Indonesia is mesmerised by the dubbed version of Mahabharat, the Indian television series, which has even spawned a spinoff reality show where Arjuna selects the winner from14 beautiful women

Mahabharat takes Indonesia by storm

Business Standard

The defining feature of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is indisputably the traffic jam. For much of the day the creaking infrastructure of this city of 10 million people faces almost total gridlock. But there is one unlikely beneficiary of this vehicular somnolence: Twitter. Stranded in stationary cars, or crowded bus stops, Jakarta's residents send out more tweets on average than citizens of Tokyo, London or New York.According to Semiocast, a social media marketing research firm, Jakarta accounts for 2.4 per cent of the 10.6 billion tweets worldwide. And Jakarta has company from another Indonesian city: Bandung, which ranks sixth on the worldwide Twitter charts, beating Paris and Los Angeles, despite having a population of only around 2.5 million people. Indonesia, as a whole, has the 5th largest number of Twitter users globally.The country's online sociability isn't restricted to Twitter. It also boasts the fourth highest number of Facebook users in the world. And this despite the

Indonesia: A nation atwitter

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Europe is beset. Banks are sinking, governments are falling and people are taking to the streets in anger as high unemployment, stagnant growth and ballooning deficits make for a gloomy start to 2012. The region needs cash and is devising ever more desperate schemes to get some, from lending to the International Monetary Fund to borrow it back, to extending its begging bowl to forex-rich Beijing.

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A parliamentary committee on Monday expressed its displeasure at the quality of service and falling subscriber base of the government-owned BSNL, with some MPs citing the example of poor service they receive on their own mobiles to make a point, sources said.
In their briefing to the Estimates Committee headed by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, officials assured the panel of improved service in the next six months, with nearly one lakh mobile towers set to be equipped with 4G service from the existing about 24,000 towers.
The BSNL, sources said citing the statement of officials representing the company, has relied on the concept of "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" by resorting to indigenous technology. "We were told that the results will be visible in six months," an MP said.
Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's CMD were among the senior officials who attended the meeting which focussed on the organisation's performance, especially on its 4G and 5G services.
The sources s

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Stock market crash: The BSE Sensex crashed up to 962 points or 1.17 per cent to 80,726.06 levels, while NSE's Nifty50 fell 244 points or 0.97 per cent at 24,770 levels in intraday deals

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Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

The pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon on two days in mid-September added a new and very scary dimension to the conflict in West Asia. At least 40 people died, and thousands were injured. It was perhaps a matter of luck that none of the co

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The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has decided to review the functioning of top regulatory authorities in the country and has called heads of SEBI and TRAI for deposition on October 24.
Top officials of the Ministry of Finance, (Department of Economic Affairs) and Ministry of Communications have also been asked to appear before the key parliamentary panel, with sources saying representatives of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Badhabi Puri Buch and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairperson Anil Kumar Lahoti are likely to appear before the panel.
Sources said the unstated convention in parliamentary practice is that chiefs of institutions have to attend parliamentary panel briefings whenever summoned.
The meeting of the key parliamentary panel comes amid a major row over allegations made by US research body Hindenburg against SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Much and her husband Dhaval Buch over her alleged links with the Adani

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After 1,080 days as president, Joe Biden on Friday decided to pop in and take questions in the White House briefing room for the first time, striding in with a grin after a strong monthly jobs report and the temporary settlement of a strike by ports workers.
The president has been less available than his recent predecessors to questions from White House press corps, making his surprise appearance welcome to the gathered reporters who waited as his press secretary's daily briefing was moved up 15 minutes, then delayed for nearly one hour.
The president stepped through the press room's blue door in a dark gray suit and red tie and proceeded to make news in response to questions about comments on the 2024 presidential election, the latest jobs numbers and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The 81-year old stepped aside from the Democratic nomination this summer, backing Vice President Kamala Harris instead. He acknowledged doubts about whether the November election would be ..

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SBI warns telecom firm MTNL that payment failure would result in a penal interest rate being applied to the outstanding balance

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Senior Congress leader Kumari Selja on Saturday said people of Haryana have been waiting for the assembly election to change the current dispensation in the state and bring her party to power.
She was speaking to reporters after casting her vote in Hisar district. Polling began for all the 90 assembly seats in Haryana on Saturday morning.
"We have seen this inclination in people even before the Lok Sabha polls, they have been waiting for this day to change the rule and elect a Congress government," Selja said here.
The Congress MP from Sirsa also appealed to voters to exercise their franchise to decide their future in Haryana.
Asked if she would become the chief minister should the Congress win, Selja said it was for the party high command to decide. "After the result comes, the party high command will decide."
Replying to another question, Selja said she did not need to talk about her seniority and that it was evident and everybody knew.
She also asserted that the Congress would

Congress, Congress flag

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to visit Pakistan for the SCO summit on October 15-16, marking the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to the Islamic nation in nearly a decade

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Jurors picked for the trial of a man who severely injured author Salman Rushdie in a knife attack likely won't hear about the fatwa that authorities have said motivated him to act, a prosecutor said Friday.
We're not going there, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said during a conference in preparation for the Oct. 15 start of Hadi Matar's trial in Chautauqua County Court. Schmidt said raising a motive was unnecessary, given that the attack was witnessed and recorded by a live audience who had gathered to hear Rushdie speak.
Potential jurors will nevertheless face questions meant to root out implicit bias because Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, is the son of Lebanese immigrants and practices Islam, Judge David Foley said. He said it would be foolish to assume potential jurors had not heard about the fatwa through media coverage of the case.
Matar, 26, is charged with attempted murder for stabbing Rushdie, 77, more than a dozen times, blinding him in one eye, as he took the stage at a 

Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar

Mahabharat takes Indonesia by storm

Indonesia: A nation atwitter

Europe on vacation

Pallavi Aiyar: In EU, farm subsidies remain crisis-proof

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