As liberalisation is new the mantra, should political parties in the country be forced to “swear” by “socialist ideology” to get themselves registered with the Election Commission?

The Delhi high court on Monday said that there was no need for ailing former defence minister and Rajya Sabha member George Fernandes to change his place of residence and allowed his wife to take care of him till July 19.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Andhra Pradesh slated for later this week is off. The PMO, however, was careful to say on Monday evening that the visit has merely been postponed, not cancelled and would take place in the near future.

Minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh has entered into a fresh round of confrontation with aviation minister Praful Patel.
Mr Patel had last week accused the MoEF minister of delaying the construction of the Navi Mumbai airport but Mr Ramesh has shot him a letter warning that its c

After a positive trend in April India’s apparel export, impacted by events in Europe, dropped by an annual 6.8 per cent to $820 million in May.
The slump in the garment exports was in contrast to about 35 per cent growth in the country’s total outward consignments.
“We are getting less orders from the European as well as the US markets,” the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman, Mr Premal Udani, said.
Europe accounts for over 30 per cent of the country’s total garment export.
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Pitching for telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, the telecom minister, Mr A Raja, has approached the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, seeking reimbursement of the Rs 29,598.33 crore paid by them for spectrum.

The group of ministers, which is reviewing the recovery path of Air India, will meet next month to discuss the turnaround strategy and the infusion of Rs 1,200 crore as equity.

The finance secretary Ashok Chawla said on Monday that it will take sometime before food inflation falls to an acceptable range of around 5 per cent.
“Food inflation is going down. It will take some time before it really comes into a range which is acceptable to the government and which is good for the people,” said Mr Chawla.

The loss caused by Monday’s Bharat bandh seems to be a case of the blind men and the elephant. Each of the varied industry chambers have come out with estimates — that vary very sharply — ranging from a relatively mild impact of Rs 3,000 crore to an eye-popping Rs 13,000 crore.

Hitting out at the Planning Commission, the road transport minister, Mr Kamal Nath, on Monday said that it is an “armchair advisor” and is “like a buffet table” from where one should choose according to one’s own digestive ability”.