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Ranjan Mathai to be India's next foreign secretary

PTI | 1 hr ago Ranjan Mathai, India's ambassador to France, will be the next foreign secretary, succeeding Nirupama Rao. Mathai, a 1974-batch IFS officer, will assume charge from August 1 and be there for a term of two years. A fortnight after journalist J Dey was shot dead, Mumbai police on Monday cracked the case claiming that underworld don Chhota Rajan was behind the murder, even as they remained tightlipped about the motive.
The hike in diesel, LPG and kerosene prices will narrow the gap between diesel and petrol prices, but also act as a spur to inflation. The former effect is welcome, the latter hardly so. The gap that had been widening between petrol and other fuels reflected bad policy both from socio-economic and environmental points of view. It promoted dieselisation of the economy, pollution and criminal diversion of subsidised fuel for smuggling or adulteration. But even if the closer alignment of prices is a move in the right direction, the juggling between heavy taxation imposed on fuels and subsidies to oil PSUs continually struggling with under-recoveries is irrational - as is the government's reluctance to deregulate fuel prices. If consumers know the market determines fuel bills, the political backlash will be less. If price hikes pinch them on occasion, they also benefit when prices fall. This is an impersonal process. Nor would we see anomalies like static prices when global crude prices soar or costs northbound when the latter dips. When government fixes prices, oil PSUs lose out on investible resources even as private players are shooed away from retail. The result is stifled investment and competition in the sector, with its adverse fallout on prices.

Singur land issue: Tata's plea rejected

3 hrs ago | The Calcutta High Court today refused to pass an interim order restraining the West Bengal

government from distributing to farmers in Singur the land acquired earlier to set up Tata'a car manufacturing unit.

Yeddyurappa offers prayers but skips truth testification

PTI | 29 min ago | Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa offered prayers at the temple of Lord Manjunatha

but did not undergo a "truth testification" before the deity, a challenge he had thrown to JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy but later retracted.

MP BJP chief seeks 'death by wish' due to price rise

PTI | 29 min ago | In a startling move, Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Prabhat Jha today urged President Pratibha

Patil to accept his request for "death by wish" in the wake of spiralling prices.

15 killed as tempo collides with bus in Karnataka

IANS | 42 min ago | Fifteen people were killed on Monday when their tempo collided with a passenger bus on the

Bangalore-Pune highway near Karnataka's Tumkur town.

Ranjan Mathai to be India's next foreign secretary

PTI | 1 hr ago | Ranjan Mathai, India's ambassador to France, will be the next foreign secretary, succeeding

Nirupama Rao. Mathai, a 1974-batch IFS officer, will assume charge from August 1 and be there for a term of two years.

Singur land issue: HC refuses to pass interim injunction

PTI | 3 hrs ago | The Calcutta High Court today refused to pass an interim order restraining the West Bengal

government from distributing to farmers in Singur the land acquired earlier to set up Tata'a car manufacturing unit.

Archaic land acquisition act should go: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra | 3 hrs ago | The Supreme Court on Monday said the archaic land acquisition act must go to

prevent Nandigram in every state.

Uttarakhand CM walks barefooted to protest petrol price hike

PTI | 3 hrs ago | Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Monday led a march of BJP activists,

protesting against the recent hike in prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, official sources said.

Rahul meets UP girl stabbed in the eye at AIIMS

PTI | 4 hrs ago | Rahul Gandhi met a 14-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh today, undergoing treatment at the

AIIMS here after being stabbed in the eye allegedly by two youths when she resisted a rape attempt, and inquried about her condition from doctors.

Anna Hazare puts conditions for Baba Ramdev to join fast

IANS | 4 hrs ago | Veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare said, "Baba Ramdev has expressed his wish to sit on fast with

me in August but I have placed a set of demands in front of him. If they are met, then I will think about it."

Two terrorists killed in J&K encounter

PTI | 5 hrs ago | Two terrorists were killed on Monday in an encounter with security forces in Pulwama district of

south Kashmir, officials said.