The tussle between the Centre and the DMK over the Sri Lanka Tamils issue is fast turning nasty, if one reads between the lines of home minister P Chidambaram’s response to DMK’s move to withdraw support to the central government late yesterday. In a statement that contained as many hints as information, Chidambaram today said […]
Giving into a long-time demand from users, Google News has now enabled users to totally filter out, or ‘ban’, news sources that they don’t like. The feature, introduced without any fanfare, works using a ‘slider’ system for signed-in users, and can be accessed by clicking on the ‘gear wheel’ icon on the top right of […]
Arvind Kejriwal’s party politics is going to be a mix of idealism, populism, socialism and perhaps a few impractical, if well-intentioned, ideas. Kejriwal’s India Against Corruption unveiled their new party manifesto in Delhi today, highlighting eight main goals and demands for the new party. The eight demands are as follows – 1) A more direct […]
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee extended a hand of partnership to the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to push through financial reforms. Mukherjee, who was addressing industry concerns over flailing pace of economic reforms, after the budget, said he is willing to meet other parties and governments “halfway.” “It is not that we have back-tracked on […]
The following is the full text of Arvind Kejriwal’s letter to the followers of India Against Corruption and Anna Hazare in which he tries to answer those who have opposed Anna’s move to enter the political arena. Dear friends, There are mixed reactions at the end of Anshan. The general populace has welcomed our initiative […]
Anna Hazare’s broad-based anti-corruption alliance ‘India Against Corruption’ seems all set to form a new political party after Anna’s supporters voted overwhelmingly in favor of the option, according to initial trends. Anna Hazare himself said he was in agreement with the requests of his followers. “I will not be part of any party, but I […]
Finally, the numbers from the crucial Neyyatinkara bypoll are in and both the Congress and BJP have reason to smile, while the Left parties are reeling from the shock. Neyyattinkara bypoll was crucial as a Left win there would have reduced the Congress-led UDF government’s majority in the state assembly to just 1 member and […]
Indian enterprise IT spending across all industry markets is forecast to reach Rs 1,910 billion (Rs 1.91 lakh crore or $37 billion) this year, a 16.4 percent jump from last year rupee terms. The growth will be less in dollar terms due to the 15-20% fall in rupee value this year, compared to the last. […]
India Against Corruption, the rainbow coalition of activists headed by Anna Hazare, has accused all political parties of planning to pass a toothless Lokpal bill, and promised to launch an even bigger campaign against any such move. Last year, Hazare had organized the biggest political protests in India since the JP Movement of the 70s, […]
Former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi seems set on his way to becoming a new middle class hero. The minister, who was unceremoniously ejected from the Union Cabinet as a result of a political and ego tussle between the Congress party and its ally Mamata Banerjee, will deliver a lecture on “Country, Before Party and Self” […]
Open Magazine, edited by Manu Joseph, has responded to allegations of bias and falsifications from Team Anna by coming out with a clarification of its own. India Against Corruption (IAC), the coalition of activists led by Anna Hazare that organized the Jan Lokpal bill agitation last year, had come out with a press statement attacking […]
Nasscom, India’s national association of IT and BPO companies, has expressed worry over what it sees efforts to tap anti-outsourcing sentiment ahead of the US Presidential election next year. Nasscom’s comments came in the context of a bill in the US House of Representatives that seeks to make it mandatory for call centre employees to […]
HLL Lifecare, India’s largest contraceptive maker and the firm behind Nirodh, Moods and Mala D, has launched a new product based only on the female reproductive cycle. Called CycleBeads, the product is comprised simply of a string of coloured beads. As the beads are moved one by one on each day, the woman is able […]
China may emerge as India’s largest trading partner this year, going by a 20% jump in trade numbers in the first eight months. India’s northern neighbour was in the second place according to the numbers for the year-ended March 2011 — the latest full year for which trade numbers are available from the Government of […]
The Centre for Science and Environment, headed by one of India’s most vocal environmental activist Sunita Narain, has raised alarm at the increasing rate of destruction of India’s forests for industrial purposes. Responding to an ‘open letter’ by industry leaders, the CSE pointed out that despite the projected image of increasing protection for the environment […]
With growing complaints about Americans rejecting visa applications by Indian techies for visiting their customers there, Indian trade minister Anand Sharma’s office has issued a statement that he pressed the Americans for a more predictable visa process. At present, many Indian companies are forced to make several applications to make up for the higher than […]
The government is aiming for a 5% increase in total food production this year to 245 million tonnes, the ministry of Agriculture said. Food grain production, mostly wheat and rice, had jumped 6.4% last year to 232 million tonnes from 218 million tonnes during the previous crop year. The increase in food grain production will […]
Japan has completely removed import duties on 87% of the items traded between the country and India thanks to last week’s trade agreement, commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said. Malyasia, with which too India inked trade pacts last week, will allow freer import of India’s basmati rice, mangoes, eggs, trucks, motorcycles and cotton garments from now […]
The latest foreign trade figures for India holds both good news and bad news. The good news is that the export-growth that has been the most significant aspect of the numbers since January this year has held up in September too. The bad news is that despite that, the higher price of oil is creating […]
