Dec. 15 - The leading Telangana political party Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) said that it was willing to wait until 2014 for the promised Telangana state to become a reality.
A TRS leader was quoted in the Times of India as saying: ‘‘We would be very happy if it happens before that. But we know it’s not that simple and thus willing to wait until 2014, when the next general elections are due.’’ He said since the Congress had already agreed to the new state, there was no need to pressure it. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 14 - The Andhra Pradesh assembly in Hyderabad was adjourned indefinitely or sine die following pandemonium after it began for the day’s proceedings this morning amidst chaos and slogan shouting by local MP’s favoring a unified Andhra Pradesh.
Congress MP for Vijayawada, L. Rajagopal was arrested at the Hyderabad airport after he landed to launch a fast to protest the division of Andhra Pradesh. His arrest sparked protests in the Andhra region at his arrest reports The Times of India. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 14 - Tensions remained high in the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh and in the capital city of Hyderabad, as the government’s announcement on initiating the process for division of the state was met with violence and uncertainty.
The Hindu reports that students of Sri Krishnadevaraya University went on the rampage in Anantapur town, setting ablaze a BSNL optic fiber cable warehouse next to the campus and attacking a Reliance mobile phone tower. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 14 - The Indian government’s decision to form a new state of Telangana is causing confusion in Andhra Pradesh as the proclamation is seen as an agreement to divide a new area from the state.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram issued a statement last week confirming that the mechanism for forming the new state was being put in place by the government. This followed several days of strikes in Hyderabad, the state capital, and the threat of the death of a local politician, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who underwent a much publicized hunger strike to call for the creation of the new state. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 10 - India has successfully decoded the human genome locally making it part of the only six countries in the world to do so.
Other countries who have been able to accomplish the feat are the United States, United Kingdom, China, Canada and South Korea. India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says the breakthrough will allow pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs more attuned with Indian physiology. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 3 - The World Bank has agreed to loan US$1 billion to India for the clean up of the Ganga river, one of the most polluted in the world.
The Ganga or Ganges river is the one of the country’s major rivers; considered holy by Hindus. The US$1billion loan is part of the total US$4 billion forecast budget to rehabilitate the river from sewage and industrial waste by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 27 - The government is in final stages to establish a ‘Return and Resettlement Fund’ initially for returning overseas Indian workers from Gulf countries who have been laid off because of the global crisis.
“My ministry is working towards establishing a fund that will provide financial security to those workers who have lost their jobs and returned home,” Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi was quoted by PTI during a two-day annual conference of the Heads of Missions. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 18 - Pranav Mistry, India’s IT wunderkind, demonstrated his “SixthSense” technology at the TED India conference this year. In a presentation to a packed house (video after the break), Mistry showed off tools that allow the physical world to interact with the digital one, including a paper “laptop” and a virtual camera.
It’s a fascinating look into the near future, made even more exciting by Mistry’s assertion that he will open-source the software behind the SixthSense technology, making its possibilities available to everyone. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 17 - India has maintained its position as the top source of international students to America for the eighth consecutive year, with a record 103,260 students enrolled in various U.S. universities for the year 2008-09.
According to the Open Doors report, released today by the Institute of International Education (IIE) with support from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by 8 percent to an all-time high of 671,616 for the 2008-09 academic year. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 6 - Motorbike enthusiasts worldwide will be pleased to hear that Royal Enfield has launched its retro thumper, the Bullet Classic.
The bike that harks back to Enfield’s classic British motorcycle design has been launched with two engine options. The Bullet Classic 350 will come fitted with the same engine that was seen on the Thunderbird TwinSpark, with unit construction and a carburetor. The variant will cost Rs98,000 (US$2,200). Accompanying it will be the Bullet Classic 500, which will come fitted with RE’s internationally available 500cc fuel-injected unit construction engine. The Bullet Classic 500 has been priced at Rs124,000 (US$2,800). Read the rest of this entry »
