World’s most influential activist group, Greenpeace has accused India’s telecom industry of unfairly helping itself to Rs 2,600 crore worth of fuel subsidy meant for essential services and the poor. The allegation, made in its latest report on the telecom sector, is based on estimates by the telecom regulator on how much diesel is consumed […]
UP Chief Minister Mayawati has hit back strongly at the comments made by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in Varanasi today and yesterday. In a strong, point-by-point statement read out by the UP cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar — the top state bureaucrat — Mayawati urged Sonia Gandhi to take her concerns for loss […]
M Karunanidhi, the leader of the DMK party whose daughter Kanimozhi was sent to jail today, had indicated that he will not take any drastic action against the Congress or its alliance. The move has come as a relief to the Congress party which was afraid of its ally dropping out of the governing United […]
The ruling Congress Party has called on Pakistan to come clean on whether its government institutions support terror or not. Responding to the revelations made by former terrorist David Headley in a Chicago court, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said Pakistan will be forced to come clean as the trial of Headley and Tahawwur Rana progresses. […]
Obama has reiterated that the US and the UK intend to forge a long term partnership with the people of Afghanistan, hinting that the two countries will stay in the region longer than anticipated. According to earlier announced time-table, the US was to start pulling out of Afghanistan by June of next year, raising concern […]
The petroleum ministry has hit back at detractors pointing out that the Rs 5 per litre hike in the price of petrol was only half of what was actually required. It claimed that even after the hike of Rs 5 per litre, state-owned oil companies continue to lose another Rs 4.58 per litre. “Loss” by […]
A delegation of senior National Democratic Alliance, including BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav met the Prime Minister to request the recall of Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured them that he will not take any ‘unconstitutional step’ irrespective of what is contained in the […]
The Centre for Science and Environment, one of India’s foremost environmental groups, welcomed the Supreme Court’s move to ban controversial pesticide Endosulfan today. It also accused two Committees preferred by the Government, the O P Dubey committee and the C D Mayee committee, of manipulating ‘facts’ to favor continuance of the use of Endosulfan in […]
The state elections of 2011 has been remarkable for a variety of reasons — the fall of a 34-year old Communist government in West Bengal, the resounding signal sent by the Tamil Nadu electorate that corruption will not be condoned and the not-quite-there victory of the Congress in Kerala. While the first two have been […]
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India’s second biggest industry association, said that Mamata Bannerjee’s victory in Bengal may bring back West Bengal’s lost status as one of India’s industrial hubs. FICCI, which normally restrains itself from commenting on changing political fortunes, said it “strongly welcomes” the transition of power in […]
The next time you are prompted to enter your facebook or twitter password after clicking on some nice ad, make sure the location bar of the browser says ‘facebook.com’ or ‘twitter.com.’ Gone are the days of alluring emails asking you to part with your bank account details to claim your million dollar prize, cyber criminals […]
On the second day of his official tour of Afghanistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to reassure the Afghani lawmakers that India did not want to ‘impose’ its views on the country, and was interested only in ‘friendship.’ In his brief address to the join session of the two houses of Afghani Parliament, Singh mentioned […]
Oommen Chandy is all set to be Kerala’s next chief minister as the Congress ‘High Command’ Sonia Gandhi is expected to have lent her weight to his candidature, even as his rival Ramesh Chennitala withdrew from the race. Senior Congress leaders Mohsina Kidwai and others are expected to touchdown in Trivandrum by 1 pm with […]
The 16 Karnataka MLA’s, who were disqualified by the Karnataka Speaker after they switched sides from BJP, have again lent their support to the party, according to BJP state unit. The BJP Karnataka unit has faxed their claim to the Karnataka Rajbhawan, claiming that they continue to have majority in the Assembly. The MLAs too […]
The Congress led UDF government will swear in on Wednesday in Kerala, UDF Convener PP Thankachan said. Thankachan also said that the selection of Oommen Chandy as the head of the coalition has been unanimously approved by the all the parties in the United Democratic Front. There are likely to be 21 Ministers — the […]
India’s ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has exempted the solar PV farms coming up in the country from having to seek environment clearance. India is in the midst of a massive program to increase its grid-connected solar power generation capacity from around 20 million watts at the end of the 2010 to 20,000 million […]
J Jayalalitha, who is being sworn in as Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister, is unlikely to join the Congress-led UPA at the Centre any time soon, according to sources in Chennai. While Sonia Gandhi has already invited the AIADMK supremo for ‘breakfast’ and congratulated her on her victory over Congress ally DMK, the feisty former-actress […]
Embattled Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has claimed support from 121 MLAs out of the total 224 members in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Yeddy, as he is popularly known, is on his way to the national capital Delhi where he plans to speak to the Prime Minister and the President of India. All BJP MLAs […]
The Supreme Court has again pulled up the agencies investigating the 2G scam — this time the Income Tax department under the Ministry of Finance. Disappointed with the “slow progress” of the probe into upstream investors of companies that got the controversial licenses in early 2008, the Court asked the agency to speed up its […]
The government will auction five more wireless broadband spectrum slots increasing the total wireless broadband players from 3 to 8 by the next year, going by what telecom minister Kapil Sibal told an international conference in Geneva today. Sibal, speaking at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, said the total wireless […]
