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Airport Authority Gets Nod To Install Full-Body Scanners At 4 Airports

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Airport Authority Gets Nod To Install Full-Body Scanners At 4 Airports

These full-body scanners will be installed at four airports in the country.

New Delhi:

To make security checks quicker and error-free at India’s hypersensitive airports, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) received clearance from the Public Investment Board (PIB) to install full-body scanners that will cut down the passenger frisking time by half.

These full-body scanners will be installed at four airports in the country including Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Goa.

In July, the government had floated a tender to procure 131 full-body scanners– that cut down the average passenger frisking time to 15 seconds from the current 30 and 600 new hand baggage scanners at over Rs 1,000 crore at airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) but it was later withdrawn as it needed clearance from PIB.

Given that all the investment plans with an estimated cost of Rs 500 crores and more fall under the purview of PIB, the initial proposal was to install 131 full-body scanners and 600 new hand-baggage scanner machines at 43 airports that include Amritsar, Goa, Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Varanasi, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Raipur, Tirupati, Bhopal, among others at over Rs 1,000 crore at airports run by the AAI.

However, in a recent meeting between stakeholders involved in the safety and security of airports, it was decided that instead of going for the installation in one go as per the original plan, the PIB gave its nod for the installation of full-body scanners in the four airports that witness maximum footfall among all airports owned and managed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Home Affairs and others.

“After evaluating the success report of full-body scanners at these four airports, other airports in the queue will get the facility at the earliest. In the meeting, various aspects like procurement, installation, training of security personnel and operations were discussed,” said a senior official.

According to officials, these millimetre-wave technology-based full-body scanners work on the principle of body contours, i.e. these are designed to detect objects that could be concealed in the body.  

“As the proposal needs approval of PIB, it was reviewed and now full-body scanners will be installed at four airports including thirteen scanners at Kolkata, twelve at Chennai, eight at Goa and five at Pune airport. These airports fall under the hypersensitive category as per BCAS”, added the official.

The AAI manages 137 airports in India, which include 24 international airports, 10 customs airports, and 103 domestic airports.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Watch: Rishi Sunak's Parents, Mother-In-Law Sudha Murty Visit Andhra Pradesh Temple

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Watch: Rishi Sunak's Parents, Mother-In-Law Sudha Murty Visit Andhra Pradesh Temple

Rishi Sunak was on his first official visit to India for the G20 Summit.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s parents, Yashvir And Usha Sunak, on Wednesday visited the Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt temple in Andhra Pradesh. The duo were accompanied by Sudha Murty, the mother-in-law of the UK PM. At the temple, the Sunaks and Ms Murty offered prayers and they were honoured with shawls by the temple priests.

Taking to Facebook, the official page of the temple shared a couple of photos of the trio. “Today, the parents of Britain’s Prime Minister Sri Rishi Sunak, Sir Yashvir Sunak and Usha Sunak visited to Sri Kshetram Mantralayam. They were accompanied by Smt. Sudha Narayana Murty of INFOSYS, and together they had darshan of Sri Rayaru,” the caption of the post read. 

Take a look at pics below: 

“During their visit, His Holiness Sri Swamiji bestowed his blessings upon them with  Vastram , Phala Mantrakshate, and a  Memento. Additionally, His Holiness Sri Swamiji graciously entrusted the sacred prasadam of Sri Rayaru to be delivered to Sri Rishi Sunak,The Prime Minister of Britain, for his parents,” the caption added. 

Also Read | Rishi Sunak-Akshata Murty Set Couple Goals With Candid Pics On India Trip

Meanwhile, this comes days after Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty offered prayers at Akshardham temple in New Delhi. During their time at the iconic temple, the duo performed puja and interacted with the swamis. The priests at the temple also took the couple around the premises and gave them an overview of the Swaminarayan Akshardham, a 100-acre spiritual and cultural complex.

Mr Sunak was on his first official visit to India last week for the G20 Summit. After visiting the temple, he said that he is hugely proud of his Indian roots and his connection to the country. Rishi Sunak also said that he is a “proud Hindu” and that means he will always be connected to the people of India.

On the last day of the G20 Summit, Mr Sunak thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a historic summit. He also thanked Indians for a “warm welcome” and said India and the UK were “stronger together, stronger united”.

