Janata Online

At a time when price hike is pinching the common man, a Bill seeking to increase the salary and allowances of Members of Parliament is on the top priority list of the government in the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning Monday.

The controversial civil nuclear liability bill and judicial standards and accountability bill are prominent among other measures listed in the priority agenda but suspense continued over the Women's Reservation Bill, which has been approved by the Rajya Sabha.

The Communal Violence Bill, which is currently being deliberated by Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), is also one of the priority items. Similar is the case of the Bill seeking to raise the reservation for women in urban local bodies from 33 to 50 per cent. More...

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is soon to honour master blaster Sachin Tendulkar with the rank of Honorary Group Captain. According to IAF sources, Air Headquarters has already finalized Tendulkar's name for the honour.

There was considerable debate as to what rank the great batsman should be given. Wing Commander and Squadron Leader were deemed too junior for the national icon, who has played for India for over 20 years. More...

Three Maoists were arrested for attacks on security personnel in the forest areas of Chintalwada in Orissa. This arrest follows just a day after 8 Maoists were killed in the neighbouring state of West Bengal.

The rebels, identified as Budura Padiami, Irma Kabasi and Sarat Behera were involved in several attacks on security personnel including one at Mariwada, he said. They were also involved in an attack on a power house at Balimela and violence during the general elections last year, police said More...

Impoverished parents are putting their children for sale for a few thousand rupees in Karnataka villages a short distance from Bangalore, the country's glitzy IT hub.These children, some even newborns, are being sold with the help of greedy middlemen for Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000. Those about three and four years old have been given away in exchange for Rs 10,000.

In the last one week alone, six families in Tiptur taluk of Tumkur district sold their children to prosperous families. Expectedly, adoption procedures were not followed in these cases. But the tragic sale of children has brought the focus on another tragedy -- abject poverty. More...

The Bhopal Gas Tragedy verdict is out. It took 25 years to convict eight persons, with a possible jail sentence of a maximum of just two years.  In the judgement delivered by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari, pronounced the verdict in a packed court room convicting 85-year-old Mahindra, the non-executive former Chairman of UCIL, and seven others including Vijay Gokhle, the then Managing Director of UCIL, Kishore Kamdar, the then Vice President, J N Mukund, the then Works Manager, S P Choudhary, the then Production Manager, K V Shetty, the then Plant Superintendent and S I Quereshi, the then Production Assistant.

They were held guilty under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 336, 337 and 338 (gross negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. Former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan who just took over as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) believes the verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy has “come late“. More...

The country's spending on social programmes, aimed at helping the poor, is likely to increase hugely. Problem is, can India afford it? India has appointed several socialist intellectuals and activists to a powerful government policy advisory body, officials said on Monday, signalling the possibility of higher spending on costly social programmes.

The National Advisory Council (NAC) is headed by Sonia Gandhi, powerful chief of the ruling Congress party who is seen as more inclined toward favouring the predominantly rural poor to help boost the party ahead of some key state elections. More...

In a democracy, the call on who may succeed an incumbent remains pertinent at all times. There was the question of after Nehru, who? And so it has been with all leaders. Therefore, it's almost a necessity to ask the same of Manmohan Singh. On the face of it, the answer is not difficult.

Each political party is looking for leaders who are young, who are close to the average age of the country. Leaders who are evolving with the times, are credible and can carry the party with them. In this context, if there is anyone who can fill the shoes of Manmohan Singh after he goes, it is Rahul Gandhi. The AICC general secretary carries the burden of a great legacy, that of the Nehru-Gandhi family. More...

Manmohan Singh had staked the survival of UPA-I to pursue his dream of a breakthrough in relations with the US; he is pursuing a breakthrough in relations with Pakistan in UPA-II though he knows fully well that all odds are against him. He's lonely, but he knows that's how it's meant to be at the top. Singh considered the 2009 victory equally his, as it was Sonia Gandhi's. But it is also proving to be his big challenge.

Unlike UPA-I, when expectations from the patchy alliance were low and every step forward won him a loud round of applause, the Congress-led coalition's return to Raisina Hill had set expectations a trifle too high. It doesn't help that Singh is shackled by compulsions arising out coalition with smaller parties and divergent opinions within the Congress. More...

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the first Asian author to have won the Nobel Prize in literature, still remains an inspiration around the world. A poet, playwright, performer, musician, essayist, philosopher, and one of the finest storytellers from India (eight novels, four novellas and numerous short stories), he also had over 2,000 paintings and doodles to his credit.

As he said in his first talk at Shanghai in 1924: 'I say that a poet's mission is to attract the voice which is yet inaudible in the air; to inspire faith in the dream which is unfulfilled; to bring the earliest tidings of the unborn flower to a sceptic world.' More...

A hunger strike by Mumbai’s suburban rail motormen kept as many as 7 million commuters from reaching work in India’s commercial capital today. Western Railways, which operates services connecting the southern tip of the city to the suburbs of Bandra and Virar, will run 250 trains, a fifth of its normal service, according to a statement on its website. Trains on the central line were also affected by the strike called to demand higher wages.

The two rail networks carry 3.5 million people each, mostly to the southern end of the city, home to the nation’s equities, money and commodity markets, the central bank and companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd.