India

New Delhi, Feb 28: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented one of the most highly anticipated Indian budgets of recent years on Thursday, as the government looks to rein in a bloated fiscal deficit and restore confidence in Asia's third-largest economy. Following are highlights of the budget: Rs. 2 trillion for defence sector First housing loan up to Rs 25 lakh would get additional deduction of

New Delhi, Feb 27: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was set to present India's 82nd national budget in the Lok Sabha Thursday that will be the eighth such personal exercise for him -- two short of the record of 10 set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Since independence in August 1947, the country has seen a total of 25 ministers hold the finance portfolio. It has also seen 81 budgets -- 65

New Delhi, Feb 27: Apparently seeking to encash on the troubles in the BJP in Karnataka, Congress today gave signals of going it alone, ruling out an alliance with the H D Deve Gowda's JD-S in the state where assembly polls are due soon. Despite chief ministerial aspirants galore in Karnataka, the AICC would neither project any candidate in the assembly polls nor has it plans to field any MP in

New Delhi, Feb 27: India has lost about 10 per cent share of the global BPO market in the last five years to destinations like China, the Philippines and Brazil, raising concerns for the USD 20-billion Indian BPO industry. The pre-budget Economic Survey 2012-13, which was tabled in Parliament today, said India faces stiff competition from several emerging countries in the BPO sector. It called for

Mumbai, Fen 27: Tension brewed in parts of Mumbai and adjoining Thane districts today following yesterday's incident of stone pelting on Raj Thackeray's convoy by alleged NCP workers in Ahmednagar district, with MNS supporters attacking NCP office in Ambernath and calling a bandh. Angry MNS workers burnt effigies of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit pawar and blackened his posters in some parts of the

New Delhi, Feb 27: India's Economic Survey for 2012-13 has projected a 6.1-6.7 percent growth for the next fiscal after a deceleration to around 5 percent this year, with inflation seen falling slightly to 6.2-6.6 percent. "The slowdown is a wake-up call for increasing the pace of actions and reforms," said the survey, adding that India has navigated difficult times as these before, and with good

New Delhi, Feb 27: Parliament today passed a bill under which cases of sexual harassment at workplace, including against domestic help, will have to be disposed of by in-house committees within a period of 90 days failing which penalty of Rs 50,000 would be imposed. Repeated non-compliance of the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill

New Delhi, Feb 26: By the end of this calendar year, the Indian Railways will introduce a new technology to make the electronic ticket booking system work faster and easier, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said Tuesday. Presenting the annual budget of his ministry in the Lok Sabha, Bansal said the government planned to introduce a “next generation” e-ticketing system that will support the

New Delhi, Feb 26: The Railway Budget for 2013-14 today spared passengers from any further hike in fares but raised various other charges on tickets along with freight tariff of less than 5 per cent. Presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who had effected an across-the-board hike in passenger fares only last month, said he does not intend to pass on the impact

New Delhi, Feb 26: In a big setback to the ailing Kingfisher Airlines, which may end its revival plans, the government on Monday withdrew all its domestic and international traffic rights. These slots will be given to other airlines. According to an official release, Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh has decided to withdraw all international bilateral traffic rights allocated to Kingfisher