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G20 Summit Done, PM Modi's Dinner Plan With 450 Delhi Cops

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G20 Summit Done, PM Modi's Dinner Plan With 450 Delhi Cops

The Delhi Police had a difficult task on their hands both before and during the summit.

New Delhi:

In a bid to ensure that the contributions of everyone who was part of making the G20 Summit a success are recognised, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to have dinner with personnel from the Delhi Police this week.

Sources in the force said Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora has sought a list of personnel from each district – from constables to inspectors – who did an excellent job during the summit last weekend. 

The list is expected to have 450 personnel, who, along with Mr Arora, are likely to have dinner with the Prime Minister at Bharat Mandapam, which was the venue of the G20 Summit. 

This is not the first time PM Modi will be recognising the efforts of people involved in a major achievement. In May, ahead of the inauguration of the new Parliament Building, he had felicitated the labourers involved in its construction. 

Earlier this week, Sanjay Arora had also awarded the Commissioner of Police’s special commendation disc and certificate to some Delhi Police personnel for their contribution to the G20 Summit. 

The order announcing this, which was dated September 11, said, “The smooth, professional and precise execution of the colossal G20 arrangement, which saw participation, commitment and contribution from the entire rank and file of Delhi Police, was made possible only by the shared sense of pride and ownership in the overall objectives of the mega arrangement by every participant.”

The Delhi Police had a difficult task on their hands both before and during the summit, which saw the largest congregation of world leaders in the country in recent memory. 

To ensure the highest levels of security and secrecy, the Special Protection Group and Delhi Police personnel also used code words for the hotels where the leaders and their delegations were staying

The ITC Maurya Sheraton, where US President Joe Biden was staying, was code-named ‘Pandora’ and ‘Samara’ was the name for Shangri-La, where UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murthy, were living during the summit. 

Code words were also used for places that the leaders would visit. Rajghat was called ‘Rudpur’ and Pragati Maidan, where the summit was held, was ‘Niketan’.

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I have not quit politics, will contest next election: Uma Bharti

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Senior BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti has said that she has not quit politics and that she would contest the next election.

Published Date – 03:02 PM, Wed – 13 September 23


I have not quit politics, will contest next election: Uma Bharti



Bhopal: Senior BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti has said that she has not quit politics and that she would contest the next election.

Addressing a public meeting in Sagar district of Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh on Monday, she said she only took a five-year break as she had been working for a long time.

“I had refused to contest the election (last time) as I had been working for a long time. I thought of taking a break for five years. People thought that I left politics, but I am tired of saying that I have not quit politics,” she said.

Citing several development works, including the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project and the Lalitpur-Singrauli rail line, Bharti said that these projects became a reality as she was in politics.

“Whether I turn 75 or 85, I will remain active in politics and contest the next election. I like politics very much,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

She said that politics has been ruined by those who consider it as a source of luxury.
Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh are due in November this year, while the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled next year.

Bharti had last contested the Lok Sabha election from Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) in 2014 and after winning it, became a Union minister in Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

Earlier this month, Bharti, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, had expressed her displeasure for not being invited to the BJP’s ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ launched by party president J P Nadda on September 3.

In the past, Bharti also ran a campaign demanding a stringent liquor policy in the state and hurled stones at a couple of liquor shops as a mark of protest.

The former Union minister also staged protests at various liquor shops in Bhopal, Orchha and Chhindwara during the course of this protest. She also stayed in a temple to protest demanding amendments in the liquor policy.

In the last week of August, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inducted Bharti’s nephew Rahul Singh Lodhi, MLA from Kharagpur (Tikamgarh district), into his cabinet as a minister of state during its expansion.

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Ukraine attacks Russia's Crimea port with 10 missiles, 3 speedboats

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Ukraine has targeted a Russian shipyard in Sevastopol port on the Crimean peninsula with 10 missiles and 3 speedboats, injuring two dozen people and causing severe damage to the port, according to the Russian defense ministry.

In a statement on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday, the ministry said that seven missiles were downed by Russia’s air defense systems, and all three boats were destroyed by a patrol ship.

“As a result of being hit by enemy cruise missiles, two ships under repair were damaged,” the ministry said.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major Black Sea port, said on Telegram that at least 24 people were injured.

“All emergency services are working on the site, there is no danger to civilian objects in the city,” Razvozhayev said.

Ukrainian unmanned marine drones have carried out multiple attacks targeting Sevastopol harbor.

