PM Modi’s annual ‘pareeksha pe charcha’, ahead of school board exams, is back with a bang. To be held on January 29, this year’s interaction will target about 10 crore students. Unlike last year when only students were involved, this year parents and teachers will also join in the ‘charcha’ and share education-related experiences and practices with the PM. A selection process has begun on ‘mygov.co.in’ to choose 2,000 students who will attend the live interaction with the PM at the Talkatora stadium.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s working president, K Taraka Rama Rao, was at his wittiest best after he retorted to a fan’s tweet ‘Johar KTR’ (meaning KTR Amar Rahe). KTR was quick enough to respond saying ‘Bro, I am still alive & kicking man. Not in Johar club yet’ with a smiley face. In less than 24 hours, KTR’s tweet on Sunday received more than 1,400 likes and 100 retweets.

BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao on Friday said, “Rahul Gandhi is crying more than Alok Verma in CBI matter.” “The real investigation that is going on in the CBI is AgustaWestland and other defence deals,” he added. He further said that Congress is intervening in the CBI debate because the party is worried that CBI is “getting at the truth”.

YSRC cadre on Wednesday offered 3,648 coconuts, one for every km covered by their party president Jagan, to Lord Lakshminarasimha Swamy in the temple at Mangalagiri of Guntur district. On Wednesday, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy completed his marathon 3,648 km padayatra ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’. YSRC Mangalagiri town president Munagala Malleswara Rao said that as Mr Reddy walked for 3,648 km, they offered the same number of coconuts to Lakshminarasimha Swamy and also performed special pujas for the health of their leader.

People with annual family income below ₹8 lakh and those with agricultural land below five acres will likely benefit from 10% reservation for the economically backward in general category. Those who have residential property below 1,000 sq ft may also avail the quota. People with residential plot below 100 square yards in a notified municipality will also benefit, reports said.

Telangana Congress working president and former Indian skipper, Mohammad Azharuddin, is keen on contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai. Mumbai Congress Committee chief Sanjay Nirupam confirmed that Azharuddin was interested in contesting from Mumbai. “Azharuddin spoke to me about his desire. It is for the Congress leadership to take a decision,’’ Nirupam said.

Actor-turned-political activist Prakash Raj on Saturday announced that he would contest the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Bengaluru Central seat. Debunking all speculations on which party’s ticket he would contest, Raj said he would contest the general elections as an independent candidate. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in April-May.

Anil Ambani got a nickname on Wednesday with Congress president Rahul Gandhi referring to him as ‘Double A’, a reference he coined in jest to skirt around the Speaker’s direction that Ambani should not be named in the House since he’s not a member. “If not Anil Ambani, Can I say AA, ma’am?”, Rahul asked. The reference was later picked up by Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant amid laughter and desk-thumping by Congress.

A fourth grade student of Vaddipalli MPUP school in Kuppam constituency impressed AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu by showering praises on various welfare schemes launched by the government and got a return gift of 50,000 in the form of a fixed deposit. The interesting episode happened during the sixth phase of Janmabhoomi Ma Vuru public meet in Kuppam on Wednesday.

Taking a dig at the Gandhi family on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley quoted a James Bond movie and said, “Once is a happenstance…twice, it’s a coincidence and if it’s thrice, it’s a conspiracy.” “If the fingers point at you in AgustaWestland, National Herald and Bofors, then it is a bit too much,” he added.

Telangana topped the states in the country in terms of growth, clocking an average GSDP of 17.01% in the last four years, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has said. The states tax revenue growth rate stood at 29.97% in this financial year so far, he said at a meeting with officials of the food processing department here, where it was decided to evolve an action plan for promoting the sector, an official release said on Tuesday.

Amid the controversy surrounding the movie ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, former PM HD Deve Gowda has said, “I don’t know who has permitted, why?” He added that he was also an “Accidental PM”. After the 1996 general elections, Gowda had led a coalition government with Congress support. However, he had to resign after ten months when the Congress withdrew support.

An expenditure of over ₹2,021 crore was incurred on chartered flights, maintenance of aircraft and hotline facilities during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign visits since June 2014, the government said. These details don’t include the expenditure on hotline facilities incurred during foreign visits in 2017 and 2018. Notably, PM Modi has made 48 foreign trips since taking over as PM.

TTD was at the receiving end after a group of devotees not only expressed displeasure but also raised slogans against it for bending rules to arrange Lord Venkateswara’s darshan for AP assembly speaker Dr Kodela Siva Prasad and his family during the non-VIP hours on the Vaikunta Ekadasi eve. The administration halted the Sarvadarshan queue, in which devotees were standing for hours, for a brief time to arrange darshan for the speaker’s family.

In a video that has gone viral, Madhya Pradesh MP Jyotiraditya Scindia can be seen telling Congress President Rahul Gandhi what to say while addressing the press. Referring to farm loan waivers, Scindia tells Rahul, “You need to say what (PM Narendra) Modi could not do, I have done.” Rahul was addressing the media alongside other Congress leaders.