Former Finance minister P Chidambaram today attacked the government on the first anniversary of the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), claiming it had raised the tax burden on the common man and had become a “bad word” among people. “The design, structure, infrastructure backbone, rate or rates and implementation of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) were so flawed that GST has become a bad word among […]

Arun Jaitley in his blog today attacked opposition and others who are targeting government over the rise of deposit by Indians in Swiss National Bank (SNB). “A news item has appeared today indicating an increase of money by ‘Indians’ in the Swiss banking system. This has led to misinformed reaction in certain circles raising a query whether the Government’s anti-black money steps have yielded results”, he wrote. “To assume that […]

The chief minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has resigned after the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit a coalition with her party. The BJP said the three-year alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had become “untenable” in the wake of increasing violence. The PDP’s decision to ally with the BJP had been seen as controversial. Its time in power was marked […]

The United States withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday, condemning the “hypocrisy” of its members and its alleged “unrelenting bias” against Israel. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, came to Washington to announce the decision alongside President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both insisted the United States would remain a leading champion of human rights, but for many, the […]

The separation of immigrant parents and their children at US’ southern border has turned into a topic of intense debate in recent days, with even First Lady Melania Trump commenting against it. But as Donald Trump and his administration continue to defend their new “zero tolerance” policy on immigration, an audio recording of the cries of children after being separated from their families is making an attempt to give us […]

Eminent film and theatre personality Girish Karnad and several litterateurs and rationalists were on the hit list of those suspected of killing journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, officials said today. Besides Karnad, a recipient of the Jnanpith Award, the highest honour in literature, politician-litterateur B T Lalitha Naik, pontiff Veerabhadra Channamalla Swamy of Nidumamidi Mutt and rationalist C S Dwarakanath also figured in the list, sources in the SIT probing the Lankesh […]

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are expected to land in Singapore on Sunday within hours of each other in advance of a historic summit over the reclusive country’s arsenal of nuclear weapons. The US delegation, en route from the G7 meeting in Canada, will arrive Sunday evening, and Trump is set to meet with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday. Trump is […]

  Until he took over in mid-2016, the department of IT & BT was just an appendage of the Industries department, run largely by its secretary. What’s more, there was not much happening there policy-wise. A first-time MLA (from Chittapur in Gulbarga district), Kharge was named Minister of State in charge of IT & Tourism. In less that two years, he took so many initiatives in the IT and Startup […]

The new NCERT textbooks are dotted with references to decisions and flagship programmes of the NDA-II government. Of the 13 references spotted by The Indian Express as part of its analysis of 25 textbooks for Classes 6 to 10, the majority were devoted to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, followed by Namami Gange Programme, Digital India, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana on skilling, and demonetisation. Earlier, the […]

The Gujarat BJP on Wednesday announced the poll management committee with its eyes on Lok Sabha (LS) polls. The committee conducted its first meeting at Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s residence on Wednesday evening. The committee comprises of party chief Jitu Vaghani, CM Vijay Rupani, deputy CM Nitin Patel and other 11 top brass state leaders. The meeting concluded with the point that the party needs to bring the flock of […]