India

New Delhi, April 26: Negotiations to secure the release of Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon are expected to begin on Thursday as the mediators appointed by the Chhattisgarh government and the Communist Party of India (Maoist) convene in Raipur. Mr. Menon was abducted by armed cadres of the CPI (Maoist) when he was addressing a farmers’ meeting in his district on April 21. The Maoists gave the

New Delhi, April 26: Global ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday revised the outlook on India's long term sovereign rating to 'negative' from 'stable' - a thumbs down that could adversely affect the way foreign investors view India. S&P's decision questions the India story by citing its sliding growth numbers. It also cites the high fiscal deficit, a growing debt burden and the government

Bhubaneswar, April 25: Maoists holding the ruling BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka for over a month on Wednesday decided to release the tribal leader on Thursday, a lawyer, who fights cases for the Maoists, said. “The Maoists have held their ‘praja (people’s) court’ which has pronounced its verdict for releasing the Laxmipur MLA,” said Koraput-based lawyer Nihar Ranjan Patnaik. “A senior leader of the Andhra

New Delhi, April 25: BJP Parliamentary Party today decided to rake up the Bofors pay-offs issue in Parliament in wake of fresh allegations that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi may have soft-pedalled the probe to protect Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley spoke during the Parliamentary Party meeting about the allegations related to the

New Delhi, April 25: It's a shocking revelation in this day and age. Not just Indian men, but even adolescents - in the 15-19 age group - feel that wife beating is justified. Unicef's "Global Report Card on Adolescents 2012", says that 57% of adolescent boys in India think a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife. Over half of the Indian adolescent girls, or around 53% think that a

New Delhi, April 25: The whistleblower in the Bofors case has made his identity known after 25 long years. In an exclusive interview, former Swedish Police chief Sten Lindstrom has owned up being the 'Swedish Deep Throat' in the illegal payoffs case that once rocked both India and Sweden. Now a quarter of a century later, investigations lie buried, despite coming tantalizingly close to blowing the

New Delhi, April 25: The price of diesel may go up as the government has agreed to make the prices “market determined.” The announcement came on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha in the form of a written reply by Minister of State Namo Narain Meena. The minister, however, said the government did not propose to deregulate prices of cooking gas. “(The) government has, in principle, agreed to make prices of

New Delhi, April 24: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Tuesday pitched for Vice President Hamid Ansari for the post of Indian president. “Vice President Ansari should be made the president,” Lalu Prasad told reporters outside parliament. “(A.P.J. Abdul) Kalam has been president once, so the vice president should now be the president,” he said. Former president Kalam's name has featured

Washington, April 24: The lack of US condemnation of India's latest missile test demonstrates that the Washington appreciates India's need to meet the emerging strategic challenge posed by rising China, according to two US scholars. It also shows "US is comfortable with Indian progress in the nuclear and missile fields", Lisa Curtis, senior research fellow for South Asia, and Baker Spring

New Delhi, April 24: NRI kids Abhigyan (3) and Aishwarya (1) Bhattacharya on Tuesday finally return to their family in India after a Norwegian court ruled that their custody should be handed over to their uncle. The flight carrying the NRI kids landed at the New Delhi airport on Tuesday morning. This brings to an end a family tragedy that grabbed headlines in India, disrupted ties between New