The all India launch date is still not fixed due to differences between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the GSM mobile industry.
"I have no idea. I have to study the issue. I don't know about it. I am just returning from Bali after attending a labour conference," he told reporters who sought his reaction on Jet's decision to retrench 1,900 employees.
In a virtual climb-down, Left parties on Friday dropped their earlier demand of referring the third Patent (Amendment) Bill to a Parliamentary committee and will submit a note on their suggestions to government in the next few days.
To further boost bilateral economic ties with the US, Confederation of Indian Industry would organise a series of road shows, 'IndiaConnect-USA', from April 8-18.
At a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Thursday it was decided to refer the matter to the Committee of Secretaries to work out details of the proposal, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal told reporters. The proposal, mooted several months ago, suggested that Air India and Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd would have a joint venture arrangement to provide ground and cargo handling facilities.
As part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's State visit to the United States on November 24, India and the US are planning to announce the convening of an India-US Education Council on the lines of the US-India Business Council, Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal has disclosed.
Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Monday advised Swami Agnivesh to file an FIR if he felt that the controversial video in which he purportedly asked someone to act tough with social activist Anna Hazare was fake but the religious leader said his spiritual values did not allow him to do so.
With details of affidavit filed by the intern in molestation case becoming public, Law Minister Kapil Sibal virtually put the onus of action against Justice A K Ganguly on the Supreme Court amid demands for filing of a case against him and resignation as head of West Bengal Human Rights Commission.
The government on Friday approved the draft of a new Companies Bill to incorporate far-reaching changes, including scrapping the minimum paid-up capital requirement and setting up special courts to try offences.
"This is in thinking process. No decision has been taken. After the committee gives it report, it will go the Central Advisory Board for Education and Council of Boards of School Education in India (CoBSE)," he told media person on the sidelines of a conference on Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and other education programmes.
An expert committee might have found 44 deemed universities "unworthy" for the status, but the remaining 86 may not be in safe zone. This is because the government seeks to bring in a new regime, which will require such institutions to go through entry barriers to become universities or go back to the status of colleges.
Soren was arrested on Wednesday night in the case after resigning as the Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor.
Caught in a vicious grip of inflation, the government on Wednesday announced that the south-west monsoon, crucial for the nation's agricultural well being, would be near normal this season. "India Meteorological Department's long range-forecast for the 2008 south-west monsoon season is that the rainfall for the country as a whole is likely to be near normal," Earth Sciences Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi.
The minister said the quota will be applied to existing number of seats in all centrally aided educational institutes.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal informed the Rajya Sabha that there are only 156 researchers per million of population in India. India also lags behind other nations in its R&D spending. The number of core researchers in India was about 1.5 lakh as compared to China's 8-10 lakh. R&D spending as percentage of GDP in India is only 0.8 per cent as compared to China's 1.23. In India, 80 % R&D is by public sector, while the private sector share is only 20 per cent.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of IIM directors with HRD minister Kapil Sibal in which they discussed about the vision and autonomy of these prestigious B-schools.
The All India IIT Faculty Federation went on the strike after their charter of demands, including withdrawal of 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade, did not elicit response from the HRD ministry.
The government may earn about Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) from the new telecom spectrum policy, which seeks to delink licences from spectrum, if it decides to fix the price based on the figure discovered through last year's 3G auction.
Sibal also said the present dispensation wants an 'Opposition-mukt Bharat' not just a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'.
Rahul Gandhi, along with Delhi CM Sheila Dixit and Union minister Kapil Sibal joined the yatra at Kankapura in Anand district at the break of dawn.
Criticising the developed countries' failure to take the lead in reducing carbon emissions, India on Wednesday said the world might face a disaster if industrial nations do not cut carbon emissions.
The telecom industry has come out in support of new Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal for his observation that the sector should not be viewed as source of revenue for the Finance Ministry.
The umbrella Science and Technology agreement is part of the series of pacts aimed at bringing the two countries together in areas such as health, space and information technology.
Faced with increasing incidents of ragging in campuses, the government is launching a round-the-clock helpline to assist students in lodging complaints about such incidents for prompt action.
An agreement to set up an Indian technology centre in Moscow to promote commercial use of Russian technology will be signed during Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal's visit beginning today.
These ministers are meeting select group of editors and senior reporters every week to put forward their viewpoints. The wooing of journalists at the ministerial level is unprecedented and shows the defensive mood prevailing within the government.
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal announced the possibility of changing the marking system of the Class XII board exams to a grading system. Good move or bad?
"The book, priced at Rs 370, is a useful guide for travellers and road users. It would be made available at all prominent locations across the country," Sibal added.
India on Wednesday pitched for greater US investments in the country's manufacturing sector
'A wrinkle in the dress,' is what the Himalayas looked like for Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams as she looked down on Earth during her six-month-long stay in the International Space Station.
Congress on Wednesday made known its unhappiness over its senior leader Kapil Sibal representing West Bengal government in the multi-crore rupees Saradha scam in the Supreme Court, two days after its state unit expressed objection to it.
Describing non-resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin as Citizens of India Overseas, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday asked them to invest in the manufacturing sector to give a boost to employment generation in the countr
With Indo-US relations in its "spring", the two countries should use their resources for common good, science and technology Minister Kapil Sibal said in New Delhi on Thursday.
According to a study, the change in frequency for transmitting mobile signals could cost the telcos over Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) cumulatively.
Union Health Minister and Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Harsh Vardhan on Monday said that the government will not hesitate to replace the four-year under-graduate proramme with three year under-graduate course.
The government is optimistic that the Indian pharma industry with a strength of 25,000 companies will be a leading player in the sector in the years to come.
"$25 billion is too small a figure. We will grow at a much faster pace and can reach 40 billion dollars. I don't put anything less than that," Minister Kapil Sibal said at a panel discussion in Bangalore on Monday.
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