Kolkata Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels — founders of Marxism — may be out of history syllabus in government schools in West Bengal following a recommendation by a state education panel. Mamata Banerjees move, months after she ended the 34- year- old Left rule in the State, was condemned...
Russia and India plan to complete several other naval contracts, which could make 2012 “the year of the navy” in bilateral military technical cooperation. Construction of the Nerpa, re-commissioned as the INS Chakra II, was launched in 1991 and completed in the 2000’s for lease to India. Initially, it...
The Indian Navy is planning to purchase more than 75 choppers at an estimated cost of over $4 billion to meet the demand of it’s expanding area of operations. This tender is one of the world’s largest tenders for multirole helicopters. The Indian Navy had recently asked global helicopter...
Maiden flight of the second fully modified aircraft for the indigenously developed Indian Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) was held at 1930 IST on 4th April 2012 at the San Jose dos Campos in Brazil. The necessary Mission systems & components including the dummy AAAU (Active Antena...
NEW DELHI: After raising an exclusive women’s battalion 25 years ago, the CRPF has now set up the world’s first all-women ‘paramilitary’ pipe band. The 22-member band will get its ceremonial colours on April 9 during the ‘Valour Day’ celebrations of the paramilitary force. The band will be led...
HYDERABAD: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will invest over Rs 1000 crore to create 4-5 new facilities for testing and quality. The investment and creation of these facilities will be over the next two-three years. These include, a full-fledged launch control centre in Port Blair, a hypersonic...
NEW DELHI: A spate of controversies about the Army may have been a result of the vicious factional feud within the force, but there are indications that the controversies are also being used as fodder to target defence minister AK Antony. Allegations against Army chief Gen VK Singh, ranging...
Network of arms dealer Viktor Bout is alleged to have armed Qaida, Taliban NEW YORK: International arms dealer Viktor Bout, whose network is alleged to have armed the Al-Qaida and Taliban, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by aUScourt for conspiring to supply deadly weapons, including surface-to-air...
CHANDIGARH: A woman cadet who was “compelled” to resign from the Officers Training Academy (OTA) after a spinal injury has been directed by the Delhi HC to join back. The court observed that her resignation was not voluntary and was withdrawn before it was accepted. Shivanjali Sharma had joined...
Was it a routine exercise or was the army chief playing mind games with the civilian administration? NEW DELHI: It is a question to which we might never know the answer. Did the army chief arrange for two military units to “practise mobilisation” on the outskirts of New Delhi...
DUBAI: India expressing interest in importing additional liquefied natural gas from Qatar will further boost the trade between the countries, a senior banker has said. “India will be one of the largest gas markets for Qatar apart from China. Cooperation in the power sector between India and Qatar is...
NEW DELHI: The government has included the natural gas marketing margin charged by Reliance Industries in the fertiliser subsidy for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years to save fertiliser companies from having to pay about $30 million a year from their pocket towards the disputed levy. Fertiliser companies like...
MUMBAI/VADODARA: Following geopolitical disputes in North and South Sudan, ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) has discontinued crude oil production from the latter territory. “The dispute between North and South Sudan has been a bone of contention for...
VADODARA: ONGC CMD Sudhir Vasudeva today said the state-run oil and gas behemoth was aiming at converting some of the deep water discoveries to production by 2016-17. “ONGC owns 56 deep water blocks, allocated to it under the New Exploration Licensing Policy regimes between 1997 and October 2010. There...
NEW DELHI: The increase in cess by Rs 2,000 a tonne on domestically produced crude oil could make Vedanta Group’s $9-billion investment uneconomical. Cairn India, in which Vedanta has recently acquired majority stake, termed the move as ‘unfair and discriminatory’. Seeking a rollback, Cairn India has approached the Prime...
BEIJING: China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec Corp) will soon close a 200,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude oil unit at its largest refinery, Zhenhai, for a four-week turnaround, after completing repairs of a 160,000-bpd crude unit, sources said on Friday. Sinopec, Asia’s largest refiner, shut down the 160,000-bpd crude unit...
WASHINGTON:Iran’s two major oil buyer —India and China— now appear to be seeking to take advantage of the international sanctions against the Islamic republic by forcing concessions from Tehran, a latest Congressional report has claimed. “India has used the payments difficulties to force concessions from Iran, including an Iranian...
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration’s man in charge of squeezing Tehran over its nuclear program is unapologetic for the difficulties faced by banks in their dealings with Iran since the US tightened sanctions against the country. Companies that trade with Iran are struggling to get paid and the biggest Asian...