Naxalism in India is unlikely to abate any time soon because the Indian government is not willing to take the tough steps to address the concerns of the poor and the marginalized, wrote the then US ambassador David Mulford in a 2005 cable released by Wikileaks. “Indian economic development has missed large portions of the […]
Novelist,Anuja Chauhan, of ‘The Zoya Factor’ fame is going to be a script writer. Taking a predictable route that most of the writers of non serious faction takes the dashing author of two novels will be writing a script for Nikhil Advani’s next film, ‘Guppie-Mein Liar Nahih Shayer Hoon’. ‘Guppie…’,a love story,will hit the floor […]
Having upgraded its urban network to high-speed CDMA, Reliance Communications today announced it is drastically cutting the tariffs in non-urban areas — which are still on the older CDMA technology. In such places, consumers can have unlimited internet access for just Rs 169 per month, about one tenth of the rate that existed before today. […]
India’s trade deficit for the first eleven months fell to $ 97.1 billion from $100.2 billion registered during the same period a year ago, thanks to booming exports and a dip in oil imports. India’s exports continued their outstanding performance in February, rising 50% during the month. During January too, exports were up by more […]
After Raja and ISRO, the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) has chosen a much more glamorous victim for its latest enquiry. According to the audit report released today, most Indian film personalities and producers are less than completely truthful when it comes to declaring their income and paying tax. The CAG came to […]
The state of Bihar as emerged as the state with the most ‘out of control’ population growth, according to the Census 2011. It also reaffirmed its place as the state with the worst socio-economic indicators in India. According to the census, not only does Bihar have the fastest growing population of all the states in […]
Yet another Wikileaks cable focusing on the personality of Rahul Gandhi has the potential to stir trouble for the grand old party of India. Showing the distance traveled by Rahul Gandhi in five years, the cable expressed widespread disappointment at the young Gandhi’s political and social skills in 2005. Known to be an introvert, the […]
The full text of the Wikileaks cable talking about Rahul Gandhi’s initial hiccups 1. (C) Summary: Rahul Gandhi, the heir apparent of the Gandhi family dynasty, has made a number of gaffes, suggesting an uneven start to his active political career. During a series of “”roadshows”” meant to jump-start the Congress campaign in ongoing Uttar […]
If you can count then count this number -1,210,193,422.Staggering by any standard. This mind boggling figure is India’s population strength in 2011. 1.21 billion is the provisional population data released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. That means 181 million more people on earth or one more Brazil in the planet. This […]
The US ambassador David Mulford criticised the Congress government for making its bureaucracy more “difficult to deal with” than it was during the Vajpayee years. Mulford, who felt that “the Nehru dynasty needs to become more like the Tata dynasty,” criticised Manmohan government’s “Brezhnev-era controls on its people of which Indira Gandhi would have approved.” […]
The Congress Party’s swerve towards populism, as exemplified its ‘aam admi’ campaign and a flurry of schemes such as the 100-day employment guarantee scheme paradoxically owe its origin to the BJP’s own failures, Goeffrey Pyatt, the in-charge at the US embassy in Delhi pointed out in 2006. Pyatt was quick to spot the decisive move […]
Senior Congress leader and Information & Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni has defended her appointment of Bharatnatyam dancer Leela Samson to chair the Censor Board. Soni said she wanted someone who would not have any “conflict of interest” in the position and would be free to cut out any offending bits from the movies. “During my […]
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 […]
