Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Budget a little more than a month from now. Like any other FM, Sitharaman will depend on her team of bureaucrats and advisors to frame and present the Budget.
Facing an annual loss of a whopping Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion), shipowners have pleaded with the finance ministry to keep them out of service tax net and exempt them from withholding and fringe benefit taxes.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Its advanced Longbow radar picks up enemy armoured vehicles and then destroys them with anti-tank missiles, air-to-surface rockets or a chain gun that sends 625 rounds per minute ripping into the targets.
The Saudi and Iraq offer to replace Iranian crude supplies comes with a catch: Higher prices for the same quality of crude. The new government will face a tough decision over fuel price hike, says Aveek Sen.
Promoting ethanol-friendly cars, turning river Ganga into a waterway and rolling out 50 stalled road projects are three top agendas for him.
India and Brunei on Tuesday emphasised the need for a peaceful solution to the South China Sea issue through discussions as Vice President Hamid Ansari held wide-ranging talks with the top leadership here, with the two sides signing three agreements including on defence.
A diplomatic row between India and Italy flared up on Thursday with the Italian Ambassador being summoned and a strong protest lodged over the killing of two fishermen by security guards of an Italian merchant ship off the Kerala coast.
Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade.
Coming down hard on the government for meagre increase in allocation for armed forces in the last few years, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said the outlay cannot even fulfill the basic requirements of the armed forces.
The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday said the evacuation of 348 Indian nationals from strife-torn Yemen was a national effort involving various aspects of the country's assets like the Air Force, Navy and Air India.
With this new induction, the country has the capability to launch nukes from land, air and sea.
Imports too contracted by 28.72 per cent to $31.16 billion. Dip in exports and imports narrowed the trade deficit -- the difference between imports and exports -- in March to $9.76 billion, the lowest in the last 13 months.
The use of beacon light, which is seen as a status symbol, is till now restricted to a select category of people from politics, judiciary, executive and legislature.
Trump tweeted, hours after Pentagon announced it had reached an understanding with China for the return of the drone.
'Today, I am taking new actions to restrict Iran's nuclear, ballistic missile, and conventional weapons pursuits. My Administration will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, nor will we allow Iran to endanger the rest of the world with a fresh supply of ballistic missiles and conventional arms,' Trump said in a statement.
The war of words between China and the US heated up on Tuesday with an American Admiral defending last week's US naval ship's foray near Chinese-made artificial islands in the area while Beijing blasted the move as a "blatant provocation".
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi also expressed satisfaction with the Indian Supreme Court's decision.
Travelling to the Maldives might just get a little more exciting with the government now considering starting a sea route facility to the smallest Asian country.
The government is studying the impact of Supreme Court verdict in HPCL-BPCL case on the divestment process of Shipping Corporation of India in which some companies were merged through an Act of Parliament or by way of ordinance.
Though Singh will receive the first of the 36 Rafale jets on Tuesday, the first batch of four aircraft will come to India only by May next year.
'Make in India is one of the priorities identified by Minister Sitharaman and this is our great weakness,' warns Vice Admiral Premvir Das.
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Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi, while speaking about the explosion on board the Indian Navy's submarine INS Sindhurakshak, said there was "nothing to be hidden if there were any errors" behind the incident.
Trinamool Congress General Secretary and Minister of State for Shipping, Mukul Roy will be the new Railway Minister.
The boats, two from China's southern Guangdong Province, were lost on Sunday as they attempted to navigate gales near the disputed islands called Xisha by China and Paracel by Vietnam Islands about 330 km from China's island province of Hainan, Chinese officials in Hainan said.
The leaked documents include details of submarine's underwater sensors, above-water sensors, combat management system, torpedo launch system and specifications, communications system and navigation systems.
Exporters can make payment of fees through debit/credit cards.
Has the army confronted China, equipping itself with emergency purchases that have been largely paid for by pensioners, asks Ajai Shukla.
There are ample indications to show that the newly launched Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent headed by Indian-born Asim Umar will seek to lay siege on India through waters rather than land.
State Health Minister K K Shailaja told reporters that the government has declared the epidemic as a 'state calamity' to take all necessary steps to ensure that the outbreak is effectively controlled. A medical bulletin issued by the government said the health status of all the three students, who tested positive for the virus, was 'satisfactory'.
Shipping ministry officials said a new alignment for the canal would require fresh geological studies like soil testing, wave and sedimentation testing and, most importantly, an environmental impact assessment.
Still, there remains a worrying shortfall of frigates, which are the navy's workhorses. 'We need to have at least 24 frigates,' says a senior admiral. 'Currently we are 10 short.'
The clarifications came after media reports on Saturday quoted officials as saying that R&D work on Trishul will be stopped in December.
The Dornier flight with three crew members, all deputy commandants, went missing on June 8 after a routine maritime surveillance sortie along Tamil Nadu coastline.
The last seven Indian sailors held hostage by Somali pirates were released October 30. Chirag Bahri, Indian coordinator for the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme that aids piracy survivors and their families, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com on how the near-impossible was achieved.
The Central government plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) to develop Dugarajapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore District.
Taking serious note of the incident where a merchant vessel M V Pavit ran aground at Mumbai coast on Sunday, Defence Minister A K Antony has asked Navy and Indian Coast Guard to submit a report as to how the abandoned ship entered Indian waters undetected.
Only 40 of the 160 projects under the Namami Gange Mission -- a Rs 20,000 crore project for cleaning the river -- have been completed.
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