Last July, my wife, daughter and I used travel agent Carlton Leisure to book flights to Beijing with British Airways, returning via Hong Kong, with an internal flight between there and Chengdu.

While we wonder why India can't eliminate terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed on foreign soil like other countries do, a lack of resolve and operational inability ensures that our intelligence agencies remain incapable of doing targeted ...

Genesis, the premium brand of Korean automaker Hyundai has showcased its G90 luxury sedan at the ongoing 2016 Indian Auto Expo.The luxury sedan will rival the likes of Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series, Audi A8 and the recently launched Jaguar ...

 Toyota brings the second generation Innova to light at the ongoing Auto Expo 2016. Prior to India, the Indonesian market made a ramp for the global debut of the model. The current generation of Innova came into existence in 2005. Though the MUV ...

Volkswagen is planning to localise the production of its 2.0 litre diesel engine, which powers its numerous cars including Skoda Octavia and Audi A3 sold in India. The decision came at a time when the German carmaker localised the making of their ...

German carmaker, Volkswagen, has introduced its made-for-India sub-compact sedan, Ameo, today. Based on the Polo hatchback, this is Volkswagen’s first compact sedan in the Indian market and has been developed locally at the company’s manufacturing ...

The company however reiterated that its cars follow the country's norms and the recall of 3 lakh vehicles is a voluntary step taken by it

Interview with Member of the board - sales and marketing , Volkswagen Passenger Cars

A US-based immigration agency has allowed non-immigrants to "unexpectedly remain" beyond their authorised period of stay due to COVID-19 outbreak.The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which administers the country's naturalisation and immigration system, said that amid such conditions, most non-immigrants can timely file an application for the extension of their stay or change in status.The agency stated that application forms and petitions are available on its online website."Where applicable, employment authorisation with the same employer, subject to the same terms and conditions of the prior approval, is automatically extended for up to 240 days after I-94 expiration when an extension of stay request is filed on time," the agency said.The USCIS has granted the flexibility to non-immigrant workers for filing late applications as the spread of the virus continues to keep daily lives at a standstill.The

The Indian Consulate General in Dubai has issued an advisory on partially resuming the passport services for Indian applicants through BLS Sharjah Centre from April 15 onwards.The advisory from the consulate general says that the applications for renewal of passports that have expired or would expire on or before April 30, 2020 will be processed initially.The Consulate General in Dubai also listed the ways people can apply for the renewal of passports.Those people who want to apply for renewal can send an email to the consulate at the email address- passport.dubai@mea.gov.in with an explanation of the emergency for the renewal.The Consulate would then give an appointment at the BLS International Exclusive Centre for Indian Passport and Visa Services at Sharjah.As per the advisory, the applicant will have to prepare the application online and attach all required documents before visiting the centre at the appointed time.The passport services were suspended in the wake of the COVID-19 ..

Generational groupings are attractive to academics who want to measure social and cultural change. They’re coveted by marketers looking to capitalize on evolving consumer tastes. And they appeal to others seeking to exploit the perceived psyche of the different groups.

Emission nine times more than cap; firm denies claim

Officials said a better indicator of productive and general expenditure will be replacing the plan and non-plan distiction that has lost relevance post Planning Commission abolition

A funeral home business leader for Brazil's state that covers much of the Amazon region says emergency coffin shipments have started to arrive for people who have died of COVID-19. Manuel Viana is president of the Amazonas Union of Funeral Companies and said Friday that more than 500 coffins were delivered by ship to Manaus, the largest city in Amazonas state. He says hundreds more are on the way and will be distributed in Manaus and other cities in the region. Manaus is one of the hardest hit Brazilian cities for coronavirus deaths and Viana says there are predictions that the city of more than 2 million could have more than 4,300 deaths in May. A Johns Hopkins University count says there have been more than 10,000 COVID-19 deaths so far in Latin America's largest and most populous country. A Brazil funeral home association last week requested an airlift of coffins to Manaus.

The WHO and the UN's postal agency have released a commemorative postage stamp on the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, with the head of the global health body expressing gratitude to a top Indian-origin UN official. In May 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly issued its official declaration that "the world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox." It was ended on the back of a 10-year WHO-spearheaded global effort that involved thousands of health workers around the world to administer half a billion vaccinations to stamp out smallpox. "When WHO's smallpox eradication campaign was launched in 1967, one of the ways countries raised awareness about smallpox was through postage stamps when social media like Twitter and Facebook was not even on the horizon," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "I especially want to thank my friend Mr Atul Khare, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, for ...

