India to grow at a slower 8 percent: World Bank

Washington: With India’s growth projected to ease to 8 percent in fiscal 2011-12 from 8.8 percent last fiscal, South Asia is headed for a slower, but still buoyant 7.5 percent growth in 2011, says the World Bank.

After growing at a robust 9.3 percent during calendar year 2010, activity in South Asia moderated in the first quarter of 2011, it said in its June 2011 edition of Global Economic Prospects.

Noting…

India to be third largest investment destination for renewables this year: KPMG

New Delhi : India is the third most favoured destination globally for investments in the renewable energy sector and will also be a major source of new entrants into the sector, behind the US and China, according to a survey released by global consulting firm KPMG.

The top five targeted countries for renewable energy investment are the US, selected by 53 percent of respondents, China (38 percent), India (35 percent)…

A passport in three days? New project to roll out soon

New Delhi: The Passport Seva Project, an ambitious e-governance programme that aims at passport delivery in three days, has entered its most crucial stage. The rollout of 77 Passport Seva Kendras is expected to begin any time now in major Indian cities and be completed by January 2012.

Things have not been entirely smooth for the pilot project running for the past year in seven centres in Karnataka and Punjab…

Indian youth hooked to text messaging

As telecom companies try to outdo each other with attractive and cheap SMS plans offering hundreds of free messages daily, it has transformed the communication patterns of youngsters in India, with 60 percent of those surveyed choosing it as the preferred mode of communication, an industry lobby said .”Communication patterns of young India” was conducted by the Associated…

Criminals, millionaires, dropouts – Bengal assembly has them all

Kolkata, May 26: From facing serious criminal charges to possessing millions of rupees worth of assets, school dropouts to tax evaders — the newly constituted West Bengal assembly has them all as legislators.

West Bengal Election Watch (WBEW), a civil society initiative, has come out with a detailed report on the legislators based on the affidavits filed by them with their nomination papers for the recently concluded assembly polls.

The report…

Study shows girls increasingly aborted in India

More and more Indian families with one girl are aborting subsequent pregnancies when prenatal tests show another female is on the way, according to a new study. The decline in the number of girls is more pronounced in richer and better educated households, according to research published Tuesday in the medical journal Lancet. Those numbers show that a 1996 law that bans testing for the gender of a fetus has been…

Saddened by corruption, will initiate course correction

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he was saddened by controversies relating to the 2G spectrum allocation and Commonwealth Games procurements and the government will initiate course correction.

“I am certainly saddened by the developments. We will initiate course correction,” the prime minister said in his brief interaction with reporters after releasing a report card of two years of the United Progressive Alliance-II government. He released…

Nothing impossible for India, says Pranab

New Delhi: Nothing seems impossible for India to achieve despite several challenges facing the country, said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee after receiving honorary doctorate from Britain’s University of Wolverhampton.

“Today India is as a stage where nothing seems impossible to do or achieve”, he said, while pointing out that the biggest challenge before the political leadership is to meet the aspirations of the younger generation.

“The biggest challenge is the challenge…

Judge my government by its performance, says PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that his government’s record was an open book and it should be judged by its performance.

“Our record is an open book. I invite every citizen, every political activist and every member of the media to read this report and judge us by our performance,” the prime minister said, speaking at the second anniversary function of the United Progressive Alliance-II government.

He said India…

India will soon become fastest growing economy

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India will soon become the fastest growing economy, having expanded admirably in the past few years despite the difficult global situation.

“We are already the fastest growing democracy,” the prime minister said at a dinner here to celebrate two years of the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

“If each one of us continues to work hard with dedication, commitment and honesty,…