Sakshi Dayal

Indian police detained dozens of people during a rare protest at the famed India Gate monument in New Delhi demanding action to curb an annual scourge of toxic air swathing the capital and its surrounding region.

Authorities in the Indian capital territory of Delhi began seeding clouds on Tuesday to induce artificial rain and bring down pollution levels in the city that has been battling poor air for days, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.

More than one million people have been evacuated from Pakistan's Punjab province due to flooding caused by heavy rain, the provincial disaster authority said on Thursday.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack.

China helped Pakistan with 'live inputs' in conflict with India, Indian Army deputy chief says

India is committed to efforts to develop its restive territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, accusing neighbour Pakistan of seeking to destroy livelihoods there with April's deadly attack on tourists.

The military operations chiefs of India and Pakistan held talks by phone on Monday evening, broadcaster CNN-News18 said, two days after the nuclear-armed neighbours reached a ceasefire agreement following intense fighting last week.

India and China will have issues in the "foreseeable future" but there are ways to address them without getting into a conflict, India's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

At least 25 people remain trapped under snow after an avalanche struck the Indian Himalayan mountain state of Uttarakhand, authorities said on Friday, following recent heavy snowfall in the region.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took holy dips in sacred river waters in the northern city of Prayagraj on Wednesday as he joined millions of people at the Maha Kumbh Mela, a week after dozens died in a stampede at the event.

Nearly 40 people were killed in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday and several others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela - a Hindu religious festival touted to be the largest human gathering in the world.

Thousands of miles from Washington, where the funeral of Jimmy Carter is set for next week, an Indian village named after the former U.S. president fondly remembers his visit almost 50 years ago, paying tribute.

The air quality index reading rose above 400 in Delhi and the city was shrouded in a toxic haze.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the State Department and "deep state" elements in the U.S. of trying to destabilise India in conjunction with a group of investigative journalists and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.

India eased some restrictions imposed to combat pollution in its north on Thursday as air quality there improved, with smog giving way to blue skies and Delhi recording a "moderate" air quality index reading of 165.

Russian oil producer Rosneft invested $20 billion in India recently, the Indian government quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying in a statement on Thursday, without giving details.

Both houses of Indian parliament were suspended on Monday after disruptions by opposition groups demanding a discussion on bribery allegations against the Adani Group and communal tensions in a northern town.

The lower house of India's parliament was suspended temporarily on Friday for a fourth day in a row this week following disruptions as opposition lawmakers sought a discussion on the allegations against Adani Group.

India's government plans to clamp down on polluting farm fires by measuring the areas burnt instead of live blazes, after reports that farmers were burning paddy waste or stubble at times when satellites were not passing overhead.

Indian opposition parties demanded a probe on Thursday into allegations of wrongdoing by the Adani Group and said they would raise the issue in parliament.