NEW DELHI- India on Tuesday extended until May 3 a nationwide lockdown for its 1.3 billion people as the number of coronavirus cases crossed 10,000 despite a three-week shutdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address to the nation, said the challenge was to stop the virus from spreading to new parts of the country, but held out hope that some restrictions could be eased next week in the least-affected areas to allow essential activities.
"Till May 3, every Indian will have to stay in lockdown. I request all Indians that we stop the coronavirus from spreading to other areas," he said.
Modi spoke as the latest government data showed the number of people infected with coronavirus had reached 10,363, with 339 deaths.
Though the numbers are small compared with hard-hit western nations, like the United States, Italy and Spain, health experts fear that is because of India's low levels of testing, and actual levels of infection could be far higher.
"The nation has benefited greatly from social distancing and lockdown. If we only look at it from the economic standpoint it looks expensive – we’ve had to pay a huge cost, but before the lives of Indians this has no comparison."
Modi offered no immediate relief to the millions of people who have lost their jobs because of the shutdown of the 2.9 trillion economy, but said he felt their pain, with poor families struggling to afford food, and many migrant workers unable to reach their villages.
Neighbouring Pakistan is also due to take a decision on its lockdown due to end on Wednesday.
The World Bank has said economic growth in India and other South Asian countries is likely to be the slowest for four decades this year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
-reuters-
They have been hailed as India's coronavirus "heroes", but doctors, nurses, delivery drivers and other frontline workers have been attacked and in some cases evicted from their homes by panicked residents.
Some e-commerce giants have even halted deliveries partly due to the harassment of staff, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said abuse of hospital workers had become a "huge issue".
Reports of attacks and abuse have come from across India, increasing with the imposition this week of a 21-day nationwide lockdown. In at least one case, police were accused of beating a delivery driver carrying medicines.
Sanjibani Panigrahi, a doctor in the western city of Surat, described how she was accosted as she returned home from a long day at a hospital that is treating COVID-19 patients.
She said neighbors blocked her at the entrance to her apartment building and threatened "consequences" if she continued to work.
"These are the same people who have happily interacted with me (in the past). Whenever they've faced a problem, I've helped them out," the 36-year-old told AFP.
"There is a sense of fear among people. I do understand. But it's like I suddenly became an untouchable."
This week, doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences appealed to the government for help after health workers were forced out of their homes by panicked landlords and housing societies.
"Many doctors are stranded on the roads with all their luggage, nowhere to go, across the country," the letter said.
Modi called on Indians to stop treating medical workers as pariahs, describing those fighting the virus were "god-like".
"Today they are the people who are saving us from dying, putting their lives in danger."
Fake news and paranoia
Health workers are not the only ones facing the brunt of the frightened population in an environment where misinformation and rumours are thriving.
Airline and airport staff, who are still being called on for evacuations of Indians stuck overseas and management of key cargo deliveries, have also been threatened.
Indigo and Air India have condemned threats made against their staff.
An Air India flight attendant told AFP her neighbors threatened to evict her from her apartment while she was heading to the United States, saying she would "infect everyone".
"I couldn't sleep that night," she said, afraid to reveal her name over fear of further stigmatisation.
"I was scared that even if I did go home, would someone break open the door or call people to kick me out?"
Her husband had to ask the police for help.
Others have not been as lucky, the flight attendant said, with one colleague -- who declined to speak to AFP -- forced out of her home and now living with her parents.
"With all the fake news and WhatsApp forwards, they don't know what is going on, so there's this paranoia that makes them behave like this," she said.
T. Praveen Keerthi, general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA), told AFP they had received more than 50 complaints from airline crew.
"Airline staffers are being stopped from entering their own residential premises by security guards," he said.
"We also have families and children that we leave at home to help fellow citizens... The least we expect is for our colleagues to not be harassed and ostracised."
Airport workers involved in moving essential supplies have also faced attacks as have delivery workers transporting medicines and groceries.
E-commerce giant Flipkart temporarily suspended services this week.
The Walmart-owned group said it only resumed home deliveries after police guaranteed "the safe and smooth passage of our supply chain and delivery executives".
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India's 1.3 billion people will go under "total lockdown" from midnight Tuesday (1830 GMT) for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
"From 12 midnight today, the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown," Modi said in a national television address to the world's second most-populous nation.
"To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family... every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown."
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NEW DELHI, India - At least 35 people have died in a factory fire in India's capital New Delhi, with the toll still expected to rise, police told AFP Sunday.
The blaze broke out in the early hours in the city's old quarter, whose narrow and congested lanes are lined with many small manufacturing and storage units.
"We have since rescued at least 50 people," Sunil Choudhary, New Delhi's deputy chief fire officer, told AFP.
They were "laborers and factory workers sleeping inside this four- or five-storied building," he said, adding that the fire had been extinguished but rescue operations were ongoing.
A senior Delhi police official said eight or nine people were carried out later, bringing the overall number rescued to at least 58.
Fire officials said it was very difficult to access the dark, poorly lit premises in the commercial hub of Sadar Bazar.
Local news channels aired footage of firemen carrying people out of the narrow lanes to nearby emergency vehicles.
The building was filled with school bags and packing material, fire officials said, but cautioned they were still unsure about the cause of the blaze.
