First batch of Fulbright-Nehru fellows starts orientation

August 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has described the attempts to vilify India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru for his role during the Partition, as a malicious campaign to distort history. In an interview to a news agency, Mukherjee made sarcastic references to senior BJP leader L K Advani's controversial visit to Pakistan in 2005 and Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah and said they should explain the psychology behind glorifying Jinnah.

August 4th, 2009 ALAPPUZHA - Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be the chief guest at the 57th edition of Kerala's famed snake boat race here Saturday, an event that is named after India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. District Collector Minnie Antony said the Nehru Trophy Boat Race this year would see the presence of many VIPs, including Gandhi, apart from thousands of tourists.

July 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Central paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Force has sent a replacement batch of 124 personnel to war-torn D.R. Congo as part of UN mission after its third batch returned to India Tuesday, an official said.

July 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A week-long orientation programme for first-time MPs begins in the Parliament House here Monday. The MPs will be given tips on how to ask questions in the house and explained other parliamentary proceedings during the course being organised by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

July 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The newly elected MPs will get tips on how to ask questions in the house and the other parliamentary proceedings at an orientation programme being organised by the Lok Sabha Secretariat next week. "The orientation programme will cover issues such as parliamentary questions and other procedural devices available to members to raise issues on the floor of the house, parliamentary committees, parliamentary privileges, budgetary process, etc.," said a release issued by the Lok Sabha Wednesday.

May 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Under a public-private initiative, Delhi Police with the help of local business houses and traders' associations will install high-end cameras and security gadgets at markets and business centres which see footfalls of over 100,000 a day, officials said Friday. Under the initiative, south Delhi's Nehru Place business centre, the capital's biggest IT market, has become the first centre where 32 CCTV cameras have been installed.

May 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the nation in paying floral tributes to India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on his 45th death anniversary on Wednesday. Vice President Hamid Ansari and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi also paid floral tributes at Shanti Van, the memorial dedicated to Nehru, as priests recited hymns from the sacred texts.

May 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After bitterly campaigning against each other, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition L K Advani on Wednesday came face-to-face in Parliament at a function.

April 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Recession is bound to hit Indians wanting to study in the US, but America is offering more scholarships, a senior American diplomat said Friday. Indians represent the largest community of overseas students in American colleges and universities.

April 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Major General UC Dubey (retired) has passed away on Tuesday. General Dubey was amongst the first batch to join the Rashtriya Indian Military College in 1922.

March 21st, 2009 KOLKATA - Most people in eastern India are unaware of the existing US scholarships, and hence they are lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of getting grants, a US education official said Friday. 'Eastern India is lagging behind compared to the rest of the country in terms of applying for scholarships to US...and this is not because, it lacks merit, but due to unawareness,' Sunrit Mullick, regional officer of United States-India Educational Foundation (USEFI), Kolkata, told reporters at a press conference at American Center here.

February 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The home ministry Thursday named A.S. Gill as the new director general of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and P.

February 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Ever look up and marvel at the beauty of the evening sky? Skygazers in the national capital now have the opportunity of studying celestial bodies as the Nehru Planetarium is organising round the year public skywatches, officials said Monday. As part of International Year of Astronomy, the Nehru Planetarium will organise skywatching for the public besides series of lectures by noted astrophysicists and scholars in 2009.

January 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Rahul Khullar, a 1975-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) with the union territory cadre, has been named the next secretary in the Department of Disinvestment. He takes charge from Vivek Mehrotra, a 1974-batch IAS officer with Haryana cadre, who has been moved as secretary in the ministry of minority affairs, an official statement said Monday.

January 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given a clean chit to former central minister Arun Nehru, who had been charged with misusing his official position in a Rs.2.2 million deal for purchase of 9mm pistols from a Czech firm over 20 years ago. Special Judge Vinod Goel earlier this week took cognizance of the closure report filed by the CBI 18 months ago and began hearing arguments.