The cabinet has finally approved 51 percent foreign equity in multi-brand retail stores and even 100 percent FDI in single-brand retailing. On the whole, this move is in tandem with the reforms, liberalisation and push towards market-oriented economy. As the big, organized retail removes the middle man, the producer (farmer) and the consumers stands to benefit – and we have seen that logi
Mayawati has now formalised her proposal to split the biggest state in the country. The ostensible reason? To improve governance. A decade ago, Uttar Pradesh was split to form Uttarakhand. At that time, two other states too came into being. And their record has been mixed. While Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh have reaped benefits of the statehood, Jharkhand arguably has not. Will
If any one man has made life really difficult for the UPA II, it is comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai. So, while the Congress leaders never miss an opportunity to take tacit potshots at him, the government as a whole is also bang on the job. CAG Rai on Tuesday appears before the joint parliament committee (JPC) in the 2G spectrum allocation scam probe. He is expected to
The king of good times is having bad times. Six weeks ago Kingfisher announced plans to recast its business model by doing away with its low-cost service. Last week, it said it was dropping unprofitable routes and speeding up a fleet reconfiguration, which would see its daily schedule of flights drop to 300 from 340. After the prime minister hinted at the possibility of “ways to help&rdqu
India has responded with the announcement of a trade-related confidence-building measure to match Pakistan according the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India. At an hour-long meeting between prime minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani in Addu, Maldives, Singh called Gilani a ‘man of peace’. However, on the road to peace, In
What comes first: party one represents or the office one holds? For West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the choice was obvious when she stormed a police station in Kolkata late on Monday night in an unprecedented intervention to ensure release of two of her party members arrested for rioting, arson and ransacking the police station about an hour earlier. The police
The denial of bail to DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi despite the CBI not objecting to her release has shocked the political fraternity. While media reports said her father was “shocked” and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was “anguished”; sympathies for Kanimozhi have been pouring in cutting across political lines. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani, who happens to
Magsaysay award winner and Team Anna member Kiran Bedi was recently criticised by former chief justice of India J S Verma for defending overcharging sponsors for her travel by saying that the excess money was diverted towards expenditure for the anti-corruption movement. Bedi, as a president`s award winner, is entitled to fly at subsidised fares. However, she has claimed reimbursement for the m
The supreme court on Thursday reduced the compensation payable to the family of those killed in the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy of 1997. In 2003, the Delhi high court found the cinema owners and civic authoirities guilty of negligence, and awarded Rs 25 crore civil compensation to the relatives of victims, which included Rs 15 lakh each to the relatives of the victims, less than 20 years at the
Infosys co-founder N R Narayanamurthy has claimed that nearly 80 percent of the students who crack the IIT entrances are of questionable calibre. He punched holes in the IITs` selection procedure saying that it took no more than coaching institutions getting students to mug a set of problems to crack the entrance exam. The HRD ministry has proposed a sharing of weightage between a SAT-l
The plan panel, in an affidavit, has proposed that to qualify as urban poor a person`s daily expenses should amount to Rs 31 or lesser. To stay poor in rural areas, a person`s daily expenditure can not go above Rs 26. The move has to cap poverty has come under fire from social actvists, media, and now as Times of India reports, from some mebers of the panel itself. While it is nece
The eleven on our hockey team, who recently won the Asian Champions trophy, recently refused a cash award of Rs 25,000 each at a recent felicitation ceremony sayuing that the prize amount was insultingly low. While many would contend that such cash awards are more honorariums and tokens of appreciation than actual financial rewards, it is also true that our national game (not cricket) h
India has been a reluctant keeper of the capital punishment - at least that`s what statistics would show. But often enough, we have fiery debates over it. Very seldom, these debates are on its efficiency as a crime deterrent, or even on the ethics of it. Sometimes, the debate is queered by the bloodthirst of outraged citizens like in l`affaire Kasab, sometimes by the anxiety of m
The d-day finally arrived and even before Anna Hazare could start his protest fast, the police forces trooped down, bundled him off and put him in custody. Several of his colleagues and supporters too were put behind bars. Home minister P Chidambaram has justified the police action saying the protesters had refused to abide by the conditions, leaving the authorities with no option. Howe
Police personnel involved in fake encounters should be hanged, supreme court judge Markandeya Katju has remarked, because “it is nothing but a cold-blooded murder”. True, the so-called fake encounters are human rights violations and the last couple of decades have seen a rise in their number. Some police personnel kill the accused believing they are delivering instant justice, some
The `government version` of the Lokpal bill has made a debut in parliament -- in the ninth attempt so far. Within the lower house, leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj has opposed the provision to keep the PM out of it purview, while Team Anna has started a series of demonstrations burning copies of the bill, because it neglects those kinds of corruption that make the life of an aam aadmi difficu
The `government version` of the Lokpal bill has made a debut in parliament -- in the ninth attempt so far. Within the lower house, leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj has opposed the provision to keep the PM out of it purview, while Team Anna has started a series of demonstrations burning copies of the bill, because it neglects those kinds of corruption that make the life of an aam aadmi difficu
Sacked telecom minister A Raja has been levelling serious charges against prime minister Manmohan Singh and others. The Congress party’s stance has been that his remarks should not be taken seriously as these come from an accused. Is it so or is there any substance to the allegations?
Commercial airlines, even the budget ones, have been known to exact stiff charges under many heads from their customers. One such head is allotment of a preferred seat. The going rate for choosing a seat in advance could set one back by as much as Rs 50 to Rs 750. The trend is that all seats are charged for preferential booking, with the charges going up for international flights
The government plans to rename Windsor Place in Janpath (in central Delhi) after Sobha Singh, a real estate developer who is ranked among the ‘builders of the modern Indian capital’. The argument in favour, advocated also by his son and eminent editor-novelist Khushwant Singh, is that we have not properly acknowledged our debt to those who built today’s Delhi, and renaming thi
