In the remote Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast, the countdown has begun for the first test of India’s most sophisticated and powerful ballistic missile ever built, Agni V. If all goes well, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which built the missile, is expected to launch Agni...
The parliamentary panel on defence has summoned the three service chiefs to get a status report on the preparedness of the country for a battle. All three defence chiefs will depose before the committee on the April 20. The appearance of three service chiefs before the parliamentary panel comes...
By Anjan Roy Going by the Indian calendar system, we are currently entering a new year. On the other hand, we are emerging from the umbra of the last fiscal, ending with the delayed presentation of the budget. In these twilight zones, one tends to ruminate: How was the...
After a two-decade stint with PfizerIndia, Kewal Handa, managing director, is hanging up his boots in August. A management accountant and company secretary by qualification, Handa, who joined as a controller of information systems at PfizerIndia, rose through the ranks and has been MD since 2005. He has steered...
NEW DELHI: Facing criticism for its inability to meet the growing demand for coal, the government is working on a proposal under which Coal India Ltd (CIL) would engage private sector companies to undertake mining on behalf of the public sector undertaking (PSU). The proposal to involve the private...
NEW DELHI:New Delhi has demanded that the European Union lift restrictions on flow of sophisticated outsourcing business to India by designating it as a data secure country. India is among the countries not considered data secure by the EU. This prevents flow of sensitive data, such as patient information...
NEW DELHI: World Bank has informally told India that its rapidly-growing economy may soon make it ineligible for soft loans, prompting the government to lobby for concessional lending for a few more years. India stands to lose over $2 billion in low-interest funds for many of its welfare schemes,...
MUMBAI: The Ajay Piramal Group is set to buy a European drug firm that will expand the group’s ability to conduct basic pharmaceutical research, a weakness that has long hobbled Indian pharma companies. The firm, whose identity is not known, will help the Piramal Group do basic research in...
MUMBAI: Reserve Bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao faces perhaps his biggest challenge when he sets this fiscal year’s monetary policy on Tuesday. While there are enough reasons for him to keep interest rates where they are, a growing clamour for rate cuts from industry and finance ministry officials may force...
From P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala unit of the Communist Party of India(CPI) will continue to follow the Chandrappan Line ably and assertively laid down by former state secretary late C K Chandrappan. Fears on this count were allayed by the newly appointed state CPI secretary Panniyan Ravindran who...
From B.K. Chum in Chandigarh The downslide in governance continues in Punjab. It started within a fortnight of the Akali-BJP government’s assuming power when the ruling Akali leaders and the clergy launched a campaign for staying the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, killer of former Chief Minister Beant Singh....
NEW DELHI: The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has opposed a proposal of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for an increase in the price of gas, saying that would lead to an additional burden of $8 billion on the exchequer. The petroleum ministry recently communicated its view to the...
PUDUCHERRY : Oil companies like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporations Limited (HPCL ) have agreed to provide additional loads of LPG exclusively to Puducherry to meet the shortage, within a period of 10 days, said Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Friday. This follows a meeting by...
MUMBAI: Pune-based Force Motors has entered into an agreement with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) for supply of engine oil, the company said in a news release. The agreement will see HPCL providing engine oil for the entire range of Force Motors’ automotive aggregates like engine, gearbox and axles....
CHENNAI/BANGALORE: The Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Ltd, a subsidiary of ONGC, has said that it is advancing its annual maintenance shutdown of its production units due to the non-availability of water. The refinery, based in Mangalore, has a capacity to refine 15 million tonnes per annum and was receiving...
MUMBAI: The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has followed certified accounting principles for capex to arrive at the network tariff to be charged by Indraprastha Gas. Network tariff is the average unit rate of tariff for a million metric British thermal units (mmBtu) for all consumers. Consumer tariff...
NEW DELHI: With most parts of India reeling under a power crisis, the situation is all set to worsen after reports have emerged that 30 out of India’s 95 thermal power plants have registered alarmingly low levels of coal. As per the data available with the power ministry’s advisory...
NEW DELHI: With the commissioning of a 660-MW unit of a power plant in Jhajjar, Haryana, India’s installed capacity has crossed the 2-lakh-MW mark, according to the Power Ministry. The first unit of the project of CLP India — Mahatma Gandhi Thermal Power Project, Jhajjar — was recently fully...