In middle of last year’s high-octane Lok Sabha campaign, Narendra Modi had thumped his “chappan inch ka seena” (56-inch chest) and had taken pot shots at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying he did not have it in him to make Uttar Pradesh a developed state like Gujarat. On Friday, at a public […]
Contradicting reports of being forced to stop writing after threats from right wing groups, Malayalam literary critic M.M. Basheer said he does not succumb to such pressures. News reports had indicated that his last article in a series of six on Ramayana had been withheld by Mathrubhumi, after threats from a fringe Hindu group called […]
The extension of Sonia Gandhi’s term as Congress president by another year in her 17th year in the position is an admission of the party’s failure to be a living, evolving, dynamic entity rather than an acknowledgement of her staying power and acceptability within the organization. Any political party in a democracy which adopts the […]
Motorsport is traditionally considered a male bastion but four young women are trying to break the barrier – and that too in India which does not have much of a history of motor racing. Mira Erda, Sneha Sharma, Ria Dabas and Neha Dabas, who race in the JK Tyre Racing Championship in different categories, are […]
An 18-year-old woman in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, who had accidentally crossed the line of control (LoC) into Pakistani Kashmir, was on Friday handed over to the Indian army, police said. “Shamim Akhtar, daughter of Muhammad Sadiq and wife of Muhammad Younis, resident of Noorkot village of Poonch, had accidentally crossed over to Pakistan […]
India’s current account deficit in the first quarter ended June narrowed to $6.2 billion, or 1.2 percent of GDP, as compared to $7.8 billion in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal, on the back of a fall in trade deficit, it was announced on Friday. “This improvement was mainly on account of the merchandise trade […]
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday described Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as ‘paintrebaaz’ (crafty) for his politics of opportunism. “If there is a new example of opportunistic politics and ‘paintrebaazi’, it is Nitish Kumar,” said Pradhan, who is also a senior BJP leader, at a function of a TV news channel here. His statement […]
The inquiry commission set up by the Delhi government on Friday issued a non-bailable warrant against Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) chief M.K. Meena for not appearing before the Special Investigation Team. The commission has also issued an order that 30 percent of his salary be attached every month. Earlier on September 3, one-member probe panel headed […]
A rapid expansion in the manufacturing accelerated India’s factory output growth to 4.2 percent in July against a marginal rise of 0.9 percent in the like month of last year, official data showed on Friday. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which released the data on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), the revised […]
Rapped sharply by the Bombay High Court, most political parties and the public, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday hurriedly decided to reduce the four-day meat ban in Mumbai by two days. The BMC general body urged Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta to lift the ban for two days – September 13 and 18 – […]