To attract investments in hilly states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, the central government announced a package in 2003 with 100 percent exemption for 10 years in excise and income tax. The package also included subsidy for 15 percent of th
There are more than 275 underground cadre of Maoists actively involved in several states out of which 75 are in Andhra Pradesh (AP). The DGP of the state, Prasad Rao appealed to these cadres to surrender and avail the government rehabilitation pac
Maoists received another blow, with Maoist party forest special zone committee`s official head, Gumudavelli Venkata Krishna Prasad alias Gudsa Usendi, surrendering himself before the authorities on Wednesday (January 8). However, the police are ye
(Editors`s note: As Rahul Gandhi gets written off by most analysts with the `emergence` of sister Priyanka, here`s a contrarian view – written by our former editor BV Rao when the Congress vice-president was facing similar flak not long
It’s over a month since the sexual harassment of women at workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act-2013 and the rules made under it were made effective on December 9, 2013. While this is a significant milestone in India’s
The election commission of India (ECI) may not sign an arrangement with Google which proposed to offer cloud services for facilitating online voter registration and directions to polling stations, according to a senior government official aware of
Every country has to safeguard its national interest and in the process of doing so, one state’s interest often comes in conflict with that of another. In such a situation both can either decide to compromise or trod on a path of altercation
When Mohammed Pervez, 25, wanted a small loan to buy a cartwheel and start his own small business of selling fruits, none of the 14 public-sector bank (PSB) branches in his town, Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, was eager to lend. After battling cumberso
As parliament prepares for the monsoon session, it is now certain that the 15th Lok Sabha, whenever it is dissolved, will end up as the least productive house in history. Researchers have logged the number of hours lost due to disruption of parlia
If Arvind Kejriwal has to take a public vote for every decision he takes, he is going to paint himself into a corner. Against the background over the weekend controversy over the house allotted to him, and his dithering over it and his incessant b
There is an element of tautological rhetoric in India`s claim to be an Information Technology superpower all set to enter the era of ubiquitous digitalisation. It has all the visible bells and whistles of an electronics giant, from software revenu
Economist prime minister Manmohan Singh is not unfamiliar with history. Not long ago, he presided over a function at his residence which saw the release of an authoritative and scholarly book on Indian history authored by his daughter, Upinder Sin
As an insider to the sanctum sanctorum of power, the cabinet secretary, India’s senior-most civil servant, has post-retirement sinecures for the asking. BK Chaturvedi, who was the first to serve in that position when Manmohan Singh t
Only Indians in the Gulf do it. Whenever the new ambassador or consul general arrives they go overboard. No other nation’s reps get this kind of response. Full page ads in the local papers like we were welcoming some colonial masters and gen
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Aam Aadmi Party emerged, more or less, unscathed in the confidence vote on Thursday (January 2). But this occasion was more than just that: apart from installing Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister of D
Question: Why did the robot score over Manmohan Singh when asked ‘who is more robotic among the two of you’? Answer: In acting robotic, the prime minister failed to press the buzzer in time.
Friends, First, let me wish you all a very happy New Year. Let me say at the outset that I do believe we are set for better times. The cycle of global economic growth is turning for the better. Many of the steps we have taken to ad
Aadhaar seems to be all controversy and no clarification. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) came up in 2009 – without any legal backup, which was to come with the passage of the National Identification Authority of India B
Many Information Technology (IT) companies are unhappy with the way e-governance projects are being executed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The less than satisfactory implementation of the projects and lack of timely payments, t
Something, to misquote the prince of Denmark, is strange in the state of Odisha. While chief minister Naveen Patnaik is seeking `4,59,839 crore from the newly constituted 14th finance commission for 2015-20 and making an aggressive pitch for great