"All the rescued persons were rushed to the nearby local hospitals, which have already confirmed 35 deaths. Some of the others are also in a serious state," Sadar Bazar's assistant commissioner of police told AFP.
"Most who've died were sleeping when the fire broke out and died due to asphyxiation," they said.
The police officer -- who said emergency personnel remained on the scene -- also warned that the toll was likely to rise as "many others are in a critical condition."
Many factories and small manufacturing units in big Indian cities are often located in old, cramped quarters of the cities, where the cost of land is relatively cheaper.
Such units often also serve as sleeping quarters for poor, mostly migrant laborers and workers, who manage to save money by sleeping overnight at their workplaces.
Lack of planning and lax enforcement of building and safety regulations often leads to such deadly accidents.
"The fire in Delhi's Anaj Mandi on Rani Jhansi Road is extremely horrific. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones," Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter.
"Wishing the injured a quick recovery. Authorities are providing all possible assistance at the site of the tragedy," he added.
Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, described the incident as "very very tragic news."
"Rescue operations going on. Firemen doing their best. Injured are being taken to hospitals," Kejriwal wrote on Twitter.
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NEW DELHI - India, one of the world's largest consumers of oil and coal, is investing $60 billion to build national gas grid and import terminals by 2024 in a bid to cut its carbon emissions, the oil minister said on Sunday.
India has struggled to boost its use of gas, which produces less greenhouse gas emissions than coal and oil, because many industries and towns are not linked to the gas pipeline network.
Gas consumption growth was running at 11 percent in 2010 but growth slid to just 2.5 percent in the financial year 2018/19.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters at India Energy Forum by Ceraweek that companies were investing $60 billion in the network and building new gas import facilities to link all states by mid-2024, when the government's term ends.
"I am not talking about potential investment. This number relates to the project that are under execution," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously set a target to more than double the share of gas in India's energy mix to 15 percent by 2030.
India's biggest gas utility Gail Ltd has said it was close to completing the 2,660 km (1,660 miles) Urja Ganga pipeline project, connecting the eastern states of Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. The pipeline will have capacity for 16 million standard cubic meters per day (mscmd) of gas.
"The Urja Ganga project ... will be ready by the end of 2020," Pradhan said on the conference sidelines.
India's overall gas consumption is about 166 mscmd.
The minister said the government had started building the northeast gas grid to connect eight states in northeastern India, a region bordering Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China. He said the grid would be ready by 2023.
He added that, before the end of government's current term, "India will be connected by a pipeline ring that will help transport gas from any corner of India to a demand center."
Most of India's liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals are in the west, making it difficult for the industry in the east and elsewhere to secure regular gas supplies.
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NEW DELHI, India - Two children were beaten to death in India for defecating in the open, police said Thursday, underlining the violence sometimes unleashed to enforce Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship cleanliness drive.
The children from the Dalit community, India's lowest social caste previously known as "untouchables." were on their way to their grandfather's house in the Shivpuri district in the central state of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
"It was early morning and they had stopped to attend to nature's call" when they were attacked, police inspector general Raja Babu Singh told AFP by phone.
"The kids were taken to the hospital but they succumbed to their injuries."
Two brothers had been arrested, one of whom appeared to be "mentally unsound," Singh added.
Modi is set to declare India free of open-air defecation on Wednesday, coinciding with the 150th birthday of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, who also campaigned vigorously for better sanitation.
Modi, currently in his second term, launched his pet Clean India Mission in 2014, promising to build toilets for all by 2019.
His government says it has built more than 100 million toilets, particularly in rural areas, a major public health issue in the country of 1.3 billion people.
The multi-billion-dollar campaign combines raising awareness, subsidies for making latrines, and communal naming and shaming of those still relieving themselves in the open.
Critics, however, say lack of running water, poor maintenance and slow behavior change are hampering the program.
Catching those defecating in the open has previously resulted in violence.
In 2017, a man was lynched after he tried to stop authorities from photographing women who were defecating in the open.
A news channel earlier urged viewers to send in images of those defecating in the open so they could be shamed on national television.
The father of one of the children who died in the latest incident alleged his family had been facing discrimination from higher caste men.
"We don't have a toilet at home. The children went out to defecate in the morning," Manoj Balmiki was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.
"The (brothers)... shouted at them for defecating on the road and rained sticks on their heads while the children were relieving themselves, killing them in seconds."
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NEW DELHI -- India's central bank has announced a $24-billion windfall for the cash-strapped government, giving a much-needed boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he seeks to kickstart growth in Asia's third-biggest economy.
But the payout will likely stoke fresh concerns about the Reserve Bank of India's independence following a standoff that has seen top officials quit amid accusations of government interference.
Modi has come under increasing pressure to fire the economy, which has slowed in each of the past 3 quarters -- losing its status as the world's fastest growing -- with unemployment hitting its highest level since the 1970s.
The auto sector has been particularly badly hit, with car sales plunging in July for the ninth month running, while weak consumer spending has hit demand for everything from biscuits to hair oil.
The RBI said it had approved a transfer of 1.76 trillion rupees ($24.4 billion) to government coffers, including a dividend of 1.23 trillion rupees and 526 billion rupees in excess reserves following the adoption of a new methodology for assessing market risk.
