Former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja was on Tuesday granted bail by a special court in the 2G case, television reports said. Raja has spent the last 15 months in prison. The scandal was over the alleged below-market-price sale of lucrative telecoms permits bundled with airwaves, which the Comptroller and Auditor General of India estimated to have cost the government as much as $34 billion in lost revenue.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has again been denied a visa to visit the United States, will address nearly 10,000 Gujaratis through a live video conference on May 19 as part of Gujarat Day celebrations in Secaucus, N.J. This will be the third consecutive time that Modi will reach out to the expatriate community via video link, organizers said. Apart from the main event, organized by the Swaminarayan Temple in Secaucus, N.J.

President Barack Obama extended his lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney to 7 percentage points because of increased support from independent voters and some optimism over the U.S. economy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday. With six months to go before Election Day on November 6, Obama was backed by 49 percent of registered voters in the telephone poll, compared to 42 percent who supported Romney.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will rank as the most accomplished, poised and successful woman politician in American history. She has pierced many glass ceilings with tenacity and grace. She almost made it to the White House and future sociologists and historians will be able to more objectively assess the misogyny index that still lurks deep within American society and its relevance in the Obama-Clinton Democratic party tussle. The U.

India delayed by a year the rollout of measures to crack down on tax evasion, mollifying overseas investors rattled by uncertainty over proposals that had spurred an exodus of funds and battered the rupee. The postponement on the so-called general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) is the latest in a string of delays and reversals by an embattled government that has struggled to seize the policy initiative.

Sukma (Chhattisgarh), May 3 Maoists freed abducted District Collector Alex Paul Menon Thursday evening, ending a 13-day hostage crisis after mediators brokered a deal with the Chhattisgarh government. After three hours of uncertainty, a visibly fatigued Menon, 32, emerged from captivity at 6.30 p.m. accompanied by Maoist mediators in Tarmetla, a tiny forested hamlet.

The rupee slid to an over four-month low as India's policy uncertainty and worsening economic fundamentals are sparking concerns a rout is in the making, one that the RBI will be unable to prevent.