A day after Haryana minister of state for home Gopal Goyal Kanda had to quit after a 23-year-old former airhostess named him in a suicide note before hanging herself at her Delhi house, Anuradha Bali ‘Fiza’, who had shot to fame after she married former deputy chief minister of Haryana Chander Mohan and converted to Islam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her house i
Union home minister Shushilkumar Shinde who insisted that he was “excellent” as power minister (in face of multiple grid failure which rocked the country on the day he left the power ministry) was greeted with serial blasts in Pune moments after taking over the charge of home affairs ministry on Wednesday. More embarrassment awaited him here. Minutes before the blasts, he listed in
Back-to-back failures of grids plunged the nation into darkness. A total of 21 states and its 60 million people were affected. Life in metros came to a grinding halt. People in small towns, for whom outages have become a way of life, were also surprised, and perhaps pleased, to see power cuts make a comeback on news TVs. World media termed it as the biggest power failure in a decade. Th
For a nation of more than one billion people, which has sent in 83 sportsmen in the 2012 London Summer Olympics, the country’s largest contingent in the games so far, to participate in 13 disciplines, a humble bronze on the fourth day of the sporting games is no feat. A gold missed in the poor performance of Abhinav Bindra, the Beijing gold winner, is a bigger loss. At present, India is 2
Team Anna’s latest agitation initially had only a lukewarm response. Commentators were then beginning to write off the movement. However, on Sunday, Anna Hazare took the centre stage and crowds have started flocking the venue. Some of them came because it was a Sunday. In the new week, will Anna’s presence give a boost to the anti-corruption agitation or has it run its course?
Maintaining that the total amount of money required for installing 1 lakh bio-toilets is equal to what is spent for one Rafale fighter jet India is buying from France, union rural development minister has said, “I feel in our country, it is very important to maximise the developmental impacts of the defence expenditure. Defence expenditure in India today is Rs 1,93,000 crore.”
Hearing a plea from the accused in the 37-year-old LN Mishra murder case, the supreme court has observed that it cannot fix a time limit for speedy trial. It has blamed the delay on “the system” even as it has said that speedy trial was intrinsic to the right to life of the accused.
The Delhi government has castigated the study conducted by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) for the BRTS mess in the capital. While doing so, it has cited the success of the Ahmedabad BRT. The CRRI report says unlike the Ahmedabad BRTS, the Delhi BRT is an open corridor. It says since the Ahmedabad BRTS is a closed system, the commercial travel speeds are much higher. The average spee
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet has approved a proposal to rename eight districts whose names were changed during former chief minister Mayawati`s tenure. Although the UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav drew much flak from the BSP supremo for his move, he has only given the districts their old names. While Mayawati says Akhilesh is resorting to cheap popularity tactics, she has not specified if her own
The Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki has been witnessing unrest after plant workers attacked management officials, leaving a senior manager dead and about 100 officials injured. The plant has been locked out and the workers are on strike. Even last year the union had gone on a strike. Senior management officials say the office bearers of the new union, Maruti Suzuki Workers` Union, were inexperie
Rahul Gandhi has agreed to play a bigger role in the party and the Congress has welcomed the scion’s decision. Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh had hinted that the elevation would happen in September. While a reshuffle is on the cards, the party is probably trying to consolidate affairs before the 2014 elections. On one hand, it is believed that a young face and that too of the
The cabinet, according to media reports, is to consider making rape a gender-neutral offence. In other words, it proposes to expand the definition of rape from a crime involving sexual assault of women to including male victims of sexual assault and by changing the relevant provisions of the IPC, Evidence Act and CrPc. The proposal is to replace “rape” with “sexual assault&rdq
Referring to the Guwahati case, National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma has said women should be "careful about the way they dress because such incidents are a result of blindly aping the West". She also says “aping the West blindly is eroding our culture and causing such crimes to happen”. While this might be taken as a pragmatic advice, will dress
Punjab and Haryana HC has said HUDA cannot give more licences to builders unless they show proof that they are not using groundwater illegally for construction. The court said the undertaking must mention the source of water for construction. Should all construction be banned if the builder can`t show legal source of water? Will this put additional pressure on local governments to first provide
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh is of the belief that since “a son inherits the DNA and genes of his father”, the latter should be punished for any crime committed by the former. Inaugurating the Chhattisgarh Science Centre in Raipur, Singh said, “Apradhi beta nahi hota, baap hota hai.” An ayurvedic doctor himself, Singh was addressing a gathering of scientists,
Within 17 days of the yatra, a total of 67 Amarnath pilgrims have died. Most deaths occurred due to cardiac arrest. The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board managing the pilgrimage is worried and it has asked authorities to address all health-related issues. The state health department, which is running dozens of medical camps, said in many cases the pilgrims were found to be in possession of fake fitnes
Union home minister P Chidambaram chided the urban middle class for bemoaning soaring prices of fuel and essential commodities. He said, “When the urban middle class can buy a bottle of mineral water for Rs 15 and ice-cream for Rs 20, why do they make so much noise about price rise?” He justifies price rise by saying it has directly benefited farmers. The increase may have d
Prime minister Manmohan Singh has been dubbed as an "underachiever" by Time magazine which says he appears "unwilling to stick his neck out" on reforms that will put the country back on growth path. This comes at a time when Singh is back as finance minister and there are high hopes from him. His second term as PM has been marred by scams and controversies, and above all, ch
The UN`s annual World Economic and Social Survey [Read here] says it is critical to find new ways to help the world`s poor. The report estimates that the number of people around the globe worth at least $1 billion rose to 1,226 in 2012. Together they own an estimated $4.6 trillion - or an average of $3.75 billion per pe
Nobody had ever said `while in Rome, dress as Romans do`. But the hardline Islamist organisation Jamait-e-Islami begs to differ. It has asked the Jammu and Kashmir tourism department to impose a dress code on those visiting the Valley. Its spokesperson said the tourism department must instruct tourists not to wear clothes contrary to the “local ethos and culture”. Whi
