After getting the outlay for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) from Rs 30,000 crore to 40,000 crore last year, the rural development ministry is seeking a further increase to Rs 64,000 crore for the next year. The government will also start kick off a Rs 2,500 crore programme to check fraud accounts by […]
Despite the pretensions of being a global engineering talent pool, India is increasingly falling behind even countries like China in innovation, according to a white paper released by Delhi-based Zinnov Consulting. According to the paper, the number of patents filed in India is just one-eighth that of China. This is despite the fact a large […]
Devas Multimedia, at the centre of a controversy over satellite transponder deals with the government, has hit out at the Prime Minister’s statement that the government was determined to end the contract. The PM Manmohan Singh, speaking to editors in the capital, had said that there was no question of going ahead with the 2005 […]
Taiwanese PC brand Acer has unveiled the cheapest netbook by any major brand in India – the eM350, which will cost just Rs 10,999 including a free MTS data-card. The current starting price for branded netbooks is around Rs 14,000. The new netbook will have similar features to most netbooks in the market — at […]
Embattled satellite music firm Devas Multimedia today came out strongly against allegations of misappropriation of spectrum levelled by some media outlets. In media briefings in the capital, Devas’ founder and president, Ramachandran Viswanathan blamed corporate rivals and other vested interests for the controversy. He also denied that his firm had got a ‘sweetheart’ deal from […]
Just days after Twitter indicated its interest in the search market, the messaging platform is now spreading its wings towards the social networking scene. Under a pilot project covering a small (lucky) portion of its user-base, it has introduced two new ‘tabs’ that increasingly turns the Twitter experience more ‘Facebookish’. The tabs, that replace the […]
Two German mountaineers missing in Afghanistan since last week found to be killed in the Salang Pass near the capital Kabul. Though the Interior Ministry Spokesperson, Sidiq Sediqi, has not yet confirmed the report, the Governor of the Parwan province,Abdul Basir Salangi, talking to the RTN confirmed the death. He said that the bodies have […]
Muslims in China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) are increasingly becoming more aware of their Isamic heritage, thanks to more liberal policies followed by the Chinese government in the last three decades, according to an on-the-ground report from David Brown, the Consul General of Chengdu in Sichuan, a province adjoining the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). However, […]
The coming to power of Mayawati, India’s most powerful Dalit leader, in Uttar Pradesh has instilled fear in the minds of criminals and improved law and order, the US embassy to India felt after a review at the end of 100 days of her rule in UP in 2007. While she may not be “up […]
Dish TV, India’s first DTH operator and part of the Essel Zee group of Subash Chandra, has finally come out with its ‘cam module’ that allows consumers of other DTH operators to also watch Dish TV channels on their existing equipment. The Cam Module (see picture) is inserted into the ‘cam slot’ located just above […]
Singapore consciously cultivates its relationship with India as a way to counter-balance China’s growing influence in South East Asia, according to a cable written by American ambassador to the city-state, Franklin Lavin in 2004. According to Lavin’s reading of the country’s new “India fever”, Singapore does not want China to dominate South East Asia and […]
In a bid to ‘clean up’ the government’s image before upcoming elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has moved with unprecedented speed to address concerns of a scam in the Commonwealth Games coverage. The PM on Friday evening removed Aruna Sharma, Director General (DG) of Doordarshan from her post and back to her original cadre, while […]
18 percent of all IT outsourcing contracts will have elements of ‘as a service’ or ‘utility’ billing model this year, according to a survey of the IT Outsourcing (ITO) companies by Gartner, the World’s largest IT research agency. This will rise to 24% in 2012, according to the same survey. It also found some IT […]
Days after launching the first of the new line-up of powerful candy-bar Blackberry phones, online e-tailer Letsbuy has now become the first to launch the Blackberry Torch 9810, first slider Blackberry phone built on the new platform. The Blackberry Torch 9810’s price in India is Rs 29,749. The Blackberry Torch 9810 is one of the […]
The recent expose of scams seemed to have made the Congress leadership more determined in cleaning up the system. ‘Cleaning up’ the system finds the second place in the Government’s to-do list for the next financial year, according to the speech read out by President Pratibha Patil in Parliament at the start of the Budget […]
The hard-line Deobandi school of Islam has the support of only around 20% of India’s 16-18 crore Muslims and most Indian Muslims prefer Sufi flavored versions, Timothy Roemer, the then Ambassador to India, told Farah Pandit before her first visit to India as Obama’s Administration’s ‘Special Representative to Muslim Communities.’ In a thorough analysis of […]
India’s slow moving bureaucracy and legal system came out as its biggest disadvantage relative to China, executives of American firms in Bangalore told a visiting Senator in 2007. The cumbersome nature of carrying out development work, including slow moving legal challenges and overall decision making, was keeping India back from developing critical infrastructure like roads, […]
US officials worried that the Union Government’s move to absorb private universities into the Government system and force its own curriculum on them is likely to dent India’s ability to churn out graduates whose training is in line with the needs of modern industries like IT, according to a 2010 cable leaked by Wikileaks. Education […]
Pakistan felt it was unfair to give India a higher status than itself at Climate Change negotiations despite having less to lose from it, according to US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson. Writing from Islamabad shortly after the Copenhagen round of Climate Change negotiations petered out, Patterson noted that the mood in Islamabad was particularly […]
US politician and Obama’s first ambassador Timothy Roemer, a keen observer of demographic trends, rather dramatically describes the changes taking place in the Indian state of Punjab due to immigration from Eastern India and Bangladesh. Based on his interaction with social and political leaders from the state, Roemer also noted that the Islamic religion — […]
