Millions of Indians went to the polls on Saturday (4) in the opening round of regional elections seen as the first major test of prime minister Narendra Modi’s party after his controversial move to ban high-value notes.
Five Indian states will elect new governments over the next five weeks, with northern Punjab and west coast Goa on Saturday witnessing high turnout in the first leg of the multi-phased elections.
Modi’s move to ban notes in November that made up 86 percent of the currency was aimed at curbing widespread tax evasion, but it has also dented growth and caused widespread pain in the cash-reliant nation.
His personal popularity has remained high well into his first term, but the elections are being seen as a test of its endurance.
More than 76 percent of the 20 million eligible voters in Punjab and Goa turned out to cast their ballots to elect a total of 157 legislators, the election commission of India said.
“Goa had a record 83 percent voter turnout. Punjab witnessed marginally low turnout at 70 percent” Umesh Singh, an ECI official, told reporters in New Delhi.
Singh said voting went smoothly in both states with only minor delays caused by a few faulty voting machines.
The commission said 55 million rupees in cash, nearly 15 million litres of liquor and large quantities of drugs were seized by authorities in the weeks leading up to the elections in both states.
Cash and liquor are often used to buy votes.
Massive security arrangements had been put in place to ensure violence-free voting, with hundreds of thousands of security personnel on guard outside pollings stations.
Early Saturday Modi took to Twitter to call on voters to exercise their right to vote.
Polls have shown Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could lose in Punjab where it has been in power alongside its regional alliance partner since 2007, but also where a turnaround for the centre-left opposition Congress Party is possible.
Rahul Gandhi, the 44-year-old Nehru-Gandhi family scion who is seen as the Congress Party’s next head, has pulled out all the stops to revive its fortunes after a series of state election defeats.
“It is the most important election for the Congress Party which needs a victory on its own,” said Nistula Hebbar, political editor with The Hindu newspaper.
“The erosion of its political support has been spectacular. More than anyone, Rahul Gandhi needs a standalone victory to silence critics both outside and within the party,” she added.
Aam Aadmi (“common man”) Party is contesting its maiden elections in the two states in a triangular contest with BJP and Congress after its sweeping victory over both in Delhi state elections in 2015.
- Big test -
But the biggest test for Modi will be in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh (UP), where the ruling BJP won big in the 2014 general election.
The state is important because it sends the highest number of MPs to the upper house of the national parliament, where the BJP currently lacks a majority and as a result has struggled to push through reforms seen as critical to fuelling the economic growth it promised voters.
“The BJP swept Uttar Pradesh with the largest chunk of MPs in 2014. A defeat here would signal that there has been erosion of support for Mr Modi,” said Hebbar.
The northern state of Uttarakhand and Manipur in the northeast will also elect new governments, with results for all five states due on March 11.
“The immediate conclusion that can be drawn for the Bharatiya Janata Party is whether the larger politics behind demonetisation… has worked or not,” Kanchan Gupta, commissioning editor with ABP News, told AFP.
“It would also be a reflection on whether in these two-and-a-half years, the national government has been able to perform with a credibility that overwhelms the performance of individual state governments.”
Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft, operating flight AI-171 to London Gatwick, crashed into a medical hostel complex shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12.
Investigators are focusing on fuel control switches in the Air India crash.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad.
A preliminary report is expected by Friday, around 30 days after the crash.
A PRELIMINARY report into the Air India crash that killed 241 people in June is expected by Friday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
One of the sources said investigators have narrowed their focus to the movement of the aircraft’s fuel control switches.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India, after it began losing altitude at around 650 feet. Of the 242 people on board, 241 died, along with others on the ground.
Investigators are examining the movement of the engine fuel control switches after analysing data from the plane’s flight and voice recorders, one of the sources said. The probe has also included a Boeing simulation of the aircraft’s final moments.
The same source said the investigation has not raised any immediate concerns about mechanical failure, and no bulletin has been issued to airlines recommending changes to 787 operations.
Boeing declined to comment.
The Air Current aviation publication was the first to report that investigators were focusing on the fuel switches, which are responsible for powering the aircraft’s two engines.
It is not yet clear what specific actions involving the fuel switches are being examined.
According to the Air Current, information from the black boxes does not confirm or rule out whether the actions that led to the loss of thrust were improper, inadvertent or intentional.
