Work at Tata plant comes to standstill after Congress protesters blocked entry to Tata Motors “Nano”. Mamata Banerjee’s followers laid siege around the Nano plant not allowing any employee to enter the factory. Tata workers also stayed away fearing violence.
The arm-twisting tactic is aimed at forcing the state government to accept Trinamool demand of returning 400 acres of land, which the party claims was forcible taken from farmers. But it is likely to heighten fears about security, which Ratan Tata ….

Shibu Soren has on Wednesday sworn in as Chief Minister of Jharkhand. Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi administered the oath of office to Soren. He was invited to form the government by Governor Syed Sibtey Razi yesterday evening after receiving a signed list of 42 MLAs in his support on Monday. Soren has to prove his majority on the floor of assembly on September 1.
Shibu Soren becomes the Chief Minister of Jharkhand second time in last three years. Earlier in ….

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck north India on Monday, a private news agency reported. There were no immediate reports of any damage or any casualities.
The epicentre of this earthquake was in Tibet, was felt at 6.52 pm in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal & some parts of Uttar Pradesh.

Normal life was affected across Orissa today due to the 12 hour Orissa Bandh called by saffron outfits to protest the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. There were reports of stray incidents of violence from communally-sensitive Kandhamal, where the VHP leader & four others were gunned down by a group of armed persons on Saturday.
Vehicular movement was heavily affected across Orissa. Public transport was paralysed as buses, taxis & autorickshaws kept off the roads. Saffron activists even tried ….

Madhu Koda, Chief Minister of Jharkhand, has on Saturday resigned in the wake of withdrawal of support by Shibu Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). He handed over his resignation to Governor Syed Sibte Razi in the evening after a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.
Madhu Koda said that after the turn of events in the last ten-twelve days, morally & democratically, I felt I should resign & that is why I handed over my resignation to the ….

Anshul Chhatterpati, who has filed a case against Gurmeet Singh, flayed the Haryana Government for helping Dera chief indirectly during the trial in CBI court at Ambala. Chhaterpati, son of Ram Chander Chhatterpati who was allegedly murdered in 2002, alleged that the government has been shielding the dera chief. He told media persons that the Haryana government had fled an application before the registrar general of the Punjab & Haryana High Court seeking tranfer of the trial of criminal cases ….

Around 2900 doctors working in government hospitals in Orrisa have threatened to tender mass resignation on August 27 over the delay in implementation of measures announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The doctors claimed that Patnaik had made a six-point announcement on the Assembly floor in response to their demands six months ago.
Patnaik had announced that the doctors would get a salary of Rs 8,000 & status of junior Class-I at the entry level, special allowance of Rs 3,000 per ….

A scrap dealer was seriously injured in a bomb blast at his shop at Subhash Nagar area in Ratlam on Friday while another bomb was defused. The incident took place when Bhanwar, 35 years old, tried to unseal the bomb with his mouth without realising that it was an explosive. He was injured & rushed to the nearby hospital.
The bomb was received by the shopkeeper along with scrap sold by two women ragpickers. Another crude bomb was found at the ….

Apple has launched third generation iPhone in India on Thursday. Crowds lined up outside a Gurgaon mall & a few shops in Delhi to pick up the latest Apple iPhone that went on sale at midnight on Thursday in India & no one was daunted by the Rs 30,000-plus price.
The Apple iPhone 3G was launched across India by telecom majors Bharti Airtel & Vodafone. The iPhone is priced at Rs 31,000 for 8GB & Rs 36,100 for 16GB of memory ….

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group, has on Friday threatened to pull out the Nano project from Singur if violence continues. Ratan Tata told media in Kolkata, “We could exit to protect the safety of our employees. Our plant cannot function under police protection. I’ve made a major investment here… to move will be at a great cost to Tata Motors & to shareholders. But there is a concern about our people, a definite concern about not being wanted. We ….

