Celebrating 32 years of his iconic film “Khalnayak,” filmmaker Subhash Ghai took to social media to reflect on its lasting impact and express excitement over the growing demand for a sequel.

He shared his vision of bringing back the beloved characters—Ballu Balram, Ganga, and Ram—with a new generation cast, hoping to recreate a fresh wave of cinematic magic. To celebrate the milestone, the veteran director posted an image featuring him with Sanjay Dutt and captioned it, “Today Ballu Balram celebrating 32 years of a movie with monumental performances by each character n music as if it was yesterday. Now I can see its huge demand everywhere that Khalnayak shud reappear on screen with Ballu Balram, ganga n Ram with young cast in its sequel to create a new magic in cinema never before. My heartiest congratulations to team of KHALNAYAK for this passionate movie. Bless u all.”

Playback singer Monali Thakur released her new track ‘Ek Baar Phir’ on Wednesday. This marks her comeback to music after a brief hiatus.

The National Award-winning singer has shared that the song draws from the journey she has been on over the past few years. The track explores the themes of betrayal, heartbreak, and abuse.

Talking about the song, she said, “This song is deeply personal to me, it draws from the journey I’ve been on over the past few years. What many don’t know is how challenging those years truly were. I had lost myself trying to cope with loss and trauma, and was struggling to find hope. It’s the song of my journey in finding that hope and love again and finding the strength to survive all the challenges of life and not giving up. That hope & love became my anchor, my strength, and ultimately, the heart of this song”.

Shares of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) debuted on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Wednesday at Rs 880, reflecting a 10 per cent premium, or Rs 80 above the issue price of Rs 800 per share. NSDL's IPO share listing fell short of expectations in the grey market, which had anticipated that the scrips would be listed at a premium of around 16 per cent.

Shortly after listing, the stock reached an intraday high of Rs 920. As of 11.45 A.M., NSDL shares were trading at Rs 913.65, up 33 points or 3.82 per cent from its listing price.

The Rs 4,012 crore IPO saw strong participation from all investor categories. The overall issue was subscribed 41.02 times. Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) led the subscription, oversubscribing 103.97 times, followed by Non-Institutional Investors (NIIs) at 34.98 times and retail investors at 7.76 times.

At least two people were killed and three others injured in a high-intensity blast at an oxygen-making unit in Punjab's Mohali, near here, on Wednesday, police said.

Around 25 employees were present in the unit, located in the Industrial Area in Phase 9, when the blast took place.

High Tech Gases Private Limited supplies medical oxygen to the PGI, Chandigarh, and other government hospitals in the region.

The cause of the blast is yet to be known.

Senior police and civil administration officials, including the sub-divisional magistrate, rushed to the spot immediately after the blast was reported.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Damandeep Kaur confirmed the incident.

At least seven Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were suspended in Bihar by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday, for alleged dereliction of duty and refusal to follow the stipulated guidelines.

The BLOs were suspended by the Patna District Election Officer cum District Magistrate, with immediate effect.

The reasons cited for the BLOs' suspension include their absence from duty, ignorance of standard procedure and arbitrary decision-making, and no consultation with senior officials.

Three BLOs from Mokama and four from Fatua Assembly constituency have been suspended with immediate effect.

In a major rescue effort, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), in coordination with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), rescued 413 stranded pilgrims from the Kinnaur Kailash trek route in Himachal Pradesh after two makeshift bridges on the trail were washed away due to torrential rains and cloudbursts.

Heavy rainfall in the region triggered cloudbursts and caused a bridge over the Tangling drain to be swept away on Wednesday morning, leaving scores of tourists and pilgrims stranded on the remote trekking route.

Responding swiftly, a rescue team from the ITBP's 17th Battalion carried out the evacuation using a rope-based traverse crossing technique, successfully moving all 413 individuals to safer areas.

Moscow on Wednesday said that it is not surprised by the record-long absence of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump, given the "unprecedented deterioration" of Russia-US relations during the tenure of former US President Joe Biden.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remarks on an assessment, which noted that for the first time in the modern history of Russia, the US-Russian summit had not been held even after more than six months since the inauguration of the new US President.

Previously, the wait for the Russia-US summit reportedly lasted on average from one to five months. This time, six months and 16 days have passed since Trump took over the presidency; however, there has not been any personal meeting between the American, reported.

Following the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision on Wednesday to maintain the repo rate at 5.50 per cent, the benchmark index Nifty 50 experienced a slight decline, falling below the 24,600 resistance level.

The Nifty 50 was trading at 24,569 as of 10.54 am, after an intraday decline of 0.33 per cent, while the Sensex stood at 80,473, down 0.29 per cent. Prior to the Monetary Policy Committee's decision, Nifty and Sensex were down 0.08 per cent and 0.07 per cent, respectively.

Apart from the monetary policy decision, the overarching influence on the market will be US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, according to experts.

The Nifty IT index extended its losses to a 1.57 per cent decline during the morning hours of trading. Nifty Pharma lost 1.26 per cent and Nifty Realty declined 2.26 per cent.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted raids at 11 locations in the national capital and three states in connection with a global cyber fraud case involving Rs 260 crore.

The ED conducted the raids under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on FIRs registered by the Delhi Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The raids were taking place in Noida, Gurugram, Dehradun, and Delhi

The fraudsters cheated foreign and Indian nationals by posing as police or investigating officers, and extorted money after threatening them with the consequences of arrest.

The RBI on Wednesday retained its forecast for India’s GDP growth at 6.5 per cent for FY 2025-26, despite global uncertainties, as it expects strong rural demand on the back of a good monsoon and robust government expenditure on big ticket infrastructure projects to propel growth.

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said, “The above normal southwest monsoon, lower inflation, rising capacity utilization and congenial financial conditions continue to support domestic economic activity. The supportive monetary, regulatory and fiscal policies including robust government capital expenditure should also boost demand. The services sector is expected to remain buoyant, with sustained growth in construction and trade in the coming months.”