RANCHI: The Justice MB Shah Committee, appointed by the Central Government to probe illegal mining of iron ore and manganese across the country met with a poor response in Ranchi, on the first day of the two-day public hearing. Jharkhand, accounts for a fourth of the country’s iron ore....
KOLKATA:West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is set to flag off production at the Trans Damodar Coal Mining Project on Friday at Bajora in the state’s Bankura district. This is the first project under public private partnership (PPP) model involving the government of West Bengal for commercial mining of...
HYDERABAD: APGenco has begun efforts to secure coal requirements for its expansion projects from two blocks awarded to the State-owned AP Mineral Development Corporation in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. In addition, it is banking on increased supply from Coal India Ltd and bridging the gap through imported coal. The...
WASHINGTON: After a gap of nearly six years, the US and India would hold their first political-military dialogue in New Delhi next week during which the two countries are expected to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues. Assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs Andrew J Shapiro is...
Against the backdrop of killing of 2 Indian fishermen by armed guards of an Italian merchant vessel in February 2012, the Indian Navy is seeking demarcation of piracy-infested waters and setting up Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for maritime security. This will avoid any future incidents like the one in...
NEW DELHI: A money laundering case has been registered against Vectra chief Ravinder Rishi and his firms by the Enforcement Directorate to probe alleged generation of illegal funds in the defence deal between Tatra Sipox UK and defence PSU BEML. The agency has registered the case after gathering initial...
NEW DELHI: Giving a major push to the normalisation process, India and China today decided to resume dialogue on disarmament and non-proliferation and shortly kickstart their maritime dialogue between them. The two countries had last discussed the disarmament and non-proliferation issue in 2003. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna...
NEW DELHI: Army has initiated the process of acquiring new gun systems to take on enemy aircraft and missiles, a month after its chief General VK Singh raised the issue of obsolescence of air defence systems in a letter to the Prime Minister. “The Army is planning to procure...
North Korea said its much hyped long-range rocket launch failed on Friday, in a very rare and embarrassing public admission of failure by the hermit state and a blow for its new young leader who faces international outrage over the attempt. The isolated North, using the launch to celebrate...
CHANDIGARH: The Armed Forces Tribunal today reserved its orders in the case of Maj Gen TS Handa, who has alleged a bias on the part of Gen VK Singh, first in his capacity as the Eastern Army Commander and later as Army Chief. He said the “bias” led to...
MUMBAI: The RBI may cut the repo rate by 25 basis points as economic recovery continues to remain fragile, say economists. With factory output growth, as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP), in the April 2011-February 2012 period slowing to 3.5 per cent, against 8.1 per cent...
NEW DELHI: Even as Indian security agencies have expressed concern over the growing influence of Chinese firms in India’s infrastructure projects including power, one of the country’s biggest infrastructure companies IL&FS has inked a $2.4-billion contract with Power Construction Corporation of China. The deal includes the construction of the...
MUMBAI: The capital market regulator has issued a stern warning to companies that are taking lightly the requirements of the minimum public shareholding norms. The watchdog has made it clear that the deadline will not be extended and the non-compliant entities will be seriously dealt with. Speaking at a...
NEW DELHI: Mitsui Sumitomo’s purchase of a 26% stake in Max New York Life, Daiichi Sankyo’s acquisition of Ranbaxy Laboratories and Nippon Life’s buying into the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group are not isolated instances of Japanese firms’ growing business interest in India Inc. After automobiles, pharma and insurance,...
NEW DELHI: Difficult conditions in the US and the euro zone notwithstanding, India managed to cross the target of $300 billion for merchandise exports in the previous financial year. However, the trade deficit widened to a record $185 billion, which in turn would widen the current account deficit (CAD)....
NEW DELHI: India has decided in principle to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan, as part of the road map to enhance economic engagement, a development that is expected to boost bilateral trade. “As part of the initiatives to promote liberal trade,Indiahas in principle agreed to FDI from Pakistan,”...
By Harihar Swarup Indian people have reason to be thoroughly disillusioned with two national parties—the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. A sharp decline in the performance of the Congress party would not have been a matter of much concern, had its major national alternative, the BJP,...
By S. Sethuraman The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington (April 20-22) will address on how to outgrow the global crisis with co-ordinated actions for the future with the accent on social and financial inclusion designed to reduce inequalities, create jobs...