NEW DELHI: Telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular today announced 'free' roaming packs, paving the way for cheaper roaming across India. Other operators are expected to follow suit soon.

The country's biggest telecom company, Airtel on Monday became the first to announce "free incoming calls" on roaming at a charge of Rs 5 per day. Airtel subscribers can also opt for the one-time pack of Rs 79, which provides free incoming calls on roaming for 30 days.

However, these offers have been doled out to prepaid customers only and there is no word about the same being extended to postpaid users as of now.

Airtel's offer w

MUMBAI: Tata Sons, India's biggest business group, and firms controlled by billionaires Anil Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla are among the 26 companies that have applied for a licence to open banks. Ambani's Reliance Capital has applied for a banking licence along with Japan's biggest life insurer Nippon Life Insurance Co and SumitomoMitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Former Citigroup Inc chief executive Vikram Pandit has teamed up with JM Financial Ltd. Among public sector entities, India Post and IFCI also submitted applications for bank licence while micro finance institutions like Bandhan Financial Services, Janalakshmi Financial Services too expressed their intention

NEW DELHI: Vehicles can ply on the roads irrespective of their age if they satisfy prescribed norms and standards, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court.

"Even though, the central government is empowered to fix the age limit of vehicles under Section 59 of the Motor Vehicle Act, no policy decision fixing age limit of the vehicles has been taken by the Centre," the Centre told a bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir.

In the affidavit, filed in compliance of the apex court, the government contended that several steps are being taken by it to enhance road safety and to decongest traffic on roads.

The response was filed in PIL by

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well. The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt. Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September. His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world. A man called Waleed Al Shehri says he left the US a year ago Hijacking suspects Flight 175: Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald

JR Technologies specializes in travel distribution systems and services providing customers with expert staff to manage mid office functions, and travel related web development. http://www.facebook.com/JRTechnologiesGroup

 JR Technologies specializes in travel distribution systems and services providing customers with expert staff to manage mid office functions, and travel related web development.

WASHINGTON: CEOs representing top American technology companies including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco have hailed the passage of the comprehensive immigration reform bill by US Senate, arguing that this would give a big boost to the economic growth and attract high skilled workers. "In passing this legislation on a strong bipartisan basis, the Senate broke the logjam on immigration and high-skilled worker reforms," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco and co-chair of TechNet, the coalition of CEOs of US tech companies.
"America's economic success stems from our culture of innovation and the constant infusion of new ideas from a skilled and talen

BEIJING: China's law enforcers are having an unusually public debate about a delicate topic: Do paid sexual services known as " happy endings" at massage parlors count as crimes if they don't involve actual sexual intercourse?

While prostitution is illegal in China, its boundaries are being discussed with rare candor by courts, police and state media - even the usually stodgy flagship newspaper of the Communist Party.

"Various places have different standards for whether masturbation services are a crime; judicial interpretation urgently needed," read a headline of the People's Daily newspaper, which usually spends its time lecturi

QUNU: On the rolling hills where a young Nelson Mandela once tended cattle, everybody is thinking about the herd boy who changed the course of South African history, but few people are talking about him.

There are no piles of flowers outside the home in Qunu of the ailing anti-apartheid hero and no wall of goodwill messages wishing him a speedy recovery.

"We are just waiting and hoping. Sometimes hope grows and sometimes it fades. But we can't talk about issues related to his death, it's not done," said villager Lazola Nqeketo.

"Sometimes I wish I was in Pretoria where he is. Here no-one tells us anything," he added.

Authorities in the Unites states have launched an investigation into the loans being offered to servicemen and women in the country by banks.   Officials from the department of defence have launched a review of a possible abuse of system by banks and associates for offering loans to soldiers, sailors and Marines. The investigations were launched following a return of $6.5 million to thousands of service members by a bank for not disclosing fees on expensive auto loans.   The investigation targets an allotment system that allows service members to channel a part of their salaries automatically to the banks. These banks and partners automatically deduct payments directly from

New Delhi, June 28 : About 20 percent of Indians intending to go abroad on vacation have cancelled their trips in the last two months due to the falling rupee, a survey revealed here Friday.   The report "Weak Rupee Makes Foreign Trips Unaffordable for Indians", released by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), said that tourists are instead choosing domestic destinations for their vacation.   "A decline of 15 to 20 percent has been witnessed in the last couple of months due to falling rupee. Indian tourists are not just restricting their vacation days, but are opting for holidays within the country rather than going abroad,&quo

