An all-party meeting in India has failed to break a parliamentary deadlock over opposition demands for an inquiry into an alleged telecoms scam. Parliament has been adjourned for two weeks because of the stand-off. Telecommunications minister A Raja quit last week, denying claims that he had undersold mobile phone licences by billions of dollars. The government has ruled out a joint inquiry, saying "impartial" agencies were already investigating. Correspondents say the widening scandal involving...

Writes to Azad expressing concern over its inclusion in public health programme The Union government's decision to allow the use of injectable contraceptives, as part of the public health programme in the country, would be a harmful step that will affect the health of women, Member of Parliament and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has said. In a letter to the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister...

India's Supreme Court has directed PM Manmohan Singh to explain his "alleged inaction" in failing to sanction the prosecution of a former minister. Telecommunications Minister A Raja has resigned over allegations he undersold mobile phone licences worth billions of dollars. He denies the claims. Opposition MP Subramanian Swamy says he wrote letters to Mr Singh in 2008 calling for Mr Raja's prosecution. He says Mr Singh took more than a year to reply,...

India has lost nearly a half-trillion dollars in illegal financial flows out of the country, says a new study by Global Financial Integrity. India is losing nearly Rs.240 crore every 24 hours, on average, in illegal financial flows out of the country. The nation lost $213 billion (roughly Rs.9.7 lakh crore) in illegal capital flight between 1948 and 2008. However, over $125 billion (Rs.5.7 lakh crore) of that was lost in...

A lot has been said and written about the visit of Barack Obama, the President of USA to India. The corporate media was in the usual over-enthusiastic drive to bring to its readers and viewers all minute details about his visit from where he stayed and what he ate to how many warships, planes and cars accompanied him and how a whopping $200 million was spent per day for the...