Police sources here [Calicut] said to-day [December 5] that they could now state that the forest areas of Pulpalli, Tirunelly and Kottiyur had been cleared of most of the terrorists. Peace had been restored in the area and the so-called Naxalite ‘revolution’ had been crushed, they said. According to these …

What is the crisis? The three main publicly listed airlines in the country — IndiGo, SpiceJet and Jet Airways — slipped from profitability to steep losses in the first nine months of the current calendar year. These airlines together account for 70% of the domestic market share. Why are they …

The huge gains for the opposition Kuomintang, or the Chinese Nationalist Party, in Taiwan’s local elections may help in gradually improving the island’s ties with mainland China. Equally, the adverse results in some of its strongholds could complicate matters for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government ahead of the 2020 …

There are no winners in the political crisis in Sri Lanka. President Maithripala Sirisena, whose actions triggered the crisis, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who as Prime Minister lost two confidence votes, and Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Prime Minister who enjoys majority support in Parliament, are locked in a draw. A ringside view Against …

The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged, given easing inflation and the slowdown in economic momentum, was both expected and reasonable. In fact, the RBI was prompted to sharply lower its projection for price gains after an unexpected softening in food inflation and a collapse in …

The president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, while addressing a national executive meet in New Delhi in September said that the party would continue to remain in power for the next 50 years if it won the 2019 general election. From ruling seven States in 2014, the …

The sight of flaming barricades and upturned cars in Paris usually sends journalists scurrying to their cliché cupboard. For historically literate commentators, current events in France evoke the storming of the Bastille and the Paris Commune. For the politically minded, they seem more akin to the Popular Front of 1936 …

The author acknowledges in his new book, Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times , that part of the pull to write a history of the region was the “South Indianness” of his mother, Lakshmi Devadas Gandhi. In his four-centuries-long story, from 1600 to modern …

Tests on over 100 sea turtles — spanning three oceans and all seven species — have revealed microplastics in the guts of every single turtle, scientists say. Synthetic particles were found, the most common being fibres, which can come from clothing, tyres and cigarette filters, and equipment such as ropes …

Researchers have created a new artificial intelligence tool that can read text captcha schemes used to defend the majority of the world’s most popular websites from cyber attacks. It can solve a captcha within 0.05 of a second by using a desktop PC, researchers said. This means that this first …

An Indian scientist in the U.K. is working on a way to grow crops in arsenic-contaminated soil, a study which is likely to have wide ranging impact for farmers in northeastern India. Dr. Mohan T.C., from Dr. Alex Jones Laboratory at the School of Life Sciences at the University of …

In a medical first, a mother who received a uterus transplant from a dead donor gave birth to a healthy baby, researchers reported on Wednesday. The breakthrough operation, performed in September 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, shows that such transplants are feasible and could help thousands of women unable to …

Fertiliser subsidy arrears to the industry have come down by 75% to Rs. 10,000 crore in the last four years and the outstanding amount is expected to be cleared by the end of this fiscal year, Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Sadananda Gowda said Wednesday. The Central government will also …

Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Viral Acharya assured that the central bank was ready to stand as the lender of last resort in the context of liquidity needs of the non-banking finance sector. At the same time, Mr. Acharya said the present situation did not warrant any drastic steps …

In the post-policy interaction with the media, RBI Governor Urjit Patel declined to answer questions on the issues of RBI autonomy and rift with the government. You have given some hope on interest reversal, that is, in case the upside risks [to inflation] do not materialise. So when will the …

Move will permit flexible hedging of rupee interest rate risk The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Wednesday issued draft guidelines on non-residents’ participation in the interest rate derivative (IRD) market. The draft norms have proposed non-resident Indians’ (NRIs) access to the IRD market, allowing them to hedge their rupee interest …

Linking retail loans with external yardstick aimed at bringing in more transparency in pricing In a bid to bring in more transparency to loan pricing mechanism, particularly for small borrowers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to link the floating interest rate on retail loans and loans …

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has left the key interest rate or the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% during the fifth bimonthly monetary policy review on Wednesday — which was on expected lines — while maintaining the ‘calibrated tightening’ stance though it reduced the inflation projection sharply. All the …

Indian-origin lawyer Shamila Batohi has been appointed to head South Africa’s prosecuting authority, the first woman to head the agency. She will start her new role as the National Director of Public Prosecutions in February 2019. Source  : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/indian-origin-woman-appointed-head-of-safricas-prosecuting-authority/article25675657.ece

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday dismissed U.S. claims that Russia is violating a major Cold War treaty limiting mid-range nuclear arms. The tense rhetoric comes a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) within 60 days if Russia does …