The prime minister Manmohan Singh put down his foot firmly in favor of the Jaitapur Nuclear Project today, four days after environment minister Jairam Ramesh called for a ‘pause’ on the project. After talks with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chawan, V Narayanasamy, the junior minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s portfolio (which include Nuclear […]
Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh has removed a clause requiring compensation-seekers from depositing 1% of their requested compensation upfront with the application. The move came after a media report that criticised the provision as the Government trying to “make the victim pay for justice.” Ramesh said the intention was to deter non-serious applicants and there […]
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chawan flatly blamed ‘outsiders’ for “instigating” trouble at Jaitapur, the site of a proposed Nuclear plant by French company Areva. Chawan said the dangers from the 10,000 megawatt nuclear plant have been exaggerated by those with vested interests and those who are ideologically opposed to all nuclear power. “The agitations are […]
A December 2006 US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks has given valuable insights into what the Americans, at least the then US ambassador David Mulford, viewed as India’s role in the emerging political scenario in Asia. Not only did Mulford see India as a counterweight to China, “which it can never match,” but he also […]
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) — the powerful industry lobby of India’s software and BPO industry — appointed Rajendra Pawar, chairman of NIIT group as its new chairman. Som Mittal will continue to be the President of the organization, arguably India’s most successful industry-lobby. N Chandrasekaran, the CEO and MD of […]
We’ve all heard of newspapers coming out with April Fool’s stories, but a cable leaked by Wikileaks reveals that even the dour diplomats have a funny bone they let out once in a year. The cable, reproduced in entirety below, was authored by the American Embassy in charge Steven White on April 1, 2008 and […]
Despite the protest by a section of the populace the government has reiterated its determination to go head with the Jaitapur nuclear plant. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra,Prithviraj Chavan, after holding meeting with the Prime Minister, ruled out any rethink on the 9900 megawatt nuclear plant. He however said that the compensation package for the […]
Despite humoring the US concerns on Iran when discussing matters like nuclear proliferation, India very much continued to be a ‘behind-the-scenes’ friend to Iran and Myanmar, according to the latest US cables leaked by Wikileaks. According to the late 2006 cable sent from USA’s Finnish embassy in Helsinki, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was very […]
Indian IT outsourcing firms, such as TCS and Infosys Technologies, may have to tweak their business plans if Forrester Research’ latest prediction on the evolution of the cloud market turns out true. While the firm has come out with one of the (if not THE) biggest projection for cloud services, albeit by 2020, it has […]
The biggest filer of technology patents in India is not an Indian firm, but the US chip-maker Qualcomm, India’s Controller General of Patents and Trademarks, PH Kurian has revealed. Kurian said IT and telecom companies accounted for 5,500 of the 39,500 patent applications filed in 2010-11 in India, but only 150 of these applications came […]
DOMO, a PC peripherals and tablets brand, has launched its first two smartphones – a 5.2 inch dual-core model priced at Rs 8,900 and a 4-incher at Rs 3,990. Both models are priced reasonably, and offer value for money. However, the company has not revealed one crucial factor, especially for the 5.2 inch model – […]
India is the world number 1 in mobile advertising and gaming on BuzzCity, a Singapore-based mobile ad network. The country has beaten bigger rivals like the US and China in both mobile web advertising as well as in downloads of games. The number reflects BuzzCity’s own focus on the APAC market and may not true […]
Many users of Facebook in India were surprised to find a small ‘camera’ icon next to their comment boxes under posts made by others. Indeed, India is one of the early markets to receive the feature, which started rolling out overnight. The feature allows commenters to upload jpeg or png files as part of their […]
Good news for the Indian IT industry as the first three big results have confirmed that attrition — which had reached disturbing levels 3-4 quarters ago, is finally coming under control. Both Infosy and TCS continued to post significant declines in attrition levels in the March quarter. However, HCL Technologies, the country’s fifth largest IT […]
Fund flows from Foreign Institutional Investors reacting to global and local factors is largely behind the sharp fluctuation in the value of the Rupee over the last few days, Crisil Research has said. While predicting that the Indian currency will recover much of the ground lost over the past one month or so, the agency […]
It was a movement started by the KDE group around 3 years ago — radically redesigning how the Linux desktop looks. Since then, Ubuntu — the most popular flavor of Linux out there — latched on and announced it too will radically alter how the computer interface will look. Through all the retching changes, the […]
The government has extended the deadline for electronics manufacturers and importers to get safety certifications for their products due to delays at the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The original deadline was July 3, after which products that did not meet the safety norms were not to be sold. “Department of Electronics and IT shall […]
Jairam Ramesh, India’s ‘activist’ environment minister, will flag off the first harvesting of bamboo by villagers on 27th under a new law that removes the plant from the list of restricted category. Ramesh has, over the past several days, sent letters to state chief ministers clarifying that bamboo was a grass and not a tree […]
VentureNursery, India’s first angel-backed start-up accelerator has announced an investment in Mumbai-based consumer internet company Smursh Ecommerce, the owners of Klip.in. Klip.in helps users discover unique and interesting lifestyle products across the web by aggregating and curating them based on their social connections and interest graph. Klip.in covers over 5000 products curated from over 100 […]
Three years after the riots of 2002, Michael S Owen, the US Consul General in Mumbai, gave a vivid description of Gujarat reminding readers of Akira Kurosawa’s classic, Rashomon. While NGOs and minority representatives insisted the presence of a ‘communalizing’ government, business leaders and government officials portrayed a picture of normalcy and harmony. In the […]
