Watch out of Pranab Mukherjee’s Bengali accent — this was the warning from the US embassy Delhi to their headquarters in Washington just before the then defence minister was to visit the country. The detailed biography of Pranab Mukherjee, India’s current finance minister, also reveals the man behind the persona and comments on his tiff […]
Full text of Ambassador David Mulford’s 2005 cable on the ‘Congress Culture’ SUBJECT: CONGRESS CULTURE DEFINES SONIA GANDHI’S ROLE Classified By: DCM Robert O. Blake, Jr. for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) 1.(C) Summary: Since the Congress-dominated government has been in power, there have been widespread allegations by the opposition BJP and media commentators that party […]
Vodafone Essar’s customers have turned out to be the most satisfied with their operator’s network in Mumbai, according to a TRAI survey released today. It found network satisfaction rate at 96% for Vodafone Mumbai, the highest in the city. Vodafone was followed in customer satisfaction by Idea (95%), Aircel (94%) and Airtel (93%). By call […]
Former BJP telecom minister Arun Shourie has countered telecom minister Kapil Sibal’s contention that NDA’s policies resulted in the Tata group “enjoyed the precious government land [with VSNL] without paying a single rupee” for the last nine years. Shourie pointed out that Congress was in power for seven out of the nine years and it […]
After dropping to an alarminng 1,411 adults in 2006, Indian tigers are back with a bang at 1,636, according to the 2010 ‘tiger census’ released today. Including Sunderbans, which was not counted in 2006, it is at 1706 adults. The census is the second ‘scientific’ or double counted census of tigers in India. The first […]
Google street views — which allows users to ‘go down into the street’ when using Google Maps or Google Earth — seems to be on its way to India, according to a sighting of what seems like the ‘Google Car’ on the streets of New Delhi. RTN found a Mahindra Bolero with a five-faced camera […]
The US embassy, which had generally proven itself a capable and astute observer of Indian politics, proved just how disconnected the embassy officials were in their assessment of Narendra Modi. In cables sent immediately after the US refused visa to the Gujarat Chief minister in 2005, the embassy is shown to be in touch with […]
Jairam Ramesh, the flamboyant environment minister is used to hearing others praise him for rejuvenating the environmentalist movement in the country. Sharp and witty, he’s also almost impossible to beat when it comes to repartees and retorts; until on Monday. Ramesh, who introduced Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwali and Water Resources minister Salman […]
The Department of Telecom has sought a review of the Wimax franchisee agreements inked by BSNL with private companies. It has sent a letter to the BSNL board earlier this month, a DoT official said on the sidelines of the EliteX 2011 event in New Delhi. He said the company has been given a month […]
Jairam Ramesh, minister for environment and forests, has asked Delhi and Haryana to stop passng the buck on taking responsibility for cleaning up the Yamuna. The Yamuna has already seen thousands of crores of rupees being spent in “attempts to clean up,” but remains as polluted as before. Most of the money, critics say, has […]
India will spend Rs 200 crore over the next five years to study the impact of aerosols, particularly black carbon or soot, on climate change. It will include increasing the number of observing stations from 36 to at least 60. India already has a head start in the study of the impact of black carbon […]
India, which cannot manufacture even a single electronic chip, has one of the world’s largest chip-related industry, according to the latest study by the Indian Semiconductor Association. The chip-related industry is worth around $7.5 billion and will reach $10.2 billion in two years, said the Association in the first of its kind estimate of India’s […]
As Hon’ble Members will recall, several members had raised allegations, based on reports in a newspaper, about purported cables from the US Embassy in New Delhi to their authorities in Washington. In response to the request from the Leader of the Opposition, I had made a statement on this subject in this House on March […]
Short on the heels of Sony, which launched India’s first AMD Fusion powered notebook, World number 3 laptop brand Acer introduced two new full-sized models with full day computing. Unlike other manufacturers such as HP and Sony, Acer has launched full sized notebooks — 14 and 15.6 inch — on the AMD Fusion E series […]
European magazine GEO is all set to launch in India after it got approval today from the Finance ministry for investing in the country. It will initially invest Rs 7.35 crore to launch the Indian edition. GEO one of the most popular magazines in Europe and is based out of Germany. The first edition of […]
Meeting Lalu Prasad Yadav, the then railway minister, was an “unforgettable experience” for the then US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, according to a cable released by Wikileaks. Mulford, who described Lalu as “as one of the most savvy, colorful, grassroots politicians in India,” however, was disappointed by the rather ‘serious’ Lalu that he encountered. […]
Robert O Blake, the interim US ambassador to India in 2005, praised the then newly elected Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Prakash Karat as “a talented and skillful leader, well-aware of his political importance.” The cable, sent in May 2005 busted two myths — one, that the US embassy did not try or succeed […]
UP is the state most vulnerable to Islamic terrorism and extremists seemed to operate with impunity in the state, worrying the community elite; according to the US embassy’s survey after 2006 Mumbai bombings. An embassy survey among Muslim intellectuals in Lucknow, including Maulvis (both Sunni and Shia), Urdu language journalists, political and community leaders, scholars […]
The Americans considered the hijacking of the IC-814 to Kandahar and the subsequent release of Islamic Terrorists “an ignominious decision, and defeat” on the part of India, according to new cables released by Wikileaks. The cable also shows that in 2005, the Indian external affairs ministry did not mind putting stress on the relations between […]
Telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar has set a deadline of one month for taking action against companies found to be involved in the 2G scam. Talking to reporters in Delhi today, Chandrasekhar, who has a reputation as a clean and no-nonsense technocrat, said all the 70 or so companies that have been sent notices for misrepresenting […]
