body was found hanging 15 months after their marriage, the court said the medical and other evidence clearly pointed towards a murder related to dowry harassment.The evidence on record shows that Soma was harassed with demands for a motorcycle, TV and other items, even though her parents had accepted some of the demands.“The injuries found on the body of the deceased do not match a typical case of suicide by hanging,” the court said, adding that the injuries before the post-mortem were not self-inflicted. The bench said medical evidence indicated that Soma was subjected to violence before her death, ruling out the suicide theory and pointing to a case of “mock hanging”.

New Delhi: India has moved a step closer to a major defense deal with France on 114 Rafale fighter jets as the country has finalized the Letter of Request (LoR) for the acquisition of the 4.5 generation multirole jet for the Indian Air Force.“The LOR is ready and is expected to be sent to France in a few weeks,” defense sources said. times of India. The LOR is a formal government-to-government document used to initiate major defense acquisitions under international frameworks such as foreign military sales or intergovernmental agreements. The first estimate of the mega deal is around Rs 3.25 lakh crore.Under the proposed deal, about 90 of the 114 fighter aircraft are planned to be manufactured in India through a partnership between French company Dassault Aviation and an Indian firm under the Make-in-India initiative. The remaining 24 aircraft are expected to be delivered from France in flying condition. The indigenous content of Jet will be around 50%.IAF chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh is scheduled to visit France in early June, just ahead of PM Modi’s visit to the country from June 15 to 17 for the G7 summit. Singh’s visit will finalize this mega deal. The final contract, which is expected by the end of this year, will be signed after final price negotiations and approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).Apart from the deal for 114 Rafale jets, the Navy is separately purchasing 26 Rafale maritime aircraft from Dassault for carrier operations, the agreement for which was signed on April 28 last year. The IAF is already operating 36 Rafales received under a September 2016 inter-governmental agreement.India’s Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) programme, under which 114 fighter jets will be procured, aims to address the critical capability gap in the Indian Air Force and check the declining strength of its fighter squadrons, which have shrunk from the ideal 42.5 squadrons to a worrying 29, which are required to effectively deal with the two-front security threat from Pakistan and China.At a time when Pakistan is in the process of acquiring 40 J-35 5th generation fighter aircraft, India is pressurizing Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to expedite the delivery of Tejas aircraft under two contracts with the Indian Air Force. Earlier, Defense Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh had said that he expected HAL to deliver 10 Tejas MK-1A fighter jets within this financial year.With the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) expected to be ready and enter service by 2035, the government’s urgent need for a stealth platform has brought Russia’s Su-57 back into focus.For the AMCA programme, the government has shortlisted three domestic private sector contenders for prototype development and manufacturing: a consortium led by Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), and a consortium led by Bharat Forge.

