Raghuram Rajan, a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago has become honorary economic advisor to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Rajan has many achievements: He is the only Indian origin economist chosen by the International Monetary Fund as its chief economist; he is the writer ...

The union cabinet has approved the long pending right to education bill which aims to impart free education among children under the age-group of 6-14 years. Talking to media, the finance minister of India, P Chidambaram said that the decision to clear the bill was taken at a cabinet meeting. The ...

The Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta introduced the Companies Bill, 2008 in Lok Sabha on October 23, 2008. The new bill is likely to replace the existing 52-year old legislation. The new bill proposes to do away with the 658 provisions and 15 schedules in the existing Act. Under the ...

Ashok Chawla has been appointed as India's Alternate Governor in the World Bank Board. Mr Ashok Chawala is serving as the secretary of Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the Finance Ministry. Chawla will replace D. Subba Rao, his predecessor. Rao has been appointed as the Governor of  ...

The ailing Information and Broadcasting Minister of India Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has been replaced by Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma. The additional charge has been allocated by President Pratibha Patil on the advice of Prime Minster Manmohan Singh.  Priyaranjan Dasmunshi ...

The 14th meeting of the National Integration Council (NIC) will take place in New Delhi on 13 October 2008. This high level meeting will be headed by the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh. Several issues will be discussed at the day-long meeting including promotion of education among ...

The ministry of social justice of India has denied the Christian and Muslim of the country the scheduled caste (SC) status. Earlier a proposal was offered to the ministry requesting to make a child eligible for SC status if either the mother or father belongs to SC. The ministry revived the ...

A three-member panel was created by the Indian government on Saturday, September 27, 2008 to review the complaints voiced by the defence personnel pertaining the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Panel. Defence Minister A.K. Antony is also a part of this three-member panel, which has been instructed ...

Center in the Delhi High Court has argued that homosexuality is a social vice and the state has the power to contain it. The government counsel argued that gay sex is immoral and a reflection of a perverse mind and its decriminalization would lead to moral degradation of society. Responding to gay ...

India got its new Finance Secretary in Arun Ramanathan on September 23, 2008. The appointment of the new Finance Secretary has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. However, after the appointment of D. Subbarao as the Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the office of ...

The government has amended APEDA Act which aims to protect India's farm products' copyright violation.  Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Information & Broadcasting Minister said that amended Act will enable APEDA to effectively protect copyright violation of Indian agri-products world ...

Amidst continuous discourse for decriminalization of homosexuality and judicial favor government may decide the future of S. 377 of IPC. Already, there is a division of opinion between the Home Ministry and Health Ministry on the issue. Admittedly, Home Ministry claims that Indian society strongly ...

For the better rehabilitation of convicts India has agreed for the transfer of prisoners with Israel. P R Dasmunsi, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, in a press conference held in Delhi said that the Union Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister has approved India-Israel exchange of ...

Making government job more attractive to women employees the government has decided to give 3 years child care leave. Also, the decision has been taken to increase maternity leave of women employees from 135 days to 180 days for each of their two children. The decision makes a women employee to ...

Replacing Ashok Chawla, M Madhavan Nambiar has become new secretary for Ministry of Civil Aviation. Mr Nambiar is a 1974 batch IAS officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre. He was collector of Dharmpuri district for quite sometime. Now, he would be responsible to make national carrier 'Air India' a profit ...

Ashok Chawla, who has been working as Secretary of Ministry of Aviation has become new DEA (Department of Economic Affairs) Secretary. Chawla is a 1973 IAS officer of Gujarat cadre. Earlier also, he has worked as additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. He ...

The government of India (GOI) is mulling a plan to launch a National Dairy Plan to boost milk production in country. Also, it will be investing more than Rs 17,000 crore in the said scheme. Sharad Pawar, the Agriculture Minister said that Union Government is working on a comprehensive plan to ...

India has successfully launched its indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile at Chandipur in Orissa. The launch pad number 2 of the ITR complex was used to test-fire the missile. According to official sources, another test would be conducted only after the data analysis ...

The Indian government has scrapped its four-year-old plan to build the world's highest bridge over River Chenab (359 metres) and in the process kept from committing a grave Himalayan blunder. The bridge was an important part of the first railways line linking Jammu to Kashmir. 
 
An ...

UPA government has decided to ease burden of loan for higher education among students. Where getting an education loan is difficult, paying back the same loan is almost impossible. Under the current scheme all the students whose parents are not earning more than Rs 2.5 lakh and who want to pursue ...

The National Biofuels Policy which aims to boost the prospects of biofuel as an alternative energy source may get clearance from cabinet soon. Also, the policy will offer a roadmap for the Indian industry so that it can utilize the full potential of the critical sector. The draft policy under the ...

Maharashtra on Thursday, September 5, 2008 gave green signal to a loan of three billion rupees for repairing the ailing Ratnagiri Gas and Power Project Ltd (RGPP). A statement issued in this regard informed that this loan will be forwarded through Power Finance Corp (PFC). It further mentioned that ...

The Union Cabinet is likely to take decision on Election Commission's proposal to ban exist polls before and during elections.  Also, there is a similar proposal from the Ministry of Law to ban publishing or telecasting opinion and exit polls during elections. The proposal is pending with ...

Finance secretary Duvvuri Subbarao will substitute YV Reddy as RBI governor. The announcement in this regard came on Monday , 1 September. Now, Subbarao will be the presiding officer of country's monetary policies for  the next five years. This IIT Kanpur BTech, studied economics from ...

With an agenda to restrict cross-border terrorism and strengthen the border management, Delhi and Dhaka entered into a high level discussion at the Home Secretary level, in Dhaka on August 31. Earlier both Border Security Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) agreed to maintain peace and harmony ...

The Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has finally agreed to talk to the government on the Singur issue at the behest of the West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. The future of the Tata Motors project at Singur in West Bengal now rests on how talks between Ms Banerjee and the state government ...

Commenting on Indian economy's dismal performance in first quarter, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia speculates that India will have better growth rate next fiscal. He admitted that the slowdown was not unexpected, and a growth of almost eight percent is a healthy and ...

Cabinet has approved new Company Bill; the bill will replace existing Companies Act of 1956. The new bill will pave a path to form a company more easily than existing law provides. The Companies Bill 2008 will enable the formation of a one-person company (OPC); the enabling act will help boosting ...

Government is thinking of amending Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) of India bill presented in Parliament in the year 2007. The bill after amendment will empower Airport Regulator for fixing and reviewing charges in all domestic airports. Along with this, government is willing to allow ...

India's PM Manmohan Singh will sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) at the East Asia Summit in Bangkok in December this year. The agreement will ensure lowering down of duties and free flow of trade in goods. India's economic diplomats consider the ...