Sonia to be Congress president for record fourth time
New Delhi Sep 2 (IANS) Sonia Gandhi, 63, is set to be chosen president of the ruling Congress for the fourth time, with all party office bearers nominating her for the post Thursday. It will make her the longest serving party president in the 125-year history of the Congress.

Central ministers, party general secretaries, chief ministers of Congress-ruled states and Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs submitted the nomination papers with Sonia Gandhi's name at the party headquarters here, sources said.

Among them were Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, veterans Motilal Vora and ... Read More

Polish PM to woo Indian business during state visit
By Surender Bhutani

Warsaw, Sep 2 (IANS) Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will woo Indian business during his three-day state visit to India that starts Sep 6 as the country "is a role model not only for Poland but for the European Union", a former ambassador said.

This will be the first official visit of a non-Communist Polish prime minister to India. Tusk will first go Sep 6 to Bangalore where he will deliver a speech to the Indian business leaders and he will proceed the same evening to New Delhi.

Krzystof Mrozwewicz, who was Polish ambassador to India from ... Read More

Rishad Premji to shape Wipro's future growth strategy
Bangalore, Sep 2 (IANS) Rishad Premji, heir apparent to India's IT czar Azim Premji, will shape the future growth strategy of Wipro's gobal IT business, a senior company official said Thursday.

“As the chief strategy officer of our global IT business from January 2011, Rishad will be closely involved in shaping the future strategies of the company's flagship division and converting them into executable business plans,” the official told IANS but declined to be named.

To give a free hand to Rishad under a new management structure, the company has decided to split strategy and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) businesses into ... Read More

US warns citizens of terror strike during CWG
Washington, Sep 2 (IANS) The US has warned its citizens travelling to or residing in India during the upcoming Commonwealth Games of a threat of "terrorist action and violence" and asked them to "take care when travelling within Delhi".

"The US Mission in India alerts US citizens travelling to or residing in India to safety and security issues related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in New Delhi," a statement by the US State Department said Wednesday.

The Games will be held Oct 3-14 in Delhi.

The statement warned of a "worldwide caution" regarding the threat of terrorist ... Read More

India to build world's largest solar telescope
Bangalore, Sep 2 (IANS) India is inching closer towards building the world's largest solar telescope in Ladakh on the foothills of the Himalayas that aims to study the sun's microscopic structure.

The National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) project has gathered momentum with a global tender floated for technical and financial bidding by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).

The tender that was floated last week calls for expression of interest (EoI) to design, manufacture and install the two-metre class solar telescope at a cost of Rs.150 crore (around $31 million).

"The solar telescope will help study the microscopic structure of ... Read More

China has major presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir: Gilgit activist
Washington, Sep 2 (IANS) China has massive presence in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said a US-based activist from Gilgit who added that massive investments were made by Beijing in that frontier region to expand the Karakoram Corridor as a strategic pathway.

Washingon-based political activist Senge H. Sering, who was in India for over a year until March 2010 as Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), warned the Indian government about the Chinese presence over the years in Pakistani Kashmir.

Sering has spoken about massive investments made by China in the frontier region to expand the Karakoram Corridor ... Read More

Troubles behind, India promises 'best ever' Commonwealth Games
By Vishnu Makhijani

New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) Sceptics wrote it off as an organisational disaster and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to make a personal intervention, but the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games that will bring together 71 countries and participating teams to the Indian capital is on its way to being the "best ever", promise the organisers.

Even so, with India hoping that the Games, the biggest sporting event in this country after the 1982 Asian Games and which will feature 17 disciplines, will showcase to the world magnificent stadia, foolproof security and modern-day transportation systems, officials at the very ... Read More

Canadian woman judge in inter-racial porn scandal
By Gurmukh Singh

Toronto, Sep 2 (IANS) In a shocking sex scandal that has hit the Canadian judiciary, a black man is suing a white lawyer for harassing him to have sex with the lawyer's wife who herself is now a senior judge.

In his $67-million lawsuit Wednesday, Alexander Chapman, a 44-year-old black man who is a computer specialist by profession, says lawyer Jack King, 64, repeatedly harassed him in 2003 to have sex with his wife, Lori Douglas, who was also a lawyer at the time and is now a family court judge.

Chapman says he hired Jack King to handle ... Read More

30 days to Games, Delhi races against time for spectacular show
By Rajeev Ranjan Dwivedi

New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) The clock is ticking fast and furious to the 19th Commonwealth Games here Oct 3-14. As Delhi works away at a feverish pitch in the last lap, the missed deadlines, corruption allegations, debris and resulting disease have put a question mark on the whopping Rs.16,000 crore ($ 3.2 billion) expenditure on developing and modernising the Indian capital.

The authorities are still promising a spectacular show - better than the Beijing Olympics - and Chief Minister Sheila Dikhsit has appealed to people to help make the Games successful, but residents are now scoffing at ... Read More

Students group calls for Telangana shutdown Sunday
Hyderabad, Sep 2 (IANS) Osmania University students' Joint Action Committee (JAC) has called for Telangana shutdown Sunday to protest the government's decision not to postpone Group-I preliminary examination of the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).

The JAC, at the spearhead of the renewed separate Telangana movement, at its meeting here Thursday also called for boycott of classes across the region Sep 4. It appealed to students to boycott the examination and also threatened to disrupt these.

The examination is scheduled to be held Sep 5 and the APPSC has already rejected the JAC demand to postpone it till the Telangana ... Read More

Indian cos. biggest gainers among Asia's 200 best 'under a billion'
By Arun Kumar

Washington, Sep 2 (IANS) With 39 Indian companies making it to the Forbes "Asia's Best Under a Billion" list, up from only 20 last year, India was the biggest gainer as the region grew at "blistering rates" after the global economic crisis.

"More Indian companies made it to the list this year as the country is less open than many other Asian economies and was therefore less affected by the global downturn," the influential US business magazine said announcing the list topped by China with 71 companies.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said investment and savings rates in India's ... Read More

Apollo may set up more hospitals in West Bengal
Kolkata, Sep 2 (IANS) Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd is in talks with Parkway Holdings of Singapore to set up more hospitals in West Bengal via their existing joint venture, a top official said here Thursday.

"Our agreement is for West Bengal only and we are looking at setting up more hospitals," Apollo Hospitals managing director Preetha Reddy said on the sidelines of an event at the Institute of Company Secretaries.

The joint venture runs one hospital in India under Apollo Gleneagles brand in Kolkata.

Asked if Apollo has plans to expand the scope of joint venture with Parkway, Reddy ... Read More

Antony visits South Korea amid row with China
New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) Defence Minister A.K. Antony Thursday embarked on a two-day visit to South Korea to boost military ties with the East Asian nation amid a hushed row with China over visa denial to an Indian army officer and the presence of its forces in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

This is the first visit of an Indian defence minister to South Korea and is at the invitation of his counterpart, Kim Tae-young.

Antony is accompanied by Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Defence Adviser Sundaram Krishna and senior army and navy officials, officials said.

A defence spokesperson said the visit is ... Read More