New Delhi, June 28 : Keeping in mind the high mobile phone penetration in India, the railways Friday launched an SMS-based ticketing system aimed at improving customer convenience.   Launching the service, being run as a pilot project, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said it will also help the transporter deal with the touts who fleece the passengers.   "This service will be particularly useful for labourers and workers staying away from their homes and who have to book tickets to travel to their native place," said Kharge, adding: "While internet access in India is only about 10 per cent, more than 80 per cent people in the country use mobile phones.&quo

New Delhi, June 28 : State-owned Airports Authority of India will develop 50 new low-cost airports across 11 states.   According to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the decision was taken at a meeting held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to finalise infrastructure project targets for 2013-14.   Apart from 50 new low cost small airports, the government has decided to go ahead with eight greenfield airports which will developed under public private partnership (PPP) mode.   The eight new greenfield airports will come up at Navi Mumbai, Juhu (Mumbai), Goa, Kannur, Chakan (Pune), Sriperumbudur, Bellary and Raigarh.   Two new international airports at Bh

New Delhi, June 28 : Petrol prices will go up by Rs. 1.82 per litre, excluding taxes, from midnight Friday due to the fall in the value of the rupee and hardening of crude prices in international market, state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said.   "Since the last price change, the downwards slide of rupee has continued and USD-INR exchange rate has deteriorated to Rs. 58.94 per the US dollar during the fortnight. Further, international MS prices have also increased since the last price change," the country's largest oil marketing firm said.``   This is the third increase in petrol prices this month. The fuel price was hiked by Rs. 0.75 per litre June 1, 201

UDUPI: Exactly a week after the heinous sexual assault on a medical student of Manipal's Kasturba Medical College, police on Thursday arrested two people — Yogesh Poojari, 30, a resident of Ontibettu, and Hariprasad Poojari, 27, a resident of Badagabettu, Parkala.

Yogesh was critical in KMC Hospital, Manipal after consuming poison. Late evening, the third accused, Anand, 28, from Badagabettu, who had been absconding since morning, was admitted to KMC Hospital in a serious condition after he attempted suicide by hanging.

Giving details of how they cracked the case, Inspector General of Police (western range) Pratap Reddy said that they received reliable

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana police have booked five youth for allegedly raping a married woman in three moving vehicles near Narwana town of Jind district on Wednesday.

Investigating officer Suresh Pal said the 20 year-old woman got her statement recorded before a judicial magistrate at Narwana on Thursday. The medical examination of the woman has confirmed rape, he added.

The woman belongs to Saniyana village in Fatehabad district. She had gone to the bus stand of nearby town Uklana to go to his parental town Gharaunda in Karnal district. A youth Ramesh, who was also from Saniyana village, came there in his Mahindra Xylo car and offered her lift till Narwana so tha

NEW DELHI: In yet another twist to the Ranbaxy scandal, the drug regulatory authority of the UK government has issued a statement clarifying that they have found no evidence of any Ranbaxy product in the UK market having been "of unacceptable quality". Last month, WHO had issued a similar statement. It had said that there was no evidence of any of the Ranbaxy products being of unacceptable quality.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) of UK explained that on hearing that Ranbaxy had pleaded guilty to felony charges related to drugs made at two facilities in India it had performed a number of inspections of Ranbaxy sites along with other i

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police on Thursday asked a court for permission to put SurajPancholi, accused of allegedly abetting his actor-girlfriend Jiah Khan's suicide, through the highly controversial narco-analysis test. The test was previously applied to 26/11 terrorist AjmalKasab, stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Telgi and a suspect in the infamous Kurla rape-murder case. The move has left many wondering whether Suraj's culpability is being equated with that of terrorists and big scamsters.

Suraj, whose arrest has elicited much comment, has been sent to judicial custody till July 11 while his bail hearing in the Bombay high court will be heard on July 1. The application for

Johannesburg: After wrapping up a visit to Senegal, US President Barack Obama heads to South Africa on Friday hoping to meet Nelson Mandela, the critically ill anti-apartheid leader.

On Thursday, Obama described Mandela as a hero for the world, adding the former South African president's legacy will linger through the ages.

Mandela's story of imprisonment and emergence as an iconic figure of reconciliation has given me a sense of what is possible when "righteous people, people of good will work together for a larger cause," said Obama during a press conference in Dakar with Senegalese President Macky Sall.
   

Dehradun: Multiple central agencies involved in the relief and rescue operations in the flood-devastated Uttarakhand will most likely wind up their rescue mission in most parts of the Himalayan state on Friday.

According to sources, the rescue operations will continue in Badrinath and some other regions.

The security forces and the paramilitary personnel yesterday wrapped up their rescue mission by evacuating almost all those stranded in the temple town of Kedarnath- the most hit by the devastating floods and landslides.

The job of clearing debris and searching dead bodies will now be undertaken by the state government.

While, the U