Monday's announcement came days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures to help the economy, including bringing forward a $10-billion liquidity lifeline for credit-shy banks and rolling back an extra levy on equity sales that had spooked foreign investors.
Sujan Hajra, economist at Anand Rathi Securities, said that the latest announcement is a "positive move" for the economy and for public finances.
"As the RBI said, despite this fund transfer India will still have one of the best capitalizations of the central banks globally and it does not reflect poorly on either the government or the central bank," Hajra told AFP.
Ashutosh Datar, an independent economist from Mumbai, agreed, telling AFP: "The amount looks huge but it is not and there is no raid on RBI reserves."
However, the bank's independence has already been called into question after it cut interest rates four times this year to a nine-year low, reportedly under government pressure.
Governor Urjit Patel resigned in December following a public spat with Modi's administration -- which was re-elected earlier this year -- accusing it of trying to undermine it.
He was followed in June by deputy governor Viral Acharaya citing the same reasons, although the bank insisted this was unrelated and he had left for personal reasons.
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U.S. President Donald Trump (left to right), Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for photos after holding a trilateral meeting during the G20 leaders’ summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday. The summit in Osaka, the first G20 meeting Japan hosted will focus on global economy, trade and investment, innovation, environment and energy, employment, women’s empowerment, development and health.
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NEW DELHI -- Asad Ahmed, one of about 1.2 million young Indians entering the cutthroat job market each month, diligently scribbles notes at a computer class in New Delhi.
While nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a new 5-year term promising to step up his campaign for a "new India", 18-year-old Ahmed is pessimistic about getting a new job.
"There are so many people in Delhi and the competition is intense," said Ahmed, dressed like the other students in a black-and-white uniform at the 3-month community course run in a police station in Old Delhi.
"I know this stint may not be enough for me to get a job but I am trying my best."
Modi came to power in 2014 promising jobs, but delivering on that has been a challenge.
And as soon as the election euphoria settles, Modi's government will have to find ways to boost investment and revive manufacturing to create new jobs.
Like Ahmed, most of the other 60 students at the government-sponsored "skill development" classes at the Old Delhi police station, all from poor families, were also apprehensive.
Nudrat Akram, 19, signed up for the course because her family could not afford to pay for higher education.
"I want a job in the retail sector where I can earn 10,000 rupees ($143) a month," Akram said, as she practised speaking English with pretend customers.
MORE JOBS, MORE DEBT
India's conservative prime minister came to power in 2014 on a pro-business platform, promising to create 10 million jobs a year.
The world's fastest-growing major economy has grown about 7 percent a year since, but jobs have been elusive.
The promise was barely mentioned in Modi's triumphant re-election campaign.
Nearly two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion population are of working age, between 15 and 64, but an increasing number are in the unemployed list.
No official data has been released for more than two years but a recent leaked report -- denied by the government -- put the unemployment rate at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent.
The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private research firm, estimates the jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent in April.
"The economy is going to be a huge problem. The government simply cannot create jobs for millions entering the workforce," said political analyst Parsa Venkateshwar Rao.
"Modi will rely on businesses but they are also struggling so he has a real problem on his hands."
'NOT EASY TO SURVIVE'
Unemployment is particularly dire for women.
A Deloitte consultancy report in March said female labor force participation fell to 26 percent in 2018 from 36 percent in 2005 because of poor education and socio-economic barriers.
The manifesto of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised a $1.4-trillion infrastructure boost to create jobs if it won the election. It offered metro trains for 50 cities and to double the national highway network.
But analysts say the government, which has drastically increased its debt over the past five years, will have to borrow huge new amounts to pay for the works.
In 2015, Modi launched a Skill India program aiming to train 500 million people by 2022. But the results have been mixed.
According to 2018 data, only a quarter of people who joined the scheme found jobs.
"The Skill India mission has not had as much success as say the highway program," said economist Arvind Virmani.
"The real crisis is about job skills and basic education."
India's rural jobs guarantee program offers work to about 70 million people at a minimum wage for 100 days a year, but there is no equivalent for the growing numbers of urban youth.
Experts say the government must consider an urban employment guarantee scheme in order to reap the true benefit of its economic growth.
At the Delhi classes, 18-year-old Sehar, who uses one name, is worried about helping her poor family, including 4 younger sisters.
Her father, who works at a hospital, is the only earner.
"I am the eldest and I want to help my family, it's not easy to survive in this city."
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NEW DELHI/AYODHYA - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored a dramatic election victory on Thursday, putting his Hindu nationalist party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of business-friendly policies and a tough stand on national security.
His re-election reinforces a global trend of right-wing populists sweeping to victory, from the United States to Brazil and Italy, often after adopting harsh positions on protectionism, immigration and defence.
Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party ahead in 302 of the 542 seats up for grabs, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament.
That would give his party the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. Votes will be fully counted by Friday morning.
Modi was showered with rose petals by some of the thousands of cheering supporters who waited for hours in a thunderstorm for his arrival at party headquarters on Thursday evening.
"Whatever happened in these elections is in the past, we have to look ahead. We have to take everyone forward, including our staunchest opponents," he said in a televised address.
He was critical of the many people that doubted the BJP could increase its majority.
"The political pundits of India have to leave behind their ideas of the past," he added.
CHALLENGES AWAIT
Modi has slashed red tape in the world's fifth-largest economy, though some overseas firms, including Amazon, Walmart and Mastercard, have complained about policies they say are designed to benefit domestic rivals.
