Fire test to boost self confidence in Surat's private school

In a shocking incident, students of the primary section of a private school in Surat were forced to walk barefoot on a bed of burning coal and broken glass, on Tuesday evening.

The entire exercise, ostensibly organised to boost the self-confidence of the children, took place at the Riverdale Academy located on Rander road in the city.

During the event, which lasted for close to three hours, the participating children suffered injuries and cried profusely but this had no impact on the school authorities.

India & US in talks for India's access to terror(Head)ley

The US and Indian authorities are holding discussions on providing New Delhi access to LeT operative David Coleman Headley who has confessed to his role in the Mumbai terror attacks and agreed to be interrogated by foreign agencies.

"Those discussions (of providing Indian investigators access to Headley) are going on between our government and the Indian government at this time. It is part of the plea agreement that Headley would cooperate with Indian authorities," Pakistani-American Headley's lawyer John Theis.

CBI has Mayawati's wealth report

Almost a month after Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati's money garland row, the CBI has told the Supreme Court that it has evidence to prove that she and her relatives have illegal wealth.

The CBI, in an affidavit filed on Friday in a corruption case against her, said it has statements of witnesses to show that she virtually forcibly acquired gifts from people. Claiming that it was serious about prosecuting the chief minister and her relatives, the CBI said it has got clinching evidence to prove that they acquired wealth and built assets far exceeding their legal income.

Mobile Seized from Nalini's cell in Vellore Jail

In a development that could shatter Nalini Sriharan's claim to unblemished prison conduct for the past 19 years, Vellore jail authorities recovered a mobile phone from her possession and found that she had made calls to Canada and London.

Nalini's daughter Meghara is in London with her paternal uncle's family. She is said to be preparing to join a medical course this year. Hours after the jail authorities released information about the seizure from Nalini's cell, the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict's counsel, P Pugalenthi, circulated copies of a letter Nalini had written to the additional director-general of police (prisons) on April 6. The letter talks about harassment and torture at the hands of prison authorities, and says she never attempted to go against jail rules. Noting that she never attempted to bribe prison personnel to enjoy facilities not permitted legally, Nalini said she as well as her visitors were being subjected to humiliation and intimidation.

Tharoor resigns on IPL controversy, PM accepts resignation

Shashi Tharoor on Sunday night resigned from the Union ministry after his claims of "arm's length mentoring" of Kochi IPL group did not cut ice with the Congress leadership.

The former UN diplomat's fall from grace also paves the way for the government to escalate the ongoing tax probe into the Lalit Modi-led IPL.

IPL in Controversy after Tharoor's Visit

Income tax officials digging into IPL papers have failed to locate two vital documents — the bid papers of the Videocon and Adani Groups, whose failure to win teams for Pune and Ahmedabad is said to be at the root of the Lalit Modi-Shashi Tharoor battle.

Sources in the government said I-T sleuths had searched high and low for the files related to these two failed bids but have found nothing. The Adani Group, a $5-billion Gujarat-based conglomerate, is headed by Gautam Adani, while Videocon, a $4-billion diversified group, is led by Venugopal Dhoot.

Threat for IPL semis in Mumbai as awell

The Union home ministry has warned the Maharashtra police that terrorists may try to carry out an attack during the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Following this, police have made what they say are foolproof arrangements to avert any incident. “The threat to IPL matches was there earlier, too,” state police chief AN Roy said. “Now, after the blasts in Bangalore, we have become even more cautious.”

Mobile Operators may reduce the charges further

Consumers can look forward to further slashing of mobile tariffs, especially SMS, with the Trai opting against any tariff regulation.

Last year, the offer of a pay-per-second plan by a new operator triggered off a price war, leading to charges of predatory pricing by some telecom operators. Around the same time, SMS costs are a fraction of a paise while consumers are charged between 50 paise to Rs 1.50 to send SMSes. Both these developments invited the attention of the regulator.

Terror threat in Mumbai Airport

Security has been tightened at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport here following an alert issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) about a possible terror attack.

The alert came after BCAS received a tip-off from the Delhi police stating that there could be a “terror attack” on April 22 at the airport and a few other installations in the city, airport sources said.

There were also threats of attack on the Santa Cruz railway station and a shopping mall in Lokhandwala.

Developing Mumbai & the threats it faces

The government policies of developing Mumbai will only succeed in driving away local people and sons of the soil from the city, Eknath Khadse, the leader of opposition in the state assembly, said on Tuesday.

Khadse said that the policy of allotting free FSIs to builders had led to an enormous uncalculated growth of the city, which in turn had put pressure on the infrastructure. “If the city keeps growing at this frantic pace, soon there will be a day when residents will take to the streets demanding basic amenities like water and open space,” Khadse warned.

Modi Should quit - BCCI chief

It was a typically cocky Lalit Modi who returned to Indian shores from Dubai on Tuesday.

Amidst increasingly vocal calls for his sacking from within and outside the BCCI, and rumours of an 8:30pm deadline to do so, Modi set the tone for confrontation when he said he would not quit as chairman of the IPL.

