The government today said that it will push amendments for increasing to 50 per cent the reservation for women in Panchayats from 33 percent in the coming Budget session of Parliament. The move comes even as a bill to ensure women’s representation in the Parliament continues to languish for lack of political support. Speaking at […]
Vice Admiral Girish Luthra took over charge as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command from Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba today. The Flag Officer, a native of Palwal in Haryana, who was the Vice Chief of Naval Staff prior to taking over as the FOC-in-C (South), had arrived in Kochi on 29 Jan […]
With a vigilance court directing the filing of a First Information Report against Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Congress President Sonia Gandhi may move to address some of the nagging concerns about ‘communal imbalance’ in the state government. Almost ever since the Chandy-led government took over, the Bharatiya Janata Party has tried to fuel its […]
A vigilance special court in Kerala hearing the solar scam has ordered that a first information report (FIR) be lodged against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and another minister Aryadan Muhammad. The direction came after an explosive revelation by Saritha Nair, accused in the scam, that she paid Rs 1.9 cr to persons to be passed […]
Mahindra & Mahindra announced the launch of its mHawk new 1.99 litre diesel engine, which could help the company overcome the impact of a recent Supreme Court decision on diesel car sales. The Supreme Court had, a month ago, banned the sale of cars and SUVs with engines bigger than 2 liters (2000 cc). Most […]
Taking different interesting angle on the ongoing fight over the death of a Dalit research scholar in Hyderabad University, the Aam Aadmi Party has said that the student needed to be “reformed”, and not pushed to the point of suicide. “This could have been avoided, Rohith could have been reformed, but they chose to ignore […]
After Star TV, Sony Pictures Networks India — which runs several popular TV channels — has raised a red flag against any move to splinter the Internet into free and paid. “Differential pricing leads to restriction of access to information. It enables TSPs to play the role of gate-keepers to the internet where they are […]
In one of the boldest steps to be taken in the direction of clean energy in India, the central government has decided to provide a 30% subsidy for rooftop solar installations in the country. The move to provide blanket subsidies is unprecedented for India, and indeed for any low-income country, and has usually been found […]
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has invited e-tenders for designing and constructing an elevated viaduct and 16 stations on the Andheri East to Dahisar East on the Mumbai Western Line. The phase, called the Metro-7 corridor, will be constructed in three separate packages and would enable a person starting from Dahisar in the north […]
India’s biggest sports utility vehicle maker said the Delhi High Court’s order banning the sale of diesel vehicles with engine sizes over 2 liter could hit its sales by about 2%. “Honourable Court’s order today affects the sales of some of the Company’s products in NCR. The vehicles affected represent about 2% of the Company’s […]
The Union Public Service Commission has uploaded the admit cards for all candidates of the upcoming Civil Services Main Examination on its website. The main exams will be held from 18 to 23 of this month, and no paper admit cards will be issued by the UPSC this year, it said. Candidates sitting for the […]
India has signed an agreement with the US Government and aircraft maker Boeing to purchase Apache attack helicopters and Chinook heavy lift helicopters, the government said. India is not a traditional buyer of US-made defence equipment, preferring to engage with Russia and the Europeans instead. However, with the new government under Narendra Modi, India is […]
The Supreme Court of India has upheld the Haryana Panchayati Raj (amendment) Act 2015 that bans anyone with less than 8th standard education from standing for Panchayati Raj elections. They can, however, stand for Parliament and State Assembly elections. For general category candidates, the minimum qualification is 10th standard pass. The law has been passed […]
The latest consultation paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on telecom providers charging different prices for browsing different websites — the so-called differential pricing of data — comes across as a breath of fresh air after the last one, issued under former chairman Rahul Khullar. While Khullar started with the assumption that net […]
Centre for Science and Environment, one of India’s biggest environmental research and lobbying organization, has said that the current proposal to set a target of limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degrees could be a ‘hollow shell’ if no limits are placed on individual country emissions. Countries from across the world are negotiating in the Paris […]
Muthoot Finance, one of India’s leading gold loan companies, has cautioned people against paying money to so-called agents in return for loan approvals. “In a recent instance, an unidentified organisation has fraudulently attempted to lure customers/investors, through the platform of Muthoot Finance, by sending bogus loan approval letters to unsuspecting people,” the company said. To […]
US President Barack Obama called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about the ongoing climate change talks, the Indian government said. “The conversation focused on the ongoing Conference of Parties (CoP21) in Paris. Both leaders underscored their strong commitment to address issues related to Climate Change being discussed in the Paris conference through constructive […]
The government of India clarified that it had no plans to forcibly take gold from religious or other institutions under its recently launched monetization scheme. It came up with the clarification in the wake of media reports to the contrary. “Some sections of the media have reported that Government will directly intervene to monetize the […]
Following offers such as free talk time from BSNL, Airtel and Vodafone, data operator MTS said it is offering 1 GB of data for all customers in the Tamil Nadu circle to help them cope with the floods in Chennai and surrounding regions. The validity of the data will be only for 3 days. “Both […]
The Indian Cabinet has approved a proposal by Germany — one of the pioneers in developing solar power in the world — to provide concessional loans of around 1 bln euro to develop the renewable energy source in the country. India has an ambitious, almost impossible, target of achieving 175 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity […]
