India

New Delhi, Mar 4: The GST Council today fixed a 5 per cent tax rate on small hotels and restaurants and approved draft of key supporting legislations to enable rollout of the new indirect tax regime from July 1. The all-powerful Council approved the final draft of Central GST (C-GST) and Integrated GST (I-GST) and will take up for approval the State-GST and Union Territory-GST (UT-GST) laws at its

Varanasi, Mar 4: On a whirlind day in his Lok Sabha constituency to rally voters around the BJP in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a road show, offered prayers at two historic temples and paid tributes to Hindutva ideologue Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya today. His road show was scheduled on a day when 49 constituencies went to the polls in the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi, Mar 4: The GST Council at a meeting today broadly agreed on the contours of two key legislations - CGST and IGST - but a final approval is likely only by mid-March. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met with his state counterparts today and discussed the GST legislation to be adopted by Union Territories, but there was no discussion with regard to the State GST Bill. "As many as 26

Mumbai, Mar 4: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maharashtra chief has hit the headlines over his son’s opulent wedding that involved sleek video invites, designer sets and a lavish ceremony monitored by police using drone-mounted cameras. At least 30,000 guests, including the state’s entire cabinet led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, attended the wedding of Raosaheb Danve’s son Santosh, who is an

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 4: A fresh autopsy was today ordered on the body of a jawan from Kerala, found dead after a sting video on the "abuse" of buddy system in the army, after his family insisted on it, raising doubts over this demise. The fresh post-mortem of Roy Mathew (33), a native of Karuvelil in Ezhukon in Kollam district, was underway at the Government Medical College Hospital here, hours

Washington, Mar 4: The US has assured India that the H-1B visas issue was not a priority for it and would be part of the larger immigration reforms package that the new Trump administration is working on. The assurance came amid an ongoing debate in the US and reported moves by the Trump Administration to bring out an executive order to curtail the use of H-1B visas. "There was a sense that there

Lucknow, Mar 4: Polling in 49 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats, with SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Azamgarh being in focus, started today amidst tight security arrangements. Assembly segments of Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency of firebrand BJP leader Yogi Adityanath, and Mau, where jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari is in fray, also figure in this penultimate phase of polling that will also

New Delhi, Mar 3: India today downplayed its participation in an upcoming meeting in Pakistan to discuss sharing of Indus river water, saying it does not amount to resumption of government-level Indo-Pak talks, which have been stalled over terrorist strikes by Pak-based groups. Senior government officials insisted the Permanent Indus Commission, which will meet in Lahore later this month, deals

New Delhi, Mar 3: An Army jawan who had figured in a sting operation by a news website criticising the 'sahayak' (orderly) system last month was found dead in mysterious conditions in an abandoned barrack in Deolali Cantonment in Maharashtra on Thursday. Roy Mathew, a gunner, was found hanging from the ceiling of a room. Doctors said 33-year-old Mathew, whose body was decomposed, might have died

Lakhimpur Kheri, Mar 3: Curfew was imposed in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday night following clashes between two communities over an objectionable video that went viral on Whatsapp. The city has not seen or heard of communal clashes since decades. It was peaceful even when the country was burning after the Babri mosque demolition in Ayodhya. Curfew has been a rare thing for the city