Chennai: The State Government on Wednesday went on appeal against a single judge order of the High Court last month upholding AICTE norms that set a higher eligibility criteria for admissions to UG technical courses for students under the SC and ST categories.The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and A Arumugasami ordered status quo in the matter after accepting the appeal and issued notices to respondents returnable...
07:47 AM, Aug 23, 2012
Chennai: The Madras High Court has granted time till August 22 for the State government to frame draft guidelines for school buses. Originally, while passing interim orders on a suo-motu writ petition, the first bench consisting of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, on July 27, had directed the government through Advocate-General A Navaneethakrishnan to frame the draft rules to regulate the use of vehicles carrying...
12:39 PM, Aug 11, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: The State Government is seeking relaxation in Viability Gap Funding (VGF) norms for making Central assistance possible for the multi-crore Vizhinjam international container transshipment terminal project. The state has urged the Centre to exempt it from two conditions for VGF. One, that the project should offer a service having pre-determined tariff, and, two, the VGF would be limited to 20 per cent of the project cost. The government has...
02:40 PM, Aug 09, 2012
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said remittances from abroad will not attract service tax, putting to rest the concerns raised in view of new tax norms. "The matter has been examined and it is clarified that there is no service tax per se on the amount of foreign currency remitted to India from overseas," the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said. The clarification follows concerns over reports...
02:36 AM, Jul 11, 2012
London: Under pressure from education and industry leaders to review recent curbs on student visas, British Prime Minister David Cameron is likely to reverse policy and remove international students from official immigration figures, a measure that may relax some of the restrictions. Due to the curbs, many international students have reportedly been deterred from considering Britain as a destination to study. Some universities have reported a fall in applications from...
10:40 AM, Jul 09, 2012
Srinagar: Three weeks after CNN-IBN showed how hotels were coming up in Srinagar's green zone, another environment violation has come to light. This time, it is a bureaucrat's bungalow that is located right next to a protected sanctuary. A farmhouse belonging to Farooq Renzu, a senior bureaucrat close to the Omar Abdullah government, is right next to the Dachigam National Park. It is yet another example of how the Lakes...
10:13 AM, May 14, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said its attempt to frame guidelines for media for covering courts was aimed at making clear the "limitations" of journalists under the Constitutional scheme. The five-judge Constitution Bench deliberating on the issue got support from the Centre which said there was no constitutional bar on the apex court to regulate the reporting of judicial proceedings by media. "We want the journalists to know...
04:56 AM, Apr 27, 2012
New Delhi: India on Monday further eased its defence offsets norms, saying the value of technology transferred under a deal could be written off against the obligation to reinvest 30 per cent of all contracts over Rs 3 billion ($75 million). The offsets clause is expected to bring in investments of $30 billion over the next decade. Under the Defence Procurement Procedure that was last amended in 2011, a firm...
04:44 AM, Apr 03, 2012
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has eased its overseas direct investment norms by waiving the need for Indian entities to seek its approval to open foreign currency accounts abroad. The norm has been liberalised to provide operational flexibility to Indian entities, the central bank said in a statement on Monday. However, all other norms required to open, hold and maintain foreign currency accounts for overseas investment remain unchanged,...
01:26 AM, Apr 03, 2012
Developers in the realty sector, which is facing severe credit crunch due to higher interest rates, expect the government to relax norms for repatriation of FDI and external commercial borrowings (ECBs) in the forthcoming Budget for 2012-13. The industry expects the Budget, to be announced on March 16, to relax norms for FDI and ECBs, especially for township projects that will give developers source funds at a much reasonable cost....
02:47 PM, Mar 05, 2012
New Delhi: India on Monday introduced a comprehensive national policy to help curb trafficking in narcotic drugs. "The national policy released today, presents evidence of India's strong commitment and intent to rise to the challenges posed by the drug menace," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after releasing the policy documents. "It also reflects the country's willingness to shoulder the responsibility which is cast upon it because of its strategic position,...
12:29 AM, Feb 07, 2012
New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar's name has not been recommended for the Bharat Ratna award. Sources have said that the BCCI did not send any names, not even Sachin's. They say that the Sports Ministry has recommended the names of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand and mountaineer Tenzing Norgay for India's highest civilian honour. The criteria for Bharat Ratna was recently broadened to include sports because of the huge demand. Infact,...
09:17 AM, Jan 25, 2012
New Delhi: All major airlines in India are compromising on safety to cut costs, revealed aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its audit report. The DGCA has put all the airlines on notice for safety. The DGCA has also cautioned low-cost carriers IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir for not maintaining crucial data needed for safe flights. The DGCA report severely criticised JetLite for not possessing the software to...
01:15 PM, Jan 09, 2012
New Delhi: The Telecom Ministry may issue demand notices of Rs 55.67 lakh to RCom and Bharti Airtel for violating the licence agreement by registering new subscribers without proper verification in the Delhi service area. "The proper verification has not been carried out by the service providers at the time of providing service to these subscribers. Hence, Bharti Airtel has violated the terms and conditions. Therefore on the ground stated,...
11:16 AM, Dec 20, 2011
New Delhi: Sports heroes Sachin Tendulkar and Dhyan Chand are now eligible for the Bharat Ratna as the government has changed the eligibility criteria for the Bharat Ratna to widen its scope. The Bharat Ratna category has been broadened and excellence in all fields of human endeavour is the new eligibility norm. The Prime Minister's Office has accepted the Ministry of Home Affairs' recommendation of broad basing the Bharat Ratna...
09:11 AM, Dec 16, 2011
Kolkata: A four-member probe team from fire services department on Monday visited a number of private and government hospitals to review fire-fighting arrangements there to avoid disasters like AMRI. "The Government is committed to taking stern action against those flouting fire safety norms. NOC for fire safety compliance is mandatory for all as we don't want such disasters to take place again," state's Disaster Management Minister Javed Khan said here...
11:27 PM, Dec 12, 2011
Mumbai: The Mumbai Municipal Corporation has come up with a new plan to decongest traffic in Mumbai. The civic body has proposed a new coastal ring road for its western suburbs and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is said to be lobbying hard at the Center for its clearance. The proposed coastal road will not only be a 4 by 4 expressway but also improve inter-connectivity, so that people from various...
11:35 AM, Oct 29, 2011
The cabinet has approved an Information and Broadcasting proposal which fixes the criteria for granting licences to TV channels. According to the new guidelines approved by the Cabinet on Friday, a channel can renew its broadcast licence only if it has less than five violations of the programming and advertisements code to its name. The minimum net worth for TV news channels has increased from Rs 3 crore to Rs...
06:01 PM, Oct 12, 2011
The cabinet has approved an Information and Broadcasting proposal which fixes the criteria for granting licences to TV channels. According to the new guidelines approved by the Cabinet on Friday, a channel can renew its broadcast licence only if it has less than five violations of the programming and advertisements code to its name. The minimum net worth for TV news channels has increased from Rs 3 crore to Rs...
06:01 PM, Oct 12, 2011
New Delhi: Under attack over scams and corruption issues and also the Anna wave, the UPA has decided to go in for image correction by issuing new guidelines for issuing licence to TV channels. But one of its proposals has angered the Broadcast Editors' Association. The UPA watched the spreading Anna wave with horror and there was a strong feeling at a Cabinet meet last month that it would have...
11:27 AM, Oct 09, 2011
