Delhi: 7 government officials suspended over procurement irregularities

Nearly 10 days after the alleged murder of Pune-based realtor Ketan Agarwal, the accused, Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary, were taken to Lohagad Fort for a crime scene recreation. The incident took place on June 18 when Agarwal was allegedly pushed off the fort by Goyal and her alleged lover, Chaudhary. The crime scene recreation exercise is part of an ongoing investigation into this case.

In the 135th episode of his monthly radio show, Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India's strides toward self-reliance in defense manufacturing and aviation. He praised the successful test of an indigenous long-range land-attack cruise missile developed by DRDO laboratories and Indian industry partners. "From the seas to the skies, our India is becoming increasingly secure and self-reliant," he said.

GameStop has said it will continue with its proposed takeover of eBay, despite the latter's rejection of an unsolicited cash-and-stock offer worth some $56 billion. The announcement came in a brief regulatory filing on Friday, which also predicted strong earnings for this year. The news sent GameStop's stock price up by over 2% in after-hours trading.

Sridhar Vembu, the Founder and Chief Scientist of Zoho Corporation, has blamed rampant corruption for the skyrocketing land prices in Indian cities like Chennai and Bengaluru. He drew a stark comparison between these cities and New York City, despite India's much lower per capita income. In a post on X, Vembu highlighted that the ratio of land price to per capita GDP in India is possibly among the highest globally.

The timeline for India's ambitious Gaganyaan mission has been pushed back. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had earlier planned to conduct the first uncrewed test flight in 2026 and the manned flight by late 2027. However, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan recently suggested that these dates could be revised, with the uncrewed flight now possibly slated for late 2027.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has shut down its long wave radio service, a platform that has been in operation for nearly a century. The last surviving long wave station in the UK, BBC Radio 4, switched off its service at 1:00am on Saturday (local time). The move marks the end of an era for a technology that has been used since 1934 and played a crucial role in transmitting messages during World War II.

A major disaster was averted at a Muharram procession in Mumbai on Friday after police detained a man for allegedly distributing poisonous pills. The suspect, Fayyaz Premji, was arrested in Byculla after at least 11 people who consumed the pills fell ill. "I wanted to kill at least 15,000 people," he allegedly told police. The capsules were later found to contain zinc phosphide, a highly toxic chemical used in rat poison.

Delhi witnessed a scorching Saturday with the heat index, or "feels like" temperature, hitting 48.4 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was recorded at 41.3 degrees Celsius, according to PTI. The Safdarjung weather station, the city's main observatory, recorded a minimum temperature of 30.8 degrees Celsius, which is above the seasonal average by 2.9 degrees and also higher than Friday's minimum by 2.1 degrees.

The Delhi government has suspended seven officials, including five pharmacists, over alleged irregularities in the procurement and storage of medicines at various stores of the Central Procurement Agency (CPA). The decision was taken after a Delhi government inquiry into CPA stores revealed serious lapses at its stores. The inquiry was prompted by a report in The Indian Express, which highlighted a lack of storage space for life-saving drugs at a CPA warehouse in Janakpuri, West Delhi.

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan on Saturday evening, triggering tremors in several north Indian states, including Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. The quake was recorded at a depth of 215km, according to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS). The United States Geological Survey confirmed its epicenter was located 43km south of Jurm in northeastern Afghanistan.