India's central Bk hikes key rates

M V Nair, CMD of government-owned Union Bank of India, said there was enough liquidity in the system to meet the credit demand. Yes Bank MD Rana Kapoor said as there is enough liquidity, interest rates are unlikely to firm up in the next couple of months since it is the lean business season, when credit growth generally remains sluggish.

The positive signal about the continuation of softer interest rate regime also emanated from the fact that RBI took relatively a softer stand on policy rates hike than was expected in its credit policy. With the inflation rate nearing 10%, the market was expecting RBI to raise the key rates by 0.50 percentage points. But, RBI raised both the repo rate — the rate at which RBI lends overnight funds to banks — by 25 basis points to 5.25% and reverse repo rate — the rate at which banks park their surplus funds with RBI — to 3.75%.

Besides this, RBI also increased the cash reserve ratio — the proportion of deposits that banks are required to keep with the central bank — by 25 basis points to 6%. This measure will lead to an evacuation of Rs 12,500 crore from the banking system. But this will not have much impact as the banking system has a surplus liquidity of over Rs 50,000 crore.

RBI governor D Subbarao said that the stance of monetary policy is intended to anchor inflationary expectations while being prepared to respond appropriately, swiftly and effectively to further build-up of inflationary pressures. The central bank has pegged the annual inflation based on whole sale price index for March 2011 at 5.5%.

The rate hike will gently tighten money supply and help moderate inflation — which is hovering close to 10%, FM Pranab Mukherjee said. He, however, felt that inflation has peaked and would begin falling and be lower than the 5.5% projected by RBI for this fiscal. “These policies should have a gentle impact in tightening money in the economy and should dampen further inflationary pressures,” he said.

Radioactive sources in Delhi being found

In what substantially raises the danger of accidental radiation exposure at the Mayapuri junk market, nuclear experts combing the area on Wednesday detected two new sources of the radioactive material, cobalt-60, at a shop least one kilometre away from the site where the hazardous metal was found earlier.

The source of the latest cobalt-60, experts said, seems to different from the previous discovery which had led to serious injuries to seven handlers.

Rahul demands a change in Indian political scene

Virtually launching the Congress campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in 2012 on the symbolic day of B.R. Ambeskar’s birth anniversary, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi called upon the youth of the state to come forward to “change the political culture’’.

Saying that it was time to move forward from the caste-communal politics of past decades, Rahul Gandhi did what he has been doing in rest of the country, invited the youth to attach themselves to his bandwagon for change.

Scientific method to monitor Tigers in Reserves

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has said a scientific system to monitor tigers will soon to be implemented in all reserves across India with the aim of countering the poaching of the big cats.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Ramesh said:"Tiger's status and habitat apart from the state of other wildlife besides patrolling strategies in the jungles would be tracked and assessed with the help of this integrated software.

Bomb in Delhi bound train found & defused

An improvised explosive device (IED) detected in a coach of the New Delhi-bound Sampark-Kranti express at Mahoba railway station in Uttar Pradesh was defused early Thursday, averting a major tragedy.

According to state Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal: "The IED was planted in the toilet of a three-tier coach where it was noticed Wednesday night by a woman passenger who promptly informed the cops at the station."

Strom kills 125 in Eastern states of India

Indian authorities on Thursday fanned out rescuers across the eastern states of West Bengal and Bihar that were lashed by a storm on Tuesday night as officials pegged the toll in the calamity at over 125.

The state of Bihar was the worst hit with at least 81 people killed in eastern parts of the state while nearly 100,000 were rendered homeless.

Disaster management principal secretary of Bihar Vyasji said relief work has been undertaken and Rs 1.5 lakh would be paid the families of dead.

Artificial blood vessels from Jatropha

Artificial Blood vessels from Jatropha? After bio-diesel, this humble tropical weed could now help Indian researchers to indigenously develop blood vessels.

A biodegradable polymer recently developed from Jatropha has attracted researchers from IIT-Madras to work towards a project in this direction. The IITians are not alone. A Thiruvananthapuram-based medical institute Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST) and a Belgium-based multi-national company have also evinced interest in the polymer developed by a Gujarat-based national research institute.

Countdown for India's indegenous cryogenic luanch smooth

The countdown to the launch of a 50-metre, tall, 416-tonne rocket with an Indian cryogenic engine to inject an advanced communication satellite in the geo-synchronous orbit has started at the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, a space agency official said on Wednesday.

"Filling of liquid propellants in the four strap-on motors (42 tonnes each) that will be hugging the rocket is set to begin soon. Fuel filling of the second stage (40 tonnes) got over recently," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S Satish said from Sriharikota.

Sanitation Vs Communication in India

People in India, the world's second most populous country, have more access to a mobile telephone than to a toilet, according to a new UN report.

"It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," Zafar Adeel, director of United Nations University's Canada-based think-tank for water, the Institute for Water, Environment and Health, said.