He will face demands to provide jobs for the tens of millions of young people coming on to the market in the next few years and to boost depressed farm incomes.
"The immediate challenges are to address employment, the issue of agricultural income and revive the banking sector," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings in Mumbai.
But making good on his promise of unity will be difficult as the BJP campaign was often divisive, and India's Muslim minority has expressed fears that policies aimed at pleasing the Hindu majority could imperil their livelihoods.
Modi's pledge of a strong stand against a separatist movement in Muslim-majority Kashmir has fuelled tension with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan, although its prime minister, Imran Khan, congratulated Modi on his win.
"Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia," Khan added on Twitter.
Besides a harder line on national security, BJP members will look to Modi for progress on a project to building a Hindu temple on the site of a mosque demolished by Hindu zealots in the northern holy town of Ayodhya in 1992.
"I want Modi to finish terrorism from Kashmir (and) make Pakistan bite the dust again and again," said Shekhar Chahal, a BJP worker from the capital, New Delhi.
"I am confident that Modi will also make the temple in Ayodhya."
The NDA's predicted margin of victory, at 351 seats versus 93 for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, according to broadcaster NDTV, far exceeds survey forecasts in the run-up to the vote.
Among the winners for the BJP was a Hindu ascetic accused of plotting a bomb attack on Muslims.
Most polls indicated a victory for Modi's alliance but expected it to fall short of an overall majority.
(Click HERE https://reut.rs/2VXBoxz for graphic of live updates of election results)
SECURITY SWING
Modi was under pressure when he began campaigning, losing three state elections in December amid rising anger over farm prices and unemployment.
However, campaigning shifted towards India's relationship with Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 40 Indian police in February in the Himalayan region of Kashmir claimed by both countries.
Modi ordered an air strike on what India said was a militant training camp on the Pakistani side of the border, a tough response that benefited the right-wing BJP, analysts said.
While Pakistan has signalled a willingness to open talks with India, it also displayed its military might, with the test of a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of up to 1,500 miles (2,400 km).
The BJP has also capitalised the star power of Modi, a frenetic campaigner, as well as its superior financial resources.
It outspent Congress by six times on Facebook and Google advertising, data showed, and by as much as 20 times overall, sources told Reuters this month.
The main opposition Congress party was ahead in just 52 seats, but its leader Rahul Gandhi, twice defeated in general elections by Modi, refused to rule out resigning as party chief in a brief televised news conference.
Gandhi, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather all served as prime minister, lost to the BJP candidate in the northern constituency of Amethi the family has held almost continuously for the last four decades.
But he was leading in the southern constituency from which he is also running for parliament.
"The Congress party has not been able to improve at all," said Rahul Verma, a fellow at the centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.
"One big story is the emerging challenge for the Congress to remain a national alternative to the BJP. That now is under question."
STRONG LEADER
In the populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest number of lawmakers to parliament, the BJP was leading in 60 of the 80 seats in the fray, out in front of a powerful alliance of caste-based parties campaigning to improve rural conditions.
"After the air strike on Pakistan, almost all these important issues started fading and farmers decided to cast their ballot for the BJP," said Raghubar Das, 55, who grows rice and wheat on the outskirts of Ayodhya, which many devout Hindus believe to be the birthplace of the God-king Rama.
"Mind you, they didn't vote for the BJP, they voted for Modi. Everyone loves a strong a leader."
The party also won seats in several states where it has long struggled, including West Bengal, where it took on the Trinamool Congress, a powerful regional party. Data showed it leading in 19 of 42 seats, surpassing the two it won in 2014, data showed.
Investors welcomed Modi's victory, hoping his government will push through reforms.
Indian stocks surged more than 5 percent this week to hit record highs on Thursday, but the euphoria fizzled quickly, with stocks and the rupee ending the day weaker, as the focus returned to a faltering economy.
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NEW DELHI -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to return to power with an even bigger majority in parliament after a mammoth general election that ended on Sunday, exit polls showed, a far better showing than expected in recent weeks.
Modi faced criticism early on in the campaign for failing to create jobs and for weak farm prices, and analysts as well as politicians said the election race was tightening with the main opposition Congress party gaining ground.
But he rallied his Hindu nationalist base and turned the campaign into a fight for national security after tensions rose with Pakistan and attacked his main rival for being soft on the country's arch foe.
Modi's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is projected to win anything between 339-365 seats in the 545-member lower house of parliament with the Congress party-led opposition alliance at a distant 77 to 108, India Today Axis exit poll showed.
To rule, a party needs to win 272 seats. Modi's alliance won 336 seats in the 2014 election. The exit polls showed that he not only held to this base in the northern Hindi belt but also breached the east where regional groups traditionally held sway.
Only the south largely resisted the Hindu nationalist surge, except for Karnataka, home to software capital Bengaluru.
Counting of votes recorded in hundreds of thousands of computerized machines will begin early on Thursday and results are expected by noon.
According to another poll released by Todays Chanakya, Modi's alliance is likely to get around 350 seats. One poll by Neta Newsx, though, forecast Modi's group falling 30 seats short.
Exit polls, though, have a mixed record in a country with an electorate of 900 million people - around two-thirds of whom voted in the seven-phase election. They have often gotten the number of seats wrong, but the broad direction has generally been correct, analysts say.
