INS Sunayna, largest naval offshore patrol vessel, commissioned
The Indian Navy inducted into service its largest offshore patrol vessel (OPV), INS Sunayna, at the Southern Naval Command here on Tuesday. Vice-Admiral Satish Soni, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the command who commissioned the 105-metre long ship, designed and built by the public sector Goa Shipyard, told the media that the OPV added to the command’s teeth and that it would soon be deployed for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. Commending Goa Shipyard for...

Kochi to host opening ODI against Windies
The opening game of the three-match One-Day International series between India and the West Indies will be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on November 21. This will be the ninth ODI to be played in Kochi. The other two games of the series will be played on November 24 and 27. Kochi last hosted an ODI on January 15, 2013, against England.

Ex-union minister Mohan Dharia dead
Former union minister and deputy chairman of Planning Commission Mohan Dharia passed away in a private hospital here following prolonged illness, a family friend said Monday. He was 89 and is survived by his wife Shashikala, sons Sushil and Ravindra and daughter Sadhana Shroff. Dharia was admitted to the Pune Hospital in Sadashivpeth for treatment of a kidney ailment last Saturday, but failed to recover. Dharia breathed his last at around 7.55 a.m. Monday, said his close...

Govt wrong in promoting Thachankary: Murali
K Muraleedharan MLA on Monday said that the government was not right in promoting IG Tomin Thachankary. He further said that it was strange from the side of the government to promote an officer as a punishment. Murali added that it would set a wrongful precedence if an officer, who was suspended by the Director General of Police, was promoted after issuing only a verbal warning.

Priyanka Gandhi not to campaign: Congress
The Congress on Monday denied reports that Priyanka Gandhi will campaign for the Lok Sabha election. "This is an effort to divert attention from the Madhya Pradesh stampede that some people and channels are spreading this rumour," Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said. "Priyankaji only campaigns in Amethi and Rae Bareli," he said, referring to the Lok Sabha constituencies held by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

President expresses anguish over MP temple tragedy
President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday expressed profound grief and shock over the loss of lives in the stampede near a temple at Ratangarh in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh. The President called upon the authorities concerned to provide all possible help to the bereaved families and medical assistance to the injured, an official release said. 89 people, including 31 women and 17 children, were killed and over 100 injured in the stampede during Navratri festivities after rumours that...

Death toll in Madhya Pradesh temple stampede climbs to 115
 The death toll in the stampede during Navratri festivities near a temple in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district on Monday climbed to 115 with a number of people who had carried away the bodies of their relatives turning up for autopsy. The stampede, which also left over 100 injured, was triggered by rumours on Sunday that a river bridge the devotees were crossing was about to collapse. "So far, we have received reports of 115 deaths in the stampede," Deputy...

Cong, BJP trade charges on power tariff issue
The war of words between the Congress and BJP on the power tariff issue continued with the two parties accusing each other of “misleading” people to grab power in the national capital. Addressing a press conference, the Delhi Power Minister, Mr Harun Yusuf (in photo), rejected the Delhi BJP president, Mr Vijay Goel's claim that there has been a 300 per cent hike in power tariff in the last three years. Mr Ysusf said the increase was in the range 50 to 100 per cent and...

VS finds fault with Kerala High Court order in solar case
Marxist veteran and CPI-M leader VS Achuthanandan today found fault with the Kerala High Court order which had held that there was no material to show that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had vouched for the credentials of the solar energy company, whose promoters had allegedly cheated several persons of huge sums. In a statement here, he said the court order yesterday rejecting a private petition in this regard had taken into account even issues that did not come under the scope of...

Italian marines case: Only court to decide on settlement
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today ruled out any out of court settlement in the Italian marines issue unless it is ordered by the court itself as it is a criminal case. "This is a criminal matter and I can't see that in a criminal matter an out of court settlement is possible," Khurshid said while briefing media during return from Indonesia as part of a Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led delegation. "In a criminal matter only court can order some...