US aviation safety expert John Cox said the fuel switches cannot be moved accidentally. “You can’t bump them and they move,” he said. He added that if a switch is shut off, the impact on engine power would be almost immediate.
Most air crashes result from a combination of factors. Reuters had earlier reported that investigators were focusing at least in part on engine thrust.
Although the report by Indian investigators could be released on Friday, the three sources cautioned that the timeline could change. It is also unclear how much detail will be included in the report, which is expected roughly 30 days after the June 12 crash.
The sources requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, which is leading the investigation under international rules, did not respond to a request for comment outside regular working hours.
Information release
The investigation has faced criticism over limited information being made public. It took nearly two weeks to retrieve and analyse the flight recorder data. The government held only one press conference and did not take questions.
India has now reversed an earlier decision, first reported by Reuters, to block a UN aviation expert from participating in the probe. Two senior sources said a specialist from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been granted observer status, following a request by the agency.
ICAO declined to comment, stating that public discussions about “cooperative arrangements” would require approval from the state involved.
The crash comes as the Tata Group works to rebuild Air India’s reputation and overhaul its fleet after taking over the airline from the government in 2022.
India is pushing to expand its aviation sector, with the government aiming to turn the country into a job-creating global hub like Dubai, which currently handles a large share of India’s international air traffic.
A parliamentary panel is also set to review civil aviation safety and has called several industry and government officials to testify on Wednesday. The agenda will include questions about the recent crash.
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FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.
The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.
The UK Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which must approve jobs taken by former ministers for at least two years after leaving office, gave its approval with conditions "to mitigate the potential risks to the government" regarding privileged information Sunak would have as a former prime minister.
The committee noted that the salary from his new role would go towards the Richmond Project, a charity announced earlier this year as a joint initiative with Murty focused on improving mathematics and numeracy skills among children and young people in England.
"Goldman Sachs has a significant interest in UK government policy. As the former Prime Minister, there is reasonable concern that your appointment could be seen to offer unfair access and influence within the UK government," the committee stated in its advice published this week.
"You and Goldman Sachs have confirmed to the committee that the role will not involve lobbying the government, which all former ministers are prevented from doing for two years after leaving office. The committee considered that it would be difficult to mitigate the risk of perceived lobbying if you initiated engagement of any kind with the UK government in this role, noting this is not your stated intention."
Under the stipulations, Sunak must not draw on any privileged information available to him from his time in ministerial office.
Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
"For two years from your last day in ministerial office, your role with Goldman Sachs Group Inc should be limited to providing advice on strategy, macroeconomic and geopolitical matters that do not conflict with your time as prime minister (including where you are working with parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients of Goldman Sachs)," the committee added.
It also stressed that the advice was not an "endorsement" of Sunak's new role but aimed at protecting the integrity of government.
The publication of the committee's decision coincided with Goldman Sachs issuing a statement welcoming the British Indian politician, who continues as a backbench Tory MP for Richmond and Northallerton.
"In his role, he will work with leaders across the firm to advise our clients globally on a range of important topics, sharing his unique perspectives and insights on the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape. He will also spend time with our people around the world, contributing to our culture of ongoing learning and development," said Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon.
Sunak previously worked at Goldman Sachs as a summer intern in Investment Banking in 2000 and later as an analyst between 2001 and 2004.
His political career began when he was elected Tory MP in 2015 and went on to be appointed a junior minister, then chancellor before becoming Britain's first prime minister of Indian heritage in October 2022.
(with inputs from PTI)
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A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.
Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.
A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
The report, published on Tuesday (8), exposed the devastating impact of a faulty IT system and called for urgent compensation and sweeping reforms.
Led by Sir Wyn Williams, the public inquiry concluded that the Post Office and technology supplier Fujitsu were aware, or should have been aware, that the Horizon IT system used in branches was prone to errors.
Despite this, they insisted for years that the system was reliable, leading to the wrongful prosecution of around 1,000 subpostmasters between 2000 and 2013.
“I am satisfied from the evidence that I have heard that a number of senior, and not-so-senior employees of the Post Office knew or, at the very least should have known, that Legacy Horizon was capable of error,” Sir Wyn said. “Yet for all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.”
