In a stern 'perform or take VRS' warning to officials sitting on files, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday asked them not to become obstacles in the way of India achieving world class infrastructure.
Khan's visit evoked considerable interest in Beijing as it comes in the wake of his past criticism of the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects and remarks by his ministers to cut down some of the projects over debt concern.
The last hurdle in the way of a second airport for Mumbai, at Navi Mumbai, was cleared by the central government on Monday. The Union ministry of environment and forests issued a notification granting exemption to the second airport from costal regulatory zone regulations, on the lines of an earlier exemption granted for an airport at Port Blair in the Andamans.
The fishermen along with their two mechanised boats had been taken to Kankesanthurai Port in northern Sri Lanka.
India is building its oil reserves in underground rock caverns and tanks
'The DGCA, the ministry of civil aviation, Air India, the Airports Authority, all of them together form what I call an organised syndicate' 'In India, it is a fashion to blame the pilot because then nobody asks questions about the incompetence and grave negligence of this State-run syndicate.'
Pakistan's offer to normalise relations with India is an attempt to buy temporary peace due to its economic and politico-strategic compulsions, notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade on Monday notified Duty Entitlement Pass Book Scheme (refund of local taxes) on cement exports. The commerce ministry had lifted the 46-day old ban on cement exports on May 27. However, it had allowed shipments only through ports in Gujarat. The state accounts for 95 per cent of the total cement exports.
'It is a testing time for our foreign policy which may involve a certain element of taking risks, assessing costs, and expecting failures,' asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
At least 32 Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy for allegedly poaching in the country's waters off the coast of the Delft islet in Jaffna.
Authorities in Dhaka on Wednesday night ordered a massive evacuation in the coastlines with the Met office issuing "great danger signal" for southwestern Mongla and danger signal for south-eastern Chittagong and Cox's Bazar ports in view of the severe cyclonic storm created over Bay of Bengal.
As per the information available, 205 first information reports have been lodged against the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members by 11 states and 2,765 such foreigners have been blacklisted so far, while visas of 2,679 foreigners (including 9 Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders) have been cancelled, it said.
The instructions followed monthly review of the progress of eight major infrastructure sectors -- Civil Aviation, Ports and Inland Waterways, Railways, Roads, Telecom, Power, Coal, and New and Renewable Energy.
The government has allowed 11,000 more seats on Dubai-India sector.
The prime minister also welcomed convergence of views between India and ASEAN for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
In addition, exporters will also get a refund on the service tax paid on courier services used by them to transport goods and documents.
AP Moller-Maersk, one of the affected entities globally, operates the Gateway Terminals India at JNPT.
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.
This decision will come as a relief to Essar's multi-product port-based SEZ project in Hazira as well as of Adani Group's zone in Mundra, which the revenue department felt was not built on vacant land when it was notified, and hence it had violated the law. Both the zones are in Gujarat.
India owes Iran around $8.8 billion primarily on account of crude oil imports.
At war, the Jalashwa can carry and launch a full infantry battalion in a single wave. At peace, the Jalashwa can evacuate 1,000 people in a single trip. Ajai Shukla explains why the Indian Navy's new tender for more ships like the Jalashwa must be treated with special urgency.
Developers had been urging dual usage of their SEZ land since the beginning of global financial recession in 2008.
India's decision to skip the meeting came after a year of bilateral discord over China's stubborn opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and a UN ban against Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar.
Corporate ministry documents show that the Siva's firm kept taking loans from public sector banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank which gradually turned to bad loans.
"A standing environmental safety committee has carried out a detailed survey of the Chennai port and cleared the anchorage of USS Nimitz from the radition hazard point of view," a defence ministry spokesman said in Delhi.
Exports from India to Pakistan increased by 95.63 per cent to $1.3 billion in 2006-07 against $690 million in the previous fiscal. Imports from Pakistan in the same year were worth $320 million, an 80 per cent increase over the year-ago figure of $180 million. Within the SAARC block, India has been the biggest trading partner of Pakistan in the last six years. According to analysts, India's share in Pakistan's total trade over the last six years stands at almost 50%
Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday said there was no question of any compromise with regard to the case relating to the two Italian marines who had allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala coast in February 2012.
Providing relief to exporters hit by the rise in rupee value, the government on Monday announced they would be exempted from tax on services rendered by ports, road transport and railways.
The health ministry took the decision as news cases of SARS were not being reported from neighbouring countries.
All the evacuees will undergo a 14-day quarantine at a medical facility.
The 7.9 Richter Scale temblor that struck Nepal on Saturday also affected parts of Tibet. The two border ports to Nepal were seriously affected.
The court also wanted to know from the government as to what safety measures it proposed to take for protecting the workers who have to discharge the function of ship breaking.
Any NGO critical of the government is unlikely to receive a green signal. The new amendment will leave NGOs vulnerable to harassment. It was the NGO sector that helped provide compassion and food to millions of people during the lockdown. The new Bill will render such cooperation and camaraderie impossible in future, observes Rashme Sehgal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rajapaksa and said he looks forward to further deepen relations between the two nations.
12 persons have so far been rescued from the sea. Nine sailors are still listed as missing.
India on Tuesday night got permission to dock its ship at the Aden harbour for the evacuation of nearly 400 Indians from the sea port city as the government launched a massive air and sea evacuation operation for its over 4,000 nationals in strife-torn Yemen.