With 3 out of 4 of the polls indicating a clear majority for Modi's alliance, Indian equity markets are expected to rally sharply on Monday, while the Indian rupee is also likely to strengthen versus the US dollar, according to market participants.
A clear win would mean Modi can carry out reforms investors expect to make India an easier place for doing business, they said.
"I expect a positive reaction from markets on both the rupee and equities," said Sajal Gupta, head of forex and rates at Indian brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities.
"Equity indices should have a rally of maybe 250-300 points," said Gupta, adding the Indian rupee may test the 69 level against the US dollar before retreating.
HINDU HARDLINE FEARS
But a big win for Modi would fan fears that Hindu hardliner groups would be further emboldened to pursue partisan programs such as punishing Muslims for the slaughter of cows, considered sacred by Hindus, rewriting school textbooks to reduce India's Muslim history and attack liberals.
Critics say Modi sought to win votes by stoking fear among the Hindu majority of the potential dangers posed by the country's Muslims and Pakistan, and promoted a Hindu-first India.
But his supporters say Modi and his allies are simply restoring Hinduism to its rightful place at the core of Indian society. Muslims make up about 14 percent of India's 1.3 billion population.
"The massive crowds and response at every rally of Prime Minister Modi were a clear indicator of their approval for his leadership, the performance of the past five years and the vision for the future," Nalin Kohli, a spokesman of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said.
Dilip Agrawal, 46, who runs a mill in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, said he had voted for Modi, despite the difficulties faced by farmers.
"He is doing so much for our country, our national security. Of course farmers want better rates than they are getting, that's only natural. Only a strong leader can meet our aspirations, and Modi is that leader."
GANDHI LOSS
The Congress pary led by Rahul Gandhi, the fourth generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for decades following independence, focused on Modi's failure to deliver on the promises he made to transform the economy and turn India into a manufacturing hub.
Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha dismissed the poll projections, saying that an alliance led by his party would defeat the BJP when votes are counted on May 23.
"Many of the pollsters, if not all of the pollsters, have got it wrong," he said, adding that a polarized atmosphere and fear had kept voters from telling pollsters about their actual allegiance.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state and a bitter opponent of Modi, said the fight was not over.
"I don't trust exit poll gossip," she said on Twitter. "I appeal to all opposition parties to be united, strong and bold. We will fight this battle together."
Voting began on April 11 and ended on Sunday in the world's biggest democratic exercise.
Although Modi's party is poised to lose seats in northern Uttar Pradesh, which elects the most lawmakers out of all Indian states, the party's return to power will be on the back of a strong showing in other northern heartland regions and two eastern provinces, CVoter's polling showed.
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NEW DELHI -- Tensions between India and Pakistan raged Saturday as heavy firing by their armies killed at least 7 people on either side of their fiercely disputed Kashmir border.
The nuclear-armed rivals fired mortars and artillery at each other despite the release of an Indian pilot who had been shot down by Pakistan but then sent back as a "goodwill gesture".
In a fearsome 24 hour spell, 2 soldiers and 2 civilians died on the Pakistan side, its military said. On the Indian side, a woman and her 2 children died after their house was pulverized by a mortar shell.
Indian army chief Bipin Rawat dashed to Udhampur in his country's sector of Kashmir on Saturday to review border security.
Across the region villagers huddled in makeshift bunkers while police ordered non-essential traffic off roads, an AFP reporter said.
At least 12 civilians have been killed on either side of the frontier since the start of the week.
The release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman to Indian authorities late Friday following 60 hours in Pakistani custody boosted hopes of a de-escalation.
But a furious backlash erupted in India over a video in which Abhinandan can be seen praising his captors and criticizing Indian media.
PILOT RETURNS
Abhinandan was shot down in his MiG fighter Wednesday as he chased Pakistani jets over disputed Kashmir. His capture had become the centerpiece of hostilities between the arch-rivals after a February 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitaries.
Abhinandan, who ejected to safety but was set upon by a crowd on the Pakistani side of the Kashmir ceasefire line, had a noticeable black eye when he returned and was immediately taken for a medical checkup before a debriefing by military and intelligence agencies.
Media reports said Abhinandan's return was held up because he was forced to make the video before being freed.
In the heavily edited video distributed by the Pakistani military just before his release, he praised the professionalism of the Pakistani army and criticized Indian media for creating war hysteria.
Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, said the video tainted Pakistan's gesture to return the pilot so quickly.
"Sadly the image you paint for us is marred terribly by the video he's forced to record just before you sent him back," Abdullah said on Twitter.
"That high moral ground you had bequeathed to yourselves slipped at the end."
India's feverish social media also slammed the video, which was tweeted by the Pakistan government but later taken off its official account.
WAR RHETORIC
There was no let-up in war rhetoric with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying no-one could "dare threaten" a "new, fearless and decisive" India.
Modi also told an India Today media group conference the country needed the Rafale fighter jets it wants to buy from France. The deal has been embroiled in corruption allegations leveled by the opposition Congress party.
"If India had the procured the Rafale on time then the result of the recent skirmish with Pakistan could have been different," Modi said.
