India

New Delhi, November 13: If Sikhism, Jainism andBuddhism are separate and distinct religions, can followers of these faiths be bracketed as Hindus under the Constitution and be governed by Hindu personal law, the Supreme Court asked before issuing notice to the Centre and attorney general G E Vahanvati. Sikh scholar Birendra Kaur in her petition questioned the constitutional and past legislative

New Delhi, November 13: Dynamic pricing of air fares has led to tickets selling at crunch times, such as on eve of big festivals, for prices at which you could fly to Europe, and back. Check this out. On Diwali eve (Monday), a one-way ticket for that evening's flight from Delhi to Lucknow, barely an hour's journey, was going over Rs 30,000. A Delhi-Bangalore ticket for Tuesday was between Rs 9,500

New Delhi, November 12: India and Afghanistan Monday signed four agreements to cooperate in areas of social welfare, fertilizer, coal mining and youth affairs, an official here said. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in India on a four-day official visit that began Friday. A memorandum of understanding, under which India will provide grants to Afghanistan to implement small development

Hyderabad, November 12: Sporadic incidents of violence rocked the Old City after Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) legislators were arrested by police when they were trying to march towards Bhagyalakshmi temple at Charminar on Sunday. At some places, police had to fire tear gas shells and resort to mild lathicharge to disperse protestors. The MLAs gathered in the Old City after the Bhagyalakshmi

New Delhi, November 12: Telecom spectrum auction opened today to a lukewarm response with key circles such as Delhi and Mumbai finding no takers in the initial rounds. There were no applications for pan-India spectrum, the base price for which was set at Rs 14,000 crore that the industry said was too high. The government was looking to raise Rs 40,000 crore from the auction. At the end of the

Mumbai, November 12: Stating that he had not "completely collapsed", ailing Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Monday admitted his health was "not that good" but denied that he was on a ventilator. "My health is not that good, but I have not completely collapsed. I am not on a ventilator," Thackeray declared in a personalised edit in the party mouthpiece Saamna on Monday after reports in a section

New Delhi, November 12: The needle of suspicion in the campaign against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Nitin Gadkari points to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue M.G. Vaidya said Monday. Vaidya had said in a blog entry Sunday: "The roots of the campaign against Nitin Gadkari have to be in Gujarat because when Ram Jethmalani demanded Gadkari

New Delhi, November 12: Come 2017, you can hope to drive in the latest Audi or BMW at a considerably lower price as the government may lower the import duty to 30% by then and scale it down further to 20% in 2020 as part of the Broad-based Trade & Investment Agreement ( BTIA) with the 27-nation bloc. Similarly, customs duty on "high- end" wine is proposed to be slashed to 30% from near 150% levels

New Delhi, November 12: A new study has estimated that 100 million people have died due to smoking in India over the last 100 years, and the worst apparently is yet to come. Nearly 4.52 trillion cigarettes and 40.3 trillion beedis have been produced in 100 years, between 1910 and 2010 in India, according to a new study published in the journal Current Science. And in an even more shocking

Kolkata, November 11: Amid increasing concerns over noise and air pollution, this year, the demand for crackers and fireworks have decreased by 32 per cent, according to a report. "Celebrations this year may be cleaner, greener and noise-free as the year-on-year (y-o-y) searches for fireworks and firecrackers saw the biggest decline at 32 per cent," a a report by e-commerce platform for small