PM Modi's New Team Takes Charge, First Cabinet Meet

A new emergency response package worth Rs 23,123 crore to tackle the coronavirus pandemic was announced by the centre on Thursday, following the first meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's revamped cabinet on Thursday. New IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has picked up where his predecessor - Ravi Shankar Prasad - left off, telling Twitter that "the law of the land is supreme" and urging it to follow the rules. Cairn Energy says a French court has accepted its petition for a freeze on some Indian government properties in Paris as part of its attempts to recover a $1.2 billion arbitration award it won last year. Reports suggest that a French court has ordered the freeze on 20 centrally located properties of the Indian government, worth more than $24 million, as part of a guarantee of the amount owed to Cairn. Cairn is unlikely to evict the officials living in those properties but the government cannot sell them after the court order.