The lot of Dalits is unlikely to improve drastically under the UPA government as the alliance is dominated by upper caste Hindus, who don’t always care about the poorer sections, the then US Ambassador to India, David Mulford wrote in 2005. “While the UPA has focused on bettering the lot of the dalit community, it […]
Having upgraded its urban network to high-speed CDMA, Reliance Communications today announced it is drastically cutting the tariffs in non-urban areas — which are still on the older CDMA technology. In such places, consumers can have unlimited internet access for just Rs 169 per month, about one tenth of the rate that existed before today. […]
After Raja and ISRO, the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) has chosen a much more glamorous victim for its latest enquiry. According to the audit report released today, most Indian film personalities and producers are less than completely truthful when it comes to declaring their income and paying tax. The CAG came to […]
The Department of Telecom has sought a review of the Wimax franchisee agreements inked by BSNL with private companies. It has sent a letter to the BSNL board earlier this month, a DoT official said on the sidelines of the EliteX 2011 event in New Delhi. He said the company has been given a month […]
Google street views — which allows users to ‘go down into the street’ when using Google Maps or Google Earth — seems to be on its way to India, according to a sighting of what seems like the ‘Google Car’ on the streets of New Delhi. RTN found a Mahindra Bolero with a five-faced camera […]
Vodafone Essar’s customers have turned out to be the most satisfied with their operator’s network in Mumbai, according to a TRAI survey released today. It found network satisfaction rate at 96% for Vodafone Mumbai, the highest in the city. Vodafone was followed in customer satisfaction by Idea (95%), Aircel (94%) and Airtel (93%). By call […]
Senior Congress leader and Information & Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni has defended her appointment of Bharatnatyam dancer Leela Samson to chair the Censor Board. Soni said she wanted someone who would not have any “conflict of interest” in the position and would be free to cut out any offending bits from the movies. “During my […]
The state of Bihar as emerged as the state with the most ‘out of control’ population growth, according to the Census 2011. It also reaffirmed its place as the state with the worst socio-economic indicators in India. According to the census, not only does Bihar have the fastest growing population of all the states in […]
Novelist,Anuja Chauhan, of ‘The Zoya Factor’ fame is going to be a script writer. Taking a predictable route that most of the writers of non serious faction takes the dashing author of two novels will be writing a script for Nikhil Advani’s next film, ‘Guppie-Mein Liar Nahih Shayer Hoon’. ‘Guppie…’,a love story,will hit the floor […]
The World will spend a whopping $29.4 billion (Rs 1.35 lakh crore) this year on media tablets, a market where Apple had almost 90% marketshare last year, according to Gartner research agency. The number is three times the equivalent figure for 2010, the researcher said in its latest prediction. Gartner had earlier predicted tough times […]
India, which cannot manufacture even a single electronic chip, has one of the world’s largest chip-related industry, according to the latest study by the Indian Semiconductor Association. The chip-related industry is worth around $7.5 billion and will reach $10.2 billion in two years, said the Association in the first of its kind estimate of India’s […]
Short on the heels of Sony, which launched India’s first AMD Fusion powered notebook, World number 3 laptop brand Acer introduced two new full-sized models with full day computing. Unlike other manufacturers such as HP and Sony, Acer has launched full sized notebooks — 14 and 15.6 inch — on the AMD Fusion E series […]
After dropping to an alarminng 1,411 adults in 2006, Indian tigers are back with a bang at 1,636, according to the 2010 ‘tiger census’ released today. Including Sunderbans, which was not counted in 2006, it is at 1706 adults. The census is the second ‘scientific’ or double counted census of tigers in India. The first […]
Jairam Ramesh, the flamboyant environment minister is used to hearing others praise him for rejuvenating the environmentalist movement in the country. Sharp and witty, he’s also almost impossible to beat when it comes to repartees and retorts; until on Monday. Ramesh, who introduced Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwali and Water Resources minister Salman […]
Telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar has set a deadline of one month for taking action against companies found to be involved in the 2G scam. Talking to reporters in Delhi today, Chandrasekhar, who has a reputation as a clean and no-nonsense technocrat, said all the 70 or so companies that have been sent notices for misrepresenting […]
UP is the state most vulnerable to Islamic terrorism and extremists seemed to operate with impunity in the state, worrying the community elite; according to the US embassy’s survey after 2006 Mumbai bombings. An embassy survey among Muslim intellectuals in Lucknow, including Maulvis (both Sunni and Shia), Urdu language journalists, political and community leaders, scholars […]
India will spend Rs 200 crore over the next five years to study the impact of aerosols, particularly black carbon or soot, on climate change. It will include increasing the number of observing stations from 36 to at least 60. India already has a head start in the study of the impact of black carbon […]
Tata Consultancy Services reported a third quarter only mildly below expectations, but the stock is likely to see some profit booking on Friday. TCS reported dollar revenue growth of 3% quarter on quarter, missing average analyst estimates of 3.5%. Volume growth came in at 1.8% compared to expectations of about 2.25%. However a slight increase […]
Jairam Ramesh has ordered the Orissa government to take action against Navin Jindal’s Rs 25000 crore project in Orissa that was cleared by him a month ago. He took the extraordinary decision after media reports that he had favored the Congress MP’s company by allowing it to take advantage of a circular that was in […]
Bharti Airtel Ltd said it has raised a further 250 million euros (Rs 2,100 cr) by reopening an earlier bond issue, preparing itself for the upcoming spectrum auction. Airtel has already raised 750 mln euros from the bond issue in December. Bharti is expected to bid aggressively for spectrum in the coming auction, and has […]
