India

New Delhi, October 4: In another round of big-ticket reforms, the Union Cabinet will consider on Thursday raising the FDI cap in insurance sector to 49 percent and opening the pension sector to foreign investment besides creation of a National Investment Board. The Cabinet will also consider a number of other crucial measures like giving more powers to commodity market regulator FMC, Competition

New Delhi, October 4: The ceremonial office of the President is set to get a little less stuffy. Pranab Mukherjee is actually insisting that organizers of functions and government functionaries skip the use of honorifics like "Your Excellency" and "Hon'ble" for the President. Instead, Rashtrapati Bhawan is asking them to keep it simple: just "Shri". This, of course, has a spin-off — what do lesser

Bangalore, October 4: India's energy needs can be met entirely by solar and other renewable sources, says a new study by two professors at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. Their report published in the journal Current Science may add ammunition to the anti-nuclear agitation in India. The analysis by Hiremath Mitavachan and Jayaraman Srinivasan of IISc's Divecha Centre for

New Delhi, October 3: Petrol price may be cut by about Rs 1.60 per litre later this month as appreciation of rupee against the US dollar has helped state firms make profit on the fuel. Indian rupee appreciated to five-month high since the government announced allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retailing. This has eased the cost of imports for oil firms, helping them make

New Delhi, October 3: The election commission on Wednesday announced the dates for the crucial assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The Gujarat elections will be held in two phases in the month of December, chief election commissioner VS Sampath announced. The dates for polling in Gujarat are December 13 and December 17. The EC announced one-phase poll in Himachal Pradesh on

New Delhi, October 3: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the centre and state governments to provide basic infrastructure, including drinking water and toilets, in all schools within six months. A bench headed by Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan fixed the time limit and asked the governments to take steps to provide the basic facilities in schools across the country. The bench said that all its

New Delhi, October 3: Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Tuesday apologised for the derogatory comments he had made on women, but said he had been quoted out of context. "I apologise if people are upset, but my comments were taken out of context," Jaiswal, also a Congress Lok Sabha member, told reporters. He was reacting to criticism of his comments made during a poetry meet at K K Girls

Ahmedabad, October 3: A Vadodara-based RTI activist on Tuesday asked the state's BJP government to provide information about travelling expenses incurred by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues for attending a series of conference in 2007. Trupti Shah has sent a letter to Modi saying information about his and his Ministers' travel-related expenses during 'women

Mumbai, October 3: In Pakistan, oil companies slashed petrol prices by Rs 6 a litre effective Monday. Will their Indian counterparts follow suit? Consumers can only hope so, even though the fall in global crude prices and the rupee's rise against the dollar means that state-owned oil marketing companies are now earning profits on petrol. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that oil firms

New Delhi, October 2: After splitting with Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched his political party without giving out its name, promising change in the system and not just faces in Parliament. From the dais with an imposing poster of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri in the backdrop, Mr. Kejriwal said the name of the party would be announced on November 26, the day on which the