New Delhi: The government's negotiations with protesting farm unions hit a roadblock on Friday as the farmer leaders stuck to their demands for a complete repeal of three farm laws they find pro-corporate and a legal guarantee for MSP, even as the Centre asked them to reconsider its proposal for putting the Acts on hold for 12-18 months
Unlike the last 10 rounds of talks, the 11th round could not even reach a decision on the next date for the meeting as the government also hardened its position saying it is ready to meet again once the unions agree to discuss the suspension proposal. This followed a big climbdown made by the Centre during the last round when they offered to suspend the laws and form a joint committee to find solutions
Farmer leaders said they will intensify their agitation now and alleged that the government's approach was not right during the meeting. They also sa.....
Wellington: Google on Friday threatened to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government went ahead with plans to make tech giants pay for news content.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison quickly hit back, saying we don't respond to threats. Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia, Morrison told reporters in Brisbane.
That's done in our Parliament. It's done by our government. And that's how things work here in Australia. Morrison's comments came after Mel Silva, the managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate inquiry into the bill that the new rules would be unworkable.
If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google search available in Australia, Silva told senators.
And that would be a bad outcome not only for us, but also for the Australian peo.....
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, declaring that “democracy has prevailed” and summoning American resilience and unity to confront the deeply divided nation’s historic confluence of crises.
At the Capitol, with America’s tradition of peaceful transfers of power never appearing more fragile, the ceremony unfolded within a circle of security forces evocative of a war zone and devoid of crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, Biden gazed out on a cold Washington morning dotted with snow flurries to see over 200,000 American flags planted on the National Mall to symbolize those who could not attend in person.
“The will of the people has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded. We’ve learned again that democracy is precious and democracy is fragile. At this hour, my friends, democracy ha.....
Perth: Sports and entertainment fans at Optus Stadium will soon have the added excitement of connecting many times faster with fellow fans through the Optus 5G network while watching their favourite sport or live performance.
VenuesWest, on behalf of the State Government, together with Optus and VenuesLive, today announced that ultra-fast 5G connectivity had been switched on throughout key areas of Optus Stadium, including the pitch, corporate suites and seating areas.
While thanking the team at VenuesWest and VenuesLive for co-ordinating the roll out of this exciting new technology together with Optus, Sport and Recreation Minister Mick Murray said, "5G is set to transform the way we now watch sport and live performances as well as how we connect with everyone, while also significantly enhancing the fans first experience."
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin expressed confidence tha.....
Two Goldfields-based projects have been offered grants worth more than $2.6 million in the first round of the McGowan Government's $19 million Clean Energy Future Fund.
The projects will create up to 400 jobs and generate 77,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity each year - enough to power 15,000 houses and save 53,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, which is equal to taking 17,000 cars off the road. The successful projects are:
Nomadic Energy ($1 million) who will install 5 megawatts (MW) of modular, re-deployable solar panels at Saracen's Carosue Dam gold mine. The flexibility to redeploy the solar panels, removes a key barrier to using green energy at mine sites, where a mine may cease operating before the cost of the solar panels has been recovered.
ResourcesWA ($1.6 million) who will install 30MW of solar power at the Homestead mine site in the Goldfields, supplying power to .....
New Delhi: Adani Group on Monday said global energy major TOTAL has acquired a 20 per cent equity stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd.
The purchase of 20 per cent minority interest by TOTAL was done "via the acquisition of shares held by the Adani Promoter Group in Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL)," a statement by Adani Group said.
The investment in AGEL is another step in the strategic alliance between Adani Group and TOTAL, across various businesses and companies of the Adani Group, covering investments in LNG terminals, gas utility business, and renewable assets across India.
"We have a shared vision of developing renewable power at affordable prices to enable a sustainable energy transformation in India. We look forward to working together towards delivering India's vision for 450 GW renewable energy by 2030," Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said.
TOTAL SE CEO, Patrick Pou.....
Washington: Less than 100 hours ahead of his historic inauguration, US President-elect Joe Biden has either nominated or named at least 20 Indian Americans, including 13 women, to key positions in his administration, a new record in itself for this small ethnic community that constitutes one per cent of the country's population.
As many as 17 of them would be part of the powerful White House complex.
The January 20th inauguration, the 59th in all, wherein Biden would be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States is already historic in the making as for the first time ever a woman Kamala Harris would be sworn as the vice president of the country.
Harris, 56, is also the first ever Indian-origin and African American to be sworn in as the vice president of the United States.
It is also for the first time ever that so many Indian-Americans have been roped into a preside.....
గోవా: ఎన్నాళ్లగానో ఎదురుచూస్తున్న సినిమా పర్వదినమైన 51వ భారత అంతర్జాతీయ చలన చిత్రోత్సవం (ఇఫీ) శనివారం మొదలైంది. గోవాలోని డాక్టర్ శ్యాంప్రసాద్ ముఖర్జీ ఇండోర్ స్టేడియంలో కళ్లు మిరుమిట్లు గొలిపే రీతిలో అలంకరించిన వేదికపై చక్కని సాంస్కృతిక కార్యక్రమాలతో ఇఫీ ఎంతో కోలాహలంగా ప్రారంభమైంది. ఆసియాలో అతి ప్రాచీనమైనది, భారతదేశంలోనే అతి పె.....
The Supreme Court Tuesday stayed the implementation of controversial new farm laws till further orders and decided to set up a 4-member committee to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers' unions protesting at Delhi borders.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said that it will pass an order to this effect.
The top court stayed the implementation of the three laws -- the Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act -- against which several petitions have been filed challenging their constitutional validity.
The bench which read out four names of members of the committee said that it will look into the farmers' grievances on the issue.
The fou.....
అడ్డదారిలో ఇన్పుట్ టాక్స్ పొందేందుకు సృష్టించిన నకిలీ సంస్థల కేసులో విచారణతోపాటు, నకిలీ ఉప గుత్తేదారులు/ఉనికిలో లేని సంస్థల ద్వారా ఆదాయపన్ను ఎగవేతకు పాల్పడిన కేసులో దర్యాప్తు ఆధారంగా, ఈనెల 7వ తేదీన హైదరాబాద్లో ఆదాయపన్ను అధికారులు సోదాలు జరిపారు.
నకిలీ సబ్ కాంట్రాక్టులు, నకిలీ బిల్లర్లను ఉపయోగించి భారీగా నగదు పోగేస్తున్న త.....
Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump as she pushes the vice president and Cabinet to invoke constitutional authority to force him out, warning that Trump is a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol.
Pelosi made the announcement in a letter to colleagues, saying the House will first vote to push Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. After 24 hours, she said, the House would proceed with legislation on impeachment. Trump could become the only president to be impeached twice.
"In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," she said, and added: "The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is i.....
More than $250 million of road safety upgrades will be rolled out across approximately 4,000 kilometres of regional Western Australian roads this financial year, reducing the risk of run-off-road crashes and supporting local jobs.
Funded through the Regional Road Safety Program, low cost treatments such as sealing existing unsealed road shoulders and installing audible edge or centre lines to warn drivers who veer over the white line, will be delivered across the State.
The Regional Road Safety Program is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments, with an initial $100 million of works underway already, and another $158 million allocated to be spent by the end of this financial year.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the Australian Government had allocated billions of doll.....