So the UPA-II is on the verge of losing its fourth ally in just over as many months, as DMK chief M Karunanidhi announced on Tuesday morning that his party would withdraw support to the government over India’s stand on the UN-sponsored resol
Hardening its stand on the Lankan Tamils issue, DMK on Tuesday decided to pull out of the UPA government at the Centre for allowing "watering down" of the US resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC and not considering its suggestions o
Parliament on Tuesday witnessed repeated adjournments during Question Hour as DMK and AIADMK disrupted proceedings in both the Houses on the issues of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the Lok Sabha, soon after Speaker Meira Kumar read out ob
So the blockbuster anti-hunger campaign from the UK is here. The big ‘IF’ (see enoughfoodif.org), launched on January 23! A hundred NGOs, eight demands, countless activists and intellectuals, all c
When Leela, a resident of Hiran Magri in Udaipur district (Rajasthan), was in the seventh month of her pregnancy in December last year, she first heard of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme. The accredited social health activist (ASHA) worke
Facing strong opposition from various political parties on lowering the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years, Government has agreed to stick to 18 years and also water down provisions on stalking and voyeurism in a bill which seeks to hand d
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma was in the midst of a fresh row as his remark that Mulayam Singh Yadav had terrorist links paralysed Parliament, forcing government to express regret and condemn the utterances. Verma stirred a hornet`s nes
One of the first major steps that Jayanti Natarajan took after assuming charge of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) in July 2011 was to dismantle the glass door her predecessor Jairam Ramesh had installed at the ministerial office in
Two incidents prove how politicians and bureaucrats treat public sector undertakings (PSUs) as their private jagirs and fiefdoms. In one case, witnessed personally, a junior (and young) cabinet minister asked his senior colleague how he could cont
Concerned over rising bad loans, Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked banks to take firm steps to recover loans saying the country cannot afford to have "affluent promoters and sick companies". "We wish banks take fir
An all-party meeting convened by the government on Monday failed to reach a consensus on the anti-rape Bill with leaders expressing reservations on the age of consent for sex and demanding safeguards against misuse of the proposed law. &qu
Order restraining Italian Ambassador from leaving India will continue till further orders, says SC. Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini tells SC he has complete immunity under the Vienna Convention. All authorities shall take approp
Fifteen MLAs belonging to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) have been suspended for a day from the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday as they disrupted proceedings demanding adoption of a resolution on the statehood issue. The TRS members
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh is ready with a tentative list of the top leaders of BJP for the positions of general secretary and vice-president of the party. Singh has discussed the tentative list with the RSS leaders aft
Bihar, led by its chief minister Nitish Kumar, invaded the national capital today in a determined bid to change the contours of national politics in the run-up to elections 2014. Thousands of poverty-stricken faces with inadequate body mass marche
Just how the bogey of mounting deficit is being raised to reign in subsidy for the poor and even replace it with the direct-benefits transfer (DBT) while raising the subsidy for the corporate and non-corporate firms, bodies and high networth indiv
Justice RM Lodha of supreme court set a beautiful example on Friday by telling a group of lawyers who had objected to the release of the film Jolly LLB that they should not watch the film if it offends them so much. The lawye
Sachin Tendulkar sought permission from chairman of Rajya Sabha on Friday to grant him leave for the first half of union budget session as he was busy with cricket. The entire house said ‘yes’ to allow him leave. Another Rajya S
Union minster of state for home RPN Singh was the minister in waiting for president Pranab Mukherjee during his recent Mauritius visit. Singh told the president that the stay in Port Louis should have been for 3-4 days as it is a strategic locatio
Like all things slapstick, in true Bollywood fashion, the Indian government’s typical reaction is kneejerk. Here’s how they do it: some minister or ministry top babu sits in his chair, the ones with a tall backrest wrapped in a white t
