Chennai: Key UPA partner DMK on Thursday requested the Centre to hold talks with the agitating bank unions to resolve the issues amicably as their two-day nation-wide strike severely affected banking operations. Party chief M Karunanidhi said the unions were protesting against Banking Laws Amendment Bill and outsourcing of jobs among others. "I request the Central government to hold talks with the representattives of the associations to ensure their protest...
06:17 PM, Aug 23, 2012
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram at 12.30 pm on Thursday to discuss the financial package for her debt-ridden state. Mamata is also likely to discuss restructuring of over Rs 2 lakh crore debt that Bengal owes to the Centre with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later in the day. Sources said that the Prime Minister...
11:50 AM, Aug 23, 2012
Kondruprolu (Andhra Pradesh): The union government must take a call soon on the issue of statehood for the Telangana region, says Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy as concerns mount in the Congress about the future of the party in the volatile region. "I am requesting them (central government) that it (Telangana issue) should be decided soon. The central government has to decide on it and we will...
10:32 AM, Aug 23, 2012
New Delhi: An analysis of a leaked list of items that were ordered to be blocked by Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on directions from the Department of Telecom bring to light the inconsistencies in India's online censorship efforts. Pranesh Prakash, programme manager at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), analysed the 309 specific items that were asked to be censored from August 18, till August 21, 2012 by...
07:47 AM, Aug 23, 2012
Ahmedabad: ONGC Energy Centre(OEC), a research division of ONGC on alternate energy, has joined hands with a Belgian firm to harness geothermal energy in South Cambay basin of Gujarat, a top official said recently. "OEC has undertaken a collaborative research, development and demonstration project with Talboom, a Belgian firm to harness geothermal energy in South Cambay Basin (Gandhar field) by setting up a pilot power plant," the ONGC official told...
01:55 PM, Aug 22, 2012
Guwahati: A central team on Tuesday visited the violence affected Dhubri district of Assam to take stock of the security and relief and rehabilitation measures taken up by the district administration for the people living in relief camps. The seven-member team that included Shambhu Singh, secretary (northeast) in the union home ministry, and other senior officials drawn from various departments and ministries, is scheduled to visit violence-affected areas of Kokrajhar...
03:20 AM, Aug 22, 2012
New Delhi: Citing concerns expressed by States, the Centre has sought the Supreme Court's permission to review existing guidelines for conservation of tigers in the wake of its order banning tourism in core areas of tiger reserves across the country. The Centre's affidavit virtually urged the apex court to review its July 24 interim order banning tourism in the core areas of the wild cats until final orders. It claimed...
09:36 PM, Aug 21, 2012
Jaipur: VHP on Sunday appealed the government to speed up its efforts to completely contain the Assam violence and draw "a workable plan to move out illegal migrants from the country". The government should provide safety to the people from North-East and those behind the violence should be identified and arrested, VHP vice president Balkrishna Naik said. "The government should move out all illegal Bangladeshi migrants from the country. Those...
12:30 AM, Aug 20, 2012
London: A 21-year-old Indian-origin woman has created something of a record by pulling a double-decker bus in Leicester by a rope tied to her hair. The feat, performed by Asha Rani on Saturday in front of a large gathering of admiring crowds in the Leicester city centre, will now be verified before it is declared as a record. To break the current record, she had to pull the bus more...
03:32 PM, Aug 19, 2012
Lucknow: In further proof of growing proximity between controversial liquor baron Ponty Chaddha and the present UP government, the Wave group - owned by Chaddha - has decided to invest Rs 25 thousand crore in the state in the next two years. The Akhilesh Yadav administration had, last week, removed all hurdles in giving clearances to the multi-thousand crore Wave City Centre in Noida. Ponty is known as a close...
01:04 PM, Aug 18, 2012
Panaji: Goa government will take up with the Centre the issue of the travel advisory issued by the UK to its nationals visiting the coastal state and also initiate measures to promote the state as safe destination for tourists. In a written reply to Legislative Assembly, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said the state government had not yet objected to the travel advisory issued by the UK in June asking its...
09:10 PM, Aug 13, 2012
London: An innovative scheme to use prisoners with genuine British accents in call centres inside UK jails is being considered by the Ministry of Justice as part of its work programme for prisoners. One of the consumer complaints against British companies who have call centres in India has been that Indian workers sometimes do not understand the many regional British accents of callers, resulting in errors. There are reports that...
05:09 AM, Aug 11, 2012
New Delhi: With drought-like conditions staring Haryana, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will be visiting the foodgrain producing state on Friday to take stock of the situation. Haryana and Punjab have so far experienced deficient monsoon. Pawar will hold a meeting with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the state government is expected to ask the Centre for compensation. Haryana had last week sought a special package from the...
08:48 AM, Aug 10, 2012
Chennai: The High Court on Wednesday set aside an order of the Centre, allowing Leela Samson to withdraw her resignation and asking her to join duty as the director of Kalakshetra Foundation in Tiruvanmiyur. Once Leelas resignation was accepted, there was no provision in the Kalakshetra Foundation Act to permit withdrawal of the resignation, Justice S Nagamuthu pointed out. The judge was allowing a writ petition from Sai Sankar and...
02:00 PM, Aug 09, 2012
New Delhi: Numerous states of India recently plunged into darkness as the power grids across North and North East India crashed. Could there be an alternative to avoid such a prospect? Scientists at the Ministry of New And Renewable Energy are now trying out new ways of lighting and cooling your home. At the Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon, scientists make hay while the sun shines. Or rather - they...
09:54 AM, Aug 09, 2012
New Delhi: In what seems to be a growing proximity between the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh and businessman Ponty Chadha. The Noida Authority has cleared the masterplan for the 152-acre 'Wave City Centre'. This land was won by Wave Infratech, owned by Ponty Chadha during the Mayawati regime. Ponty Chadha was believed to be extremely close to Mayawati. The Uttar Pradesh administration under the SP regime had initially...
10:35 AM, Aug 08, 2012
Nizamabad: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao has given an ultimatum to the central government to declare separate Telangana after vice-presidential elections or be ready to face chaos in the state. Rao unveiled the statue of Telangana ideologue Prof. K Jayashankar at Kanteshwar in Nizamabad town on Sunday. The programme was held under the aegis of Telangana Jagruthi. Addressing the gathering, the TRS chief urged people to draw...
12:20 PM, Aug 06, 2012
Bangalore: The state government has decided to request the Centre to increase the age limit for compulsory education to 18 from the present limit of 16.The students needs to be educated from six years. The government in the Assembly on Thursday has also sought a clarification from the Union HRD Ministry to spell out its share of funds for the effective implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE). Replying...
01:52 PM, Aug 03, 2012
New Delhi: Blaming government's "incompetence" for the power crisis in the country, the BJP on Wednesday attacked it for alleging that overdrawing by some states led to grid collapse and insisted it was caused by administrative and not technical failure. "The unprecedented grid failure is a result of negligence, incompetence and complete abdication of duty on the part of the central government. The central government is hiding some important facts...
06:37 PM, Aug 01, 2012
Haryana has said that the Centre did not warn the states to draw less power if the output from grids was less. ...
11:52 AM, Aug 01, 2012
