After the UAE deported three Indian men on Thursday on charges that they were recruiting for ISIS (Islamic State), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Adnan Damudi on Friday, reports The Indian Express. Last year, Damudi under the alias Adnan Hussain Mohammed Hussain, allegedly attempted to influence four young men from Hyderabad into travelling to Syria. The NIA said Damudi and the other two men deported by the UAE were involved in a "conspiracy to identify, motivate, radicalise, recruit and train Indian citizens located both in India and other countries for planning and executing terrorist attacks in India and in other friendly countries".

Citizens using public services in India may soon never have to visit an office again if the PMO approves a proposal by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) to create mobile apps for all public services, reports The Economic Times. The DARPG submitted a report to this effect last week. The report said this would not only make accessing and using public services easier, but also improve India's ranking of 119 out of 193 countries in the UN E-Government Index.

Pilots of a Chennai-bound Air India flight spotted four parachutes five nautical miles from Vasai on Friday morning, reports the Hindustan Times. The parachutes were apparently brightly coloured in yellow, red, green and blue. While the parachutes may belong to one of the many paragliding schools on the Lonavla-Kamshet belt, the Mumbai police are investigating all reports of unidentified balloons, paragliders and parachutes along the coastline. This was the third such sighting after a Pawan Hans pilot reported paragliders near the Juhu coast on 19 January, and a passenger on an Air India flight to Mumbai reported the same.

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir will meet on Sunday to decide whether to continue the party's alliance with the BJP, reports the Hindustan Times. J&K has been under President's Rule since Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed died on 7 January. His daughter Mehbooba was to take over as chief minister after the four-day official mourning period, but has shown no signs of doing so. Sunday's PDP meeting will be held at Mehbooba's personal residence. Mehbooba apparently wants changes in the PDP's alliance with the BJP.

The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill 2015 will be sent back to President Pranab Mukherjee simply after deleting the word terrorism from its title and the provision related to it from the bill, reports the Hindustan Times. The bill had apparently been rejected by the president, but sources in the government said it had actually been withdrawn by the home ministry to make these changes. Removing the terrorism provisions will bring the bill back to its original 2003 draft, the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill (GUJCOC). The GUJOC had been rejected by former presidents APJ Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil three times.

The Goa government has cancelled an event to release a book on Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, on Martyrs Day, the anniversary of Gandhi's death today, reports The Telegraph. The BJP government had to cancel the event after protests by former freedom fighters and social and political organisations. The book, titled Nathuram Godse - The Story of an Assassin, by RSS sympathiser Anup Sardesai, was to have been released by Satyaki Ashok Savarkar, grandnephew of Godse and Veer Savarkar. "We have told the organisers that they cannot have the event and refunded the money," said former BJP legislator Damu Naik, chairman of Ravindra Bhavan, where the event was to have been held.

Dr Vipin Srivastava, acting vice chancellor of the Hyderabad Central University since its vice chancellor Appa Rao Podile is on indefinite leave, has himself gone on leave and been replaced by M Periasamy, reports The Indian Express. Srivastava, whose appointment had outraged members of the SC and ST communities in the university because he had been on the committee that suspended five Dalit students, leading to the suicide of one of them, Rohith Vemula, went on four-day leave just as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the campus in solidarity with the protesting students who are observing Vemula's birthday today. It is not known whether Srivastava would return as acting VC.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel has been given an ultimatum: resolve the Patidar agitation within three months, or quit, reports The Economic Times. This came after the Congress trounced the BJP in the recent local bodies elections in Gujarat. The Patel community in Gujarat began agitating for reservations in government jobs seven months ago. "The feedback from Gujarat was very worrying. Even the most optimistic projections by our people in Gujarat have said that if things remain the same, it will be tough to remain in power during the assembly polls in 2017," said a BJP leader.

The Arvind Kejriwal government has decided to take things into its hands to take care of garbage disposal in the national capital even as the BJP-ruled municipal body continued its strike over non payment of wages. The protestors, who have been striking work for four days and have been venting their ire by dumping piles of garbage outside the homes and offices of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, were seen heading towards the residence of Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel today. Meanwhile, the BJP hit the streets demanding the salaries for MCD workers.

A sessions court in Kolkata has awarded the death sentence to three of the six accused in the Kamduni rape case. Three others were sentenced to life imprisonment. On Friday, the court had convicted six of the nine accused in the case.

Saiful Ali, Ansar Ali and Amin Ali were declared guilty of gang rape and murder by the judge - over two years and seven months after the incident near Barasat, 20 km from Kolkata - in North 24 Parganas district. The judge also found Imanul Islam, Aminul Islam and Bhola Naskar guilty under sections 376 (d) (gangrape), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC. On June 7, 2013, the second-year BA student was gang-raped and murdered by at least nine men while she was returning home from college.

Parents of a six-year-old child have alleged that their son, who was a student of Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj, was found dead on school premises on Saturday. However, other information says that the Class One student was found unconscious and was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead on arrival. The boy was found dead in the water tank located under the school's amphitheatre. Since the news of Diyvansh's death, Ryan International is being targeted with accusations of negligence. However, the school authorities maintain that the boy was receiving treatment for hyperactivity and they can't be blamed.

In the first edition of Mann Ki Baat in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the nation to help him integrate at least 50 per cent of the farmers in the Crop Insurance Scheme in the next two years. The called the Crop Insurance Scheme the "only one way of providing security to distressed farmers."

In his address, he also spoke about the cultural and historical importance of Khadi in India and highlighted his efforts to promote the fabric. Modi stated that "Khadi has the power to give livelihood for crores."

Jammu and Kashmir will have to wait longer for a chief minister. The People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has the most number of seats in the state Assembly, is not going to form the government unless alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party assures it that it will follow the agenda of the alliance. This was decided during a meeting held in Srinagar on Sunday that was attended by Mehbooba Mufti and other top PDP leaders.

Mehbooba was widely billed for the top job after her father, the previous CM, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed died earlier this month. BJP is the second-biggest party in the J&K Assembly. Catch News reported last week that there was a trust deficit among the two allies. (http://www.catchnews.com/politics-news/the-j-k-deadlock-what-mehbooba-wants-from-the-bjp-1454013277.html)