India

New Delhi, Jun 22: Amid protests over a sharp hike in fares and criticism of political parties, the government on Saturday strongly defended the increase in passenger fares, including for short-distance travel, arguing the revision was long overdue as the last hike took place around 11 years ago and a heavy subsidy burden was "unsustainable" in the wake of soaring costs. While passengers

New Delhi, Jun 21: Union Minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari has said party patriarch L K Advani deserves to be the President of India, a post commensurate with his stature. Appearing on Rajat Sharma's show 'Aap ki Adalat' on 'India TV', the Union Road Transport Minister said it would not have been proper had he (Advani) been made the Lok Sabha Speaker as the party veteran has already

New Delhi, Jun 21: Defending the steep hike in rail fare and freight rates as a 'difficult but correct decision', finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the railways can survive only if users pay for availing of facilities. "The passenger services have been subsidized by the freight traffic. In recent years, even freight fares have come under pressure," he said in his first reaction to the

New Delhi, Jun 21: There was evidence that several hundreds of Indians were stranded in Najaf province of Iraq as their employer has refused to return their passports, Amnesty International said on Saturday. "With fighting between state forces and armed groups intensifying and affecting civilians across Iraq, the stranded Indian workers could be facing rising dangers," Amnesty International India

Mumbai, Jun 21: The Shiv Sena on Thursday anointed Uddhav Thackeray as the saffron combine's CM pick. The Sena president later told journalists he had to honour Shiv Sainiks' collective wish. "The CM issue can be decided by discussions (with the BJP). We are not in a hurry," Thackeray said, indicating, for the first time, that he didn't intend to toe the hard line on the issue. Senior BJP leader

Islamabad, Jun 21: As many as 54 people were injured, seven of them critically, after a powerful explosion occurred at a shrine in Pakistan here Friday night, a media report said. Fify-four people were injured in the blast. Thirty four were taken to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) hospital where four are in critical condition, Dawn News quoted. Nine are being treated in Benazir

Muzaffarnagar, Jun 21: Married for the compensation, these women were rejected when the state did not pay A lie floated by a junior Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh has created serious trouble for many women among the riot-affected Muslim families in Muzaffarnagar. They have been thrown out by their husbands, who have accused them of hiding compensation money that they

Bangalore, Jun 20: With the NDA government's move to ease out several UPA appointed governors coming under opposition attack, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said all political appointees should resign voluntarily in the interest of the "system". "....it will be in the interest of the system that all the political appointees, they resign voluntarily. I'm using the term all

Chennai, Jun 20: Terming the Centre's move on use of Hindi as being "against letter and spirit" of the law, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to suitably modify the instructions to ensure that English was the language of communication on social media. The Chief Minister said she had learnt that two office memoranda issued by the Union Home Ministry

Bangalore, Jun 20: The onion price in Bangalore has gone up by nearly Rs. 10 a kilo in the wholesale market over the last fortnight and is likely to increase further, according to onion traders at the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC). The retail price of good quality onion, which was in the range of Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 a kilo, is now above Rs. 25. The increase, they say, is due to a