The Republic of India, commonly known as India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous, secular liberal democracy in the world. India...
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The Republic of India, commonly known as India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous, secular liberal democracy in the world. India has a coastline of over seven thousand kilometres, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east. India borders Pakistan to the west; the People's Republic of China, Nepal and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia.
The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the ancient Indians as Indoi, the people of the Indus. The Constitution of India and common usage in Hindi also recognise Bharat as an official name of equal status. A third name, Hindustan (Persian: Land of the Hindus), has been in use since the 12th century, though its contemporary use is unevenly applied.
High-level advisers appointed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are recommending autonomy for Kashmir, where militants have fought for 20 years against rule from New Delhi. Under its accession to India in 1947 upon the country's independence from Britain, Muslim-majority Kashmir was granted autonomous powers over all sectors excluding communications, defence and foreign affairs. These powers have been eroded over the years. But the advisory group, headed by former supreme court judge... Read Full Story
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) Opposing the recommendation for a referendum on autonomy and special status to terror-riven Jammu and Kashmir, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) new president Nitin Gadkari Thursday said it was 'not a good' suggestion. 'Whatever has been suggested is not a good recommendation,' Gadkari told reporters in his first media conference after being nominated as the BJP president last week. The BJP's expected opposition came a day after the fifth working group on Jammu and... Read Full Story
Ranchi, Dec 24 (IANS) Eight women have been elected to the Jharkhand assembly this year, up from five in the last poll in 2005. Out of the eight elected women legislators, three belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one legislator each belongs to the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress and Jai Bharat Samanta Party (JBSP). The three women legislators from the BJP are Vimala Pradhan, Menka Sardar and Kunti Devi who won the... Read Full Story
Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 6:09 am
The Assembly election results in Jharkhand have once again thrown up a hung Assembly. But this time, by emerging the single largest group with 25 seats, the Congress-led alliance has an edge in the race to reach the magic figure of 41 in the 81-member House. The party has more natural allies than its rival, the BJP, which has been reduced to 18 seats from 30.
All eyes are now on the Shibu Soren-led JMM, which holds the... Read Full Story
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
NEW DELHI: The Congress said Wednesday that Telangana was an old issue and it was for the collective political leadership of Andhra Pradesh to resolve the situation that has arisen due to regional divisions over its proposed statehood.
Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said it was for the "collective wisdom" of Andhra Pradesh leaders across the political spectrum to "sit down and form appropriate solution... Read Full Story
Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK Wednesday won by a comfortable margin in two assembly constituencies where by-polls were held Dec 19, the Election Commission said.
Anita Radhakrishnan, the party's candidate for the Tiruchendur assembly seat secured more than 46,000 votes over AIADMK rival while DMK's Vandavasi candidate Kamalakannan won with a margin of around 38,000 votes.
While AIADMK's candidates came second in both the constituencies, Vijayakant's DMDK lost deposits on both the seats... Read Full Story
His wife Geeta Koda has won, but scam tainted Madhu Koda's seven former ministerial colleagues Wednesday lost the Jharkhand assembly election.
These include former deputy chief ministers Sudhir Mahto and Stephen Marandi. While Mahto was a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate and lost to the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantantrik (JVM-P), Marandi contested on a Congress ticket and was defeated by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's nominee Hemant Soren -- Rajya Sabha MP and son of party chief... Read Full Story
India's Hindu nationalists completed a leadership change Saturday, naming a new party chief after appointing a woman as parliamentary opposition leader in a bid to revive their political fortunes. Nitin Gadkari, 52, was greeted with bouquets and garlands as outgoing Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, BJP) president Rajnath Singh announced his successor at the group's headquarters in New Delhi. "There was complete unanimity on Gadkari's name for president," Singh told reporters as... Read Full Story
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PTI
Aizawl, December 22 (PTI): The year gone by saw Congress winning crucial polls in Mizoram even as incidents of xenophobia, stalled Bru repatriation process, border dispute, gay issues and gun-running marked 2009 in the Christian- dominated Northeastern state. Riding on an anti-incumbency wave, Congress wrested 79 % of the seats in the village council elections from opposition Mizo National... Read Full Story
India's Hindu nationalist opposition party was set on Friday to replace its elderly long-serving leader with a 57-year-old woman, relatively young by the country's political standards. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary leader Lal Krishna Advani, a former deputy prime minister, was to be shifted to a ceremonial position as the group makes changes after being trounced in elections this year. Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told Advani would be elected "supreme leader" of the... Read Full Story