The strategic port builds and repairs ships and submarines of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The Black Sea Fleet lost its flagship, the guided missile cruiser Moskva, in April last year when it was struck by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles.

Kiev has also repeatedly targeted the two bridges linking Crimea to the mainland.

The Crimean Peninsula, which rejoined Russia after a referendum in 2014, has recently come under fierce attacks.

Kiev has increased its cross-border missile and drone strikes against Russian targets following its hugely-publicized abortive counteroffensive.

The West, the United States in particular, has supplied Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons and munitions to fight against the Russian nation since last February when Moscow launched its military campaign in Donbas to stop NATO’s encroachment.

Moscow has now and then warned against flooding Kiev with weapons and munitions, saying it will only prolong the conflict.

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"No Plans For Coaching, It's The Toughest Job": Saina Nehwal On Her Future

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Saina Nehwal is not open to coaching in future, calling it the “toughest job”.© AFP

Olympic and World Championships medalist shuttler Saina Nehwal has said that she is experiencing inflammation in her knees, which has kept her out of the competitive sport. “Three to four months ago I was playing Singapore Open. My knees and cartilage started to hurt. So, consulted a doctor and my physio is also working on it. My knees showed inflammation. I do not want to play half-hearted,” said Saina at the press conference in Gurugram at Global Race 2023 on Wednesday.

She also said that she is not open to coaching in future, calling it the “toughest job”.

“Not thinking about coaching. For me playing is easy and coaching is the toughest job,” she added.

Nehwal is missing out on Asian Games due to an injury.

Notably, Saina has not been in good form in 2020s. Last year, she played 13 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour tournaments and only reached quarterfinals once in Singapore Open. She bowed out of other tournaments mostly in first round.

This year as well, she has played six BWF World Tour tournaments, getting three first-round exits and three second-round exits.

She is currently ranked at world number 55 in women’s singles competition.

Her last BWF World Tour title win was in January 2019, when she won the Indonesia Masters.

Indian badminton team for Asian Games 2023

Men’s singles: HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth (individual/team), Lakshya Sen and Mithun Manjunath (team)

Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila/MR Arjun (individual/team)

Women’s singles: PV Sindhu and Ashmita Chaliha (individual/team), Anupama Upadhyaya and Malvika Bansod (team)

Women’s doubles: Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly and Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto (individual/team)

Mixed doubles: Rohan Kapoor /N Sikki Reddy and Sai Pratheek K/Tanisha Crasto.

Topics mentioned in this article

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Zaggle Prepaid Ocean IPO: All You Need To Know

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Zaggle Prepaid Ocean IPO: All You Need To Know

Zaggle Prepaid Ocean is a leading fintech player in spend management (Representational)

New Delhi:

Equity investors are gearing up for another public offer that is ready to hit the Indian markets this week – the Zaggle Prepaid Ocean IPO (initial public offering).

Zaggle Prepaid Ocean is a leading fintech player in spend management, with more than 50 million prepaid cards issued in partnership with banking partners and more than 2.27 million users served, as of March 31, 2023.

If you are considering subscribing to the issue, here are some key details you should know.

Important dates

Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services IPO opens for subscription on Thursday, September 14, and closes on Monday, September 18. The anchor investors bidding will happen on September 13.

The finalisation of the basis of allotment of shares will be done on September 22, refunds should be initiated on September 25 and the shares are likely to be listed on exchanges on September 27.

IPO details

Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services has priced its IPO at Rs 156-164 per equity share of face value of Re 1 each. The lot size is 90 equity shares. This means that investors need to bid for a minimum 90 shares and in multiples of 90 thereafter.

At the higher end of the pricing range, the company plans to generate Rs 564 crore through its IPO.

The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 392 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 10.45 million shares by eight shareholders.

The selling shareholders include the company’s promoters Raj P Narayanam and Avinash Ramesh Godkhindi, VenturEast Proactive Fund LLC, GKFF Ventures, VenturEast SEDCO Proactive Fund LLC, Ventureast Trustee Company, Zuzu Software Services, and Koteswara Rao Meduri.

Up to 75 percent of the shares in the IPO have been reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIB), 15 percent for non-institutional investors (NII), and 10 percent is reserved for retail investors.

Zaggle has said that it would use net fresh issue proceeds for customer acquisition and retention at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Around Rs 40 crore  will be invested for developing products and tech till 2026.

The company will also repay its debt of Rs 17.08 crore via the fresh issue money, and the remaining amount will be used for general corporate purposes.

