News

Latest News   : In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Jallikattu issue, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Friday charged that he had time to meet actors and others but not the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MPs who wanted to discuss about holding the banned bull taming sport in Tamil Nadu during Pongal. DMK working president and Opposition Leader M K Stalin, who pressed the Centre to immediately promulgate an ordinance to hold the sport and that AIADMK should also press the Centre for it, said that "Tamils will not forgive" the two if such an urgent step was not taken. Referring to the AIADMK MPs from the state petitioning Prime Minister on the issue on Wednesday, Stalin asked if they could meet Modi. "Whom does Modi meet. Those known to him, including those from the cinema world, and immediately gives appointment to them. He has met actors including Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Rajinikanth and Gautami. I am not criti...

From tackling terror to NSG inclusion, Modi - Obama make headway on a range of issues After Prime Minister  Narendra Modi ’s discussion on Tuesday with US President  Barack Obama  in Washington, a joint statement described what it billed as their “third major bilateral summit”, after earlier meetings in September 2014 and January 2015. The statement noted a new military logistics agreement, made common cause in the South China Sea, revealed growing American involvement in helping India build an indigenous aircraft carrier, and announced additional co-development projects for defence equipment. There is a new agreement for sharing terrorist-related information. India will be buying six 1,000 MW nuclear power plants from Toshiba-Westinghouse, with the contract to be signed in 2017. And Washington has thrown its full weight behind India’s candidature for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Asia-Pacific cooperation US officials privately lament New De...

Modi, Obama have forged close working relationship: think-tank Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  has gone from somebody who was basically a "pariah" to someone who is now going to be celebrated in the course of just two years, a top American think-tank has said ahead of his meeting with US President Barack Obama  at the White House next week. "This would probably be the Prime Minister's seventh meeting with the President since he took office which probably is a record both for Modi and for the President with respect to meeting a head of government from a country which is not a formal ally of the United States," Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International  Peace said yesterday. "This speaks to the personal relationship that the two have developed over the last two years and also the surprising quality of it, given the history that Modi had with the United States," Tellis said ahead of the Obama-Modi meeting on June 7 at the White Ho...

Assam: How BJP learnt from past mistakes and Rahul Gandhi let it slip In Assam, the Congress might blame its defeat on a 15-year anti-incumbency. However, it was worsted as much by the effective strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the nonchalance of its Vice President Rahul Gandhi in retaining talent. A more audacious leader could have tried harder to keep Himanta Biswa Sarma and his group of rebel legislators in the party. After he quit the Congress last year, Sarma bitterly spoke about how   Rahul Gandhi   would show more interest in petting his dog than focus on the discussion at hand when Sarma met him over several meetings in 2014-15. In contrast, the BJP leadership had an eye on the Assam Assembly polls ever since it won seven of the 14 seats and 37 per cent vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. BJP chief Amit Shah underlined the importance of the victory on Thursday. He said it was a huge achievement for the party as Assam is a border state,...

India signed an inter-governmental agreement on Monday to buy 36 French-built Rafale fighter planes, but the leaders of both countries said there was still work to do to finalise financial terms after months of talks. The deal, worth an estimated $9 billion, was to have been the centrepiece of a visit to India by French President Francois Hollande, invited as guest of honour for Tuesday’s Republic Day parade.   Read Articles  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may look to press the reset button on his leadership this spring to reinvigorate stalled economic reforms and appease critics, eyeing a mix of tried and tested allies and fresh blood, senior government sources said. The government has overseen rapid economic growth, but failed on tax and land reforms, and the euphoria that met Modi’s 2014 election triumph has given way to investor disillusionment; stocks have erased all of their gains since he won power. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces a crucial election test in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017 that it probably needs to win if it wants to hold on topower nationally in 2019. Read Articles  

Prime Minister   Narendra Modi , who once called himself the “Pradhan Sewak”, is walking the talk, and how. He has not taken a single day off after taking charge on May 26, 2014, his office replied to a query posted through Right to Information (RTI). While the specific question was how many sick and casual leave were availed by prime ministers in the past 10 years, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has replied only for Modi. On whether Modi follows any official working hours, the reply was “he’s on duty all the time”. The PM has had an engaging international calendar during the past 18 months, with 18 foreign trips and spending 89 days away from the country, government data shows. A Russia trip is coming up next week. His domestic tours have been much shorter, mostly confined to a day each. From May 26, 2014, to October 26, 2015, Modi went on 10 trips, spanning 11 days, within India. That makes it a total of 100 days on the move within one and a half years. In another RTI qu...