
New Delhi: The panel looking into retail major Walmart's lobbying activities with American lawmakers for its entry into the Indian market is likely to submit its report to the government in a day or two. The one-man committee, headed by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal, has finalised the report.
Sources said the report is expected to be submitted to the government "this week". The conclusions of the panel could not be immediately ascertained.
The panel, which was set up in January this year, is looking into "whether Walmart undertook any activities in India in contravention of any Indian law", and any other matter relevant to this issue.
In the wake of intense political pressure following reports about Walmart's lobbying among the US lawmakers since 2008 for facilitating its entry into the Indian market, the government in December 2012 had assured Parliament to get the matter probed by a retired judge....
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02:20 PM, May 18, 2013

Mumbai: Filmmaker Prabhudheva, who has cast Shruti Haasan in 'Ramaiya Vastavaiya', says he is no one to 'relaunch' the daughter of veteran actress Kamal Haasan. "It's not a relaunch! Shruti is Kamal Haasan's daughter. Who am I to relaunch her," Prabhudheva told IANS. Shruti has earlier featured in Bollywood films like 'Luck' and 'Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji', which didn't manage to elicit the expected response. But Prabhudheva had his...

02:12 PM, May 18, 2013

New Delhi: An international website based out of UK is being used by the bookies after the operation by Delhi Police on Thursday, say sources. Three Rajasthan Royals players and several bookies were arrested by the police, who have electronic evidence against the players and are interrogating them. Sources close to the bookies have told CNN-IBN that post crackdown, the bookies have fled the major cities like Delhi/NCR and are...

02:05 PM, May 18, 2013

Rome: Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna reached the semi-finals of the Rome Masters after getting a walkover from rivals Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek even as Sania Mizra and Bethanie Mattek-Sands crashed out of the women's event, here. Berdych, who shocked world number one Novak Djokovic in the men's singles in a gruelling three-setter, cited muscle fatigue as the reason for him withdrawing. Bhupathi and Bopanna will now fight it...

01:49 PM, May 18, 2013

Lahore: A Pakistani judge investigating the murder of Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh has appealed to Indian nationals having information about the matter to file written submissions with relevant documents within seven days. Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Lahore High Court is investigating the death of Sarabjit following a brutal assault by prisoners within Kot Lakhpat Jail. "The Indians are required to get themselves registered with...

01:12 PM, May 18, 2013

Hyderabad: Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid is extremely content with the way his players performed against Sunrisers Hyderabad following the shock spot-fixing scandal that engulfed his team. Rajasthan took field a day after three of their players were arrested by Delhi police on the charges of spot-fixing. "There is no point brushing things under the carpet. Tough couple of days for everyone concerned. But, I was happy the way boys...

01:01 PM, May 18, 2013

Jaipur: In a shocking case of alleged sexual assault on hearing and speech impaired girls in Jaipur, five people have been arrested. The alleged incident took place at a residential therapy centre in Jaipur. The minor girls used to often stay at the centre for their therapy sessions. The therapy centre's warden, accountant and his wife, a security guard and an administrator have been arrested in connection with the case....

12:41 PM, May 18, 2013

Day two at the Cannes film festival was full of glamour and glitz. From Cannes jury member Vidya Balan to our Indian fashionista Sonam Kapoor, everyone chose to go dramatic on the red carpet. ...

12:36 PM, May 18, 2013

A report on Friday night from WBBH, an NBC television affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla., said Phelps will return to swimming with an eye toward competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The three-paragraph story on the station's Web site was posted by news anchor Peter Busch, who is the son of Frank Busch, director of the U.S. national swim team. "The greatest Olympian of all time isn't hanging up his...

12:32 PM, May 18, 2013

Bhubaneswar: More than a fortnight after CNN-IBN exposed that Odisha-based Seashore Group had duped over 1.5 lakh investors of Rs 1700 crore, the state's crime branch on Saturday sealed the headquarters of the group in Bhubaneshwar. The company had reportedly offered investors 24 per cent interest per annum. While the chairman of Seashore Group Prashant Das has yet not been arrested, the police had earlier detained over a hundred staff...

12:21 PM, May 18, 2013

Here are 15 keys to happiness from Bhutan, a country where Gross National Happiness is considered more important than Gross Domestic Product. 1) If you search for happiness, you will not find it. If happiness searches for you, it will always find you. 2) A flea springs up from a cozy blanket, a hero springs up from a rocky ledge. 3) A yak herder takes the credit, but it is...

12:14 PM, May 18, 2013

Cannes: A man was arrested at the Cannes film festival on Friday after firing a starting pistol during a live TV broadcast on the palm-lined waterfront, sending actors Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil running for cover. French TV station Canal+ was interviewing Austria's Oscar-winning Waltz and French actor Auteuil live on its nightly news show from a beach-front set before a crowd of spectators when a man fired two shots...

12:02 PM, May 18, 2013

Nawaz Sharif's PML-N bagged 125 of the 272 directly elected seats in Pakistan's National Assembly but fell short of a majority and is poised to form a government with support of independents and smaller parties. ...

11:47 AM, May 18, 2013

Washington: Opening up the prospects of export of shale gas to energy starved India, the US today granted conditional authorization to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to nations that do not have Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with it. In a decision, which has major implications for India, the Department of Energy announced that that it has conditionally authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, LP and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC (Freeport) to...

11:10 AM, May 18, 2013

California: Facebook made its debut on the stock market a year ago on May 18 in one of the largest IPOs in history and the biggest for any Internet company. The social network's market value was more than $100 billion. Now, Facebook's stock is trading roughly 30 per cent lower and has not hit its IPO price of $38 per share. Today, Facebook is valued at around $63 billion. In...

11:06 AM, May 18, 2013

New Delhi: It's a story that we have heard before. Perhaps different versions, but the milieu has been the same- of that of the plight of innocent south Asians in US post 9/11. Mira Nair's latest 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' tries to explore the plight of an educated Pakistani man working in Wall Street post the terror attack. While the subject is not new- several films, documentaries and books have been...

10:56 AM, May 18, 2013

New Delhi: The Indian Premier League authorities have contacted all nine of its franchises and instructed them to speak to their players and reinforce the Code of Conduct, IPL sources told CNN-IBN on Saturday. The franchises have been asked to remind all the players that they have to abide by the Code of Conduct to prevent any unwanted incident from happening. The directive has come after three Rajasthan Royals' players...

10:51 AM, May 18, 2013

Bangalore: Royal Challengers Bangalore find themselves in a do-or-die situation after two back-to-back losses to Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. Not only do they have to beat Chennai Super Kings handsomely on Saturday, but they need Sunrisers Hyderabad to lose their last match on Sunday. A seven-wicket loss to KXIP on Tuesday meant sure shot play-off berths for Chennai, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians, leaving three teams fighting...

10:37 AM, May 18, 2013