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Joe Biden Keeps Troubled Son Hunter Close Despite Political Backlash

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Joe Biden Keeps Troubled Son Hunter Close Despite Political Backlash

The teetotal Joe Biden has always defended son Hunter. (File)

Washington:

If US President Joe Biden has ever worried about the effect his son Hunter’s troubles could have on his 2024 re-election bid, he’s never shown it. Hunter Biden’s history of controversial business deals, drugs and women has long made him a target for the elder Biden’s Republican enemies.

That culminated in the opening of a House impeachment inquiry against the president on Tuesday.

But if some see Hunter as the black sheep of America’s first family, the 80-year-old Joe Biden has resolutely stood by his sole surviving son, against a backdrop of tragedy.

“My son’s done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him,” Biden said in an interview earlier this year about tax and gun charges against the 53-year-old Hunter.

Asked how Hunter’s problems could affect his presidency, Biden replied: “It impacts my presidency by making me proud of him.”

Yet while Biden’s love has been unwavering, Hunter’s woes show no sign of fading.

In fact, the impeachment probe looking at whether Biden lied about his son’s business deals in Ukraine and China threaten to create a bigger headache than ever for the White House ahead of next year’s election.

‘Lost hope’

The Bidens’ bond was forged through terrible loss.

A car crash in 1972 killed Hunter’s mother Neilia and baby sister Naomi, left two-year-old Hunter with a fractured skull and his older brother Beau with multiple broken bones.

“The pain had seemed unbearable in the beginning,” Joe Biden wrote in his 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad.”

He was sworn in as a newly-elected senator by Hunter and Beau’s hospital bedside and it was just the three of them until he met his second wife, Jill.

“They’d always been there for each other, from the time they were little boys,” Biden wrote.

Yet Hunter also lived in the shadow of Beau, who had a sterling military career and went into politics, with Biden imagining Beau might one day be president.

A graduate of Yale law school, Hunter drifted between jobs in government, banking and lobbying before landing in a family-controlled hedge fund and his own international business consultancy in the late 2000s.

His life became increasingly marred by alcoholism and addiction to crack cocaine. In 2014 he was discharged from the Navy Reserve after a positive test for cocaine.

Things worsened drastically after his brother died from brain cancer in 2015, aged 46.

“After Beau died, I never felt more alone. I lost hope,” he wrote in his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things.”

His marriage crumbled and he lost custody of his three daughters. His ex-wife Kathleen Buhle said in her memoir his addictions spiraled and he racked up bills for strip clubs and liquor stores.

Hunter then had an affair with Beau’s widow and had a daughter with a woman in Arkansas whom Joe Biden only recently publicly acknowledged as his seventh grandchild.

Then he saw his files, emails and lurid photos from his laptop computer made public by his father’s enemies, as they alleged a toxic brew of nepotism between Joe Biden and his son.

‘Wholly unavoidable’

Despite all that, the teetotal Joe Biden has always defended Hunter.

“My son, like a lot of people… had a drug problem,” Biden said when Donald Trump raised Hunter’s drug use and business deals during a TV debate in the 2020 presidential race.

Hunter said he’d been clean since 2019 following an intervention by his second wife Melissa — with whom he had a son, Beau — and his father.

“He never abandoned me, never shunned me, never judged me, no matter how bad things got,” Hunter wrote.

“There were times when his persistence infuriated me — I’d attempt to fade to black through alcoholism or drug addiction, and then there he was, barging in again with his lantern, shining a light, disrupting my plans to disappear,” he said.

He took up painting — though that brought fresh controversy when unnamed collectors bought his works for prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Biden has kept his son close this year, taking him to Ireland in April and hosting him on the White House balcony for Independence Day celebrations.

But the New York Times last week quoted unidentified Biden allies as saying that doing so “has resulted in wholly avoidable political distractions.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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2 Terrorists, 1 Soldier Killed As Encounter Continues In J&K's Rajouri

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2 Terrorists, 1 Soldier Killed As Encounter Continues In J&K's Rajouri

Rajouri Encounter: A gunfight broke out between terrorists and soldiers during search operation.

Rajouri:

Two terrorists were shot dead by security forces during an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district. An army personnel was also killed and three others were injured in the encounter that has been going on since Tuesday evening.

A six-year-old female Labrador name Kent of the Army’s dog unit also died during the gunfight.

