Daily Bulletin: India, Pakistan to face off in World Cup; protesting doctors in Bengal agree for talks; day's top stories

Junior doctors on strike in West Bengal agree to meet Mamata Banerjee for talks

The impasse in West Bengal showed signs of easing as agitating doctors said Saturday night they were open for talks with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to end their stir, but they would decide on the venue of the meeting later.

Earlier on Saturday evening, the protesting doctors had turned down Mamata's invite for a closed-door meeting at the Secretariat and had instead asked her to visit NRS Medical College and Hospital for an open discussion to resolve the dispute.

File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI

Late on Saturday night, the joint forum of junior doctors held a press conference. "We are open for dialogue always. If the chief minister extends one hand, we will extend 10 of ours... We are eagerly waiting to break the deadlock," the spokesperson said.

The agitating doctors had also turned down Mamata's request saying there was no honest effort on her part to break the deadlock. "We are eagerly waiting to start our duty, but from the chief minister's side, there is no such honest initiative to find a solution," he had said earlier in the night.

The junior doctors on strike also rubbished her claims that a few of their colleagues had visited her at the Secretariat. Mamata, at a press conference, had urged the agitators to resume work and said her government has accepted all their demands.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an advisory seeking a report on the stir. But Mamata reacted sharply to it and said such advisory should be "sent to states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where several murders are reported since the last couple of years".

Governor KN Tripathi wrote to Mamata, advising her to take immediate steps to provide security to the medicos and find a solution to the impasse. The West Bengal chief minister later said she has spoken to the governor and apprised him about the steps taken by the state government to resolve the impasse.

India and Pakistan to clash in Cricket World Cup today

Virat Kohli's men will look to continue their good run in 50-over World Cup history against neighbours Pakistan when the two sides take on each other in a blockbuster contest on Sunday to be played at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Since the 1992 edition, both nations have clashed six times and every time, India ended up on the winning side, giving the men in blue a handsome 6-0 lead over Pakistan.

As far as team news is concerned, Shikhar Dhawan will continue to rest as there has been no further update on his thumb injury from team management. Pakistan may bring back their star spinner Shadab Khan after he was dropped to accommodate an extra pacer against Australia.

Not to forget, there are dark clouds hovering over the match and quite literally so as a couple of showers are expected to play spoilsport during the course of the match in Manchester. The match will begin at 3 pm IST.

Centre calls for all-party meeting ahead of Parliament session

The government has convened an all-party meeting at 11 am on Sunday, a day before the first session of the newly elected Lok Sabha is scheduled to begin. The Centre will seek the Opposition's support in passing crucial bills, such as one on triple talaq.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and several others have met Opposition leaders, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, to seek their support for the smooth functioning of Parliament.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has a whopping 353 members in the 545-seat Lok Sabha, but it has only 102 members in the 245-seat Rajya Sabha.

The newly constituted BJP Parliamentary Party Executive Committee will also meet on Sunday. At the meeting, to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party will chalk out its strategy for the session, which will conclude on 26 July.

Furthermore, as suspense continues over the status of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the grand old party has yet to decide its leader in the Lok Sabha. Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP PL Punia told India Today: "There is still time to decide the leader of the House. It will be done by Sonia Gandhi soon."

PL Punia said that leaders of the Opposition parties may meet after oath is administered to newly elected Lok Sabha MPs.

Making India $5 trillion economy challenging but surely achievable, says Modi at NITI Aayog meet

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024 is challenging but surely achievable, as he asked states to focus on their core competencies and work towards raising the GDP right from the district level.

The size of India's economy was estimated at $2.75 trillion at March end.

Modi made the statement at the fifth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog. The meeting, which held in a "very positive atmosphere", was attended by senior union ministers and almost all the chief ministers, except for Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) and K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana).

In his inaugural address, the prime minister also underlined the need to take effective steps to tackle drought in various parts of the country. Modi also spoke of a collective fight against poverty, unemployment, drought, flood, pollution, corruption and violence and said that everyone has a common goal of achieving a New India by 2022. He described Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana as illustrations of what the Centre and the states can accomplish together.

Tsunami alert lifted for New Zealand after 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Kermadec Islands

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake stuck near the remote Kermadec Islands northeast of New Zealand Sunday, briefly prompting a tsunami warning.

After initially forecasting "a threat to beach, harbour, estuary and small boat activities", New Zealand's civil defence organisation gave the all-clear eight minutes later.

The earthquake was given a preliminary magnitude of 7.4, but later downgraded to 7.2 by the US Geological Survey.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also lifted its tsunami warning for parts of the South Pacific but said "minor sea level fluctuations may occur in some coastal areas near the earthquake".

The earthquake struck at 10.55 am at a depth of 10 kilometres some 928 kilometres north-northeast of the New Zealand city of Tauranga in the North Island.

Amazon's Instagram rival Spark shutdown after two years

Amazon had launched Spark in 2017 with a feed of stories and photos aimed at Prime members. It was set to compete with Instagram, but it never really took off the way the company had expected.

In any case, the data procured from the Spark app and Amazon's discovery tool can be found in a new socially-inspired product which Amazon calls #FoundItOnAmazon.