NEW DELHI: A few weeks before the Reserve Bank of India announces the monetary policy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made his preferences clear in the raging debate over whether governor Raghuram Rajan should cut interest rates on December 2. “Reduction in the cost of capital will give a good fillip to the Indian economy,” Jaitley said at the Citi Investor Forum, but added that the […]
NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to reallocate to state-run firms such — as NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation — as well as state government utilities their captive coal blocks that had been cancelled by the Supreme Court. This leaves only half of the mines for auction to the private sector in the first phase in December. The coal ministry has assured most of the central […]
PANAJI: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is considering the introduction of a new policy on the vexed issue of blacklisting defence equipment suppliers accused of corruption as well as reforming rules for lobbyists to balance the needs of the armed forces with transparency. Speaking to ET in the state capital at the chief minister’s residence, Parrikar said, “One of the ideas the government is thinking about is […]
By Ashok B Sharma The annual feature, G 20 Summit, has turned out to be a mere talk shop. No substantial effort has been done at the multilateral level to salvage the global economy. Whatever efforts are been made, are at national level for generating more demand to keep up the growth pace of their economy. But with the emergence of strong leadership in India, […]
By S Sethuraman As the Modi Government completes its first six months with a record of hesitant, incremental moves on the economic front, growth recovery has at last become visible and looks to gain momentum to hit the targeted 5.5 per cent or slightly above, in fiscal ’15. Business sentiment is being bolstered by falling inflation and output modestly growing by 2.8 per cent in the […]
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The covert and not-so-covert attempts to delay the preliminary investigation report by the Vigilance Department into the allegations of bribery against State Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) president, K. M. Mani, have suffered a severe setback with the Kerala High Court directing the department to submit the report within a week. It may be mentioned that the Vigilance Department had […]
From L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: More than three thousand persons will reach Bhopal on December 4, 2014. They will be part of a “Nation-wide Yatra”, which has commenced from November 2. These yatras have started from states in the north-east, south, east, west and north parts of the country. After passing through various states, they will reach Bhopal on December 4 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of […]
By Sankar Ray The grim battle waged by a small but well=meaning section in Pakistan for a sustaining and evolving democratic order has suffered a setback as some pseudo-democratic interests are working against the struggle for democracy. Needless to say, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its chief Imran Khan serve as catalyst in favour of the unholy combine of a section of army, the ISI and […]
By Amulya Ganguli The losers have banded together again. Their perseverance is admirable considering that repeated failures of the so-called Third Front or Janata experiment of constituting a non-Congress, non-BJP outfit haven’t dissuaded them. Probably, the success of the first memorable effort in 1977 which saved democracy in India continues to motivate them. As a result, whenever there is a low ebb in the political […]
By Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: If one takes the trouble of rummaging through the archives relating to that part of India which is now called Arunachal Pradesh, one will stumble on a shocking document titled “Regulation 2 of 1880. The Assam Frontier Tracts Regulation, 1880.” It begins with the Preamble: “Whereas it is expedient to provide for the removal of certain frontier tracts in Assam inhabited or […]
NEW DELHI: Less than a day after Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) announced a hike in consumer power tariff through power purchase adjustment charges (PPAC), it withdrew the order. This is the first time a tariff order has been withdrawn in Delhi since DERC was constituted in 2001. While the regulator said the order stands withdrawn till it receives complete information from various power generators on fuel […]
NEW DELHI: After cementing trade ties with China, energy-rich Russia is now looking to strengthen its relationship with India by reviving discussions on a hydrocarbon pipeline, in addition to inviting ONGC Videsh (OVL) to invest in oil and gas projects in the Russian Federation. India and Russia have decided to form a joint working group to study laying a ‘hydrocarbon’ pipeline connecting the nations. Preliminary discussions […]
A view of the Dome of the Rock, which along with Al Aqsa Mosque is on the site in Jerusalem known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews. By JODI RUDOREN November 6, 2014 JERUSALEM — One cartoon circulating on social networks on Thursday depicted a car as the barrel of an automatic weapon, captioned in Arabic, “Revolt and resist, even by your car.” Another […]
By S. Sethuraman Republicans, whose obstructionist role for six years, made life too tough for President Obama to push ahead with a liberal inclusive agenda and reshape the economic system, have now gained full control of the Congress, with a decisive majority in the powerful 100-member Senate while reinforcing their dominant strength in the 435-member House of Representatives. In effect, Mr Obama, who has still […]
KATHMANDU: India and Nepal are holding negotiations to sign a second Project Development Agreement (PDA) to generate hydorelectric power in the Himalayan nation endowed with rich water resources. The negotiations for the 900 MW Arun-III project between Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, India, which began here yesterday, continued today, Indian Embassy sources said, adding, they are set to continue tomorrow as […]
New Delhi: India is not likely to get a futuristic stealth fighter anytime before 20242025. Technical and price wrangles continue to bedevil the joint project with Russia to develop the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). India, in fact, has conveyed its deep concerns to Russia about being denied “full access“ to the FGFA project despite the fact that it is supposed to be an equal partner in […]
NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance government is planning to exempt public-private partnership (PPP) projects from the need to obtain consent of affected families and the mandatory social-impact assessment, through amendments to the land acquisition law. In the Bill put up by the previous government and passed by Parliament, PPP projects need consent of 70 per cent of affected families and have to study the social […]
Mumbai: It’s exactly 125 years since the first oil deposits were discovered in India. The big push to India’s oil and gas sector came after the early 1990s, when it was opened up to private players. Yet, the sector is still dominated by public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) in oil and gas exploration and production; […]
Delhi: The infamous VVIP helicopter scandal has claimed another victim. The defence ministry has ejected the European NH-90 chopper, linked to Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica, out of the race to supply 16 multi-role helicopters to the Navy . The commercial bid of the other contender in fray , American Sikorsky-70B choppers, will now be opened this month after a long delay. “Both NH-90 and Sikorsky-70B choppers had […]
With a nod to Moore’s Law that says IT performance improves exponentially, Google today unveiled double-digit price cuts to its cloud services. The move is Google’s latest salvo in its ongoing price war with other cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Announced during the Google Cloud Platform Live developer conference taking place today in San Francisco, the price cuts accompany several other new developments […]
In the wake of yet another poor earnings report, Sprint is laying off thousands of workers. The telecom giant said it would cut loose about 2,000 workers as part of a cost-cutting program that aims to turn around the ailing company. In summary, Sprint reported operating revenues of $8.5 billion for its second fiscal quarter of 2014, which represents a $192 million operating loss. Marcelo Claure, the […]
KOLKATA: Power shortage in India remained lower last week than during the corresponding period in previous years even as six out of 10 thermal power plants were running with coal stocks adequate for less than a week. Officials said this must have happened as utilities did not properly report demand or the plants generated additional power only during the peak period when the demand surged. According […]
New Delhi: The attorney-general (A-G) has recommended cancellation of a proposed defence deal for the acquisition of eight minesweeper vessels, estimated to be worth about Rs 6,000 crore, from the South Korean Kangnam Corporation after allegations of involvement of middlemen, official sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) have confirmed. The MoD had sought the view of A-G Mukul Rohatgi in the matter. The government may […]
By S. Sethuraman Tamil Nadu political scene is now astir, with BJP and other state-level parties looking ambitiously for a hold on power through new alignments in the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections, and thus hoping to open a new chapter in the State’s chequered politics, hitherto dominated by two Dravidian majors alternately. Undoubtedly, political space dramatically opened up in the wake of the […]
