'The much-awaited decision could be a welcome change at a time when the Indian armed forces are crying for self-reliance and the defence industry is looking forward to more indigenisation,' notes Nitin A Gokhale.
The Centre's programmes of maternity benefit and Child Protection Services also got a major boost in the Budget.
'The standing committee on defence was flagging what the services had said.' 'As a soldier, General Khanduri might have felt that it was his duty to point this out in the greater good of India,' points out Aditi Phadnis.
The SIT on black money on Tuesday sought update from multiple probe agencies on the role of Lalit Modi in alleged financial irregularities in the T-20 cricket tournament.
The Congress has conceded the plum Finance portfolio to its junior partner, resolving a thorny issue, after its president Rahul Gandhi intervened and spoke to Kumaraswamy.
An eight-member Pakistani judicial commission team crossed into India from the Wagah border check post in Punjab on Saturday to conduct the much-delayed cross-examination of witnesses in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved appointment of Sarraf, who at present is Managing Director of ONGC's overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd.
The monk-turned politician will take the reins of the most populous state for a second time in a row after completing his full five-year term.
The protests brought home the fact that the Sri Lankan public is in no mood for halfway measures, as voices against Rajapaksa 'family rule' and 'securitisation' of the civilian administration began sidestepping the more critical economic crisis, affecting the nation and afflicting the individual, observes Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy.
A raise in the I-T exemption limit has been sought by many.
Tracking a smaller number of taxpayers with a high income base and using data from millionaire surveys and purchases of high-end cars and houses can make the tax department more efficient.
The payments industry is at a crossroads with the banking regulator on two pressing issues, neither of which seems headed towards an amicable solution. Depending upon which side accommodates the other, customers in India will have to choose between convenience and ironclad safety. In the end, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which regulates both banks and all payments services providers, will prevail. But the question is: will it do so by bending a little or by sticking to its firm stand? The two issues - one concerning payment facilitators storing customers' card details and the other about auto-renewal of payments - appear similar but aren't.
Retailers are also demanding that home delivery across all forms of retail should be allowed to ensure a level playing field.
The agency recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act with some specific queries on the circumstances and procedures adopted by the now-defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board while giving approval to the Aircel-Maxis deal during his tenure.
'Unlike on the western and eastern borders where there is an enemy at the gate, here there is an invisible enemy which is building its own capability and can come into play at a time and place of his choosing.'
Deadlock in Rajya Sabha continued for the fourth day on Thursday as opposition kept demanding a reply by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a debate on religious conversions, which the government steadfastly rejected.
Making water available is always a serious challenge in the summer for all public authorities. This year, the challenge is higher when hand-washing at every opportunity has become a necessity. So keeping potable water lines running without a glitch has become most necessary.
The Gujarat high court has dismissed a revision application filed by sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, seeking modification in the charges framed against him in a 1996 case under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
The 32-year-old cabbie, who allegedly raped an executive on Friday night, would not have been behind the wheel of the Uber taxi had the United States-based company run a background check and conducted a police verification, as he had earlier been jailed too in a rape case.
A Central team will survey flood-affected areas of Bihar on Monday and Tuesday. The team will comprise the joint secretaries of six Union ministries -- home, agriculture, finance, health & rehabilitation, civil supplies & food and social welfare. The team will assess the damage and submit a report to the Prime Minister's Office by the end of this week.
'What matters is meeting the needs and expectations of the people who have voted to provide governance for the country.'
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Gold prices have eased off in recent months after the formation of a new government bringing in positive sentiment back to the stock market.
The kind of people Narendra Modi has chosen, the decisions he has taken and the rail and central budgets suggests that he is treading carefully in New Delhi. There is less of innovation and more of continuity, so far. He is not ready to rock the boat and start from scratch, says Sheela Bhatt.
Stating that its ATM operations are making losses, nation's largest bank SBI has said it is all for charging customers for transactions.
The RTI reply also stated that the interception of communication was being carried out in accordance with the Telegraph Act of 1885 and Telegraph (Amendment) Rule of 2007, a clause that finds a mention in the clarification issued by the government over the December 20 order.
The government will decide in August whether to sell a 5 percent stake in ONGC, a senior oil ministry official said, in a deal that would be worth $2.9 billion at current market prices.
Chidambaram said it was a 'despicable slur' on the six secretaries of the government.
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as angry protesters stormed the prime minister's office in Colombo, hours after president Gotabaya Rajapksa fled to the Maldives on a military jet, amid the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
With the Modi government close to completing its two years in office, a new survey on Saturday said nearly half of the respondents (49 per cent) feel "no change" in their living standards while another 15 per cent feel the situation has actually worsened.
Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) leader K P Sharma Oli has been made deputy premier and foreign minister.
In its attempt to link a hawala transaction with the October 27 Patna blasts, the Bihar police had carried out several arrests of both Hindu and Muslim operatives. But the case linking the hawala deal to the Patna blasts is on the verge of closure as the National Investigation Agency says there is no evidence.
At a video conference with chief ministers and representatives of these 10 states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Modi said the recovery rate has gone up which, he added, meant that government efforts have proved to be effective.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, on Saturday joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls.
Opposition parties in Parliament on Monday vociferously protested the "snooping" on Rahul Gandhi, with the government dismissing their contention saying they were making a "mountain out of what is not even a molehill", leading the Congress to walk out of Rajya Sabha.
In a nearly 25-minute televised address to the nation, Modi said implementation of the lockdown will be strictly ensured in its second phase and detailed guidelines will be brought out on Wednesday to ensure that outbreak does not spread to new areas.
The comments come at a time when the Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team has detected funds worth about Rs 4,479 crore (Rs 44.79 billion) held by Indians in a Swiss branch of HSBC bank, while unaccounted wealth totalling Rs 14,958 crore (Rs 149.58 billion) have been traced within home.
In 2016, the Centre has been able to get only seven IAS officers from all states so far.
The finance minister also said that the merger would not result in any retrenchment but rather improve the benefit of the employees.
By Thursday, 830 confirmed cases of pneumonia, caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), had been reported in 29 provincial-level regions in the country.
