India

New Delhi, April 16: The government has sought to assure parents that the Supreme Court’s verdict making free education to 25 per cent children from weaker sections mandatory in private schools will not prompt the school managements to increase other students’ fee in order to shift the burden. “I do not think that will happen. I think there would be ways and means to raise resources. We will be

New Delhi, April 15: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended a Jet Airways pilot for a goofed-up landing at Singapore airport in November last year that could have resulted in a disaster similar to the Mangalore air crash of 2010. The incident occurred on November 14, 2011, when the pilot, captain R Chaudhary, of the Delhi-Singapore flight was bringing down the aircraft on

New Delhi, April 15: BJP today took a dig at Rahul Gandhi for his reported comment that he is a brahman, saying it shows that he and Congress have lost patience after failing to get the mandate in the Uttar Pradesh elections. "Now this is crossing all limits that Rahul Gandhi has started informing what his caste is ... that he is a brahman. Congress has lost all patience after losing the mandate

New Delhi, April 15: India and Pakistan on Saturday expressed desire to encourage greater trade through the new Integrated Check Post (ICP) built at Attari, Punjab. In a joint press statement, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Amin Fahim said the new infrastructure will enable a substantial increase in the movement of goods traffic across the border. “Both sides

New Delhi, April 15: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil considers preserving the secular, democratic, fabric of India among the difficult tasks facing the country today, the others being the challenges of achieving inclusive growth and curbing social problems such as corruption. Ms. Patil, whose term ends in July, on Thursday shared with The Hindu her experiences as President and her views on what

Chennai, April 14: Joining her West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa today attacked the Centre for its "arbitrary" action in reducing Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation to states by linking it with VAT rate revision. Though the Centre had agreed to compensate states for the revenue loss for 2010-11 also, the eligible compensation was "arbitrarily

Lucknow, April 14: In her first public appearance after losing assembly elections in March this year, Bahujan (BSP) supremo and former chief Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Mayawati was in a combative mood on Saturday when she warned the newly elected Samajwadi Party (SP) government of serious consequences if it tried to alter, damage or construct any new structure in Dalit memorials and parks

Washington, April 14: The 26/11 Mumbai attack was carried out by highly trained terrorists who were given training into paramilitary courses by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a US attorney has said. "...this (Mumbai attack) was, in fact, the handiwork of highly trained terrorists who had gone through the LeT paramilitary courses," US Attorney Neil H MacBride said in a submission to a US District court in

Mumbai, April 14: Tremors were today felt in Mumbai and parts of Western Maharashtra and Konkan and Kutch in Gujarat following an earthquake of magnitude 4.1 on the Richter Scale. No damage to life and property has been reported so far. The shocks were felt in Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Ratnagiri districts of Maharashtra, sources in the Met department said. The Koyna dam in Satara is safe

New Delhi, April 14 : With the Supreme Court bringing all recognized schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the government will have to boost spending on its flagship programme to meet the estimated Rs 2.3 lakh crore needed to fund the initiative over 2010-2014. RTE has been plagued with fund shortfalls with budgetary provision in the last two years being only half of what was estimated