With the rural segment accounting for 60 per cent of sales for fast moving consumer goods companies and 40-50 per cent for consumer durables manufacturers, the government's admission of sowing having fallen almost 20 per cent due to the weak monsoon, and declaring 161 districts as drought-prone, has put these sectors under a cloud.

The company plans to hire 1,000 people every month in India and across United States, Philippines, Costa Rica and Africa where it currently has operations. US President Barack Obama had last month announced end to years of tax incentives to those US companies, which create jobs overseas in places like Bangalore.

Former US envoy to India Frank Wisner and industry sources expressed elation over Obama's choice of Roemer while the likes of South Asia expert Stephen P Cohen was cautious in his opinion. Some community activists were disappointed that the President had not made a high-profile nomination from the career diplomat cadres or the world of politics or business as he had for the ambassadorial posts in London and Beijing.

With the biggest mandate for any Indian government in nearly two decades, Mr Singh can now enact bold legislation - including financial, labour and land reforms.

35 qualify for Scripps National Spelling Bee

India continues to be the most favoured back-office of the world, but the Middle East and North Africa region is slowly emerging as a promising offshoring destination, global management consulting firm A T Kearney says.

The Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils at Buffalo Park in East London on Friday has all the makings of a showdown in the high street -- Dirk Nannes, rated as one of the fastest bowlers around will be up against two of the most dangerous openers the world of cricket has seen.

The opening match and final of the second edition of IPL, shifted overseas to South Africa, are to be held at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town and the Wanderers in Johannesburg respectively on April 18 and May 24.

The launch of a genomics project will improve productivity of this multi-purpose domestic animal.

The San Diego Museum of Art held an exhibition of paintings of Nandalal Bose, the great Indian painter whose major work spanned the first half of the 20th century. The paintings convey aspects of nature and spirituality, simple lives of villagers, women at work, and also subtly reflect the socio-political environment of life in Bengal at the time.

When John P Kapoor graduated from Bombay University in the 1960s, he had hoped to continue his studies in the United States but could not afford to pay for it. The State University of New York at Buffalo offered him a graduate fellowship.He never forgot his alma mater. In 2000, he gave it $5 million, and, recently, he increased that sum to $10.8 million.

'Rajasthan Gujjars have not been able to benefit from the OBC quota. How do we interpret this extraordinary spectacle of backwardness?'

We continue our reader-driven series on great restaurants and eating places across the country--this time around in Chennai

Checking emails at dinner? Writing co-workers late into the night? Here are the signs you have a blackberry addiction.

Nirav Kapasi recommends Devraj Coffee Corner for mouth watering Italian fare in Rishikesh.

You want the name of a top foreign B-School to feature on your resume. International education expert Karan Gupta has a few recommendations.

Navratri Fact File

'We need citizens who are responsible, and not all those who just come to Mumbai in trainloads.'

'Wise up Mumbaites! Get a social conscience and learn civic responsibility -or else pay the price without moaning!'

Flights resume at Mumbai airport

The calf weighs 23 kg, is 86 cm long and 62.5 cm tall.

Jaber Elbaneh, 37, of New York is accused of conspiring with a 'sleeper cell' of six suspected al Qaeda members trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The former South African captain has been proving all those who dared to doubt him, wrong.