A group of Hindu seers met on Monday (3) to outline a plan to urge India prime minister Narendra Modi to press for early construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying "Hindus" have reelected him with a huge majority to complete the task.
The meeting was organised in Faizabad by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and attended by its national vice president Champat Rai.
"Hindu seers will soon be meeting prime minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue of early construction of the temple," said Ram Janambhoomi Nyas president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das. The Nyas is a trust to promote construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Das, who presided over the meeting, also said: "Hindus have elected Modi and (Uttar Pradesh chief minister) Yogi Adityanath for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. So it is their responsibility to get a grand Ram temple built on the disputer site at the earliest."
Reacting to the VHP meet, Dinendra Das, the Mahant of Nirmohi Akhara, the main litigant in the case from the Hindu side, said: "The VHP meeting has no relevance as the land of Ram Janambhoomi belongs to Nirmohi Akhara and we have worshipped Lord Ram there for ages."
"We want the construction of Ram Temple in a peaceful way," he added.
The main litigant from the Muslim side, Iqbal Ansari, termed the VHP meet a "political stunt".
"The matter of Babri Masjid and Ram Janambhoomi is pending before the Supreme Court. We must wait for the final verdict," he said.
Mahant Kanhayya Das, president of Sant Samiti of Ayodhya, said the Hindu seers believe that the Muslim community in India is "satisfied" with the Modi and Yogi governments.
"So both the governments must not waste time in deciding on the construction of Ram Mandir," he said.
The UK's Carrier Strike Group (CSG), led by aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, has been deployed for the exercise, which aims to enhance combined maritime and air capabilities between the two navies.
INDIA and the United Kingdom have begun an eight-day joint naval exercise, Exercise Konkan, in the Western Indian Ocean as part of efforts to strengthen overall military cooperation.
The UK's Carrier Strike Group (CSG), led by aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, has been deployed for the exercise, which aims to enhance combined maritime and air capabilities between the two navies.
The Indian Navy said the exercise reaffirms the shared commitment to ensuring secure, open and free seas and reflects the “comprehensive strategic partnership” outlined in the India-UK Vision 2035.
“The UK and India believe in an Indo-Pacific that is free and open. We share an ambition for a modern defence and security partnership, a fundamental pillar of UK-India Vision 2035, agreed by our prime ministers this year,” said Lindy Cameron, the British High Commissioner to India.
“The engagements between the Carrier Strike Groups of our two navies demonstrate our commitment to maintaining the rules-based international order in the region and lay the groundwork for future cooperation,” she said.
Commodore Chris Saunders, defence adviser to the British High Commission, said, “Exercise Konkan provides an excellent opportunity for the Royal Navy to train in the delivery of complex multi-domain operations alongside India as partners in the Indo-Pacific region.”
“The UK and India are two carrier operating countries, and the Royal Navy and Indian Navy are in a fairly exclusive club as blue-water, multi-carrier navies,” he said.
Saunders added that the exercise allows the two maritime powers to enhance combined capability and share best practice. “The UK is also proud to co-lead the Maritime Security Pillar of India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative,” he said.
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Robert Jenrick, takes part in a TV interview on day three of the Conservative Party conference on October 7, 2025 in Manchester. (Photo: Getty Images)
Robert Jenrick stands by remarks calling Handsworth “one of the worst-integrated places”
Kemi Badenoch says Jenrick may have been “making an observation”
Local MP Ayoub Khan and former mayor Andy Street strongly criticise remarks
SHADOW JUSTICE SECRETARY Robert Jenrick has defended his comments describing Birmingham’s Handsworth area as “one of the worst-integrated places” he had ever been to.
A recording, published by The Guardian, reportedly made during a dinner at the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association, captured Jenrick saying he had not seen “another white face” in the hour and a half he spent in Handsworth filming a video about litter.
Jenrick said on Tuesday he had no regrets about his remarks. “No not at all and I won’t shy away from these issues,” he told BBC Radio 5Live. “It’s incredibly important we have a fully integrated society,” he said, adding that the country faced “major failures of integration”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she did not know the context of the recording but added Jenrick may have been “making an observation” about his visit.
“I wasn’t there so I can’t say how many faces he saw, but the point is that there are many people in our country who are not integrating,” she told BBC Breakfast.
Handsworth’s Independent MP Ayoub Khan said the remarks were “not only wildly false but also incredibly irresponsible”.
Labour chair Anna Turley said Jenrick’s comments reduced “people to the colour of their skin”.
Former West Midlands mayor Andy Street told BBC Newsnight: “Putting it bluntly, Robert is wrong,” calling Handsworth a “very integrated place”.
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Born in Champaran in the north Indian state of Bihar, Kumar was raised by a single mother who cleaned homes to fund his education.
AN INDIAN teenage entrepreneur who launched a programme to help underprivileged students access better education opportunities has won a prestigious global prize.