Adult animated comedy series Santa Inc, featuring Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman, has been picked up by upcoming streaming platform HBO Max. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the eight-episode series comes from writer, showrunner, and executive producer Alexandra Rushfield. It follows Candy Smalls (Silverman), the highest-ranking female elf in the North Pole. When the successor to Santa Claus (Rogen) is poached by Amazon on Christmas Eve, Candy goes for her ultimate dream -- to become the first woman Santa Claus in the history of Christmas, the plotline read. The project comes from Lionsgate and Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver's Point Grey Pictures. Rushfield, Silverman, Amy Zvi and Rosa Tran will serve as executive producers. I have long dreamed of a taking a beloved holiday tradition and adding a feminist agenda and some R rated comedy and when I read this script from Ali, with Seth and Sarah attached to voice, I knew that it was a perfect fit for us at Max, said Suzanna ...

The contrast between the stand taken by India at Copenhagen and at the earlier UN Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 couldn't have been starker, writes Darryl D'Monte.

The new coastal zone regulation reads as a compendium of the myriad exceptions to the few rules - a move away from managing the coastal natural resources based on principles to one based on discretion. Kannan Kasturi reports.

The replacement of CFCs by more benign HCFCs and HFCs has removed the risks linked to ozone depletion, but these gases continue to contribute to global warming. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The current shape of government is too distributed to tackle the scale and complexity of the rural employment guarantee. A National-level autonomous body should be created solely for implementing the NREGA, and this agency should have the necessary authority, in addition to the responsibility, to manage the implementation, says Trilochan Sastry.

2004 is being celebrated as the International Year of Rice, and the starchy grain has undergone a complete metamorphosis, says Devinder Sharma.

Lobbyists for agri-business interests will promote their agenda, naturally, but we must judge the merit of introducing more GE crops in India ourselves. Common sense, and all the data that is open to scrutiny, suggests that we should not, says P V Satheesh.

How do we bring back to our streets the Indian identities they once had? The answer lies in documenting and codifying the many elements of construction in the past, for evolving an architecture with an Indian identity, writes Kiran Keswani.

As part of a study on the socio-economic status of women from the ‘Most Backward Castes’, women from the Nayibrahmin or barber community talk of their lives of oppression and deprivation. Akhileshwari Ramagoud recounts their tales.

Kobe Bryant, the former Los Angeles Lakers superstar and one of the greatest players in National Basketball Association history, died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. He was 41 years old. Photo: Associated Press

Musician Imogen Heap gives advice for aspiring musicians, shares favorite lyrics and explains why she’s interested in a human-machine collaboration for an upcoming project.

Rana Moitra, a Trinamool Congress polling agent, in Kasba, which falls under the Jadavpur constituency in Kolkata was allegedly beaten up by the Communist Party of India-Marxist cadres during the final phase of polling in West Bengal on Wednesday.

In a first, the Lok Sabha Election this year has at least four candidates from the traditionally under-represented transgender community. Prabhu Mallikarjunan looks at their participation, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

In January, the Ratan Tata-chaired Investment Commission green-lighted coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology for India and the goverment appears eager to develop policy to promote CTL. But beyond the pressing demands for energy security and new investment lies a starker reality less seen by the public, notes Sunita Dubey.

While defense may be at the heart of security concerns, it is not necessarily the most important sector for security, says Firdaus Ahmed.

The happenings in Pakistan, which have culminated in the unfortunate assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, are equally portentuous for India. India needs to contain the Pakistani predicament at the border, notes Firdaus Ahmed.

Can there possibly be a gender angle to the tsunami story? Certainly, says Ammu Joseph, pointing out that women from economically and socially deprived communities usually bear the brunt of disasters, thanks to the gender dimension of social inequality and inequity.

Public audit of an organisation or individual by a statutory authority is proven to give teeth to enforcement. Why then has India's CAG failed to instill fear in the various government departments and enterprises it monitors? A new book by B P Mathur tackles this and more, says Himanshu Upadhyaya.

More and more people are considering cycling as an option for their daily commutes to work. Women's participation in this change, however, is still low, and a lot of barriers need to be overcome, writes Sathya Sankaran.

The appointment of NR Narayana Murthy at the helm of affairs in IT bellwether Infosys may have raised the prospects of its economic revival, but has broader implications related to corporate governance. Shankar Jaganathan explores the likely impact.

At a recent conference hosted by the environment ministry, attendees adopted several resolutions with a purported view to developing India’s environmental future. Kanchi Kohli analyses some of these and their real, likely portent.

The Southern region of India is expected to face high energy deficit this year while the Western and Eastern regions will have a surplus of energy generation. Kannan Kasturi explains why this regional skew in energy generation and energy consumption exists and what it will take to resolve it.

Commanding general of Western Command, KJ Singh recently described Pakistan’s repeated military posturing in the broad framework of history as “the hallmark of being idiotic”. But can India really afford to say that? Firdaus Ahmed presents an incisive inward-looking analysis.

The focus for developing countries at the upcoming Cancun WTO Ministerial must be on food and agriculture, says Suman Sahai.

Remember how keen so many of our national security experts were on sending our own troops into Iraq alongside those of the U.S.? Remember it was to have been such a good thing for India, asks P Sainath.