In a bid to defuse the tensions, Adel al-Jubeir, minister of state for foreign affairs for Saudi Arabia, a key Pakistan ally, was to arrive in Islamabad Sunday, underlining global concern over the showdown.
Saudi Arabia has offered to help to end the new hostilities.
"He is visiting us and and will also visit India. He is our friend and we have historical relations with them (Saudi Arabia)," Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters.
Pakistan media praised the government for releasing the pilot but some social media users criticized the military video, calling it "cheap" and "unnecessary".
Abhinandan was captured a day after Indian planes bombed what New Delhi said was a militant camp in Pakistan, in retaliation for the Kashmir suicide bombing claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.
Kashmir has been divided between the 2 countries since their independence and bitter split in 1947. It has been at the center of 2 of their 3 wars since then.
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KAKRIPUR/MAHABAN -- As night fell on the bucolic northern Indian hamlet of Mahaban, Gopi Chand Yadav gathered blankets and a flashlight to spend the night sitting on a wooden platform in his field. His task: to use bamboo sticks to ward off stray cattle from intruding and eating a maturing mustard crop.
Like Yadav, many thousands of farmers stay awake to guard their farms over a cold winter or face losing their crops to the cattle - a double whammy for growers already reeling from a plunge in Indian crop prices.
While stray cows ambling around towns and villages have always been a feature of life in rural India, farmers say their number has increased sharply in recent years to the extent that they have become a menace, and blame the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government.
Protecting cows - considered sacred to Hindus - was one of the measures meant to shore up support in the heavily populated, Hindi-speaking belt across northern India that has been a heartland of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP). Instead, it is creating a backlash, even among Hindu farmers.
"We already had enough problems and now the government has created one more," said octogenarian farmer Baburao Saini from Kakripur village, about 85 kilometers from New Delhi. "For the first time, we've been forced to stay in the fields to protect our crops."
More than 50 farmers Reuters spoke to in Mahaban and 9 other villages in Uttar Pradesh state said they would think twice before voting for Modi's BJP in the next general election, due by May. The cattle issue and low farm prices are major reasons behind their disillusionment with a party that most say they voted for in the last election in 2014.
Modi swept Uttar Pradesh at that poll, winning 73 of 80 seats in India's most populous state, with rural voters swayed by a promise of higher crop prices, and as Hindu farmers supported the BJP amid tensions with the minority Muslim community.
COW PROTECTION
Modi is trying hard to claw back support among India's 263 million farmers and their many millions of dependents after the BJP lost power in December to the opposition Congress in 3 big northern states where agriculture is a mainstay.
Indian farmers keep cows to produce milk, cheese and butter, but to harm or kill a cow, especially for food, is considered taboo by most Hindus.
Most states in India have long outlawed cow slaughter, but after coming to power in 2014 the BJP ratcheted up its distaste for trade in cattle, launching a crackdown on unlicensed abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh and on cattle smuggling nationwide.
At the same time, a wave of attacks on trucks carrying cattle by Hindu vigilante groups has scared away traders, most of whom are Muslims, bringing to a halt the trade even in bullocks, which are not considered sacred. Rising sales of tractors and increasing mechanization mean that more animals are redundant for use in farming.
The farmers Reuters spoke to said they revered cows as most devout Hindus would, but a sudden halt in the trade of cattle had hit the rural economy. In their view, the government should come up with more cow shelters and let cattle traders deal in other animals without fear of attack.
"The government has only enforced the laws by closing down unlicensed abattoirs and cracking down on cattle smuggling," said BJP spokesman Gopal Krishna Agarwal, who added that he runs a cow shelter of 1,300 cattle. "We're not trying to hurt either any community or the rural economy."
CROP TRAMPLED
Fodder prices have gone up by more than a third in the past year and most farmers cannot afford to keep cows after they stop producing milk, said farmer Rajesh Pahalwan as he smoked a hookah pipe in the village of Manoharpur. Six farmers sitting with him mainly nodded in agreement.
In India, the world's biggest milk producer, about 3 million cattle become unproductive every year. In the past, Hindu farmers would sell unproductive cows to Muslim traders and about 2 million of these would end up smuggled to Bangladesh for meat and leather. But that trade has now been throttled by the government crackdown, trade and industry officials say.
That has led to many unproductive cattle being abandoned, farmers said, but governments - both state and federal - have failed to construct new shelters, leaving rising numbers of stray cattle that are feeding on crops, or even garbage.
"The government clearly did not think of alternatives before putting these curbs in place," said farmer Deepak Chaudhary, who grows wheat on the outskirts of Mathura, considered to be the birthplace of the Hindu God Krishna. "As Hindus, we treat cows as sacred but these unwarranted measures have upended the economics of farming."
The government did provide some relief in its interim budget last week as it announced a cow welfare program costing 7.5 billion rupees ($104.6 million) in the year beginning April.
But there are hardly any "adequate measures to rehabilitate" cattle, said Fauzan Alvi, vice-president of the All India Meat and Livestock Exporters Association.
"Forget about cows, we cannot sell even a single animal to even our relatives thanks to cow vigilante groups which are aided and abetted by the BJP," said the wheat farmer Chaudhary.
Modi has in the past condemned violence by cow vigilantes, but critics and opposition politicians say some of the right-wing Hindu groups involved have links to his party, a charge the BJP denies.
