Without dropping anyone or inducting any new incumbent, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi has made a major reshuffle of her 23-month-old Central Cabinet on the eve of the Budget session of Parliament. The Prime Minister has divested herself of the portfolio of External Affairs and has transferred the charge …

Failure to win ought to hurt less than outright loss, but try telling that to B.S. Yeddyurappa. Unable to reconcile himself to the failure to wrest Karnataka from the grip of the Congress in last year’s Assembly election, the BJP strongman is adopting desperate measures to get another shot at …

It is easy to see why the Saudi Crown Prince has chosen to include India in his Asia tour Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits India next week at a time when both countries are seeking to deepen bilateral cooperation. For MBS, as he is widely known, the visit …

Amid a grim economic crisis, the power struggle weakens Venezuela further What is happening in Venezuela? Venezuela has been going through a turmoil for the past couple of years amid an economic meltdown and growing Opposition protests. The crisis took a dangerous turn on January 23 when Juan Guaidó, president …

This year’s Interim Budget is being regarded as a big spread for farmers. The government announced its decision to transfer Rs. 6,000 every year directly to 12 crore farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. While this is a progressive …

A ready supply of safe blood in sufficient quantities is a vital component of modern health care. In 2015-16, India was 1.1 million units short of its blood requirements. Here too, there were considerable regional disparities, with 81 districts in the country not having a blood bank at all. In …

When almost all news about climate change concerns catastrophic events, there are a few shining lights in the U.S. and Europe. One is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, the newly elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The other is Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swede whose school strike outside the Swedish …

On February 5, an Additional Sessions Judge in Punjab sentenced three young men to life in prison. Arwinder Singh, Surjit Singh and Ranjit Singh were convicted under a little-known provision of the Indian Penal Code concerning “waging war against the government of India”. In what heinous manner had the three …

More than one billion young people risk damaging their hearing through excessive use of smartphones and other audio devices, the UN has warned, proposing new safety standards for safe volume levels. In a bid to safeguard hearing, the World Health Organization and International Telecommunications Union issued a non-binding international standard …

Forget dense forests. Even roadsides could be harbouring new species that are hard to find. Scientists from the University of Delhi have discovered a new amphibian — a mysterious narrow-mouthed frog, that makes only a four-day appearance in seasonal roadside puddles every year in Kerala’s Wayanad district — according to …

The Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) tender inviting bids for ground handling services for 76 of its airports may impact the disinvestment of Air India (AI) ground handling arm AIATSL, say potential bidders. Within hours of the government inviting interest for 98% stake sale of Air India Air Transport Services …

U.S. Ambassador Kenneth I. Juster will lead a delegation of officials to hold talks with Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday to resolve several sore trade points, including the concerns of American CEOs regarding doing business in India and bilateral trade imbalance. The status of the review of India’s …

Maldives’s former President Abdulla Yameen was charged with money laundering on Wednesday, according to a local media report. The case stems from an allegedly shady deal to lease islands for tourist resort development and the discovery of $1 million in his bank account. The case has been filed at the …

The British government denied on Wednesday that it was secretly plotting to force MPs into a last-minute choice on Brexit between a rejigged deal and a lengthy delay. ITV television reported that it had overheard Prime Minister Theresa May’s chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins in a Brussels bar saying the …

Instagram on Wednesday shut down an account that published comic strips about the struggles of a gay Muslim in Indonesia after it sparked a backlash in the world’s biggest Islamic nation. The move comes after Indonesia’s Communications Ministry sent a letter to the social media giant warning that the “pornographic” …

U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that he is likely to sign a bipartisan border security deal from Congress that will keep the federal government open past Friday. Mr. Trump, however, indicated he was not happy with the terms, which provide him with far less funding for shorter stretches of …

Parliament on Wednesday passed a Bill removing leprosy as a ground for divorce under five personal laws, including the Hindu Marriage Act. The Rajya Sabha on the last day of the Budget session passed the Bill without debate after consensus on the issue. The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 sought …

The Centre’s failure in tabling the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday triggered euphoria across the North-Eastern states. As soon as the news of the lapsing of the Bill came in, people across Assam and the neighbouring States took to the streets bursting firecrackers, singing, dancing …

The government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) for raw jute by Rs. 250 per quintal, taking the price to Rs. 3,950 per quintal for the 2019-20 season, according to an official statement. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday. India is the …

Despite the assurance, the Citizenship Bill was listed for Tuesday, the penultimate day of the session. The government claimed that three hours were allotted for debate on the legislation at a meeting in August 2016. But the contentious Bill could not be taken up because of disruptions. On Wednesday, the …