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 […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has again opened the subject of interconnection charges, much to the consternation of big operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar etc.. Interconnect charges are paid by the mobile operator from whose network a call originates to the mobile operator on whose network it ends, i.e., on whose network […]
The French Asset Management firm Natixis Global Asset Management has sought the government of India’s approval to enter the Pension Funds management business in India. The Government’s foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) on Tuesday deferred the proposal to its next meeting. The investment by Natixis will be done ‘indirectly’ through another company, the FIPB said. […]
India’s top Patent officer, the Controller General of Patents PH Kurian has announced that India will join the Madrid System of Trademarks within one year, setting off a warning to Indian companies to ‘register it, or lose it’ as far as their brand names are concerned. India had been negotiating with the World Intellectual Property […]
Indian IT outsourcing firms, including TCS and Infosys, grew faster than their global peer to increase their share from 4.8% of the global outsourcing market in 2009 to 5.5% in 2010. As a unit, Indian outsourcing firms grew 18.9% in 2010 while globally, IT services industry grew by just 3.1%. Indian firms, however, continued to […]
According to a press release from the United States embassy in New Delhi the US Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, has decided to resign from his post due to “personal, professional and family considerations”. He took the responsibility in India two years ago. “When I accepted this job two years ago, I told President Obama […]
World’s top ‘track 2 diplomacy’ institution and New York-based think-tank, the East West Institute has warned of a ‘9/11 type’ of attack on the undersea cables that connect India to the rest of the world. Addressing telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar and officials of the home ministry, the founder of the 30-year-old think-tank, John Edwin Mroz, […]
After waiting in vain for state governments to get their act together on bringing government services to the Internet, the Central government has cracked the whip and brought out a draft bill to force state governments to implement e-governance programs in five years. While the original plan was to have nearly all government services available […]
India is heading towards an unprecedented oil-shock, with under-recovering quadrupling over last year — according to early numbers from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. With crude oil prices almost regaining their all time high of 3 years ago, India’s state-owned oil companies are heading towards a record breaking ‘oil shock’ year. “The Oil […]
Indian mobile operators continued to see average bill sizes shrink in the last quarter of 2010, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revealed in its latest ‘performance report.’ Year-on-year, GSM saw higher falls than CDMA. According to the report, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) — a measure of how big a bill […]
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 […]
This is the second part of the biographies gleaned from the Guantanamo prison records leaked by Wikileaks today. They show, up and close, how many young men decided to take up arms for their religion, how they were facilitated by religious teachers etc.. However, it must be remembered that the histories are largely based on […]
Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, serving seven years in jail on sexual assault charges levied by his former housemaid, has received bail from the Bombay High Court. The Court granted bail after noting that Shiney has not tried to tamper with evidence even when he was not in jail as the case was going on. He […]
The Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s premier investigating agency, has filed the second charge-sheet in the $10 billion 2G spectrum case. However, the filing at the special CBI court in Delhi has been opposed on procedural grounds by A Raja’s lawyer. The Court is expected to allow or disallow the filing by 4:30 pm. While […]
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India’s biggest industry association, has warned of a ‘soft landing’ for the economy in the current year due to high inflation, oil prices and slowing capital investments. Addressing his first press conference after taking over as CII president, Tata Steel Vice Chairman B Muthuraman said CII expected Indian GDP […]
Reliance Infrastructure, the engineering, infrastructure and construction company from the Anil Ambani group has again started share buy-backs on a large scale. The company announced that it had bought back 1 lakh shares of the company today from the open market. At around Rs 695 per share, the company has spent Rs 7 crore in […]
Defence Minister AK Antony, known for his clean image, has urged top defence officials not to fall into the trap of corruption in the “garb of aggressive marketing.” “At times, vested interests bring about unnecessary pressure and resort to corrupt practices that can wreak serious havoc upon our security in more ways than one. We […]
