The Parliamentary panel on finance will present its report on demonetization in the upcoming Monsoon Session and RBI Governor will not be called again on the note ban issue, the committee’s chairman M Veerappa Moily said today. During the more than three-hour long meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance here today, RBI Governor Urjit Patel took a lot of questions but many members said the central bank chief did […]

An indefinite strike has paralysed life in India’s tea-producing region of Darjeeling. A local party is demanding a separate state for the area’s majority Nepali-speaking Gorkha community. The protests have followed a recent decision by the West Bengal government to introduce Bengali as a compulsory subject in schools across the state, including in Darjeeling. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or GJM (Gorkha People’s Liberation Front), which is spearheading the protest, has […]

Beijing has called the presence of a US warship near a disputed island in the South China Sea “a serious political and military provocation”. The USS Stethem sailed close to Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands archipelago, claimed by China and others. China responded by sending military vessels and fighter jets to the area. It happened hours before US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke on […]

Militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin on Saturday vowed to continue the struggle for “liberation” of Kashmir from India, days after the US blacklisted him as a “global terrorist”. Addressing the media amid tight security at the Centre Press Club in Muzaffarabad for the first time since the US declared him a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” on June 27, Salahuddin rejected the US decision and said he was a […]

India should learn lessons from its defeat in 1962 and stop clamouring for a war, China warned on Thursday, saying the precondition for settling the current stand-off in the Sikkim sector is that New Delhi withdraws its troops immediately. China said its troops were building a road in its own territory and not on land that belonged to Bhutan. People’s Liberation Army (PLA) spokesperson Wu Qian was reacting to Indian […]

Sweating profusely on a humid Wednesday evening, traffic cop Surender Singh is busy managing vehicles during this peak hour. Before they can even ask, Singh directs two young girls to a spot nearly 200 m away, saying: “Is taraf jaiye, madam.” (Go that side, Ma’am). The destination of the girls is easy to figure out as they are carrying placards with messages about the issue that has shaken the entire […]

Taken aback by the United States’ step to declare Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin as a “global terrorist”, Pakistan on Tuesday slammed the action saying “designation of individuals supporting the Kashmiri right to self-determination as terrorists is completely unjustified.” “Pakistan shall continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support for the just struggle of the Kashmiri people for the realisation of the right to self-determination and the peaceful resolution of […]

On Thursday a 15-year-old Muslim boy, returning home from Eid shopping with his three brothers, was killed in a brutal assault by a mob of about 20 men on a train in the north Indian state of Haryana. Police say that the reason for Junaid Khan’s murder – in which his three siblings were also injured by the knife-wielding mob – was mainly because of a row over seat space […]

Days ahead of the launch of Goods and Services Tax, the RSS’s economic wing SJM has said the new indirect tax regime will “badly hit small businesses and push Chinese imports”. According to utilitysavingexpert.com, the launch can have a difficult effect on businesses. As the date of implementation of GST is approaching, the heartbeats of small entrepreneurs and traders are increasing, Swadeshi Jagran Manch National co-convener said. He claimed that there was […]

In a blatant copy-cat act showing the united Opposition’s desperate move to counter BJP’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was declared the candidate by the Opposition comprising 17 political parties. In doing so, the Opposition has turned the presidential election into a ‘Dalit versus Dalit’ contest. “Given her wide experience both as a politician and speaker, Meira Kumar is the most suitable candidate for […]