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By Nantoo Banerjee Believe it or not, India’s next national government may face a similar situation as Mamata Banerjee’s in the state ofWest Bengal, forcing moratorium on debt repayment to pay salaries to some 40 lakh central government employees and almost a similar number of pensioners and aided staff...
By Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: State Assembly elections in Meghalaya are slated to be held early next year – in February or March. As the final electoral rolls are being prepared, there is a strong demand that the names of ‘doubtful’ voters should be deleted. A number of NGOs...
From Ashis Biswas KOLKATA: Even a couple of years ago, Bangladesh had nothing but a few patrol boats by way of its navy. Not any more. Now that Bangladesh is set to join India and Myanmar to explore and make commercial use of its gas and hydrocarbon resources in...
By Kalyani Shankar When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh completed his first year in office in 2005, he gave himself six out of ten marks for his performance. In the successive years he refused to grade himself. For completing the third year of UPA 2, will he be able to...
By Nora Chopra Red alert for Mamata Banerjee: Mulayam Singh Yadav was not only the most sought after guest of Sonia Gandhi at the Prime Minister’s dinner on Tuesday, his presence on the dias with the UPA allies is a warning bell for Mamata-Di all the way. While his...
From L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: Both the ruling BJP as well as the main opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh, for more than a month now, are bitterly bickering over what may well be described as the ‘politics of Wheat’. And why not? After all, it is an issue that involves...
From Ashis Biswas KOLKATA: It seems that in the conduct of effective regional diplomacy, a delicate blend of patience and moderation counts for a great deal. Recent tensions between different sections of people in Myanmar and ethnic Chinese settlers clearly illustrate this. For decades,India, which never really supported the...
By Garga Chatterjee The hurricane that had started from Singur and Nandigram made landfall in May last year when the 34-year old rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front came to a sordid end. The storm in village, victory in city- indeed, the surrounding of cities with the villages thing...
By Rashmi Saksena Kudos to members of the Rajya Sabha. Bouquets for them this time round instead of the usual the brickbats reserved for politicians. On May 21, the leaders decided to put aside chaos and a war of words in the House of Elders all for the sake...
NEW DELHI: Foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail could turn into a reality at least in a clutch of Indian cities soon, with the UPA government set to revive last November’s Cabinet decision to permit up to 51% FDI in the sector. It will, however, be optional for...
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stepped in yet again to curb volatility arising out of the arbitrage opportunity in the currency futures market even as the rupee fell to a new low on Monday. The Indian currency closed at an all-time low of 55.03 a dollar, as...
NEW DELHI: The telecom department (DoT) will press for a 17% increase in the base price for 2G spectrum bids over the rate proposed by Trai, further adding to the woes of mobile phone companies that were hoping the government would dilute the recommendations of the regulator. A DoT...
NEW DELHI: The much-awaited White Paper on black money tabled in Parliament on Monday mooted an immunity scheme as a one-time option to encourage Indians to bring back money stashed abroad. The paper also suggested examining a demand on tax immunity for a gold deposit scheme. The White Paper,...
MUMBAI: Convinced that they are taking bigger hits than promoters, bankers want the terms of loan recasts to be tightened. While they believe promoters should write down their equity in companies as part of a restructuring package, lenders also want promoters to bring in a higher contribution of the...
MUMBAI: UK-based Thomas Cook Group will sell its entire 77.1% stake in its Indian arm, Thomas Cook India, to Toronto-based Fairbridge Capital, owned by India-born billionaire Prem Watsa of the Fairfax group. The deal is estimated to be worth Rs 1,000 crore, inclusive of the open offer, and at...
The NTPC and CoalIndiahave agreed to sign new fuel supply agreements (FSA) on 2009 terms. The only change is the trigger level, which has been scaled down to 80 per cent from 90 per cent, as directed by the Prime Ministers’ Office. The trigger level is the point up...
NEW DELHI:Indiais expected to sign an agreement withTurkmenistanthis week that will secure 38 million standard cubic meters per day gas supply from the Central Asian country at around $11.5/unit, government officials said. Oil minister Jaipal Reddy is visitingTurkmenistanon Tuesday to sign the gas sale purchase agreement (GSPA) this week,...
Indian Defence Minister Krishna Menon yesterday threatened that the ceasefire agreement in Kashmir would exist no longer ifPakistanbartered away “India’s legal rights over Azad Kashmir” toChina. Mr Menon, who was addressing a public meeting at Sapru House, saidIndiahas “never abjured the use of force” though it has promised not...