Mumbai, January 13 (Agencies): Sources reveal how a small-time convict from Kandivli went to Pakistan and pumped bullets into IM mastermind Riyaz Bhatkal. Even as the daring shootout that killed India’s most wanted terrorist and chief of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, Riyaz Bhatkal has thrown investigators into a huddle, the needle of suspicion points to a Mumbai assassin. According to sources, the man identified as the shooter is a former convict affiliated to Mumbai’s u

Mumbai, January 13 (Agencies): Girls in a small village in Uttar Pradesh have found unlikely allies in Bollywood. Industry biggies, including Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Karan Johar and Farhan Akhtar, will walk the ramp later this month to raise funds for the education of girl children in rural India. The proceeds from the fashion show will go to a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Mijwan, a village in Uttar Pradesh.“I am very happy to support the cause of the girl child

NEW Delhi, January 12 (PTI): Citing the collapse of the Berlin Wall that unified Germany, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that differences between India and Pakistan may be resolved one day since the two cannot wish each other away and live in “perpetual tension”. “I do not have the capacity to indulge in the romanticism that like Berlin Wall, one day the differences may go. How the course of history will take turn, nobody can predict with that precision. I

New Delhi, January 12 (Agencies): The Nationalist Congress Party, a major constituent of the UPA, today hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for blaming coalition compulsions for price rise, saying his statements should reflect “humility” and not “arrogance”. A day after Gandhi made the comments which seemed to target Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, NCP General Secretary and spokesman D P Tripathi said the Congress leader’s statement was not based on

New Delhi, January 12 (PTI): Hitting out at Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday said his “improper” remarks against the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the 2G spectrum issue had hurt the dignity of the government auditor. PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi also said that the committee members had asked him to take appropriate steps to ensure that such instances do not recur.“The sense of the committee wa

NEW Delhi, January 12 (PTI): In a first instance of its kind, Army Chief V. K. Singh on Wednesday appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in connection with alleged irregularities in the canteen stores supplies. The PAC had called the chiefs of the three defence services for a hearing after a CAG report pointed out irregularities in the supply chain management of rations by Canteen Stores Department (CSD).General Singh appeared before the PAC headed by senior

Buddhadeb-Chidambaram meeting between Jan 17-19 Kolkata, January 12 (Agencies): The long-awaited meeting between Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Delhi to discuss law and order in the state, including the January 7 Lalgarh killings, might take place between January 17 and 19. “We are trying to fix up two meetings with the Home Minister and Prime Minister between January 17 and 19,” CM’s secretariat source

An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard as a Kashmiri youth, whose face covered with a scarf, waits to submit his documents during a police recruitment rally in Srinagar, January 12. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between Hindu-majority India and predominately Muslim Pakistan, but claimed by both in its entirety. (AP Photo) Srinagar, January 12 (PTI): Just a few months back youths in Kashmir used to turn out in huge numbers to fight pitched battles

New Delhi, January 12 (Agencies): India’s largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) Wednesday entered into a joint venture with telecom giant Bharti Airtel to deliver banking services to those sections which do not have them yet. ‘We look forward to taking the benefits of banking to the Indian masses and building a more inclusive society,’ SBI chairman O.P. Bhatt said. SBI will have a 51 percent stake while Airtel will hold 49 percent in the Rs.100 crore jo

Ahmedabad, January 12 (PTI): General Motors India today said it will launch six new cars in India in the next two years, while also stating that it will invest $ 100 million (about Rs. 450 crore) to increase production capacity at its Halol plant in Gujarat. The company, which plans to launch three light commercial vehicles from the stable of its Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) during the same time period, also said it has lined up to introduce 14 new va

Kochi, January 12 (PTI): Kerala-based based MindHelix Technologies, today launched ‘Tuk Tuk meter’, claimed to be India’s first GPS based multi-platform Auto fare calculator that runs through smart phones. The application can be started on getting into the autorickshaw and the meter in the phone will run alongside the meter in the rickshaw. It can also double-check the distance travelled as shown in the auto’s meter and the GPS distance calculated by the applica

MUMBAI, January 12 (Agencies): Low-cost carrier IndiGo has placed firm orders for 180 Airbus 320 aircraft at an estimated cost of $ 15.6 billion. The order is the single largest for jets, in terms of volume, to be ever placed in the commercial aviation history. It is not the first time that IndiGo has placed a brow-raising order though. The Gurgaon-based private carrier created ripples in the 2005 Paris airshow with an announcement to buy 100 A320s. Currently, the airline flies 34 A320

New Delhi, January 11 (PTI): Tata group chairman Ratan Tatahas criticised in the Supreme Court the government’’s”lackadaisical attitude” on the leakage of his tappedtelephonic conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia,alleging it has remained least bothered about the violation ofan individual’’s privacy in the entire episode.He voiced the criticism in an affidavit filed in thecourt in response to the government’’s reply to his pet

PM Manmohan Singh during a high level meeting on food inflation in New Delhi on Tuesday.  NEW Delhi, January 11 (Agencies): A high level meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss ways to tackle food inflation, particularly the zooming prices of onion, essential vegetables and milk, remained “inconclusive’’, according to official sources. The meeting, lasting one-and-a-half hours, was attended among others by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, A

NEW Delhi, January 11 (AFP): Indians are growing richer, but they are also adopting unhealthy lifestyles that could take years off their lives and threaten economic growth, a major study said Tuesday. In a wide-ranging review of India’s under-resourced health system published in the British magazine The Lancet, studies by a clutch of top doctors flagged some particular medical downsides linked to economic progress.“Rapidly improving socioeconomic status in India is associat

Washington, January 11 (PTI): An Indian-American is among four persons charged by US authorities as part of a wide-ranging investigation involving the multi-billion-dollar Galleon Group hedge fund scam, the biggest insider trading case in the country. Sunil Bhalla, a senior executive with Polycom, along with three others was named in fresh charges filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday.Out of the four charged in the case, the SEC alleged, Robert Feinblatt, a

Madurai, January 11 (Agencies): The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has entered into a tie-up with the international news agency Thompson Reuters’ Indian subsidiary to provide market information to farmers. The one year programme is being introduced in Tamil Nadu from January as a pilot project by NABARD with Reuters Market Light (RML), a unit of Thomson Reuters India, contracted to provide information to farmers through Short Message Service (SMS), R

Washington, DC, January 11 (PTI): US President Barack Obama has said that the nation is grieving and in shock after the Saturday's shootout incident that critically injured Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, besides killing six others including a nine-year-old girl and a federal district judge. "All of us are still grieving and in shock from the tragedy that took place. Gabby Giffords and others are still fighting to recover. Families are still absorbing the enormity of the

New Delhi, January 11 (agencies): Days after Pakistan sought an update on the probe into the Samjhauta Express bombing, the government today ruled out sharing information at this stage saying it was “too premature”. Ministry of Home Affairs has informed the Ministry of External Affairs to convey to Islamabad that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has not completed its probe into the 2007 explosions in the India-Pakistan train which claimed 68 lives.“It is too pr

Former Congress party lawmaker Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy sits in the backdrop of a portrait of his father YSR Reddy during a day-long fast to protest against alleged injustice to farmers from Andhra Pradesh state, in New Delhi, January 11.  (AP Photo) NEW Delhi, January 11 (PTI): Former MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who staged a show of strength here on Tuesday, virtually dared the Congress to take action against its MLAs and MPs who are with him saying the Kiran Kumar Reddy governme