Its founder president, Ashok Chauhan, was charged with fraud in the 1990s by authorities in Germany, where he ran a network of companies. He returned to India and was never extradited. A plastics company in the U.S. also sued Chauhan in 1995 for failing to pay $20 million in debts. "They are a subsidiary of a conglomerate of companies," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of State College and Universities. "This is by no means reassuring, if you ask me."   read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first time on Tuesday at the BRICS summit in Brazil. The simmering rivalry between India and China overshadowed the launch at the BRICS meeting of a joint development bank aimed at challenging Western dominance of global finance.   read more

A medical study has been investigating one million deaths in India since 1998 to get a better understanding of the reasons for premature mortality in the country. The Million Death Study estimates that the four most significant causes of death for Indians aged 30-69 years are cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, tuberculosis and cancer. Its findings are being used by health officials to take action against preventable deaths.   read more

A house committee of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly has recommended that the state administration ban mobile phones in schools and colleges, blaming smartphones for the rise in rapes and other crimes against women. Congress MLA Shakuntala Shetty, who headed the panel, demanded that mobiles be kept away from students till the age of 18.   read more

A recent UN report has ranked Delhi as the second most populous city in the world after Tokyo, with the capital’s population doubling since 1990 to 25 million. The 2014 revision of the World Urbanisation Prospects said Mumbai, which currently ranks sixth with 21 million inhabitants, is projected to climb to fourth position by 2030 with 28 million.   read more

The Modi administration’s move to transfer some of the remaining state governors appointed by the previous UPA administration took its first victim on Friday, with newly transferred Nagaland Governor Vakkom Purushothaman preferring to resign rather than move there from Mizoram.   read more

All eyes were on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as he unveiled the Modi administration’s first budget on Thursday. There were high expectations that he would take radical steps to jumpstart the sluggish Indian economy that is seeing its slowest growth in two decades. Though no bold reforms were announced, Jaitley did propose plans to boost capital spending and to further open up the defence and insurance sectors to foreign investment.   read more

The country is treated to a political spectacle every year, with the Railway Minister having to somehow balance cheaper fares for passengers with finding funds for modernizing the crumbling track infrastructure. The Modi administration should take its modern vision for the Indian Railways one step further and bring in a professional CEO to run it. And let him run it quietly without the annual drama of the railway budget in Parliament.   read more

The NDA administration seems to be following in the footsteps of the previous UPA administration when it comes to appointing ministers with a communal past. If the Congress gave cabinet berths to Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath, who were allegedly involved in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the new administration’s Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, had been booked for inciting communal enmity in Uttar Pradesh in 2013.   read more

State politics in Karnataka have been shaken with revelations that former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy allegedly demanded a bribe from a party leader who wanted to be elected to the Legislative Council. What is novel is that following the expose Kumaraswamy has tried to brazen it out, claiming that since no transaction had actually taken place he had not committed “a grave crime.”   read more

Goa Governor Bharat Vir Wanchoo resigned from his post on Friday, barely hours after being questioned as a witness in the ongoing CBI investigation into the AgustaWestland bribery case. Wanchoo is the fifth UPA-appointed state governor to have resigned since the Modi administration was sworn in. The NDA is likely to appoint new governors soon as several aging BJP leaders have to be accommodated in plum posts.   read more

The Indian Express has unearthed a scandal in Bihar that up to 20,000 schoolteachers out of the 142,000 appointed between 2006 and 2011 may have got their jobs using fraudulent education and professional degrees.   read more

A forensic doctor battling for his position, a socialite wife of a minister who dies in mysterious circumstances, and a landmark change in government – all this adds up to a whodunit that even Hercule Poirot would find baffling.   read more

In a shocking sign of the worsening political climate in West Bengal, Tapas Pal, a Trinamool Congress member of Parliament, reportedly made a public speech threatening his political opponents with “rape” and death. While his party has distanced itself from his remarks, it has not yet taken any action against the MP.   read more

The Modi administration has reportedly begun the process of revamping India’s archaic labour laws. Observers hold these laws responsible for restricting businesses from ramping up employment. If the government succeeds in freeing India’s labour market it would boost manufacturing and create millions of jobs.   read more

India’s national team ranks a lowly 154th in the FIFA world rankings – behind Afghanistan and North Korea. But that hasn’t stopped passionate fans of the ‘beautiful game’ from following the ongoing FIFA World Cup with interest. This edition is doubly important, since Indians happen to be huge fans of the Brazilian team.   read more

With the Maharashtra assembly election scheduled later this year, the Congress-NCP state administration has announced 16% reservation for backward Marathas and 5 per cent for Muslims in education and government jobs. This is being seen as a cynical attempt at winning votes from these two communities. Except that this measure may not help the incumbent alliance as Indian voters are increasingly politically aware.   read more