The struggle for power in the national sport intensified on Thursday with Hockey India warning the players against participating in next month’s men’s national championship in Bhopal organised by the K.P.S. Gill-led Indian Hockey Federation.

The Rainbow Nation is hosting its biggest party to date, and everyone’s invited to have a go at the vuvuzelas this summer — except the Indians. The World Cup has brought in scores of fans from Europe and the Americas, but a majority of India’s holidaying crowd is bucking the trend by flocking to South-East Asia rather than South

Food inflation dropped marginally to 16.12 per cent for the week ended June 5 raising hopes that prices might go down further as indicated by the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

Employees in the pharmaceutical sector can expect an average pay hike of 13 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal amid robust business growth in the space, according to HR services provider Ma Foi Randstad.

The Planning Commission today said the 12th Plan is likely to retain the farm growth target at 4 per cent, as the previous two Plans failed to achieve it.
“The 4-per cent agriculture growth is a good target for the 12th Plan (2012-17), which could not be achieved so far, as envisaged in the 11th Plan (2007-12),” the planning commission deputy chairman, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said.

The margins of steel companies are likely to remain under pressure in the second quarter starting July as raw material prices are expected to rise while there is little headroom for increasing prices.

Taxpayers are not likely to get as much relief as was proposed in the discussion paper on the Direct Taxes Code last year, with the finance ministry on Thursday saying that the tax slabs may be narrowed down in the bill, slated to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The BJP, already reeling under a series of organisational crises, has landed in further trouble: it could just be sued for video piracy. In order to keep its Rajasthan MLAs, allegedly locked up at a resort near Jaipur on the eve of Thursday’s Rajya Sabha election, is reasonably good spirits, senior BJP leaders reportedly organised a video show of Prakash Jha’s recently-released political thriller Raajneeti.

In an effort to protect the rights of minors, the government has decided to prohibit authorities from sending them to mental asylums and provide for separate treatment for those suffering from communicable diseases.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Andhra Pradesh high court order permitting Bellary Iron Ores Ltd, a company owned by industrialist S.K. Modi, to export iron ore worth Rs 50 crores from disputed Obulapuram area.