Over one-fifth of all food samples tested in India’s government labs in the last year were found to be fake or adulterated, according to numbers compiled from various state government food testing facilities by union government’s department of consumer affairs. Exempting Gujarat, which accounted for nearly 23% of the samples, the total percentage of fake and adulterated […]
The number of trademarks awarded by the India’s Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks has jumped threefold this financial year, according to data obtained from the Patent Office. A total of 2.11 lakh trademarks were registered in India in the first eleven months of the year beginning April 2016, compared to just 65,045 in […]
With the financial year drawing to a close, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat & Mumbai have emerged as the states where people pay the highest taxes on petrol and diesel, while Tamil Nadu was the state with the highest increase in rates this year. In Madhya Pradesh, people pay an eye-watering 39.75% tax on petrol imposed by […]
The finance ministry has conducted an examination of the existing welfare and subsidy schemes of the central governments and identified 532 of them as being suitable to be migrated to the ‘direct benefit transfer’ or DBT model of disbursing of funds. Under the DBT scheme, the scheme benefit is converted into an equivalent monetary value, which […]
The Reserve Bank of India has told the management of Tirumala Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh that the money deposited in the temple’s hundis cannot be exchanged for new notes. The move was in response to a letter by the temple management asking if it was possible to convert the old notes into valid cash. “We […]
Exemptions to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test cannot be given to any place or zones inside India as a common entrance test is required under the law, Faggan Singh Kulaste, junior minister in charge of health and family welfare said. “Section 10D of Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 prescribes conducting of a uniform entrance examination namely […]
The drivers and staff of all vehicles classified as ‘transport’ will be brought under the definition of ‘third party’ in third party insurance policies, the finance ministry said today. This will cover buses, vans and other commercial transport vehicles and will be implemented through the upcoming amendment to theMotor Vehicles Act. At present, only the driver […]
Minister of health and family welfare Anupriya Patel said Lopinavir syrup, the life-saving drug given to infants and toddlers with HIV has been restocked by the National Aids Control Organization. “NACO has done an emergency procurement from a registered manufacturer — McNeil and Argus. The drug has already been supplied and is available throughout the […]
Punjab National Bank, the third largest public sector bank in India, and smaller cousin Corporation Bank can teach bigger siblings like State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda a thing or two about going after big loan defaulters, an analysis of Reserve Bank of India data shows. In the last four years, these two banks […]
A well-publicized scheme for ensuring security for women in public road transport unveiled in the wake of the brutal ‘Nirbhaya’ rape and murder of in December 2012 seems to have ground to a halt in the absence of political will. According to the ministry of road transport and highways, only Rs 1.43 cr was spent on the ‘Security […]
India will set a target of adding 34.5 GW of hydro-power generation capacity in the next ten years, according to power ministry sources. “The target for the 13th plan has been set at 13.31 GW and that for the 14th plan will be 21.15 GW,” said a power ministry official. This will take India’s total […]
The Department of Telecom has lifted its freeze over the recruitment of 2,700 junior engineers into Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, India’s state-owned telecom operator. The results of the recruitment exam, conducted in September last year, were put on hold in December after the Department of Telecom received complaints about the conduct of the exam from several […]
The total number of Aadhaar cards issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India has reached 112.25 cr or 1.122 bln as of the beginning of this month, but enrollments in the border state of Assam trail at 6.5%, according to numbers provided by the UIDAI. The total number suggests that about 86% of India’s estimated […]
Many people who booked railway tickets worth thousands of rupees during demonetization period and cancelled these tickets for refunds are yet to get their money back. According to Indian Railway sources, many of these people could end up waiting for 90 days or more to get their money. DEMONETIZATION RUSH When the government announced that […]
The home ministry has written back to the National Human Rights Commission that non-governmental organizations cannot be allowed to work against India’s strategic or economic interest. In it’s response to the NHRC, the home ministry said it cannot allow organizations that take money from outside India to conduct “activities detrimental to national interest ,including security, strategic, […]
An increasing number of government department websites get hacked every year, according to data obtained from the Department of Information Technology. A total of 39 websites belonging to central government ministries and state governments were hacked in the first two months of this year. The number does not include data for government-linked sites, such as […]
A total of 308 people died in police custody in the three years from 2013 to 2015 — including 75 in Maharashtra — but not a single policeman was convicted in any case related to custody deaths in the country during those years, data from the home ministry showed. On an overall level, Maharashtra led in […]
The number of militants who have successfully crossed over into Kashmir via the Indo-Pak border is estimated to have risen almost four fold in 2016, according to data released by the home ministry today. Against 33 estimated successful infiltration in 2015,119 militants are estimated to have crossed over in 2016, the numbers show. The rise of successful […]
After keeping the move on hold for three months due to the elections, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization has cut its administrative charges on the funds it manages to 0.65% from 0.85%, according to labor ministry sources. The cut in administrative charges — which was notified on Mar 15 — is to reflect the lower […]
Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has written to over 250 corporate houses in India, inviting them join it in setting up 70 start-up incubators across the country. Half of the centers will be set up in existing institutions — such as the IITs — while the other half will be set up as independent […]