Nearly 85 percent of India's farmers own less than 2 hectaresof land, so even a relatively small area damaged has a big impact on their livelihood.
Only 2 weeks ago, some cattle ravaged an acre of wheat grown by farmer Chandra Pal in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh.
"My investment went down the drain after some stray cattle trampled and ate up the crop," he said.
Many farmers in Uttar Pradesh are now using barbed wire to stop animals from entering their farms, but that is expensive.
"We have been at the receiving end of anti-farmer policies of the government and the problem of stray cattle is just another blow to us," said farmer Amar Chand, from Maholi village who voted for Modi in 2014. "Unlike the previous general election, farmers are not solidly behind Modi, who's on shaky ground this time round."
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BOGIBEEL, India - India on Tuesday opened its longest rail-road bridge in a poor northeastern state as part of efforts to boost defenses on its sensitive border with China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi drove an inaugural cavalcade along the 4.9 kilometer (3 mile) long Bogibeel bridge over the Brahmaputra river to inaugurate the project in Assam state which has taken nearly two decades and $800 million to complete.
The bridge, near the city of Dibrugarh, will enable the military to speed up the dispatch of forces to neighboring Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China.
With the opening of the bridge, the rail journey from Dibrugarh to the Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar has been cut by 750 kilometers.
India lost territory in Arunachal Pradesh in a 1962 war with China.
The bridge has been designed to bear the weight of India's heaviest 60 tonne battle tanks and so that fighter jets can land on it.
India opened its longest bridge, the 9.1km Dhola-Sadiya bridge, in 2017 to connect Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, also to boost tactical defenses.
Construction of the Bogibeel bridge was agreed by the government as part of a 1985 agreement to end years of deadly agitation by Assamese nationalist groups.
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NEW DELHI - Priyanka Chopra, star of Indian film and US television, and Jonas Brothers singer Nick Jonas celebrated their wedding at a glitzy reception in New Delhi on Tuesday, joined by celebrities ranging from India's prime minister to Hollywood stars.
The event at a New Delhi hotel followed the couple's 3-day long wedding celebration at a heritage Indian palace atop a hill in the western city of Jodhpur, which included cricket matches and Bollywood songs.
The guest list on Tuesday's reception included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who posed for pictures standing next to Chopra, who wore a sequined Indian outfit, and Jonas, who was dressed in a blue-black tuxedo.
Chopra, 36, and 26-year-old Jonas were engaged earlier this year after a whirlwind courtship that began at an Oscars after-party last year.
Chopra, a former Miss World, starred in 3 seasons of ABC's "Quantico," becoming the first Indian to headline a US television drama. In India, she is one of Bollywood's highest paid film stars.
Nick and his brothers Kevin and Joe formed a pop-rock band, The Jonas Brothers, in 2005 and soared to fame as members of Disney's stable of teenage stars. The band split up in 2013.
During Tuesday's gathering, the couple were also joined by their families, as well as Jonas's brother Joe's fiancée, Sophie Turner, who stars in the critically acclaimed HBO series "Game of Thrones."
The couple had largely been tight-lipped about the details of the actual wedding that took place over the weekend. Earlier on Tuesday, Chopra posted a few pictures of her wedding celebrations on her Instagram account, saying: "And forever starts now..."
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SARDAR SAROVAR DAM- India on Wednesday inaugurated the world's biggest statue with pomp, fireworks and tight security amid an outcry among local groups over the cost of the 182 meter (600 feet) high reproduction of an Indian independence hero.
Activists said about a dozen of their leaders had been detained before Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially opened the tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with an air force jet flyover, helicopters showering flowers on the statue and fireworks in the green, orange and white national colors.
"Today is a day that will be remembered in the history of India," said Modi who hailed Sardar Patel's "strategic thinking" in bringing together the disparate country after independence in 1947 and the Statue of Unity as "a symbol of our engineering and technical prowess."
But around the statue in a remote corner of Gujarat state, more than 5,000 police guarded the huge site where construction work has taken nearly four years to complete the mega project. Hundreds of Chinese have been among the 3,500 workers.
Anand Mazgaonkar, a community group leader in Narmada district, said plain clothes police took away 12 people late Tuesday to the local police headquarters.
Police denied they had made any detentions. But authorities took no chances in case community groups staged protests to demand compensation for land taken to erect the statue of Unity, which cost 29.9 billion rupees ($400 million).
"Police patrolling has been intensified in the wake of protests by the local tribal community and leaders. Drones and helicopters will be keeping watch on the entire area," said Narmada police inspector general Abhay Chudasama ahead of the ceremony.
The chiefs of 22 local villages signed a letter calling on Modi to stay away from the inauguration.
Posters of Modi with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani were torn down or had their faces blackened at the weekend. Police kept watch on posters put in place of the torn ones.
NATIONALIST GIANT
Local legislator and community group leader Chotu Vasava said: "Tribal groups have been exploited by different governments, the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is repeating it again."
"I am not against Sardar, but what is the use of the statue if the people on the land have to suffer and are moved from their homes?"
More than 80 percent of the local population are from tribal groups with special protected status.
The Gujarat government said the 185 families moved to make way for the statue had been compensated and given 1,200 acres (475 hectares) of new land.
Modi, whose nationalist government has made the statue one of its flagship projects, paid tribute while the air force jets roared overhead and dance troupes performed.
