MENU 
NEW DELHI: After 16 years, the government is set to again allow foreign airlines to take stakes in Indian carriers later this week. The move is expected to help ailing Indian operators like Kingfisher raise funds. More importantly, it could pave the way for joint ventures – like Tata-Singapore...
NEW DELHI: After much dithering, the government released the revised consolidated foreign direct investment (FDI) policy on Tuesday, relaxing norms of investment by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in commodity exchanges. Now, FIIs will not require government approval to invest in these exchanges. The cap on FII investment, however, remains...
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal of the department of telecommunications (DoT) to seek a presidential reference on certain issues pertaining to the Supreme Court judgment in the 2G telecom spectrum case. The issues include whether all telecom licences given on first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis before 2008...
CHENNAI: Senior CPI(M) leader and former Central Committee member N. Varadarajan died here on Tuesday at a private hospital after a prolonged illness. Varadarajan, 87, is survived by his wife and two sons. A three time MLA, Varadarajan who was not keeping well for the past two to three...
Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who underwent three cycles of chemotherapy in the U.S. for non-malignant lung tumour, returned to India amid a rousing reception from his well-wishers.
AHMEDABAD: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has found no evidence against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 57 others in the complaint filed against them by Zakia Jafri in the 2002 Gujarat riots, a Magisterial court said on Tuesday. The court also ordered that Ms. Zakia Jafri, widow of former...
NEW DELHI: Taken aback by the revelations made by chief of Army staff (COAS) General V K Singh, in his confidential letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the lack of critical weapons for the Army, Parliament’s standing committee on defence has summoned all the three service chiefs —...
NEW DELHI: Presenting a sobering account of long-term as well as immediate challenges, senior IAF and Army brass told a parliamentary committee that while India’s window to catch up with China’s defence modernization thrust could close by 2017 or earlier, stocks of certain types of tank munitions are down...
BANGALORE: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), entrusted with the probe into the controversial $300 million Antrix-Devas deal last month, has begun scrutinising documents related to the deal. ED officials said, “The focus is on the transactions of the deal more than the other aspects. We have collected documents and are...
There is urgent need for India to develop infrastructure and striking capability along the border with China to face any eventuality, while unfortunately some major proposals for strengthening India’s striking power are pending before the Government for a long time. This was the observation of defence analyst Brig (Retd)...
CHENNAI: The Indian rocket that will carry the 1,850 kg indigenous surveillance satellite – Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1) – to the skies this month will be controlled by the new mission control centre at Sriharikota, said a senior official of Indian space agency ISRO. “The second mission control centre...
From Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: The fight is on between cabinet minister Mohd Azam Khan and Imam Syed Ahmad Bhukari of Delhi Jama Masjid to emerge as Muslim face of Samajwadi Party. It would be worth mentioning here that Mohd Azam Khan, who had been in and out of Samajwadi...
NEW DELHI: The growing profile of the Chinese army, Beijing’s attempts to expand its influence in India’s neighbourhood and Pakistan’s persistent refusal to crackdown on the terror groups operating from its soil have been identified as major concerns by the defence ministry. The ministry, in its annual report for...
NEW DELHI: With the government admitting that “mischief” by an insider was responsible for the scare over a routine movement of two Army units, demand for a probe into the matter is gathering momentum amid indications that the Army headquarters itself may seek an inquiry. The issue figured in...
NEW DELHI: Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma has told Parliament that troop movements around New Delhi in mid-January — movements which the government is reported to have been “spooked” by — were in fact part of a “routine drill”. In a testimony before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence,...
NEW DELHI: The oil ministry has called a crucial meeting of administrators of the KG-D6 block to deliberate upon Reliance Industries’ plan to survey the entire deep-sea region, instead of a piecemeal approach, to accelerate joint development of 16 untapped discoveries and reverse the steep fall in gas production....
NEW DELHI: A pact to enhance cooperation in the key sector of oil and gas exploration is among the six agreements inked on Monday between India and Qatar, which has the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Emir of Qatar Sheikh...
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) may take up the new investment policy for urea soon. This policy is likely to ensure at least 12 per cent return on equity. The proposed policy aims to reduce the subsidy on urea. The Finance Minister in his Budget...