He added, “Many thousands of people have suffered serious financial detriment. Many businesses and homes have been lost, bankruptcies have occurred, marriages and families have been wrecked. Tragically, I heard too of people whom it is said that they were driven to take their own lives.”
The report detailed how the faulty system, first rolled out in 1999, falsely showed cash shortfalls in branch accounts.
Subpostmasters were forced to pay back money they never took, faced criminal charges, and in many cases, imprisonment. The inquiry heard 17 first-hand accounts of suffering, from small financial losses to wrongful imprisonment and suicide.
Subpostmaster Martin Griffiths died after being wrongly accused of a shortfall in his accounts. After losing his job, he walked in front of a bus and died from his injuries at 59.
The inquiry found six former subpostmasters and seven others who were not postmasters had taken their own lives because of the ordeal.
At least 59 people considered suicide, and 10 attempted it, directly linking their distress to the Post Office’s actions and the faulty Horizon system, the report revealed.
Sir Wyn noted, “I received evidence from at least 59 persons who contemplated suicide at various points in time and who attributed this to their experiences with Horizon and/or the Post Office.”
According to the report, the suffering extended beyond those prosecuted. Families were torn apart, with many reporting mental health problems, relationship breakdowns, and financial ruin. Some children of affected families also suffered psychological harm, it said.
The report was scathing about the conduct of both the Post Office and Fujitsu.
It said, “A number of senior, and not-so-senior employees of the Post Office knew or, at the very least should have known, that Legacy Horizon was capable of error. Yet for all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.”
Despite repeated warnings and evidence of faults, the Post Office continued to pursue subpostmasters, often after the reliability of the software had already been questioned. The inquiry described this as “wholly unacceptable behaviour” by both organisations.
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells, who gave evidence to the inquiry, broke down in tears recalling the case of a subpostmaster who took his own life after being accused of a £39,000 shortfall.
Public anger over the scandal grew after the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, aired in 2024, leading to new laws exonerating those wrongly convicted. However, the inquiry found that the process of compensation has been slow and fraught with problems.
Fujitsu's European director Paul Patterson told a parliamentary committee later that the firm, which assisted the Post Office in prosecutions using flawed data from the software, was "truly sorry" for "this appalling miscarriage of justice".
Many of those involved are still battling for compensation.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said last month that 7,569 claims out of the 11,208 received had now been paid, leaving 3,709 still to be settled.
Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster who led the fight for justice, has said the compensation process has "turned into quasi-kangaroo courts".
Bates, who was awarded a knighthood by King Charles for his campaign to highlight the scandal, told the Sunday Times in May the DBT "sits in judgement of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses".
Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said last month the government had made it a priority to speed up the delivery of compensation since taking office in July 2024.
The inquiry has so far held 226 days of hearings and questioned 298 witnesses. The second volume of the final report, which will examine the role of the Post Office in greater detail, is expected in due course.
In the report, Sir Wyn has called for urgent action to ensure “full and fair” compensation, including free legal advice and support for family members. He recommended that compensation should match the highest civil court awards, and that the government, Post Office, and Fujitsu should agree on a programme of restorative justice. The report also calls for a permanent public body to be set up to handle redress for people wronged by public institutions.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said, “I am committed to ensuring wronged subpostmasters are given full, fair, and prompt redress.”
The government has set a deadline of October 10, 2025, for written responses to the inquiry’s recommendations. By October 31, the Department for Business and Trade, Fujitsu, and the Post Office must publish a report on restorative justice plans.
The Post Office scandal has left a deep scar on British society as thousands of families across the country are awaiting justice. The inquiry’s findings and recommendations now put the onus on the government and the Post Office to finally deliver justice and closure to the thousands whose lives were shattered by the scandal.
Asian victims
Harjinder Butoy Harjinder Butoy bought the Forest Side Post Office in Sutton-in-Ashfield in 2004, investing his redundancy pay and a family loan. In 2007, an audit alleged a £200,000 shortfall. Despite a clean audit a week prior, Butoy was arrested, charged with theft, and convicted on 10 counts. He served 14 months in prison and lost his business, home, and reputation. The Post Office seized his assets, and his family faced bankruptcy. His wife and three children were forced to move in with relatives, enduring years of financial and emotional turmoil. Butoy, plagued by depression and unable to find work, saw his convictions quashed in 2021. He continues to seek justice for the ordeal, which left his family devastated and his life in ruins.
