With the ground zero of politics in Jharkhand replete with every marker of instability in view of the way the numbers stack up in the Assembly, the Congress party appears to be fighting shy of engaging in manoeuvres to either keep the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in power or to insinuate itself into government in Ranchi.

The BJP on Tuesday again hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s press conference on UPA-2’s first anniversary in power. The party alleged PM was “conspicuously silent or evasive” on critical issues relating to the infrastructure sector including power, road and air transport.

Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh’s decision to set up a new authority, “National Environmental Protection Authority (NEPA”), to regulate all environmental norm, has been sharply criticised by the green lobby. Speaking at a national workshop to discuss the setting up of this autonomous body, a majority of participants told Mr Ramesh that the proposed regulation would not improve the quality of environmental governance.

India is likely to join the league of five developed nations, who have a housing start up index (HSUI) of their own, by the end of 2010. The work on preparing a database for the index has begun and, once it is started, the indices will be released on a quarterly basis. The housing index is viewed as a key indicator of economic activity in the

The three-member judicial panel headed by Supreme Court Judge V.S. Sirpurkar, which is going into the issue of impeachment of Karnataka chief justice P.D. Dinakaran, has undergone a change.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on a PIL petitioner seeking to stay the declaration of the results of the IIT entrance exams, saying it would have imposed a cost in five figures on him, but considering his young age was refraining from doing so.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution of Kolkata’s American Center terror attack mastermind Aftab Ahmed Ansari after admitting his appeal challenging the award of death sentence to him by the trial judge and confirmed by the Calcutta high court.

In the backdrop of Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, the Union law and justice ministry is working on the Sexual Offences (Special Courts) 2010 Bill which aims to fast-track cases of sexual offences. The proposed law stipulate that investigation in such cases be completed within six months to an year, and also proposes to make punishment for cases of sexual assault on women more stringent.

Talks were underway on Tuesday evening between the management and the employees. All union leaders are expected to be in New Delhi on Tuesday for talks with the management.

The US has announced an increase in the fee for all categories of non-immigrant visas with effect from June 4. Applicants who purchased their receipts before June 4 will pay the balance between the old and new fees at the time of the interview.