Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs. In a pre-budget virtual meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector," the exporter's body said.
The locomotive of the Kamrup Express was damaged in an explosion triggered by tribal Karbi militants at Khakhati in Assam's Karbi Anglong district at around 1.30 pm on Tuesday. However, over 400 passengers traveling in the train escaped unscathed as the impact of the explosion was not felt in the coaches. The damaged locomotive of the passenger train was replaced and the train continued its journey towards Tinsukia in Eastern Assam.
The ultras will be provided six-month vocational training in trade of their choice at the Army-run rehabilitation and training centre (RTC) at Tamulpur. They will also be provided with Rs 1.5 lakh each and the amount will be paid to three-year fixed deposit accounts to be opened against the name of each of the surrendered militants.
Civilian aircrafts touched down the tarmac of Tezpur airport, basically a base of Indian Air Force in North Assam, after a gap of about two years since the airport was closed down for air traffic since September 2007 to carry out work on up gradation of infrastructure in the air base.
If the apathy towards the plight of Muslims in the north-east continues it will disturb the peace of the region for a long time to come, SP national secretary Kamal Faruqui tells rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday announced an ad-hoc financial assistance of Rs 500 crore to flood-ravaged Assam, where floods and landslides have claimed 81 lives so far.
The faction of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland led by Ranjan Daimary on Friday signed a Suspension of Operation agreement with the Government of India in Guwahati.
A senior bishop of the influential Syro-Malabar Catholic Church on Thursday said instead of saying in the US that there is no discrimination in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi should try to convince the Christians in Manipur about that.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Asom Gana Parishad alliance swept the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) polls on Sunday, bagging 58 out of the total 60 wards, while the main opposition party Congress drew a blank.
Three persons were injured in police firing at Donkamokam, in the violence-ravaged Karbi Anglog Hills district on Friday, even as the army staged flag march in the affected district headquarter town of Diphu.
Outside elements fomenting violence in north-east: Govt
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has stated that backward state of Assam and the Northeast region as a while need more fund from the Centre instead of frequent visits of Union ministers, a new and unprecedented trend since Independence.
At least five persons were injured, one of them critically, when police fired rubber bullets at an unauthorised rally by the All Koch-Rajbongshi Students' Union in Basugaon in western Assam's Chirang district while a bandh called by a militant outfit shutdown the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Councilarea in Assam on Tuesday.
Go firefly spotting, enjoy a beach vacation or pay a visit to the menstruating goddess in Assam this month.
In the fifth of a six-part series on the impact of demonetisation, Avishek Rakshit senses a storm brewing over the 850-odd tea gardens in the north eastern state, which have a weekly and fortnightly payment cycle.
The prime minister came down heavily on the Congress government in Assam and the previous UPA government at the Centre for "failing" to fulfil dreams and aspiration of the people.
Protests raging in Assam against lynching of rape accused Farid Khan in Dimapur in Nagaland on March 5
The All Asom Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union activists stopped the bus, which was traveling from Cooch Behar in West Bengal to Assam's North Lakhimpur, on National Highway 31 near Golakganj late on Friday. The activists pelted stones at the private bus, hurled two petrol bombs and locked the doors of the burning vehicle with the passengers inside, Mahanta said. The injured said they broke the front windshield and window panes to get out of the burning bus.
Six banned militants groups operating in the north-east India have issued a joint statement calling for the 'boycott of Republic Day celebrations and a general strike on 26 January in the region. The outfits which have called for the strike included United Liberation Front of Assam, National Democratic Front of Boroland, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, Manipur People's Liberation Front, National Liberation Front of Twipra and Tripura People's Democratic Front.
Two old couples were killed by suspected tribal militants belonging to the Black Widow outfit in two seprate incidents in remote parts of North Cachar Hill district of Assam in the wee hours on Friday.
In an address at an election rally in this southern-most part of Mizoram bordering Myanmar, Singh said violence is no solution to any problem and the two communities in Manipur must talk to each other to improve the situation in the troubled state.
The apex court ordered adequate steps to be taken for protecting places of worship.
Sparks flew on the first day of the debate on the no-trust motion moved by the Congress with the Opposition on Tuesday asserting that it was forced to do so to break Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'maun vrat' (vow of silence) on Manipur and the treasury benches hitting back saying it was a no-trust vote against a 'poor person's son' who has worked for the welfare of the people.
'The unfolding events indicate a dangerous internal security situation in Manipur and the region. It can have external ramifications also.'
On December 21, the United Liberation Front of Asom had issued a similar threat.
At a time when tension was already high among the North Eastern people in different parts of the country and rumours were triggering their exodus, a statement by the All India Assam Students Union leader in Guwahati about the death of an Assamese passenger in Andhra Pradesh has further heightened the tension.
Getting ready to fight the next assembly election in Assam in 2016 on the 'U-turns' on state issues made by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Centre, the ruling Congress government in Assam has brought out a handbook for its party workers highlighting the 'failures' of the Narendra Modi government to fulfil promises made to people of the state.
The curfew imposed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) will be relaxed from 7 am to 10 am, it said.
Over 5,000 people lodged in relief camps in Kokrajhar district of Assam are being shifted to make-shift relief camps in their native villages or close to their native villages under the protection of 24x7 fixed security pickets.
In the wake of violent ethnic clashes, the Army staged a flag march in violence-affected Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts of Assam on Wednesday morning.
In severe blow to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom, 31 militants, mostly from the ranks of the proscribed insurgent group surrendered before the army on Monday.
The anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam on Wednesday denied its involvement in Tuesday evening's bomb blast in Dibrugarh city in Assam. A teenage girl was killed and 17 others were injured in the blast.
Of the deceased, five were from West Bengal, two each from Jharkhand and neighbouring Assam and one from Mizoram's Lunglei district, the official said.
Suspected militants from anti-talks faction of Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or Black Widows gunned down four workers of a cement plant owned by Vinay Cement at Umranghsu in North Cachar Hill district of Assam on Tuesday.
Senior journalists and writers have called upon the people of Assam and the North East to defy the diktat of militant outfits and celebrate India's 58th Republic Day. Four militant outfits of North East, including the Liberation Front of Asom, have slapped a ban on Republic Day celebrations and called for a general strike on that day to protest the 'colonial Indian occupation of the region'.
The Assam government has arranged for a free ride in a special train from Guwahati to Chennai and Bengaluru on September 20 to woo those from the state -- who had fled southern states in August after threats of ethnic violence -- to return to their place of work and study.
Assam Director General of Police J N Chaudhury has said that the law and order situation in the riot-hit north-east state was under control and that he expected people residing in relief camps to return to their homes post Eid.
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