The ministry of human resources development, which oversees educational institutions in the country, today refused to intervene in political protests and incidents in colleges. “These autonomous institutions are established under the respective Acts of Parliament and are competent to take action in the academic and administrative matters of the institutions, including student’s union activities, with […]
India has filled a little over one-third of its phase 1 ‘strategic oil reserve’ at a cost of Rs 4,258 cr, about $640 mln. The country is in the process of building five underground reserve facilities for crude oil totaling 110 million barrels (15.3 million tons) of storage capacity. Out of these, two tanks — […]
The government has extended the rewards under its merchandise and services export from India schemes to units located in special economic zones. Special economic zones are areas — usually located close to seaports or airports — where normal custom, labor and tax laws of the country do not apply. In many ways, companies in SEZs […]
The government of India said it has no official records to suggest that Sunil Upadhyay, the Indian Museum official whose mysterious and sudden disappearance in 2014 created a sensation, was a whistleblower. “There are no office records to indicate that Dr. Sunil Upadhyay acted as a whistle blower on any issue relating to theft and […]
The government of India said it cannot seek to slow down imports of solar power generation equipment from China as it has to watch out for the interests of Indian consumers as much as those of Indian industrialists. Responding to questions from the opposition in Lok Sabha on why India was not taking action to help the […]
The government has cleared 98% of income tax refunds below Rs 50,000 in the current financial year, the finance ministry said. 67% of the refunds were issued within one month of filing the return, and 90% were issued within 60 days, the ministry said in a statement. Typically, tax refunds used to take several months […]
The government’s ‘free LPG connection’ scheme, Ujjwala, has seen 60% higher demand than expected, and the objectives of the three-year scheme will be met within two years at the current pace of rollout.As of the end of February, the total number of beneficiaries under the scheme rose to 2 cr (20 mln) from 15 mln […]
The Calcutta High Court has handed over the investigation into the sting operation conducted by ‘Narada News’ to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The agency has been told to complete a preliminary investigation within 72 hours. The move follows complaints that the state police faced a conflict of interest in investigating the tapes, which purportedly […]
After missing its targets by wide margins in the previous two five-year plans, India is all set to comfortably meet or exceed all its power sector targets for the 12th five-year plan that ends this month. Five-year plans, borrowed from the Soviet Union, are a legacy of Nehruvian policy of setting development targets every five […]
Maharashtra, home state of Nitin Gadkari, accounted for 50% of the new highway development projects sanctioned in the ongoing financial year, data from the ministry of road transport and highways showed. A total of 520 new projects — including expansions — worth Rs 53,264 cr was sanctioned by Gadkari’s ministry in the ongoing financial year. […]
Production of electricity from solar power is all set to rise 75% this year, while that from wind is on track to rise 51%, according to the latest numbers available with the ministry of new and renewable resources, government of India. Despite this, the two will only account for less than 5% of the total […]
The average occupancy of reserved berths in trains in India rose to 102% in the ongoing financial year, the railways said, quoting data from April to December 2016. The number indicates the extreme inadequacy of railway service in India. Occupancy level was 101% in the preceding year. An occupancy level of 100% implies that all […]
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the government of India had no plans to force judiciary in the state of Jammu & Kashmir to take their oath of office on the Indian constitution instead of the state constitution. Prasad was responding to a question on why judges of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court take […]
India is planning to increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 44,628 megawatt, about eight times the current capacity of 5,780 MW, the Prime Ministers’ Office said today. At present, India has seven nuclear power plants. However, given that most of these were set up decades ago, most of these facilities contain individual units of […]
An analysis of the election filings of the newly elected members of Punjab Legislative Assembly revealed that Navjot Singh Sidhu, the ex-cricketer and television personality who joined the Indian National Congress just before the election, is the highest-earning member of the house. The analysis by the Association for Democratic Reform also revealed that 8 out of […]
States ruled by the National Democratic Alliance have taken the lead in implementing digital ration shops with the introduction of electronic point of sale machines, while non-NDA states have lagged behind in introducing this crucial anti-pilferage measure, data obtained from the food and consumer affairs ministry showed. Out of the seven states that have introduced the system, five […]
High fuel prices, particularly that of diesel, lifted India’s wholesale price index to its highest level since the Narendra Modi government took power almost three years ago. On an overall level, wholesale price of various items jumped 6.55% in February when compared with the prices of the same basket of commodities in the same month […]
The Indian government has no immediate plans or proposals to institute a scheme of ‘unversal basic income’ in place of the myriad social welfare scheme run by the country at present, the finance ministry said in response to a query. The clarification that there is ‘no proposal for a universal basic income scheme’ comes in […]
The number of people who have given their responses under the government’s ‘Operation Clean Money’ has reached 8.38 lakh as of Mar 9, slightly less than half the 17.92 lakh people to whom questions have been sent. The questions were sent in late January and early February, and were supposed to have been replied to last […]
Incidents of fraud and theft involving credit and debit cards have fallen sharply in the current financial year, according to data for the first nine months provided by the Reserve Bank of India. While the exact reasons for the sharp decrease is not known, banks in India have been putting in more and more precautions after […]
