Neem coating of urea, one of the key anti-diversion measures introduced by the Narendra Modi government to check the misuse of fertilizer urea by industries, seems to be paying off. According to the latest numbers, the Indian taxpayer saved about Rs 8,000 cr thanks to the move in the form of lower urea subsidy bill […]
NDTV, the oldest television news channel in India, was forced to withdraw a headline that portrayed gang violence in Dhule in Maharashtra as yet another case of ‘lynching’ in India after readers objected. Many commenters felt that the channel, which has been attempting to project itself as ‘Liberal’ outfit standing up to a ‘right wing’ […]
The latest entrant to India’s telecom market, Reliance Jio, has announced an unprecedented offer — a 4G enabled phone with support for apps and videocalling for free. According to Mukesh Ambani, customers do not have to pay anything for the phone as the cost of the phone will be returned to the buyer when he […]
India added only 827 megawatt of solar power generation capacity in the first three months of the current financial year, indicating a slow start to the yearly program. The addition of the first three months represents only 8.27% of the 10,000 megawatt that it is supposed to come online this year. According to India’s ambitious […]
The number of post offices with passport issuance centers has risen to 55, the government said. Another 180 will be opened as well, the ministry of external affairs said, divulging the list of the post offices where passport seva kendras have been opened so far. Citizens can apply for their passports from these facilities instead […]
Faced with a slowdown due to the emergence of the pan-India competitor Reliance Jio, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has halved the price of its unlimited 2 Mbps DSL broadband plan to 599 per month. The player was earlier offering unlimited 2 Mbps for Rs 1,199. Though cheap by the company’s standards, the earlier offer […]
The Supreme Court has refused the request for an early listing of a petition that questions permitting descendants of people who migrated to Pakistan to come back to India. The petition seeks the quashing of the Jammu and Kashmir Rehabilitation Act of 1981 that would give the right of return to anyone who moved to […]
Netflix, the world’s biggest distributor of movies, ranked Mumbai-based 7 Star cable network and Spectranet, which offers fiber broadband in several cities, as the fastest networks for prime time usage. The average speed available to Netflix was 2.77 Mbps on 7 Star cable and 2.69 Mbps on Spectranet in June, the movie streaming company’s ratings […]
With Reliance Jio raising the price of its 1GB-per-day pack from Rs 309 to Rs 399, Idea Cellular has managed to beat the new operator in this segment, though not by much. Idea Cellular offers 1GB/day for 84 days at Rs 397, making it cheaper by 2 rupees. Though Idea’s scheme is not listed on […]
A photo of a young Muslim girl working with the Students Federation of India, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has reopened questions around whether the Left movement in Kerala is straying from its ideological roots and commitments. Ameera Khan from Haripad in Kerala has shot into prominence after a photo […]
Surya Roshni, one of India’s oldest electrical brands, said it launched what could be India’s most power efficient full-size ceiling fan — the SS-32. The fan belongs to the new breed of brushless or BLDC fans that use an electronic circuit to convert alternating current into direct current or DC, instead of a brush. Surya’s […]
A Muslim girl who got married to a Hindu boy has come under heavy fire on social media for causing distress to her parents. Many of her former co-religionists found her decision unpalatable. “You have sacrificed the eternal for the fleeting, not because you lack education, but because you have lost discrimination. Let us hope […]
Users of the JioFi, the personal hotspot device from Reliance Jio, will be able to get a new plan that takes the free data offered per day to 5 GB. At present, the highest amount of free data that any user on the 4G service can get is 2 GB, for a payment of around […]
The cloud-based VPS, or virtual private server market in India has seen the entry of several new players in recent months, driving down prices. VPSes are used for various functions, including web hosting, software development and testing. Till about a year ago, prices for VPSes in India were quite high, at around Rs 1,800 per […]
It’s become something of a fashion to complain about job losses in India’s big IT services firms. Companies like Infosys Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Cognizant employ over a million people in the country, and have been letting go off tens of thousands this year as they grapple with slowing growth and changing business […]
Noted Kashmiri politician Bhim Singh has called on the government to appoint the next president from Jammu & Kashmir and send a strong signal to secessionists. Singh suggested the name of another Kashmiri politician Karan Singh for the post. Karan Singh is the son of the last ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu […]
Shares of Reliance Industries rose 3.5% today — an extraordinary move for such a large company — after it emerged that not only did the company not lose subscribers when it made the transition from free to paid services in April, it actually added a few million. The result was that the new entrant had […]
Where the sun cannot reach, a poet’s words can, goes a popular saying. At a time when the concept of South Asian community and solidarity is receding due to the onslaught of geopolitical interests and the widening distrust among regional countries, poets are imagining what politicians have failed to do. They still hold the view […]
V2 Retail, formerly known as Vishal Retail, said it expects organized retail in India to grow a strong pace in the next three years to increase its share of the overall market to 24% by 2020. At present, the share of organized retail — mostly super markets and hyper markets, but also e-commerce — is […]
Sun Direct, the DTH arm of Sun TV, could end up benefiting from the financial troubles faced by Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Communications. Speaking to media yesterday, Reliance Communications top honchos said the company was looking at various ways to reduce debt, including a sale of its DTH business. However, DTH services are notoriously difficult […]