Sardar Patel's name had been largely overshadowed by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated Indian politics since 1947. But Modi-inspired nationalists have sought to put their hero back in the forefront.
The statue is more than twice the size of New York's Statue of Liberty and also dwarfs the 128 meter (400 feet) high Spring Temple Buddha in China, the world's next-biggest statue. It is made up of nearly 100,000 tonnes of concrete and steel.
Online booking to visit the Statue of Unity has opened with a 350 rupee ($4.75) admission fee for the 153-metre-high observation deck.
Indian authorities hope the statue will attract 15,000 visitors a day to the remote corner of Gujarat, which is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the nearest city of Vadodora.
India is also working on a giant statue of 17th-century warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, which should dominate the Mumbai shoreline from 2021. The current design would make it 212 meters high.
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NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a payments bank on Saturday to turn postmen into bankers so they can offer financial services to the poor in rural areas and boost digital transactions.
Modi has since 2014 sought to end what he has called "financial untouchability" by giving millions of people access to banking services in India, which the World Bank estimates has 190 million people without a bank account, second only to China.
The India Post Payments Bank will start operations with 650 branches. Accounts will be able to hold a maximum of 100,000 rupees ($1,408) in deposits and will offer limited services.
The government said it planned to link its 155,000 post offices to the new payments bank network by Dec. 31 to offer basic bank account services, money transfers and bill payments.
"Using this initiative, we will take the bank to villages and to the poor," Modi said at the launch event in New Delhi, which was also attended by dozens of postal service employees who sat dressed in their khaki-colored uniforms.
More than 300,000 postmen will use smartphones and other digital devices to offer doorstep banking services in remote areas of the country.
While Modi addressed a gathering in Delhi, his ministers promoted the launch across the country.
The campaign to bring the masses into the financial system could help bolster economic growth and improve Modi's popularity among the poor ahead of next year's national election.
The bank is the latest government initiative to boost digital transactions and discourage cash dealings that it says enables tax evasion.
Modi has promoted digital payments since his decision in November 2016 to withdraw 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation. Electronic transactions have soared since then, although the move briefly hurt economic growth.
Indians in May clocked transactions worth $52 billion using their 964 million credit and debit cards, nearly double the amount recorded in November 2016.
Monthly mobile-wallet payments have risen nearly fivefold to $2 billion during the period, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed.
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NEW DELHI - India will launch its first manned space mission by 2022 and roll out a health insurance scheme from September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday in his last Independence Day speech ahead of next year's general election.
Modi, a powerful speaker who will seek re-election in the world's biggest democracy early next year, used the speech to broadcast his government's achievements, amid concerns about lack of jobs and rising violence against the Muslim minority.
Wearing a flowing saffron turban, the Hindu nationalist leader also announced the plan to take the "Indian tricolor to space" in a manned mission that would make India the fourth nation to launch one, after the United States, Russia and China.
"India is proud of our scientists, who are excelling in their research and are at the forefront of innovation," Modi said from the ramparts of the Mughal-era Red Fort in Delhi to a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands.
"In the year 2022 or, if possible, before, India will unfurl the tricolor in space."
Months after Modi's election in 2014, India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars when its first mission to the red planet entered orbit, at a cost of $74 million, or less than the budget of the Hollywood space blockbuster "Gravity."
Modi said his government would launch from Sept. 25 a previously announced medical insurance scheme, dubbed 'Modicare', to give about 500 million poor people annual health cover of 500,000 rupees ($7,200) to treat serious illness.
Critics say that while Modi has adopted several initiatives, his tenure has been marred by violence against Muslim cattle traders and economic jolts through a countrywide ban on high-value notes and the botched launch of a unified taxation system.
Businesses have embraced the unified Goods and Services Tax after initial hiccups, Modi said in his speech.
In his 80-minute speech, Modi said the pace of building highways, electrifying villages and building toilets has increased since his landslide 2014 election win that devastated the main opposition Congress party.
Congress, which had ruled India for decades, is now trying to unify the opposition to challenge Modi, whose personal ratings remain high despite recent election setbacks.
"We want to progress more. There is no question of stopping or getting tired on the way," Modi said.
($1=69.9500 Indian rupees)
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Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India, an official said Sunday, as rescuers continue to sift through villages devastated by torrential rains.
The death toll in Gujarat state jumped from Wednesday's total of 123 as waters recede from low-lying areas, allowing workers to reach remote spots where bodies are starting to appear.
"The death toll in Gujarat this monsoon has risen to 213," A.J Shah, director of relief operations with the Gujarat government, told AFP.
Overwhelmed authorities, who expect the toll to rise still further, said they have struggled to cope with the number of bodies needing identification and post-mortems, resulting in delays in confirming the latest deaths.
An official at the state's emergency control room explained that "only after a post-mortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person".
"Since many bodies were found, postmortem took time hence the sudden jump in numbers," the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
The rise comes after rescuers plucked 25 bodies, including 17 members of a single family, on Wednesday from two submerged villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat.
Rescue workers have moved close to 130,000 people from low-lying, dangerous areas as helicopters and boats try to reach those still stranded.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who surveyed the devastation across Gujarat from the skies last week, in his radio show on Sunday reassured flood-hit states that all help was being provided to them.
As well as Gujarat, the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hard-hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.
In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed.
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