Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi in his radio broadcast Mann ki Baat, to express his worry over the violence last week in Gujarat. This was even as Hardik Patel leader of the Patidar Anamat Sanghursh Samiti (PASS) was invoking the Sardar as the icon behind a nationwide agitation demanding reservation for an umbrella of communities from Gujjars to Jats on his visit to Delhi.

Just as Sardar Patel united scores of small principalities and Kingdoms in British India to become one country, I will make sure that we, the vanshaj (descendents) of Sardar Patel unite all communities agitating for OBC status and present a national front, he said to a room full of Gujjar leaders from across eight states in Gujjar Bhavan in Patparganj, East Delhi.

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed Rajasthan High Court decision of declaring 'Santhara' - a religious ritual of fasting until death, as illegal.

A Jain body had on August 25, approached the Supreme Court challenging the Rajasthan High Court order.

After providing LPG in easy-to- carry 5-kg cylinders, the government is planning to launch 2-kg bottles at local kirana stores even as it introduced online booking of new connections for subsidised cooking fuel.

LPG is traditionally available in 14.2-kg cylinders, which are not very convenient to carry and its cost at Rs 418 is considered high for poor and rural population.

Gammon Infrastructure's move to sell its stake in nine projects (six road and three power projects) will fetch it Rs 563 crore besides lowering its debt. It will also help it streamline the stretched balance sheet.

The slowdown in the infrastructure sector has taken its toll on players in the space. Many BOT developers (like Sadbhav, ITNL) and asset owners (like GMR, GVK, Gammon Infra) were not generating enough cash from their operational projects to fund the equity requirement for their new projects or were having highly stretched balance sheets. Thus, the street and analysts expected many of these companies to put their road BOT projects up for sale.

The BSE benchmark Sensex seems to be under-reporting the extent of pain gripping the broader market. Nearly a third of the BSE 500 companies (176 stocks) have lost all the gains they made since the Narendra Modi-led government took charge at the Centre on May 26 last year. And, more than 10 per cent (40 of 498 companies) have lost at least half their market value during the past 15 months.

The biggest losers have been infrastructure companies, metal makers, power generators, sugar companies, real estate developers and oil & gas companies, among others. The losses came at a time when, incidentally, infra and capital expenditure-related companies were supposed to be the biggest beneficiaries of the Modi government's infra spending push.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his government woukd not re-promulgate the contentious land acquisition ordinance, allowing it to lapse when the extension ends on Tuesday.

In his monthly Mann ki Baat (From the Heart) radio broadcast, the PM said he didn't want to give an opportunity to those trying to mislead or scare farmers by spreading misinformation about the ordinance. He said the lapsing would restore the legislative situation on the issue as it had existed prior to his government.

Nasdaq-listed information technology services provider Cognizant has approached industry body Nasscom after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services company, started its campus recruitment process almost a week ahead of the industry's normal recruitment schedule.

According to sources at engineering institutes in Tamil Nadu, TCS and some other firms will start recruitment from September 1 this year. And, recruitment at some four or five colleges, including a couple of those in Puducherry, started from August 23-24.

Nothing shows more starkly the distortions that have vitiated the policy of reservations as the agitation by the financially and politically influential Patel community in Gujarat for inclusion in the backward-caste category to avail of the quota system in the allocation of government jobs and educational opportunities.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), has rolled out its 'Jionet' High Speed Wi-Fi Internet service at select locations in Bhubaneswar.

The service is available at four locations, including Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT), Surya Nagar, Gopabandhu Chowk and Governor House Road, covering popular areas like Reliance Fresh Retail outlet, Gopabandhu market complex and ICICI Bank.

After repeatedly denying the dreaded outfit's presence within its territory, Pakistan on Saturday banned the Islamic State group, which has overrun vast stretches of Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State or Daesh has been banned in Pakistan, an Interior Ministry official said today.

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