Two days after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India re-opened the vexed issue of ‘termination charges,’ new operator Uninor (a joint venture of Unitech and Telenor) has struck back at bigger operators accusing them of “restrictive trade practice” against newer ones. TRAI had, two days ago, asked for suggestions on whether to increase or decrease […]
The Prime Minister’s Trade and Economic Relations Committee has stepped in after complaints by the Indian pharma industry over India’s planned trade agreement with the European Union. The commerce ministry led by Anand Sharma has been negotiating a trade agreement — aimed at reducing import duties and facilitating better access for companies on both sides […]
India’s second largest industry association, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has lent its support to Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s proposal to allot mines only through bidding, but called it unsuitable for many cases. Under the current system, mines and similar natural resources (except oil blocks) are allotted in a non-transparent […]
India’s exports cgrew 44% in March, the final month of the last financial year. For the full year, the growth was 37.5%, as announced by the government earlier. Export growth was slightly lower than the 50% growth seen during the early part of 2010, but substantially higher than the rates prevalent a year ago. India’s […]
Microsoft, the maker of the Windows Operating system, increased its already high market-share by 0.7 percentage points to 78.6% of the total worldwide operating system market, Gartner said. Total operating system (OS) revenues for Microsoft jumped to $23.85 billion dollars in 2010, higher than the total turnover of most big corporations in the world, according […]
India has fired a salvo at Pakistan after US President Barack Obama confirmed that Osama bin Laden has indeed been shot and killed ‘deep inside Pakistan.’ India’s home minister P Chidambaram (in charge of homeland security) said the development “underlined” India’s position that Pakistan “shelters” terrorists. “We take note with grave concern that part of […]
Reports emerging from Kabul says that a spat between the officers of Afghan National Army (ANA) and soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) resulted in firing that has claimed some lives and wounded few. In a telephonic interview with the RTN the spokesperson of the ANA,General Mohammad Zahir Azimi confirms the death of […]
After giving hope to anti-POSCO protesters by putting the project clearance on hold, environment minister Jairam Ramesh has abandoned them again, pointing out that the protestors’ resolutions did not have the requisite number of signatures. On April 15, Jairam Ramesh had announced that he intended to put the forest clearance to India’s biggest foreign investment […]
Mageia Linux, the community fork-edition of Mandriva Linux, has announced the second beta edition of its first ever Linux operating system release. The release, available for download here is the last ‘test’ release before the split-away group releases its final Linux distribution. The development has come six months after most of the senior developers of […]
India has more than the usual quantity of water in its mega dams at the end of April, according to statistics released by the Water Resources ministry. The numbers crunched by the ministry shows that at the end of April, the average water level of 81 of India’s biggest dams is around 60% higher than […]
Info Edge, the company behind Naukri.com and one of the few Indian firms to survive the dotcom bust, has announced a Rs 9 crore investment into group-buying portal mydala.com. The investment is the sixth as part of the Info Edge strategy to invest in internet start-ups. “Online deal sites have now emerged as a platform […]
India’s biggest industry body, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has criticized the raising of interest rate by the Reserve Bank today, pointing out that the relentless inflation is caused by factors external to India. The Reserve Bank, in charge of controlling price rise by managing the amount of money pumped into the market, raised […]
Eight international soldiers and one contractor were killed in a fight at the Kabul airport today.Some sources say that six were killed. A gunman wearing the uniform of an Afghani pilot came into an argument with soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) early in the morning around 11 o clock local time (06.30GMT) […]
Word of God Fellowship Inc, a controversial Christian evangelistic group with a global TV empire, has been given approval today to set up a fully owned Indian company to redistribute TV channels in the country. The Fellowship, led by Christian evangelist Marcus Lamb and his wife Joni Lamb were in the news four years ago […]
India Against Corruption (IAC), the umbrella body led by Anna Hazare spearheading the fight for the establishment of a Lokpal (corruption ombudsman) has announced plans to have a nationwide awareness program including mass rallies and meetings in the coming days. “The response is so overwhelming that all these dates have been pre-booked. Other dates are […]
The Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India’s Atomic Energy wing, has denied allegations that the Jaitapur Nuclear plant is situated in an earth-quake prone zone. It said the nearest tectonic fault — an area where one underground earth ‘plate’ meets another — is at least 30 km away. The plant has come under increasing […]
Freedom on the Internet is coming under more and more threat from governments around the world, according to the second ‘Freedom on the Net’ (FOTN) report by the Freedom Institute for 2011. The study of 37 countries found former Soviet republic Estonia to have the freest Internet, with a restriction of just 10 points, followed […]
In a judgement that will be welcomed by many air travellers in India, the Supreme Court has quashed the ‘Airport Development Fees’ or ADF charged by private airports like Delhi and Mumbai today. The judgement is likely to lower domestic air tickets prices by around Rs 200 or more. Besides ADF, air ticket prices are […]
The second ‘Freedom on the Net’ (FOTN) report by the Washington-based Freedom Institute has expressed concern over the decreasing freedom of expression on the Internet in India. The Institute, which put India in the company of states like China, Egypt and Iran which saw a deterioration of freedom of expression on the Internet since the […]
The prime minister Manmohan Singh put down his foot firmly in favor of the Jaitapur Nuclear Project today, four days after environment minister Jairam Ramesh called for a ‘pause’ on the project. After talks with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chawan, V Narayanasamy, the junior minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s portfolio (which include Nuclear […]
