A special committee set up by the University Grants Commission (UGC), India’s top higher education body, has faulted the agency for excluding high-scoring candidates from the ‘merit’ or ‘general’ list just because they belonged to a ‘reserved category’. In other words, if a ‘reserved category’ candidate qualifies in merit list, he or she cannot be […]
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), or investment by foreign companies to start or expand their operations in India, remained lackuster in the first quarter of the current financial year, according to data from the trade ministry. A total of $5.4 billion was received by India during the June quarter, compared to $22.4 billion during the whole […]
The Center for Science and Technology (CSE), which was instrumental in getting CNG mandated as a fuel of choice for public vehicles in Indian cities, has called the government’s recent move to increase gas prices “stupid.” In an editorial in its flagship publication, Sunita Narain, head of CSE, said the decision to increase the price […]
Sales of DTH set top boxes fell 45% in the quarter-ended June 2013 compared to the March quarter, while those of cable set top boxes rose 12%, according a quarterly tracker from 6Wresearch, a firm tracking the IT and communications market. Spurred by regulation that requires all cable operators to shift to a digital, addressible […]
The Aam Aadmi Party will launch its Karnataka unit in Bangalore on 27 July, the party said. The launch follows a series of district level meets organized by the fledgling party. Anti-corruption activist and leader Arvind Kejriwal will be in Bangalore on the day for the launch, which will take place at a school in […]
After a controversial clearance of the Navi Mumbai Airport in five months ago, the Bangalore Airport’s expansion plans seem set for a smooth take-off. The project, which would increase the airport capacity by 50%, has won the crucial Environmental Appraisal Committee approval, clearing the way for final approval at the hands of environment minister Jairam […]
It’s always been the foreign brands who introduced the latest phone technology in India with Indian brands playing catch up, but in case of Full HD screens, it is Indian brands that are leading. About five Indian brands have launched full HD display phones in India over the past several days in the Rs 15,000-17,000 […]
One of India’s biggest export promotion bodies, EEPC India, has warned of a sharp dip in engineering exports from India to the United States unless the government acts fast. The warning has come in the context of the expiry of U.S.’s Generalized System of Preferences — special duty exemptions granted to developing countries — for […]
Close on its acquisition of Waze, an Israel-based mapping company, Google is all set to launch a new ‘intelligent’ version of its Google Maps product. The new product will focus on three things – an overall improvement in the quality and sophistication of the product, artificial intelligence and a more ‘social’ experience. In the new […]
India’s trade minister Anand Sharma today held a ’round table conference’ with foreign companies and others to address their concerns about the country’s foreign investment (FDI) policy for the retail sector. The meeting came after many foreign firms, such as Wal-Mart, seemed to have gone slow in firming up their plans for investing in the […]
The government of India has withdrawn its three month old circular on how to calculate taxes payable by captive research & development (R&D) units of foreign companies in India. The circular, which would impact tax rates of companies like IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, GE, Google and others in India, was issued on March 26. While the […]
While many exporters have never been happier thanks to the steep fall in the level of rupee to 60 per dollar, the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) has urged policy makers to take a longer term view. The association pointed out that while, in the short term, exporters will get more rupees […]
Private Equity firms invested about $2,330 million across 82 deals during the quarter ended June 2013, according to early data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and valuations in India. The investment amount was 17.7% higher than that invested in the same period last year ($1,980 million across 114 […]
One of India’s biggest neutraceuticals and health-food brands, Dabur, has clarified that it was not aware of exports of its products from India to the USA, leading to a US FDA alert. Media reports had said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency that approves drugs and medicines and maintains quality of packaged […]
Google has unveiled what seems like a winner for the search company — rich, targeted ads from online retailers next to search results. The new service, called ‘Product Listing Ads’, is far more sophisticated and ‘compelling’ than the link-based ads that used to appear till now. Not only are these richer in information, but in […]
Santosh Koli, one of the 11 Aam Admi Party candidate for the Seemapuri assembly constituency in Delhi, has recovered from her critical condition after an accident last week. Koli and her co-worker were hit by a car on their way to their office a week ago. AAP said Koli, a long time member of Arvind […]
As expected, the Reserve Bank of India today held key interest rates unchanged despite calls from industry lobbies for easing money supply, despite a dip in inflation to about 9.3 percent. The following are key reactions to RBI’s move. CII The quarterly GDP figures point towards a poor health of the economy even while industrial […]
Taiwanese peripherals and laptop maker Asus has signed on a second India-wide distributor to expand its reach across the market. Along with existing distributor Rashi Peripherals, Ingram Micro, a Fortune 100 company, will help the company widen its base, Asus India said. Unlike Rashi, Ingram is an international firm, and is expected to give marketing […]
By now, iBall has made a name for itself in the crowded Indian tablet market by coming out with well-crafted and almost high-end devices at mid-range prices. It recently introduced the quad-core Q9703, the most advanced tablet by an Indian brand. It was also the first to come out with a dual-core tablet, along with […]
SanDisk has tapped Freescale Semiconductor’s India head Ganesh Guruswamy to head its Bangalore-based India Design Center. Guruswamy, who has been appointed Vice President, will be in charge of leading the memory device maker’s Bangalore-based engineering teams to devleop what it called its next-generation consumer storage solutions, including USB flash drives, memory cards, microSD cards, and […]
