Delhi

New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) Niti Aayog member and scientist V K Saraswat on Sunday suggested that the government should focus on setting up small modular reactors as it would help meet the country's energy needs and also in replacing aging thermal power plants.

Saraswat also said nuclear power plant projects which have been set up under the fleet mode production, should be accelerated, so that India is able to meet base load requirements at the earliest.

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) The government has halved the windfall tax on the export of diesel and scrapped the levy on jet fuel (ATF) shipments but raised the tax on domestically produced crude oil.

The tax on the export of diesel was cut to Rs 5 per litre from Rs 11, according to an official notification issued on Tuesday evening.

Export of petrol will continue to attract nil tax.

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Wednesday said before questioning freebies given to the public, there should be a discussion on pension and perks of parliamentarians.

Referring to his party leader Sushil Modi's notice in the Rajya Sabha demanding a discussion on "ending the culture of freebies", Gandhi in a tweet said, "Before pointing fingers at the relief given to the public, we should look within."

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) The Congress and the Shiv Sena on Wednesday tried to raise the issue of alleged misuse of central investigating agencies by the government in the Rajya Sabha but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu disallowed them from doing so.

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge and his colleague Deepender Singh Hooda, Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi and AAP's Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha gave notices under rule 267 but they were not admitted.

New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) India's biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum received a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore of bids, with Mukesh Ambani's Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold with a Rs 88,078 crore bid.

Richest Indian Gautam Adani's group, whose entry in the auction was billed by some as another flashpoint in the rivalry with Ambani, paid Rs 212 crore for 400 MHz, or less than 1 per cent of all spectrum sold, in a band that is not used for offering public telephony services.

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided a dozen locations including the head office of the Congress party-owned National Herald newspaper here as part of an ongoing money laundering probe, officials said.

They said the searches are being carried out under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to "gather additional evidences with regard to the trail of funds".

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged the judiciary to speed up the release of undertrials languishing in various jails awaiting legal aid.

Addressing the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet here, he also said that ease of justice was as important as ease of doing business and ease of living.

"There are several undertrials in jails awaiting legal aid. Our District Legal Services Authorities can take up the responsibility of providing legal assistance to undertrials," the prime minister said.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) Chief Justice of India N V Ramana Saturday termed access to justice "a tool for social emancipation" and said only a small percentage of the population can approach courts while the majority suffers in silence, lacking awareness and necessary means.

Technology has emerged as a great enabler, the chief justice of India (CJI) said and urged the judiciary "to use modern technological tools to enhance the pace of justice delivery".

New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) Reliance Industries Ltd expects prices of natural gas in India to rise again in October but wants government-dictated caps to go, in a bid to align domestic rates with global energy prices.

The conglomerate, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, expects the price cap for its KG-D6 gas sales to rise over the current USD 9.92 per million British thermal units, Sanjay Roy, senior vice-president for exploration and production, said in an investor call following the announcement of the firm's quarterly earnings on Friday.

New Delhi, July 24 (PTI) Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Sunday alleged that the Centre tried to hijack an event of the Arvind Kejriwal government at the Asola Wildlife Sanctuary with the Delhi Police putting up banners carrying pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the venue last night.

He said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was supposed to attend the event but has now decided not to participate in it.