High tide in Digha, lakhs evacuated from Bengal's coastal areas
Lakhs of people were moved to safer places and disaster management teams positioned in coastal areas of West Bengal even as a high tide was reported from the sea resort of Digha with cyclone Phailin hitting the Odisha coast Saturday. The met office has forecast heavy rains in some areas of six south Bengal districts - East Midnapore, West Midnapore, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Bankura - till Sunday afternoon as an impact of the cyclone. "There is a...

Cyclone Phailin hits Odisha, north Andhra coast
'Phailin', a very severe cyclonic storm, said to be the second strongest after the disastrous super-cyclone of 1999, on Saturday struck the Odisha coast, bringing in its wake torrential rains and wind speeds of over 200 kmph in the state and in the neighbouring north coastal Andhra Pradesh. Darkness enveloped wide swathes of the coastal districts of Odisha, especially Ganjam, whose Gopalpur-on-sea was the entry point for the storm uprooting trees and electric...

Graft smear on ex-CJI Balakrishnan has no basis, govt tells SC
Defending his continuance as chairperson of the NHRC, the government has informed the Supreme Court that the income-tax inquiry against former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and members of his family had failed to produce any incriminating evidence to link their monetary transactions to cases pending in courts. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in its affidavit before a bench led by Justice B S Chauhan, has pointed out that a comprehensive inquiry into the assets, as well as...

GoM on Telangana begins work, Seemandhra limping back to normalcy
The ministerial panel set up to work out modalities for formation of a separate Telangana held its first meeting Friday while Seemandhra started limping back to normalcy with electricity employees resuming work and teachers also calling off their strike though protests continued. In Delhi, Telugu Desam Party ( TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu was Friday taken to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital from the venue of his fast at Andhra Bhavan even as hundreds of his supporters tried to stop...

Heavy rain lashes Odisha as Cyclone Phailin advances
 High wind and heavy rain lashed the coastal belt of Odisha on Saturday disrupting normal life, as 'very severe' cyclonic storm Phailin advances from the Bay of Bengal. The cyclone is expected to make landfall by Saturday evening, officials said. Authorities continued their efforts to evacuate people from the low-lying areas of the coast to the cyclone shelters. The weather department predicted that the speed and intensity of the wind and rain are likely to grow stronger...

Shuttler Jwala Gutta must be allowed to play: HC
The Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Badminton Association of India (BAI) to allow India's top doubles player Jwala Gutta to take part in tournaments till the disciplinary committee passes its final order on her life ban Jwala moved the high court challenging the life ban on her recommended by the disciplinary committee of the BAI. Justice V.K. Jain told the BAI: "You must allow her to play." The judge said he will pass a detailed order later in the...

Opposition parties slam Kerala CM’s terms of reference
The opposition parties, including the Left and BJP, have severely criticized the terms of reference that have been announced by the CM in the solar probe. Terming the terms of reference as a sham, members of the opposition said that they were vague and would prolong the probe and make it inconclusive. Further, they said that the probe terms were designed to make a mockery of investigations and would ultimately cheat and mislead the people of the state, exonerating the CM in the...

Rahul does damage control, says Manmohan Singh his political guru
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that he considers Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are his political gurus. “I have two gurus in politics. One is Congress president Sonia Gandhi Ji and the other is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Ji and I want to assert that no one has done more for the country than what has been done by Manmohan Singh Ji,” he said. Rahul was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a cancer...

Kerala announces austerity steps; restricts foreign travel
Faced with a financial crunch due to shortfall in revenue, the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala today announced a slew of austerity measures, including restrictions on creation of new posts and foreign travel by Ministers and bureaucrats. The steps were finalised at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by chief minister Oommen Chandy which took stock of the scenario resulting from fall in estimated budget revenue by one to four per cent as the financial year moved into the second...

Solar scam: Terms and reference for solar judicial probe announced
Kerala Cabinet today finalised the terms and reference for the judicial probe into the solar panel scam but did not specify under its purview the Chief Minister and his office which had come under a cloud over the multi-crore rupee fraud. Announcing the details of the terms and references, which focussed on all allegations raised inside and outside the assembly over the scam, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, however, maintained "both my office and I" have come under its...

