The Congress on Wednesday promised interest-free loans to farmers, free laptops to pre-university students and rice at Re one per kg to BPL card holders if it came to power in Karnataka, where assembly elections will take place on May 5.
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Ram Jethmalani on Saturday criticised his party's attack on the government over the appointment of the Central Bureau of Investigation's director. Jethmalani also had a word of praise for the government's action in appointing Ranjit Sinha as the CBI's director. He contended that the decision "for a change, has averted national calamity".
Tejashwi accused the Nitish Kumar-led government of meting out "step-motherly" treatment to migrant labourers.
A fun excerpt from Diptakirti Chaudhuri's Bollygeek: The Crazy Trivia Guide to Bollywood.
The move, the government says will help prevent incidents of fire which has increased abnormally high during the westerly winds this month.
The Uttar Pradesh government suspended two policemen in Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor districts on Tuesdayand issued warning to others for getting into border disputes over bodies of Uttarakhand flood victims recovered from the River Ganga, a senior official said in Lucknow.
Two consecutive days of grid collapse has left almost half of India's population without power. Three major grids -- northern, north-eastern and eastern -- have crashed. Reportedly, over 20 states have been affected. Trains have stalled, markets have closed down, and institutions and offices have been forced to announce holidays.
Two consecutive days of grid collapse has left almost half of India's population without power. Three major grids -- northern, north-eastern and eastern -- have crashed. Reportedly, over 20 states have been affected. Trains have stalled, markets have closed down, and institutions and offices have been forced to announce holidays.
Two consecutive days of grid collapse has left almost half of India's population without power. Three major grids -- northern, north-eastern and eastern -- have crashed. Reportedly, over 20 states have been affected. Trains have stalled, markets have closed down, and institutions and offices have been forced to announce holidays.
Senate passed the measure earlier in a rare New Year's Day session and Obama said he will sign it into law shortly.
The government has made its flagship crop insurance schemes voluntary for farmers with existing crop loans or those willing to take new ones, as it seeks to address the concerns raised by farmers' body and states in implementation of these programmes. "The Union Cabinet has approved the revamping of 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)' and 'Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS)' to address the existing challenges in implementation of crop insurance schemes," an official statement said.
Even with the possible expenditure roll-overs and off-budget financing, the fiscal deficit target will not be met. The FRBM Act, after its amendment in 2018, allows a fiscal deficit slippage of not more than 0.5 per cent for any given year, provided there are justifications. These justifications include war, national security, severe collapse in the agriculture sector, a major natural calamity, big structural economic reforms, or the decline in real output growth of a quarter by at least 3 percentage points below its average of the previous four quarters.
These parties also asked the Centre to present a revised comprehensive economic package that will be a 'true stimulus' and sought reversal of all unilateral policy decisions, especially pertaining to labour laws, as they put forth a 11-point demand charter before the government during a virtual meeting, called by the Congress to discuss the situation arising out of the pandemic as well as the lockdown.
While the American Club Cool Fresh Taste saw the minimum hike of 10 per cent, from Rs 200 to Rs 220 for a pack of 20 cigarettes, the price of Navy Cut Filter rose by about 16 per cent, at Rs 80 for a pack of 10 sticks. Flake Filter has become costlier by 14 per cent at Rs 80, while prices of Flake Special Filter, Flake Blue Special Filter and Wave Cool Mint rose by 20 per cent.
Sitharaman raised excise duty and road and infrastructure cess on the auto fuels by Rs 2 per litre each to raise over Rs 28,000 crore.
Officials at the UAE embassy in New Delhi on Friday said the UAE had not officially announced any financial aid for Kerala flood relief. However, Vijayan claimed there was no lack of clarity on UAE aid for the flood-ravaged state.
Ten people were killed and 38 others went missing as incessant rains battered Uttarakhand on Saturday triggering landslides, cloud bursts and flash floods which flattened homes and stranded hundreds of pilgrims with the Chardham Yatra coming to a grinding halt.
Climate change has induced erratic extreme rainfalls, especially in the South Asian region
"Speaking of leaving the country is a language of treachery. Leave whatever glory this country has given you, here only," the Bharatiya Janata Party ally said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
'If you delay the diagnosis even by 24 hours, in that 24 hours individuals would have affected more people.' 'So, contact tracing, testing, isolation, quarantine needs to continue.'
All covers have a war exclusion clause. For cargo, shipping, and aviation industries, war schemes are available.
'A lot of unauthorised encroachments have taken place in our forest area.' 'The landslides are partly because of such encroachments.' 'The other factor is deforestation.' 'Protection of forest resources is not on the agenda of any government.' 'The damage caused by the rain in Kerala is a man-made factor.'
In an unusual comment, Afghan Taliban has praised India as a "significant country" in the region and said New Delhi has done well to resist United States calls for greater military involvement in Afghanistan.
Rediff reader Rajiv Aggarwal shared this list of books he wants everyone to read
"We had declared four labourers of Assi Ganga Hydel project along with 19 workers as dead after the calamity. And now, four persons have been reported alive," said R Rajesh Kumar, district magistrate of Uttarkashi.
Mahesh Vijapurkar is not surprised that 41 villages in Sangli district want to be merged with Karnataka because of the perennial drinking water shortage in their villages.
A team of experts of Archaeological Survey of India has found that the north eastern outer wall of the sanctum sanctorum of Kedarnath temple was slightly damaged at some places.
In his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' broadcast, Modi said all classes of people have suffered during the pandemic but it is the poor who have suffered the worst.
Is it that the entire Opposition is misleading the people with falsehoods, and the only repository of patriotism, truth and national interest is the Congress party, asks Tarun Vijay
Five days after a huge avalanche buried their camp in high mountains of the Karakoram range, army rescuers are yet to find any trace or bodies of 138 people missing in the calamity, mostly soldiers.
Senior Congress spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad said the claim made by the prime minister on Tuesday of Rs three lakh crore getting into the banking system post-demonetisation, is in clear contrast to what the RBI has said.
If banks cannot charge interest from borrowers during the moratorium, who will bear that cost? Should the depositors subsidise the borrowers by foregoing interest on deposits? In that case, we will turn banking on its head! notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
India's national security strategy needs to be revised periodically since the global and regional geopolitical situation is dynamic, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
'If the museum in his memory inspires and instils among Brahminical British Indians an attitude of equality towards Dalits, the edifice would be worth it,' reports Ashis Ray.
While P Muralidhar Rao, BJP general secretary, says, 'Digital electioneering is here to stay until the elections in 2021,' the BJP's rallies in Bihar will not be confined to cyberspace. Its strategists have devised other ways of getting around the hygiene protocol that Covid-19 has entailed.
'Dear PM, INC supports the salary cut for MPs. Please note that MPLAD is meant to execute developmental works in the constituency. Suspending it is a huge disservice to the constituents and will undermine the role and functions of MP,' Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.
The business would also not be allowed to claim any un-availed input tax credit for "goods lost" or "destroyed".
The new entrants in Tamil Nadu politics, actor-turned-politicians Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, have decided to stay away from the elections, reports T E Narasimhan.
A Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party activist was on Wednesday arrested for allegedly posting 'irresponsible' comments on the social networking site Facebook regarding cyclone Hudhud which hit the North Andhra Pradesh coast earlier this month.
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