The Mumbai Police has detained Karimulla Khan Osan Khan, an accused in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case who was on the run for the last 15 years. Khan, an accomplice of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested from suburban Nalasopara area.
Khan was allegedly involved in landing of RDX on the Raigad coast & its transport to Mumbai prior to the blasts which killed 273 people & injured over 700. He has been absconding since then, but returned to India in 2006. ….

The activists of Pro-shrine have on Thursday attacked the police station and torched vehicles in Jammu district’s Bhagwati Nagar. The activists have attacked Senior Congress leader & former deputy chief minister Mangat Ram Sharma.
Sharma was on his way to a doctor’s house in Bhagwati Nagar when a group of youth pelted his car with stones. Security guards were unable to bring him out of the vehicle.
The town was rocked by communal clashes on August 12 resulting in the ….

Idea has on Thursday launched its mobile services in the highly competitive Mumbai circle. With its entry Idea becomes the seventh operator in the Mumbai circle to offer its services along with competitors like BPL Mobile, Vodafone, Airtel, MTNL, RCom & Tata Indicom.
Sanjeev Agha, MD of Company, said that Idea would spend 8 billion rupees on its Mumbai expansion in the current financial year. He said that the company aims to achieve break even for the investments made in the ….

Sushil Kumar won bronze medal in men’s 66kg freestyle category at the Beijing Olympics in Beijing on Wednesday. Sushil Kumar became the second Indian wrestler after K D Jadhav who won a bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games to win an Olympic medal. Incidentally, in the 2006 Doha Asian Games also, Sushil had beaten Leonid to win the bronze.

At least eight people have been killed & more than two dozen injured due to heavy rainfall in eastern Uttar Pradesh since last night. About 300 mm rainfall has been recorded in 12 hours since 8 PM in Varanasi.
Over a dozen houses have collapsed, killing at least seven people, including three women & two dozen others were injured in rain related incidents. A 14 years old boy identified as Mayank Rajbhat was electrocuted when he came in contact with a ….

Six flights, mostly bound for Kolkata, have been cancelled on Wednesday as airport employees went on a 12 hour strike on the issue privatization of government-owned airports & wages. Their stir is in support of the country-wide general strike-call given by the Central Public Sector Trade Unions.
Hundreds of Airport Authority employees staged a demonstration at domestic, International Cargo terminals at the airport demanding a better pay, job security of the AAI employees in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad & Nagpur ….

Left-backed trade unions have called a “Nationwide strike” on Wednesday to protest against the “anti-worker,” “anti-people” neo-liberal economic policies of globalisation. A. Soundararajan, state general secretary of the CITU has said that “rail rokos” had been planned in a few places as a part of the strike. He also said, “Even bus rokos could take place, in case the buses were operated”.
He said, the trade unions such as CITU, AITUC, AICCTU, AIUTUC, HMS, bank employees union, BSNL workers would be ….

Reliance Communications Ltd has on Tuesday launched DTH venture, Reliance BIG TV Ltd, which boasts of world’s most advanced MPEG4 Direct-to-Home platform. Reliance Big TV is targeting 40 per cent market share within a span of one year. It will offer a bouquet of 202 channels with digital quality picture & sound.
Currently, DTH accounts for only 4 per cent in Indian market compared to 95 per cent analogue cable services. Big TV will offer 20 dedicated movie channels and ….

Ferozepur: Around 20 villages along the Satluj have been submerged due to 100-feet breach in its embankments. Large posse of army personnel & locals were deployed for rescue operation after an aerial survey of flood-affected area. Rail traffic on the Jalandhar-Ferozepur route was stopped due to heavy water on the railway track.
Several villages of the Lohian sub-division in the district submerged due to the breach. Other affected villages ….

The government has on Thursday approved the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, heaping civil & defense staff with a salary hike bonanza on the eve of the country’s 61st Independence Day.
Highlights
1) The new pay commission’s recommendations will be effective from January, 2006 as the term of the Fifth Pay Commission ended on December 31, 2005. However, the arrears will not be disbursed in one go but will be divided into two components to be given by the end of next year. ….