Adarsh Kumar, an 18-year-old student-innovator who grew up in poverty, was on Wednesday (1) named the winner of the $100,000 (£74,471) Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2025 at a ceremony in London.
Born in Champaran in the north Indian state of Bihar, Kumar was raised by a single mother who cleaned homes to fund his education.
“Winning this prize is unbelievable,” said Kumar, after receiving his prize in London, adding, “It has given me the confidence to work harder.”
Kumar used a laptop his mum bought with her savings to teach himself coding, start-up skills, and entrepreneurship from online resources.
Aged 13, he launched the non-profit Mission Badlao with his sister-in-law; it helped acquire land for a new government school, facilitated 2,000+ Covid vaccinations, distributed menstrual health products, and planted 3,000 trees.
A year later, he left home with Rs 1,000 ($10/ £8.30) for Kota town in Rajasthan, seeking specialist coaching to crack the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination.
However, he had insufficient funds to pursue these tutorials, so he used the free library wi-fi to send emails to mentors and eventually was able to join programmes, intern at start-ups and shadow founders.
This led to the launch of Skillzo, a platform that facilitated mentorship and programmes in entrepreneurial skills.
“Adarsh’s story is more than a personal triumph – it is a powerful symbol of the courage and grit of young changemakers everywhere, whose voices deserve to be heard and whose stories can inspire the world,” said Nathan Schultz, CEO and president of Chegg, Inc.
“Their stories remind us of the extraordinary impact students can have when they are given the support and platform to act on their vision,” he said.
Skillzo has so far helped 20,000 underserved students.
With his Chegg.org Global Student Prize winnings, Kumar intends to build SkillzoX – an AI-powered, low-bandwidth mentorship platform for rural areas, and launch the Ignite Fellowship – a global accelerator for student changemakers.
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In this photo taken on September 10, 2024, fishermen return on trawlers after catching Hilsa fish at sea, in Namkhana in the Indian state of West Bengal.
BANGLADESH has deployed warships and patrol aircraft as part of a surveillance operation to protect hilsa fish from illegal fishing during the spawning season, the country’s defence force said.
The herring-like hilsa, Bangladesh’s national fish and a popular delicacy in West Bengal in India, return from the Bay of Bengal to rivers each year to lay eggs.
Authorities said on Saturday they had imposed a three-week ban on fishing from October 4 to 25 to protect spawning areas.
The defence force’s Inter-Service Public Relations said in a statement that 17 navy warships and patrol helicopters had been deployed to enforce the ban and protect the fish.
“The warships and state-of-the-art maritime patrol aircraft have been conducting round-the-clock surveillance to prevent the intrusion of domestic and foreign fishermen into the deep sea,” the statement said.
Millions of people in Bangladesh depend on the fish, which can cost up to 2,200 taka ($18.40) a kilogram in Dhaka.
Indian fishing fleets trawl the waters of the River Ganges and its delta to meet demand in Kolkata and across West Bengal, which has a population of more than 100 million.
Overfishing to meet such demand can reduce stocks as hilsa return to spawn.
Environmental experts say fish stocks have also been affected by changes in the delta regions, which are threatened by rising sea levels linked to climate change.
Some experts also expressed concern that the deployment of ships could disturb the spawning fish.
Md Abdul Wahab, former head of the Eco Fish project at WorldFish, told AFP the hilsa needed “calm and undisturbed waters for spawning” and suggested the use of drones instead.
The Bangladesh government has allocated 25 kilograms of rice per fishing family as compensation during the ban period.
“These three weeks are very difficult for fishermen, as we have no other means of survival,” said Sattar Majhi, a 60-year-old fisherman.
(With inputs from agencies)
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The Conservatives, led by shadow chancellor Mel Stride, have proposed a £5,000 “first-job bonus” funded through national insurance rebates to help young people buy their first home.
The Conservative Party has proposed giving young people a £5,000 national insurance rebate to help them buy their first home.
The plan, to be announced by shadow chancellor Mel Stride on Monday, would grant a “first-job bonus” when individuals start their first full-time job.
According to The Times, the measure would divert national insurance contributions into a long-term savings account and could provide working couples with up to £10,000.
The Conservatives estimate that 600,000 people a year would benefit, with the £2.8 billion cost funded by cuts to government spending, including ending sickness benefits for mild mental health conditions and restricting welfare access for around half a million foreigners.
Stride will say: “When we deliver the urgent change that is needed to stop young people going straight from school to a life on benefits, we will use those reforms to fund tax cuts which are laser-focused on aspiring young people.”
Under the proposal, the first £5,000 in national insurance payments would go into a savings account that could be used to buy property or withdrawn after five years.
Badenoch, the Tory leader, said there was a “gap for the responsible, optimistic, competent Conservative approach.”
The Times also reported comments from James Cleverly, who said the party must “re-establish the mantle of being the party of aspiration.”