"All of the displaced people have been registered and therefore the diaspora should be able to contact their relatives through relevant Sri Lankan authorities and overseas missions of Sri Lanka," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said on Thursday.

Scores of Indian American politicians, administration officials, media personalities and activists were among the 320 guests at the first state dinner of the Barack Obama presidency in honour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Mrs Gurcharan Kaur

With the new sugarcane pricing policy creating an uproar in Parliament, the Centre has invited leaders of all political parties for a breakfast meeting on Monday in a bid to hammer out a solution to the issue.

Dr Rajiv Shah, the senior-most Indian American in the Barack Obama administration, has been nominated as the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development -- the country's top foreign assistance programme.In nominating Shah, Obama said, "The mission of USAID is to advance America's interests by strengthening our relationships abroad. Rajiv brings fresh ideas and the dedication and impressive background necessary to help guide USAID."

In yet another trailblazing first, Iowa State Senator Swati Dandekar has been elected to serve in leadership for the nation's oldest organization addressing the needs of elected women at all levels of government. Dandekar, a Democrat, is the new president-elect of the National Order of Women Legislatorsthe membership arm of the National Foundation for Women Legislatorsand she will be formally installed at NFWL's next annual meeting.

A year later, land prices are less than half the peak levels of Rs 20 lakh an acre.

Dr Siddiqui is currently the vice president, Science and Regulatory Affairs at the Washington, DC-based CropLife America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international trade issues related to crop protection chemicals.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday demanded that the Centre book UP Congress Committee president Ritu Bahuguna Joshi, for her alleged inflammatory comments against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, under the Prevention of Atrocities Act against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.Mayawati condemned the language used by the Congress' state unit chief and said that BSP workers were so upset that they wanted to take to the streets.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) has been constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The constitution of the high powered Committee comes in the wake of government's focus on infrastructure which has been identified as a key priority area.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the Budget for 2009-10 on July 6. Following is the Budget Speech of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee:

United States lawmakers, who attended the annual Sikh American Heritage Dinner on Capitol Hill organized by the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, pledged to support the community's efforts to serve in the armed forces without compromising their religious principles.

Nothing short of the death of old industrial policies of pre-climate crisis era and rebirth of enlightened policy making that takes into account intergenerational equity with regard to natural resources would be sufficient.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party, the first 100 days would see its government initiating measures to bring back Indian money stashed away in secret tax havens. LK Advani, the party's prime ministerial candidate, has promised to appoint an expert committee to pursue and track the Indian money in those tax havens.

State Bank of India, India's largest lender, may cut interest rates in the new financial year on the back of a lower-than-expected credit growth.

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who wrapped up three days of intensive discussions with the hierarchy of the new Obama administration at the State Department, White House, and Pentagon, and also met with the leadership in the US Congress, apparently has every reason to be satisfied that the transformed US-India relationship is ready to be launched to the next level of the partnership.

The scheme is expected to activate the measures announced for the housing construction sector under the economic stimulus packages. It will increase the stock of houses ranging from 300 sq ft to 1,200 sq ft plinth area built at affordable rates on land provided by state governments.

Presenting the interim Budget for 2009-10 in Lok Sabha, acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee claimed in Parliament on Monday that every effort has been made to fulfil promises made to the common man.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also managing the finance ministry, presented the Interim Budget for 2009-10 in Parliament on Monday. Following is the text of the entire Budget Speech:

Following is the trascript of President Pratibha Patil's address to the joint sittingof Parliament on Thursday.

Rented housing and fixed rents, like it's in developed countries, could be one way to ensure that everyone in cities has a roof over his head.

Dewan Housing bid below advisor's valuation; high exposure posing problems.

High drama continued till late Thursday over electing the new Maharashtra chief minister even as Ashok Chavan, the state industry minister and Congress MLA from Nanded, emerged as the clear favourite for the top post.

In a circular to the banks, the central bank has clarified that the directions of gram panchayats and municipal councils will not apply to such houses as they neither sanction plans nor issue completion certificates for the same.

Even as the debate over safety and essentiality of genetically modified foods continues, Indian research institutes are trying to genetically modify some high-value medicinal herbs that are an integral part of ayurvedic medicine, a recent report of pro-environment group Greenpeace has said.

The government on Monday said banks have provided Rs 95,064 crore (Rs 950.64 billion) in agricultural loans in the first six months of this fiscal, though the amount is less than half of the total farm credit disbursed in the entire last fiscal.

'India must be the very first large State in history that has consciously and voluntarily decided to dismantle itself.'

The downturn in the aviation industry has not discouraged real estate companies, flying academies and large industrial houses from India eyeing private airport development.

"UPA is like a patient in the ICU room. The first question everyone asks is whether he is going to survive or not," Advani said in a scathing attack on the prime minister and the ruling UPA coalition. "If people vote NDA back to power, we will renegotiate the deal to make it equal and ensure that there are no constraints on our strategic autonomy," the BJP leader said.

At last things are going right for Mulayam Singh Yadav. Former socialist, former defence minister, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister -- Yadav and his Samajwadi Party had been feeling seriously disempowered in the last few months after they lost power in UP and a government of the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati came to power, over which SP had absolutely no leverage whatsoever.

As common people grope for means to counter the ever-increasing prices of essential commodities, the economists and financial analysts fear that the recent hike in fuel prices would soon push inflation past 9 per cent. In an interview to rediff.com's special correspondent A Ganesh Nadar, Economic advisor to the Tata group Siddhartha Roy, shared his thoughts on the vexing issue of India's inflation.

Trading in commodity futures -- basically an arena of stock market players -- may have started with economic objectives such as price discovery and price risk management, but, of late, has become an important part of investment portfolio promising quick and attractive returns. In fact, stock marketing and futures trading are the main instruments of speculation in the capitalist economy in which the capital is invested and reinvested with a sole purpose of making a profit.

'Food grain availability for India's poorest is now approaching levels that haven't been seen since the British left. This has everything, sadly, to do with the rapacity of India's elites,' says Raj Patel, author, Stuffed and Starved.

As it turns out, the number of small and marginal farmers is more than 30 million and it is estimated that the number is likely to be 36.90 million, while the number of other farmers is estimated about 5.97 million. These are verified but as yet unaudited figures. Initially, in the Budget, it was estimated that the cost of the scheme will be about Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) to the central government.

The Pakistan People's Party, heading the coalition, decided to keep the ministerial portfolios, except for Finance, vacant hoping to bring around Nawaz Sharif's party which pulled out its ministers after the deadline for reinstating the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf expired on Monday.

Even as experts were debating pros and cons of the waiver, came the first-ever announcement in the history of commodity markets anywhere in the world the introduction of Commodity Transaction Tax and this, coupled with service tax imposed on commodity exchanges, was a blow to the nascent commodity Futures industry in the country.

The extent of the government's concern about inflation was evident at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices, which started at 8 pm on Monday and went on past 12 midnight. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath challenged Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to explain why wheat import this season had been delayed.

The All India Football Federation on Monday gave the green signal for the May 27 exhibition tie between Mohun Bagan and German giants Bayern Munich in Kolkata, but refused to release the Bagan players called for national duty.

As it pits itself against the sarkar and the "company" in a $12 billion stakeout, Latha Jishnu speculates about the future of a small village with an idyllic - but apparently doomed - way of life.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) had sent a letter to about half a dozen banks last month, seeking details on how they had determined the interest rate increases on their housing loans.

Insurance funds will soon start flowing to special economic zone projects, agro-processing and infrastructure projects, domestic satellite services and social infrastructure like educational institutions and hospitals.