India is very clear that all its activities are always within the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India on Tuesday said after an allegation by China that the Indian troops twice crossed the border on June 15 for illegal activities and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel which led to a serious clash between the two sides, resulting in the death of at least 20 Indian Army personnel.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India has crossed the three lakh-mark as the country, for the first time ever, has become one of the four nations in the world with the highest COVID-19 caseload. Not just this, India is also the biggest epicenter of the pandemic outbreak in Asia.

The COVID-19 death toll in India is also nearing the 10,000-mark. The virus has spread rapidly and the country has marked significant and consecutive highest jumps in the COVID-19 tally over a major part of the past two weeks.

The Indian Army on Tuesday said the violent border clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday has claimed the lives of 20 Indian jawans, most of whom were exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain and later succumbed to their injuries.

Initially, the army had said one officer and two soldiers were killed in the incident, further escalating the already volatile border standoff between the two sides.

India on Tuesday summoned Charge d' Affaires of Pakistan High Commission Haider Shah and a lodged a strong protest over the abduction and torture of two officials of the Indian mission in Islamabad by Pakistani security agencies.

The Ministry of External Affairs in a statement said that the two officials were forcibly abducted by Pakistani agencies on Monday and kept in illegal custody for more than 10 hours.

Havildar Pazhani hailing from Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu is among the three Indian Army personnel who made the supreme sacrifice in the violent stand-off with the Chinese forces.

Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding officer of 16 Bihar Regiment and Sepoy Kundan Kumar Ojha also laid down their lives in the incident near Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh which is said to have occurred Monday night.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with Chief Ministers of various states and Union territories via video conferencing to discuss the situation emerging post-Unlock 1.0 and plan ahead for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was the sixth such interaction of the Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers, the earlier ones had been held on March 20, April 2, April 11, April 27, and May 11.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday meet chief ministers on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the country after a weeks-long lockdown to contain the disease was eased.

Modi will hold a video conference with the leaders of 21 states and union territories at 3 pm Tuesday, including Punjab, Assam, Kerala and all northeastern states. On Wednesday, also at 3 pm, he will meet with the 15 worst-affected: including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi.

The benchmark indices fell along with other global bourses as a rising number of Covid-19 infections weakened investor sentiment and dashed hopes of a sharp economic recovery.

Poor factory output data from China also dampened investor sentiment. The Nifty ended the session at 9,814, falling 1.6 per cent, or 159 points. The Sensex, on the other hand, tumbled 552 points, or 1.6 per cent, to end the session at 33,229.

Gold price slipped to Rs 47,200 from Rs 47,460 per 10 gram, while silver fell sharply to Rs 47,100 from Rs 47,710 per kilogram on Tuesday, according to the Good Returns website.

The prices of gold jewellery vary across India — the second-largest consumer of the metal — due to excise duty, state taxes, and making charges.

The Indian banking system is in a Catch-22 situation — balancing between credit growth and bad loans, said Padmaja Chunduru, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of Indian Bank.

Chunduru was speaking at a webinar organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on quantitative easing and credit risk.

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