According to the United Nations, India looks set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country from 2028. At that point, India and China will number 1.45 billion people each. Subsequently India’s population will continue to grow until the middle of the century, while China’s slowly declines. The UN also estimates that the current [...]
A building collapse has killed at least 34 people in Thane, near Indian city of Mumbai, officials say. Dozens are injured and many others are feared trapped beneath the seven-storey building under construction in Thane, Indian media report, quoting officials. Indian police said the building was being constructed illegally and four floors were already occupied. [...]
India’s Supreme Court has rejected a plea by Swiss drugmaker Novartis to patent an updated version of its cancer drug, Glivec. Novartis had been denied a patent by Indian authorities on the grounds that Glivec new version was only slightly different from the old. There were concerns that a patent could threaten access to cheap [...]
An Indian commission set up to suggest reforms to country’s rape laws after last month’s Delhi gang rape of a student has called for faster trials. The panel, led by former chief justice JS Verma, also called for longer sentences but not the death penalty. India’s law minister said the report would get “government attention” [...]
Five elephants have been killed after being hit by a passenger train in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. The animals were hit when their herd was crossing railway tracks in the Rambha forest area, a railway spokesman, RN Mohapatra, said. The state’s wildlife department said its warning asking trains to slow down because elephants [...]
Volunteers armed with drums and whistles are being used under a new scheme to shame people going to the toilet in public in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, officials say. The scheme was launched on Monday in 34 villages in Jhunjhunu district. Four to five people will “shout, beat drums or blow a whistle” [...]
Indian opposition parties and trade unions are staging a day-long strike over plans to open the country’s retail sector to global supermarket chains. Calcutta and Bangalore were virtually shut down, but the response in other parts of the country was mixed. The reforms, which ministers say are needed to revive the economy, were formally introduced [...]
Indian police have stopped prominent anti-corruption campaigner Baba Ramdev from marching to parliament to stage a protest in Delhi. Baba Ramdev and his supporters have been detained for allegedly “violating prohibitory laws”. Known as the yoga guru, Baba Ramdev says he is campaigning for the recovery of bribe money allegedly held overseas. He is also [...]
India has successfully launched Agni-V, a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile able to carry a nuclear warhead, officials say. The locally-developed Agni-V missile was originally scheduled to launch on Wednesday in the eastern state of Orissa. Officials had delayed the launch because of heavy lightning in the area. The missile has a range of more than 5,000km [...]
Almost half of India’s 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home, but more people own a mobile phone, according to the latest census data. Only 46.9% of the 246.6 million households have lavatories while 49.8% defecate in the open. The remaining 3.2% use public toilets. Census 2011 data on houses, household amenities and assets [...]
Passengers aboard a Finnair flight from Helsinki to New Delhi were pleasantly surprised when the aircraft’ staff treated them with a Bollywood-style dance to celebrate India’s 63rd Republic Day. A video showing the smiling Finnair staff treating passengers to the choreographed routine, has become a hit on YouTube, receiving more than half-a-million hits in just [...]
Indian police say at least 48 people have died after consuming toxic alcohol in country’s West Bengal state. Several residents of the Magrahat, Usthi and Mandirbazar areas in South 24 Parganas district fell ill after drinking the alcohol on Tuesday night. Four people have been arrested. Some 100 others are being treated in hospital in [...]
Indian officials say at least 73 people have been killed in a fire that broke out in a hospital in the city of Calcutta (Kolkata). Many of the dead people were patients who were trapped after the flames spread through the AMRI hospital in the southern part of Calcutta. The fire started early on Friday [...]
Enmac is an Islamic smartphone that has been launched with a compass pointing permanently to Mecca and the Koran already downloaded. Indian inventors of the Enmac said they focused on religious technology when designing the new phone. And the market is heaving as India has the fastest growing mobile phone users in the world with [...]
More than seven hundreds people are gathering in Mumbai University campus for India’s first Wikipedia conference. Wikipedia Conference 2011 is a three-day event, from November 18 to Nvember 20, and is part of the online encyclopedia’s plans to expand in the sub-continent. Wikipedia wants to tap into India’s growing internet population, by creating more pages [...]
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Apple discloses details of data requests from US authoritiesApple has decided to publish details of data requests from the US authorities. Apple is the latest tech firm to disclose the US government requests and said it received…
Yahoo had refused to join PRISM spying program but was forced by secret court It was revealed that Yahoo's top lawyers had a courtroom showdown with the National Security Agency after it had demanded information on certain foreign users without a…
Facebook and Microsoft reveal US government data requestsFacebook revealed today that it received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data from US government entities in the second half of 2012. The social-network said the requests,…
Project Loon: Google launches balloons into near space to provide internet accessGoogle is launching superpressure balloons into near space to provide internet access to buildings on the ground. About 30 of the superpressure balloons are being launched…