Additional Director General of Police (Jammu Zone) Mukesh Singh said that a gunfight broke out between terrorists and soldiers during the search operation in Narla village.

“A terrorist and an Army soldier were killed while three security personnel – two Army jawans and one special police officer – were injured in the gunfight,” he said.

According to the army, a joint operation to monitor and track the movement of two terrorists was launched by the Indian Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police on 7 September, 2023.

The army cordoned the terrorists and heavy firefight ensued on 12 September 2023, wherein one terrorist was killed on the same night. Despite bad weather and hostile terrain, the second terrorist was pursued and neutralized on the morning of 13 September after heavy firing throughout the night, army said in a statement.

Rajouri and Poonch were considered free from militancy few years ago but have been high on terrorist radar in the last few months.

On September 4, a terrorist was killed and two security personnel were injured in nearby Gali Sohab village in the Chassana area of Reasi district.

The border districts of Rajouri and Poonch have witnessed several encounters this year, resulting in the deaths of about 26 terrorists and 10 security personnel.

Most of the terrorists were killed while attempting to sneak into this side from across the border, the officials said.

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Kareena Kapoor On Fashion Favourites, "Saif Ali Khan Is The Most Stylish Man"

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Kareena Kapoor On Fashion Favourites, 'Saif Ali Khan Is The Most Stylish Man'

Kareena Kapoor finds Saif Ali Khan to be the most stylish man

Kareena Kapoor is widely established as a Bollywood fashion icon with style choices that fans love to emulate. But who this fashionista finds the most stylish comes as quite a surprise. In a recent interview with Pinkvilla, the Jaane Jaan actress confessed that for her, her husband, Saif Ali Khan is the most stylish man. She said, “It is the way he carries himself, he is also just very unaffected. He keeps firing [me] saying that you guys are doing airport looks, I am just getting ready and going to the airport like a normal person.” She further added, “I keep telling him put this, wear this, do this and he says, keep quiet and let me be. Everyone is just like oh my God! He is so stylish and so cool. So I think he just wears his charm and elegance really well.”  On being asked about Saif’s torn t-shirt, Kareena laughed and said, “I tell him to buy new track pants and he says it’s okay. He likes his puraana puraana t-shirts. I think it’s more about the comfort and attachment to it, rather than anything else.”

Also Read: Kareena Kapoor Looks Just Like Poolside Barbie In A Stunning Pink Swimsuit

As mentioned by Kareena, Saif Ali Khan may in fact not have “Airport Looks” and he may dress “normally” while he travels. But his travel style is noteworthy, nonetheless. On one of his trips in August, his short-sleeved black kurta look with white pants was casual, comfortable and effortlessly stylish. Kareena’s style by comparison is ethnic chic. Check those out in the video below.

Saif Ali Khan’s cool, casually chic best comes through from his holiday looks. Recently, Saif and Kareena visited Switzerland and clicked pictures in front of the Alps. Saif looked cool in a tangerine shirt with a pair of beige shorts. A pair of trendy black sunglasses and white sneakers added charm to the look.

In yet another look from their holiday, Saif’s effortless style was showcased with his blue shirt, rolled up the sleeves, and a grey baseball cap.

Saif Ali Khan’s ethnic choices are equally exquisite. The actor picked an all-black bandhgala with a pair of white churidar pants and a pair of black shoes. He posed with Kareena, who wore a stunning cocktail gown. This majestic ethnic ensemble of Saif’s well suited his Nawabi status.

Also Read: Kareena Kapoor’s Flowy Blue Gown Makes A Splash At The Red Sea Film Festival

For the launch of NMACC, Saif’s classic dressing included an ivory kurta with a sleeveless vest and straight-fit pants. His ethnic charisma was indeed unmissable.

For Karan Johar’s 50th birthday bash, which was a star-studded affair, Saif and Kareena were seen adorning bling party outfits. Saif picked a stunning black and white tuxedo for a dapper fashion statement.

Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor looked like absolute royalty at Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s wedding ceremony. Saif was a heartthrob in an all-white ethnic ensemble consisting of a full-sleeved kurta with rolled-up sleeves and white pajamas.

Whether or not Kareena says so, Saif Ali Khan is undoubtedly one of the most stylish actors in the country

Also Read: Twinning With Dad Saif Ali Khan, Taimur Ali Khan Is The Most Adorable Rock Star In Town