Parmod Kalia and Mahesh Kumar Kalia Parmod Kalia, a postmaster since 1990, was convicted of theft in 2001 after a Post Office investigation, receiving a six-month prison sentence. The conviction upended his family’s life: his wife and children struggled to keep their shop afloat, and his son Mahesh, then 17, was forced to abandon his dream of becoming a pharmacist to help the family. The trauma fractured relationships – Mahesh and his father were estranged for 17 years, with siblings moving away and parents separating. Kalia’s conviction was finally quashed in 2021.
Siema Kamran and Kamran Ashraf Siema Kamran and Kamran Ashraf bought a Hampstead Heath Post Office in 2001, but soon faced repeated, unexplained shortfalls. In 2003, an audit found a £25,000 deficit, leading to Siema’s suspension and both facing criminal charges. Kamran, advised to plead guilty, was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay compensation. The ordeal cost them their business, home, and community standing. Siema struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, while Kamran developed post-traumatic stress disorder. Their marriage, though still intact, is described as “broken.” Both were ostracised in their community, and their financial losses were devastating. Kamran’s conviction was quashed in 2020, but the couple’s lives remain deeply affected.
(with inputs from agencies)
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The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries
Spring 2025 was England’s driest and warmest in over 130 years
Reservoirs across England only 77% full, compared to 93% average
Environment Agency increases monitoring and drought planning
North-west England officially declared in drought
Water conservation measures stepped up ahead of summer
The UK government has increased efforts to manage water resources after confirming that England experienced its driest and warmest spring since 1893. The Environment Agency (EA) reported that reservoirs were on average only 77% full, significantly lower than the usual 93% for this time of year.
The announcement came after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday, which reviewed the impact of continued dry weather on crops, canal navigation, and river flows. Poor grass growth and dry soil conditions were noted as threats to food production and livestock feed.
North-west enters drought as conditions persist
The EA confirmed that a drought has now been declared in north-west England, despite rainfall at the beginning of June. Other regions including Yorkshire, the East and West Midlands, and northeast England are also experiencing prolonged dry spells.
Helen Wakeham, EA director of water and chair of the drought group, said:
“It’s been the driest spring since 1893, and we need to be prepared for more summer droughts as our climate changes.”
She urged the public to use water responsibly, emphasising the importance of conservation throughout the summer.
Water firms outline conservation strategies
Water companies presented updated drought plans during the meeting, including accelerated leak repairs and improved customer communication. The Environment Agency said some may need to introduce further restrictions in the absence of substantial rainfall.
While no national measures are in place yet, local curbs are being prepared. A Yorkshire water hosepipe ban is among the restrictions under consideration if conditions worsen in the coming weeks.
The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries and supporting farmers in managing their water needs.
Reuters
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Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife. (Photo: Getty Images)
Norman Tebbit, a close ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and a former Conservative Party cabinet minister, has died at the age of 94. His son William confirmed the news on Tuesday.
"At 11:15 pm on 7th July, 2025, Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94," William Tebbit said in a statement.
Tebbit was seriously injured in 1984 when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton during a Conservative Party conference. The attack was aimed at assassinating Thatcher. Tebbit had to be pulled out from the rubble, and his wife Margaret was left paralysed from the neck down as a result of the explosion.
Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife.
Between 1981 and 1987, Tebbit held several key positions in government, including employment secretary, trade and industry secretary, and chairman of the Conservative Party. He was known for his direct approach during a period marked by high unemployment and widespread unrest.
"I grew up in the 1930s with an unemployed father," he said. "He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work and he kept looking until he found it," Tebbit added.
The statement was widely quoted and paraphrased by critics as telling people to "get on your bike", and was used by the left to depict him as lacking compassion.
The satirical TV series Spitting Image portrayed him as a tough, leather-clad figure with metal chains, a depiction Tebbit reportedly found amusing.
Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch described Tebbit as "an icon in British politics" and praised his "enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country".
She said Tebbit had played a key role in Thatcher's administration, especially in confronting the influence of trade unions.
"But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism" and his dedication to caring for his wife that showed he was "first and foremost a family man who always held true to his principles", she added.