TOI correspondent from Washington: In an already busy week of US-Iran peace talks, the energy crisis and Trump’s visit to China, few expected the hottest geopolitical confrontation to involve Marco Rubio, the Taj Mahal, and an Iranian consulate armed with architectural claims and Persian pride.The latest chapter of US-Iran adversarial diplomacy began innocently enough when the US Secretary of State and his wife Zeenat visited the Taj Mahal in Agra on Sunday. Braving 45C temperatures, Rubio dutifully posed on the famous marble bench – which was so hot that his butt turned to bacon, someone noted – and described the Taj as “one of the true treasures of the world”.“I’ve never been there. I only knew about the casino in New Jersey that the president used to have,” Rubio joked to reporters, referring to Trump’s long-closed Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.This should have been the end of it. Instead, Iran’s Consulate in Hyderabad chose to act as a troll patrol as if stopping Hormuz was not enough. “If Rubio had any knowledge of history or architecture, he would not have posed here,” the consulate posted onHistorians were quick to note that the problem was that the text of the Consulate’s history itself needed some historical fact-checking. Yes, Mumtaz Mahal – born Arjumand Banu Begum – was of Persian descent from her aristocratic family. But he was born not in Isfahan but in Agra. And while Persian influence is deeply embedded in Mughal architecture, the Taj Mahal was hardly an exclusively Iranian project assembled by a team from Tehran.Architectural historians describe the Taj as one of history’s great multinational collaborations: Mughal patrons, Persian aesthetics, Indian craftsmen, Central Asian influences, Ottoman inspirations, and artisans from across the Islamic world all converged on Shah Jahan’s dream of flaming marble.The chief architect, widely believed to be Ustad Ahmed Lahauri, was from Lahore in undivided India, not modern Iran. Persian calligraphers and designers such as Amanat Khan Shirazi certainly contributed. But claiming that the Taj was only “built by Iranian architects” is like claiming that the samosa is exclusively Indian. Others pointed to the awkward identity politics inherent in the consulate’s flexibility. The present Islamic Republic is not actually the uncontested heir of the ancient Persian civilization, but rather the guardian of Las Vegas Roman democracy.The Taj Mahal, meanwhile, remains bipartisan catnip for visiting American dignitaries. Vice President J.D. Vance visited with his family last year. Ivanka Trump famously posed there during the first Trump administration. Trump himself visited the memorial with Melania during her 2020 visit to India, praising its grandeur, while perhaps privately wondering whether Atlantic City zoning laws had failed him.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Coordinator Arvind Kejriwal Claiming on Monday that the people of Gujarat are “yearning for change,” he asserted that the party will form the government in the 2027 assembly elections.Addressing a gathering in Narmada, Kejriwal highlighted that for the first time in 75 years, a third party has gained a foothold in the state, which traditionally sees a two-way contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.Kejriwal said, “In the last 75 years, whether at the state level or the district level, governments in Gujarat were formed by only two parties: either the Congress or the BJP. People used to say that a third party cannot exist in Gujarat, there is no place for anyone, and a third party has no status.”He gave credit to the people of Narmada district for breaking this tradition by bringing Aam Aadmi Party to power at the local level.He said, “For the first time, you, the people of Narmada district, have brought a third party to power; you have formed the Aam Aadmi Party government. This shows that the people of Gujarat are yearning for change.”Kejriwal further said that the political change that starts in the tribal areas will eventually affect the entire state.The AAP leader said, “The spark that has been lit by the people of this tribal area, this spark has arisen right here in Narmada district, which will now spread throughout Gujarat and the Aam Aadmi Party government will be formed in 2027.”Aam Aadmi Party also took out a grand Vijay Yatra in Narmada district.Taking to social media platform X, Kejriwal reiterated his stance keeping in mind the BJP’s long-running rule in the state.He posted, “For the first time in Gujarat, a third party government other than Congress and BJP has been formed in any district. BJP has been in government in Gujarat for thirty years. In 2027, Aam Aadmi Party will form the government in entire Gujarat with full majority.”

Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) honored women achievers Jammu and Kashmir And Gujarat, for the first time, recorded a profit of Rs 4,585 crore in its 55th annual general meeting and announced incentives for employees.IFFCO Sahakari Ratna Award for 2024-25, carrying an honorarium of Rs 11 lakh, was presented to Shakeela Akhtar for her contribution in strengthening the cooperative movement and empowering women in agriculture, especially in Jammu and Kashmir.Bhavana Gondalia received the IFFCO Sahakaritha Bandhu Award for 2024-25 along with a cash prize of ₹11 lakh for her work in the cooperative sector and efforts towards women empowerment in agriculture.IFFCO said that in line with the United Nations declaring 2025-26 as the “Year of Women Farmers”, the awards were presented to women achievers for the first time in the history of the organisation.Addressing the gathering, IFFCO Chairman Dilip Sanghani said that the continuous support of cooperatives, farmers and employees has helped make IFFCO one of the leading cooperative institutions in the world. He said the organization reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “prosperity through cooperation”, which aims to empower farmers and rural India through the cooperative movement.IFFCO Managing Director KJ Patel announced that the cooperative has recorded a profit of Rs 4,585 crore. He also said that employee incentives worth Rs 490.65 crore have been approved for the year.The organization announced a minimum wage of Rs 20,000 for lower level employees with an additional budget allocation of Rs 140 crore.The AGM saw the participation of over 850 cooperative leaders, member committees, farmers’ representatives and stakeholders from across the country.During the event, IFFCO showcased initiatives and investments in sectors including Indian Seed Cooperative Society Limited, National Cooperative Exports Limited, IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Company, Cordet, IFFDC, IFFCO Bazaar, IFFCO-MC and Kisan Rural Finance.IFFCO reiterated its focus on sustainable agriculture, including widespread adoption of nano-fertilizers and supporting small and marginal farmers to improve productivity and income.