India

New Delhi, July 23: Rashtrapati Bhavan is getting ready for its new resident, Pranab Mukherjee, who will take oath as the 13th President of India at 11.30 am on Wednesday. This evening, Parliamentarians will gather in Central Hall to give a farewell to Pratibha Patil. In the end, the suspense on Sunday was only over what the margin of Mr Mukherjee's victory would be. He got 69.31 per cent votes

New Delhi, July 23: The euphoria over Pranab Mukherjee's win may prove short-lived as ally NCP is flexing muscles over being ignored in decision-making in the ruling coalition. A shift of the popular eye from celebrations in the party to a sulking NCP chief Sharad Pawar in a day's time may not be a script of the ruling party's choice, but will keep the latter on the defensive. The Congress brass

New Delhi, July 23: The bloody and systematic attack on the senior management at Maruti's Manesar plant may have been the result of Naxal influence, according to sources within the government. Intelligence agencies have been asked to investigate whether Maoists are infiltrating trade unions in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt, which has witnessed serious labour trouble in the past few years, added the

Guwahati, July 23: Curfew which was clamped in Kokrajhar town of Assam, where nine people were killed in attacks and counter-attacks between two groups, has been lifted on sunday. Curfew was imposed from 12 noon yesterday to 6 am today. A high-level official meeting scheduled this afternoon will assess the situation and will decide whether further imposition of curfew was necessary or not, sources

New Delhi, July 23: Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday scripted history by becoming the first person from West Bengal to be elected as the President of India. He defeated his opponent, former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, with a huge margin to be elected as the 13th President of the country. Following the declaration of the results, Mukherjee thanked the people of the "great country" for his win with a

New Delhi, July 22: Pranab Mukherjee was today elected as the 13th President, marking a new journey for the veteran Congress leader after over four decades of life in active politics. Mukherjee, UPA nominee, got 5,64,469 vote value, well beyond the half-way mark of 5,25,140 in an electoral college of over 10.5 lakh when counting of votes polled by the MPs and MLAs of 20 of the 30 states was

Mumbai: If the Congress hoped that tempers would cool over the weekend within estranged ally Sharad Pawar's party, that may have been wishful thinking. In Mumbai, Mr Pawar's deputy, Praful Patel, reiterated that there is no coordination within the Congress-led coalition at the centre. "The NCP has a vision but it finds no direction in the UPA and nothing is happening," said Mr Patel. "Ministers

New Delhi, July 22: Drought conditions loom over south Karnataka and central Maharashtra adding to concern at the severely deficient southwest monsoon in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These States have been advised to go for early rabi (winter) plantation to make up for the shortfall in kharif sowing. Much will depend on the progress of the monsoon in the last week of July. With an average 40

Bangalore, July 21: Claiming that the Lokpal bill it introduced in Parliament was the "best", Government today said there is no justification for Team Anna's indefinite fast from July 25 unless there is a "political" motive. "Unless he (Anna Hazare) has political motive, he has absolutely no justification going for any more agitation," Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters

Mumbai, July 21: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which pulled out of the UPA government in protest against the way the party was treated by the Congress, on Saturday said it will remain an ally of the ruling coalition. Talking to reporters at the Mumbai airport after his arrival from Delhi with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel said, “NCP is part of the UPA and will remain so.” NCP, a