Tourism and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja has welcomed the proposals made in the Union Budget 2010-2011 in tourism and housing & urban poverty alleviation sectors.

Here is the entire text of the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget Speech:

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank chairman KV Kamath, however, said he expects interest rates to go up only towards of the end of this year.

Following the prime minister's reported call to his Cabinet colleagues to stay away from any business interests, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday suggested that ministers should hand over their businesses to a trust, as is being practised in the United States.

Last week, RBI raised the CRR--amount lenders need to keep with the central bank-- by 75 basis points to suck out Rs 36,000 crore (Rs 360 billion) from the system and cool down inflation.

State-owned Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum currently lose Rs 180 crore per day.

"If you ask me is it feasible (to have compulsory voting) in a election on a national scale. It is not," he told reporters in New Delhi on the sidelines of the Election Commission's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Electoral merit -- in other words, the ability to win by hook or crook -- has to cease to be a yardstick for handpicking men and women to stand for elections, writes Mahesh Vijapurkar.

On October 15, 2009, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria was elected as the tenth director-general of UNESCO.During her recent visit to India, Bokova spoke to Claude Arpi about her vision and aspirations for UNESCO in a changing world.

It was a scene of bonhomie as the border personnel of India and China met to mark the Republic Day in Chushul belt along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, putting behind the tension over recent incursions by the People's Liberation Army in the area.

United States President has greeted India on its Republic Day. In a brief message, he said the US and India shared belief in values of liberty, pluralism, and religious tolerance.

A Pakistani court on Monday served notices to the federal government and the national association of film producers seeking their response to a petition seeking a ban on the exhibition of Indian films to protest the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers from the IPL.

The Election Commission's Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Monday got off to a start with the country's top leadership expressing serious concern over malpractices ranging from money and muscle power to paid news syndrome vitiating the electoral process.The leaders called for corrective action by the EC and the political parties to cleanse it of the evils, even as they praised the contribution in the last 60 years of the commission.

The Election Commission is yet to hear from the government on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's idea of overseas Indian passport holders voting in the next general elections.

Dr Sangam Prithviraj Yadav, chief of the Students' Joint Action Committee for the Telangana movement, claims that the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which has been at the forefront of the movement, is actually delaying the creation of a new state. In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, he explains why.

RBI's platinum jubilee volume chronicles the thinking of a distinguished institution.

# Virat Kohli has aggregated 275 runs at an average of 91.66, including one hundred and two fifties, in five matches - a tally second best for India in Bangladesh.

Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday rejected as "false" and "malicious" a news report on some Telugu TV channels alleging it may have had a hand in the helicopter crash that killed former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

Referring to the base year, the exchange said it was due to stability of shares prices and its proximity to the current period (launch date) prompted it to choose 1978 79 as the base year.

Facing the heat from their constituents as well as fellow legislators, Andhra Pradesh ministers hailing from Telangana region on Thursday came forward to resign from their posts but Chief Minister K Rosaiah prevented them from doing so.

Lagadapati Rajagopal, 45, an industrialist-turned-politician, is a second term member of the Lok Sabha from Vijaywada constituency -- the commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Praja Rajyam chief K Chiranjeevi on Wednesday bought 15 days time from his MLAs to come out with a clear stand on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh even as the party found itself in a muddle following speculation that he is now pitching for a unified state.

The Shiv Sena has raked up the Belgaum card to trump the proponents of a separate Vidarbha state out of Maharashtra. The saffron party, which is yet to recover from its successive defeats in the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, has already reiterated that it will launch an agitation for an undivided Maharashtra. At the same time, the party dared the Congress-led governments at the Centre and the state to take concrete measures for the inclusion of Belgaum.

If you have a creative streak yet enjoy the finer aspects of science, you might want to consider architecture as a career option.

The ruling Congress party has emerged as the single largest party in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation by winning 52 of the 150 seats, results of which were announced on Thursday. However, the hopes of the Congress leaders of sweeping the elections and bagging two-third of the seats were dashed.

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will receive special mementos, while Gautam Gambhir will be rewarded for an exceptional year in international cricket at the annual BCCI Awards Ceremony in Mumbai on December 6.

Riding on fine performances from veteran Ajit Agarkar and left-arm spinners Iqbal Abdulla and Harmeet Singh, Mumbai staged a remarkable comeback to defeat Himachal Pradesh by 85 runs in a Group A Super League Ranji Trophy match in Mumbai on Friday. The hosts, who were bundled out for a paltry 162 in the first innings, thereby conceding an 84-run lead, dismissed Himachal for 166 in 67 overs, 13 minutes before tea, after setting the visitors a target of 252 to win.

Left-arm spinners Iqbal Abdulla and Harmeet Singh scalped four wickets each as Mumbai crawled back into the game, trailing Himachal Pradesh by just eight runs with 10 wickets and two days in hand on second day of their Super League Group A Ranji Trophy match.

Inspired by Rahul Dravid's glorious 177 in the ongoing first Test against Sri lanka at Ahmedabad, former India captain Gundappa Viswanath has asked the ICC not to undermine Test cricket and promote the five-day game, which has been in vogue since 1877.

Pacer Vikramjeet Malik ripped through the famed Mumbai batting line-up, bagging a six-wicket haul, as Himachal Pradesh took control of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match on the first day. Malik, who ended up with figures of six for 33, justified skipper Ashok Thakur's decision to bowl first as the visitors dismissed Mumbai for a paltry 162 in 51.1 overs at the Bandra-Kurla Complex ground in Mumbai.

The Home Minister said the country would never forget the supreme sacrifice made by the NSG commandos during the Mumbai terror attacks.

Exactly a month after Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death in a helicopter crash, his family on Thursday moved out of the Andhra Pradesh chief minister's official residence in Begumpet area to their own home in swish Banjara Hills.

Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday late night met Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu at the latter's residence in Hyderabad.

A landslide in Mumbai killed 12 and injured about 10 people, after heavy rains sent rocks \nand mud from a hill crashing into a slum late on Thursday.

The film will see Haasan and Venkatesh together.

Applications of information and communication technology in the field of education, health, environment and agriculture will bring in a generational change among the Indian masses acording to Sam Pitroda.

Adding another feather to its cap, the prestigious IIT-Kanpur is all set to sign an MoU with the Malaysian government to provide technical and academic assistance in setting up an electronic hub in that country.

Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao said the rapid expansion of the government borrowing programme was coming in the way of the central bank's monetary policy objective of a lower interest rate regime and called for more independence for the central bank.

The show called ''The Big Band'' will have close to 40 music bands from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Singapore, and Sri Lanka competing with each other.

Authority for Advance Ruling dispenses with complex forex indexation requirement.