Tendulkar to retire after 200th Test
So this is how it is going to end, with a bang or a whimper — in his own backyard, against a team that has long since lost its sheen as Test cricket’s greatest. Not in Johannesburg against the mighty South Africans, with Dale Steyn steaming in and the spectators on their feet, ignoring the cold-to-warming beer. No MCG or Lord’s for his last Test and the most famous farewell in sport this side of Don Bradman. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will pad up for the last time in a few...

Jiji Thomson’s promotion put on hold
Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director-General Jiji Thomson's promotion has been put on hold by the Central Government as he has been charge-sheeted in the palmolein import scam. Presently Thomson is working as an Additional Secretary. The Central Government has decided to give promotion to 23 IAS officials in Thomson's batch. Thomson, who was the managing director of the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation when the scam took place, is one of the seven prime accused...

HRD Minister Pallam Raju's presence in CABE meeting uncertain
Uncertainty looms over the presence of HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju, who has resigned over Telengana issue, at the crucial CABE meeting tomorrow, which among others would deliberate on the status of the mid-day meal programme. The Minister's close aides are uncertain over his presence at the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the highest decision making body on education in the country. Raju has refused to join office ever since he resigned from the...

No threat to Chandy: Congress
Congress Wednesday saw no threat to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy despite being questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the solar panel scam. "Will anybody resign for no reason? He is one of the most popular Chief Ministers. Why you want him to resign? There is no single allegation .......Against him", party spokesman P C Chacko told reporters here.     He replied in the affirmative when asked...

India must remove investment barriers for growth: IMF
India needs to remove barriers to investment, maintain the credibility of its monetary and fiscal policies and keep the budget deficit reined in to return to a high growth path, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A number of domestic factors have played an important role in India's growth slowing down quite sharply, Rupa Duttagupta, deputy chief of IMF World Economic Outlook Division, told reporters after IMF's latest projections lowered India's growth for...

Police shift Jaganmohan Reddy to hospital
YSR Congress party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, who was on indefinite fast for five days to protest the central government's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, was forcibly shifted by police to a hospital here Wednesday night. As the condition of the Kadapa MP deteriorated, police took him from hunger strike camp in front of his Lotus Pond residence to Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). Jaganmohan Reddy and his supporters resisted police attempts to shift...

Kerala school children to have anti-tobacco lessons in curriculum
Revised textbooks of class 1 to 12 in schools will have lessons about the evils of tobacco to create awareness among children, an education department official said on Wednesday. A. Shajahan, secretary of general education also said that directions have been issued to all schools to ban sale of tobacco products in and around school premises. He was speaking on the implementation of smoke-free rules in educational institutions, an event organised by Tobacco Free Kerala. A....

Sonia Gandhi on one-day visit to Uttar Pradesh
 Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be on a one-day visit to her parliamentary constituency of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. She will be laying the foundation stone of an ambitious rail wheel manufacturing unit in Lalganj. The unit will come up within the coach manufacturing unit, already functioning in the region. She will later address a public rally and meet party workers. She will also be laying the foundation stone of a city resource centre at the...

Lulu convention centre project gets nod
The state government and the coastal authority have given approval to a project by Lulu Convention Center in Bolgatty island. The consent involves relaxations in the rules. The local self government department Principal Secretary, in his notice, further explained that the approval was given as the project zone is not in the Water sheet category and it is expected that this project would bring benefits to the whole state. The order also says that Lulu got all other permissions required...

K B Ganesh Kumar submits resignation
Kerala Congress (B) leader and former minister K B Ganeshkumar has sent in his resignation letter to party chairman and his father R Balakrishna Pillai on Tuesday. Ganesh was forced to resign his minister's post on April 1 after his wife filed a complaint against him alleging physical assault and mental torture. What astonished everyone was that the resignation letter to quit MLA's post was not forwarded to the Assembly speaker. Ganesh had exchanged his resignation letter only...