The representation of women in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls continues to remain dismally low, as only about 12 percent of the candidates in the fray in the fifth phase are female, according to an analysis by poll rights body ADR.
For successive governments the Election Commission remains a 'holy cow', where unhealthy precedents are allowed to be nurtured since Independence, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'After a long time, we have a governor who is approachable. The RBI's interactions with us are now much better.'
Local businesses are fretting over reform setbacks.
The ministry and the Central Board of Secondary Education will hold consultations with school principals next month for conducting board exams twice a year, the sources said.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar outlined his ideas to turn Thiruvananthapuram not only into a hub for higher education, but also a knowledge city, points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Let us also not expect that there will be a clean break with the past, much though the new government might like to think about it. In a functional democracy that is neither feasible nor desirable. But basic change it must be,' says Shreekant Sambrani.
Mizoram will be voting for total 40 seats in a single phase while polls in Chhattisgarh (90 seats) will be conducted in two phases on November 7 (20 seats) and remaining 70 seats on November 17.
Veteran banker Vikram Limaye will soon leave BCCI's Committee of Administrators to head the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and that will a big loss to the the already trimmed panel, said COA member Diana Edulji.
The implementation of four labour codes in one go from April 1 next year will usher in a new wave of reforms in industrial relations and also help in attracting more investments but employment generation will remain a key challenge in 2021. This year has also been a challenging year for the work force as well as for employers due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 25, which had an adverse impact on economic activities and resulted in exodus of migrant workers from large cities to their homes in the hinterland. Many migrant labourers lost their jobs and it took months for them to return back to their work places from their native places.
'Union Budgets are often used as political instruments and that was the intention of this government too.' 'But while the exercise has settled two fronts, it has left open several others and this has the potential to aggravate with time,' predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Of these, 200 are fielded by the BJP, 196 by the Congress and the rest belong to other political parties.
This is the lowest investment grade rating.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
India along with the G4 nations said it is "unfortunate" that momentum could not build up over the issue in the current session.
'One wishes that today's 'take no prisoners' brand of politics would give way to an understanding of the national interest that is shared by both government and Opposition.'
Israel's Supreme Court overturned a contentious government plan to curtail the powers of the judiciary on Monday, The Times of Israel reported.
The ECI data covers 20,421 bonds worth Rs 12,769 crore. The ADR data, however, collated information on 27,811 bonds worth Rs 16,492 crore. The gap is nearly Rs 4,000 crore and involves over 7,000 bonds.
Hailing the decision of the Supreme Court to appoint a two-member committee to oversee reforms in the Cricket Board after the removal of two top BCCI officials, some Olympians and Arjuna Awardees from other disciplines backed ex-cricketers Bishen Bedi and Kirti Azad to undertake the task. "The Hon. Supreme Court has given the onerous responsibility of suggesting names of eminent people who shall comprise a committee to oversee reforms in BCCI and state bodies which have been bedevilled by controversies and malfeasance," they said in a media statement following the apex court's ejection of Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke as President and Secretary of the BCCI.
The RSS wants to transform society and believes that victory of society must not be judged on wealth creation but religion, he said.
In its essence, GST is a national level system of value added taxation of goods and services, says Shankar Acharya.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday visited an exhibition of the Communist Party, appearing in public for the first time after his return from the SCO summit on September 16, which sparked rumours about his absence from the limelight ahead of next month's key Congress of the ruling party.
Contending that the United Nations Security Council should reflect contemporary realities, India on Wednesday sought 'urgent reform' of the powerful UN body to effectively meet emerging global challenges.
Entry of a higher number of technocrats, an appraisal system for civil servants and the benefits of changing the financial year may feature in the PM's fourth speech.
The 5G networks have rolled out in 738 districts across the country, and around 100 million subscribers are using these services, marking one of the fastest fifth-generation rollouts in the world, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Telecom service providers have also committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore, including a commitment of Rs 1.5 lakh crore for spectrum acquired through auction in July-August 2022, Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. "As on November 24, 2023, 5G networks have been rolled out in 738 districts across the country and a total of 3,94,298 base stations have been installed with around 100 million subscribers using 5G services," he informed.
There are a total 623 candidates in the fray, and affidavits of eight of them could not be analysed because they were either badly scanned or incomplete, the ADR said.
'The one sector where there is still a sense of crisis is banking, but the government has regrettably set its face against privatising any of the government-owned banks,' says T N Ninan.
In her first address to a joint sitting of the two Houses in the new Parliament building in which she touched on varied issues ranging from insurgency to inflation, Murmu said a country can progress at a fast pace only when it defeats the challenges of the past and puts maximum energy into building the future.
'I think some of us, like Mukesh Ambani, myself and those of us who head industrial units, ought to really focus on what we can really do to make the world a safer place, maybe 50 or 100 years from now.' 'For instance, how can we deal with climate change and global warming, right now?' 'The effects of it may not be felt now; in fact, we may pay a price for it today, but it will help the generations to follow.'
