India

Pazarbhanga, July 17: India: India’s annual monsoon has claimed 109 lives since rains started in June and left at least 400,000 people homeless in the northeastern state of Assam, in a tragedy experts say was made worse by corruption and poor management of the Brahmaputra River. A senior member of the Assam Human Rights Commission, a government body, told Reuters it suspects millions of dollars

Guwahati, July 17: Even as the July 9 molestation of a girl in the city by a gang rocked the Assam Assembly on Monday, outside the House, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the Government had asked the CID to probe the allegation that a television journalist instigated the incident. Speaking to journalists, the Chief Minister admitted his lapses and said the police was at fault. The journalist too

New Delhi, July 17: Hailed abroad not too long ago as statesman and economic guru, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is at the receiving end of increasing harsh comment with British daily, The Independent, critiquing his tenure under a disparaging headline "Manmohan Singh - India's saviour or Sonia's poodle?" The report, although less widely circulated than several others in the UK, is the latest

Mumbai, July 17: When one cousin's heart became cause for concern, the other cousin's heart melted. On Monday, when Uddhav Thackeray, executive president of the Shiv Sena, was hospitalized on account of a suspected heart ailment, his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray cut short his two-day party conclave in Alibaug to be at his bedside at Lilavati Hospital. Later in the evening, he drove Uddhav home

New Delhi, July 17: A day after US President Barack Obama's call for lifting of foreign investment curbs by India, the government on Monday shot back asking Washington not to meddle with the country's internal affairs and suggested that the world's largest economy should lead the fight against protectionism. The statement came amid protests from the Opposition, which asked the government not

Mumbai, July 17: It's a trend that augurs well for women in the corporate world. Organizations, in a bid to improve their gender diversity ratio, are pulling out all the stops to recruit female employees, beginning with higher fees for head hunters. While Deutsche Bank offers a 2% additional fee to a recruiter for bringing women candidates to the bank, Executive Access, an executive search firm

New Delhi, July 16: Actor-activist Aamir Khan Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and union minister Mukul Wasnik here and raised the issue of the plight of manual scavengers in the country. Aamir called on the prime minister at his official residence at 7, Race Course Road, and sought that the practice be done away with. Later, in a joint press conference with Minister for Social Justice and

New Delhi, July 16: Asserting that policy decision is "sovereign" right of the country, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today said the Barack Obama administration should itself lead the fight against protectionism and trade barriers. In his reaction to the US President's remarks that India must carry out difficult economic reforms, Sharma said," "he (Obama) has every right to convey

New Delhi, July 16: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh was today chosen by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as its unanimous candidate for the August 7 Vice-Presidential election against UPA nominee Hamid Ansari. The opposition alliance said it had reservations over the re-nomination of Mr Ansari, particularly the manner in which he conducted the Rajya Sabha when the Lokpal

New Delhi, July 16: India has dismissed Barack Obama's statement that the investment climate in India is "deteriorating," suggesting that the US President is "not properly informed" about the country's strong economic fundamentals. And that certain "international lobbies" are attempting such misinformation. Mr Obama's weekend statement has raised the hackles of not just the government, but also