A woman died almost every two minutes, or more than 700 women died daily from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2023, according to data from the UN and World Health Organization on World Health Day on Monday.

World Health Day is celebrated on April 7 every year. The theme this year Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures, urges governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths and to prioritise women’s longer-term health and well-being.

The report titled Trends in maternal mortality shows a 40 per cent global decline in maternal mortality ratio (MMR, number of maternal deaths per 100 000 live births) between 2000 and 2023.

In a bloodbath on the Dalal Street, the stock markets plunged on Monday morning following the global sell-off, as the trade war fear increased amid impending US reciprocal tariffs.

As of 9:55 am, Sensex was down 2,690 points or 3.57 per cent at 72,654 and Nifty was down 881 points or 3.85 per cent at 22,020.

Along with largecaps, massive selling was also seen in the midcaps and smallcaps. Nifty midcap 100 index was down 2,335 points or 4.61 per cent at 48,310 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 1,055 points or 6.73 per cent at 14,620.

On the sectoral front, all indices were in the red. Auto, IT, realty, media, energy and infra were major laggards.

In the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, L&T, HCL Tech, TCS, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Axis Bank, M&M, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank and M&M were major laggards.

The PMK, the political arm of the influential Vanniyar community, has called for a protest to demand a CBI pobe into the suspicious death of a youth accused in an elephant poaching case in Tamil Nadu.

In a statement issued on Monday, PMK founder Dr S. Ramadoss raised serious concerns regarding the death of Senthil Kumar, a youngster from Dharmapuri district, who was allegedly tortured and killed in the custody of the Forest Department.

Dr Ramadoss stated that Senthil, along with his father Govindaraj and brother Sakthi, was taken in for questioning by forest officials on March 17. However, the family received no information about their whereabouts for days. Following a police complaint, Sakthi was returned to the family, while Govindaraj was arrested in connection with the poaching of a tusker.

According to the Forest Department, Senthil allegedly escaped while in handcuffs during a field visit to the incident site. However, his decomposed body was found 15 days later in the Eriyur reserve forest. The department claimed he had taken his own life after escaping custody, but Dr Ramadoss and human rights activists suspect foul play.

The Pakistani Army violated the ceasefire on Monday on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, and the Indian Army retaliated befittingly, officials said.

“Pakistani Army violated bilateral ceasefire on the LoC today in Digwar sector of Poonch district. Indian Army retaliated befittingly,” officials said.

A search operation has been launched in the area to ensure that no infiltration took place in the area under the cover of Pakistani Army firing.

On April 1, the Pakistani Army violated the ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked firing after a mine explosion along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district. The Indian troops responded effectively in a “controlled and calibrated manner, said the Army in a statement.

As global stock markets plunged on Monday, US President Donald Trump defended his controversial tariff policies, dismissing concerns over the economic impact. He said that the world leaders are "dying to make a deal" to negotiate the reciprocal tariffs.

With Asian markets opening to significant losses and US futures signalling further declines, Trump sought to downplay fears, suggesting that the market pain caused by his tariffs was a necessary "medicine" to fix longstanding trade imbalances.

On Sunday, Trump denied any intent to deliberately engineer a market selloff, insisting that he could not predict market reactions. He emphasised that he would not enter trade agreements with other countries unless they addressed the trade deficits.

"Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something," Trump said, referring to the market volatility.

As the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) began its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting (from April 7-April 9) here, SBI Research on Monday said it expects a 25-basis point rate cut in the policy and cumulative rate cut over the cycle could be at least 100 basis points, with two successive rate cuts over February and April.

With an intervening gap in June, the second round of rate cuts could start from August, said the SBI report.

“During February 2025 to March 2026, we expect at least 100 bps cut in repo rate (25 bps already cut in February 2025 and another 75 bps rest of FY26), which will transmit exactly same to EBLR and 60 bps in MCLR,” the report mentioned.

The report further stated that based on the available estimates of natural rate the neutral nominal policy rates works out at 5.65 per cent.

The Indian stock markets crashed on Monday morning over fears of US reciprocal tariffs set to come into force from April 9. The Nifty 50 and Sensex were trading 3.85 per cent and 4.16 per cent down, respectively, in early trade.

All the sectoral indices were trading in the red with IT and metal down 7 per cent each. BSE Midcap and smallcap indices were down 6 per cent each in early trade..

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Motors and ONGC were among major losers on the Nifty.

However, there was some recovery seen after the mayhem at the opening bell as buying returned.

According to experts, equity markets were expected to open on a bearish note today, as suggested by the GIFT Nifty, which hovered around 22,090 in early trades — reflecting a significant decline of 867 points.

The Dargah Police in Rajasthan have arrested another Bangladeshi national who had been living illegally in India after crossing the India-Bangladesh border several years ago.

With this arrest, the total number of Bangladeshi nationals detained under the ongoing crackdown has reached 20 in Rajasthan.

According to Dinesh Jeevani, Station House Officer (SHO) of Dargah police station, a District Special Task Force (STF) has been formed by Ajmer Superintendent of Police Vandita Rana to identify and take action against illegal immigrants and infiltrators residing in the region.

The Union government has sanctioned an additional assistance of Rs 522.34 crore to Tamil Nadu to help address the devastation caused by recent natural calamities.

The Union Territory of Puducherry has also received Rs 33.06 crore as part of the same relief effort.

Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, L. Murugan, said that the Union government continues to stand firmly with state governments in times of natural calamities and disasters.

“The High-Level Committee (HLC), chaired by Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, approved a total of Rs 1,280.35 crore in additional Central assistance for the states of Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and the Union Territory of Puducherry. These regions were severely impacted by floods, flash floods, cloudbursts, landslides, and cyclonic storms during 2024,” he informed.

The stalled development work at the Mohkampura cremation ground, located in Ward No. 22 under the East Assembly constituency, has finally gained momentum. Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Jagjit Singh Jainki inspected the ongoing work today and shared that various facilities are being developed here at an estimated cost of approximately 45 lakh rupees. These projects had been stalled for a long time, but following the persistent demands of the ward residents and under the guidance of MLA Smt. Jeevan Jot Kaur, the work has been initiated.
Jainki stated that due to the lack of basic facilities at the Mohkampura cremation ground, people had to face numerous difficulties during times of grief. There was neither proper seating nor any arrangements to protect against rain. Understanding the sentiments of the people, the Aam Aadmi Party has promptly started this work. Jagjit Singh Jainki thanked MLA Jeevan Jot Kaur, emphasizing that the party’s goal is to advance development projects in every constituency and ward.