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

Since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court judgement last month that legalized same-sex marriages in that country, there has been some introspection in India about Section 377 that continues to criminalize “unnatural sex”. However, in the past few days this debate has descended into farce, with BJP leader Subramanian Swamy claiming his party’s position is that “homosexuality is a genetic disorder”.   read more

With the world’s attention focussed on the unfolding Greek drama, India could remain relatively unscathed, with little direct exposure to the turmoil, though Indian software and engineering exports are expected to take a hit. The country may also face larger capital outflows due to a weaker euro, industry and government officials warned on Monday.   read more

The opposition’s attempt to attack the NDA government over the growing scandal surrounding absconding cricket entrepreneur Lalit Modi seems to be a blatant attempt to embarrass Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That Modi himself has not spoken about the row is not helping matters, with his silence encouraging the vocal voices in the Congress party and AAP.   read more

The Delhi Police has unearthed an admission racket in which income certificates were forged to help well-off students get into schools under the quota reserved for children from the economically weaker sections (EWS) - families with annual income less than Rs 1 lakh ($1,600). But according to media reports, one such ‘EWS student’ commutes to school in a Jaguar, while others are children of businessmen, traders and factory owners.   read more

The Congress has decided to again postpone its organisational elections, after the opposition party was forced to extend its membership drive four times since last October due to poor response. The internal elections were scheduled to be over by December 31, but the party now wants this to be completed by December 2016 instead.   read more

The admissions of 630,000 students could be delayed after the All India Pre-Medical Test was scrapped by the Supreme Court on Monday following large-scale irregularities. The CBSE said it was not possible to re-conduct the AIPMT within a month and has sought three months’ time instead. But with technology becoming ever smaller and innovative, candidates often seem to be one step ahead of the authorities.   read more

June 21 will be celebrated worldwide as International Day of Yoga, the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to highlight yoga as India's signature cultural export. In Delhi, 45,000 people are expected to join Modi in a mass yoga class conducted by Baba Ramdev, while Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj will lead the events planned at the U.N. in New York.   read more

The ban on Maggi instant noodles due to allegedly high levels of lead may have woken consumers up to the poor safety standards of processed food in India. But according to a Wall Street Journal report, U.S. food-safety inspectors have already rejected many made-in-India snacks as unfit for sale in America. These include some of Haldiram’s salty mixes that allegedly contained pesticides.   read more

In the past six months, the Maharashtra government has suspended about a hundred employees of the Public Works Department, allegedly one of the most corrupt departments in the state. In April, executive engineer Satish Chikhlikar in Nashik was found to have assets worth Rs 14.28 crore ($2.2 million).   read more

11,000 sanitation workers in Delhi may have called off their 12-day long agitation, but the possibility of future strikes still haunts the municipal corporations in the capital, as rival political parties are using the garbage mess to score political brownie points. Meanwhile, Delhi Pradesh Safai Mazdoor Union president Rajendra Mewati claimed the strike had been called off by only one workers’ union and the other 17 would continue the agitation.   read more

The Indian army reportedly attacked separatist rebels along the border with Myanmar on Tuesday, though it is not clear whether this was indeed a cross-border strike. The government said its tough response showed its resolve to fight terrorism beyond the country's borders. But on Wednesday Myanmar maintained that its border was not crossed and that Indian forces had attacked insurgents inside India.   read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing to overhaul India’s tough labour laws in a bid to create millions of manufacturing jobs. According to Reuters, the Labour Ministry is drafting a bill for the upcoming parliamentary session that proposes to loosen strict hire-and-fire rules and make it tougher for workers to form unions.   read more

IIT Madras has decided to revoke its controversial ban on the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC), a Dalit students group. The decision was taken on Sunday evening at a meeting of the IIT director and APSC leaders.   read more

India and Bangladesh signed a land boundary agreement on Saturday, completing four decades of negotiations between the two neighbours. With the land question out of the way, it was back to business, with India announcing a $2 billion new credit line to Bangladesh and $4.5 billion of investments in power.   read more

The monsoon rains finally reached the Kerala coast on Friday, five days later than expected. But the country's private weather forecaster Skymet rejected the meteorological office’s projections of a drought, claiming that the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) phenomenon counters any El Nino weather event.   read more

As widely expected, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut interest rates for a third time this year on Tuesday, taking advantage of subdued inflation to support growth in the economy. But ASSOCHAM said the quarter point reduction in the repo rate to 7.25 percent was too little and too late to boost consumer demand.   read more