After resorting to unprovoked ceasefire violation on the Line of Control (LoC) consecutively for the last six days, Pakistani troops on Wednesday initiated unprovoked firing on the International Border (IB) in the Jammu district.

The Defence ministry spokesman said, “Further to the previous update about 29-30 April (Night), unprovoked small arms firing by Pakistan Army was also reported from their posts across the LoC in Baramulla and Kupwara districts, as well as across the International Border in the Pargwal Sector."

“Indian Army troops responded appropriately,” the spokesman said.

The Pakistan Army had already initiated unprovoked firing on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday for the sixth consecutive day as the Indian Army responded swiftly and proportionately.

The Defence Ministry spokesman said earlier today, “During the night of 29-30 April 2025, Pakistan Army posts initiated unprovoked small-arms fire across the LoC opposite the Naushera, Sunderbani and Akhnoor sectors in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir."

The sacred Char Dham Yatra commenced on Wednesday with the ceremonial opening of the portals of Gangotri and Yamunotri Dham in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand.

The pilgrimage marks the beginning of a spiritually significant journey through the revered Himalayan shrines.

After spending six months in her winter abode in Mukba village, the palanquin of Goddess Ganga was ceremoniously sent off to Gangotri Dham on Tuesday.

The journey paused overnight at Bhairav Temple in Bhairavghati.

The domestic benchmark indices opened flat on Wednesday amid mixed global cues and geo-political tensions, as selling was seen in the PSU bank and financial service sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.32 am, Sensex was trading 7.72 points or 0.01 per cent down at 80,280.66 while the Nifty climbed 1 point or 0.00 per cent at 24,336.95.

Nifty Bank was down 197.50 points or 0.36 per cent at 55,193.75. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 54,356.00 after declining 231.95 points or 0.42 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 16,602.40 after dropping 136.30 points or 0.81 per cent.

According to analysts, Nifty can find support at 24,200 followed by 24,100 and 24,000. On the higher side, 24,400 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,500 and 24,700.

"The charts of Bank Nifty indicate that it may get support at 55,000 followed by 54,700 and 54,400. If the index advances further, 55,600 would be the initial key resistance, followed by 55,900 and 56,200," said Hardik Matalia from Choice Broking.

Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc picked 3-42, while Vipraj Nigam and captain Axar Patel took two wickets each as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) posted 204/9 in their 20 overs against Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday.

On a pitch that didn’t offer much grip and was good to bat on, KKR had their batters producing quick knocks at a great strike rate and were also aided by DC conceding 15 extras. But they lost their way in the middle overs against DC’s spin troika and then made only 45 in the last five overs.

It would be interesting to see if DC, after pulling things back in the post-powerplay phase, chase down the total, especially if dew comes into the picture. They also need to see if Axar can bat after hurting his left hand while fielding.

KKR began with a bang as Rahmanullah Gurbaz drilled Starc for boundaries through mid-off and cover-point. Sunil Narine took a liking to Dushmantha Chameera dishing out fuller balls and on pads to take him for two sixes and a four, with the one-handed maximum being the standout, as 25 runs came off the second over

Tata Group’s retail arm Trent Limited on Tuesday reported a sharp 47 per cent drop in its net profit for the March quarter (Q4 FY25), which fell to Rs 350 crore from Rs 654 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The steep fall was largely due to a one-off gain of Rs 543 crore in the base quarter, which had inflated last year’s numbers, the company said in its stock exchange filing.

Chairman Noel Tata acknowledged the quarter’s weakness, noting that full-year figures offered a better picture of the company’s performance, especially given the seasonal nature of retail and real estate-related challenges.

"In FY25, we built on the agenda of strongly growing our reach and becoming more accessible to our customers. Given the seasonality of the business, nature of the real estate market and our approach to inventory management, the full year performance is more representative with respect to revenues, operating profitability and network expansion vis-a-vis any individual quarter," he said.

Governor of the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan Mohammad Ashouri Taziani refuted on Tuesday the hypothesis that an act of sabotage was behind a deadly blast at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran.

He made the remarks while elaborating on the likely causes of the explosion that occurred on Saturday and its subsequent fire, in which at least 70 people were killed and over 1,200 others injured, the official news agency reported.

Ahsouri Taziani said some foreign media raised the speculation that the incident had probably been the result of an act of sabotage, but preliminary investigations showed that the sabotage hypothesis failed to be of "sufficient strength."

He added that according to a statement by the provincial crisis management headquarters, a failure to properly observe safety and passive defense measures had been among the main causes of the incident.

On Monday, Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni identified "certain negligence" as one of the reasons behind the deadly explosion,news agency reported.

A car ran amok in Telangana’s Gadwal town on Tuesday, killing two nursing students and injuring some others.

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening when students of a nursing college were waiting for a bus at a bus stop to go to their hostel.

According to police, the SUV rammed into the students waiting at the Housing Board Turning Bus Stop in the Gadwal district headquarters.

Two female students died on the spot, while three others were critically injured. They were shifted to the government hospital, where the condition of two of them is stated to be critical.

Two children, who were also waiting at the bus stop, sustained grievous injuries and were also admitted to a hospital.

Two uncapped Indian batters opening an innings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) usually signals a crisis in the team – either injuries to main batters, or loss of form. In IPL 2025, only Punjab Kings (PBKS) have dared to open with two uncapped Indian players: a retained Prabhsimran Singh and dazzling newbie in Priyansh Arya.

With the rest of PBKS batters blowing hot and cold too often, it’s no surprise that Prabhsimran (292 runs) and Priyansh (393 runs) are the top two leading run-getters for the side in IPL 2025. Their partnership run-rate stands at 10.69 and average stands at 40, including a century and fifty stand against their name.

That century stand came off in PBKS’ washed-out game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where Prabhsimran and Priyansh smacked 120 runs in just 11.5 overs. But what really caught the onlookers’ attention was the maturity in operating as a pair. Priyansh took his time before going aggressive, which meant Prabhsimran held one end.

Three militants of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) were killed during an encounter with the security forces in Assam’s mountainous Dima Hasao district on Tuesday, officials said.

An Assam Police spokesman said that the encounter came after secret information that some armed cadres, who had given an extortion notice to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials and engineers in Dima Hasao district, were hiding in areas under the Haflong police station.

Accordingly, a search operation was launched by Assam Police's Special Units and Assam Rifles on Saturday evening.

"Almost after 60 hours of search, on Monday, the search parties came across an armed group in the area between N Kubin-Hera Kilo. The armed militants fired on the security forces, who retaliated, and there was a heavy exchange of fire," the spokesman said.

India have been fined five percent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate against Sri Lanka in the first match of the Women’s Tri-series in Colombo on Sunday. Vanessa de Silva of the ICC International Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after India were ruled to be one over short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration.

"In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined five percent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time," the ICC said in a statement.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.

On-field umpires Anna Harris and Nimali Perera, third umpire Lyndon Hannibal, and fourth umpire Dedunu de Silva levelled the charge.