The chief minister, who had on Wednesday expanded his new cabinet by inducting 29 ministers, had played it safe by and large retaining old faces, as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous Yediyurappa cabinet, while six were new.
The combined fertiliser, food and petroleum subsidy budgeted estimate for FY19 is Rs 2.64 trillion, while the revised estimate is Rs 2.66 trillion. If the carrying forward to FY20 does not happen, the revised estimates for the major subsidies could actually cross Rs 3 trillion for the first time ever.
Mobile phones, televisions, refrigerators, laptops and stationary items will be allowed to be sold through e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal from April 20 during the lockdown, officials said on Thursday. The clarification from a senior home ministry official came a day after Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla issued revised guidelines for the extended lockdown period till May 3.
Wheat will be now be sold to the schemes at Rs 2 per kg, while rice would be given at Rs 3 per kg.
His appeal came when certain organisations of the neighbouring Barak Valley region of Assam observed a 12-hour bandh on Wednesday and have been staging an economic blockade on the National Highway-306 that connects Mizoram with the rest of the country since July 26, disrupting transportation of goods to the state.
Increase in occupancy will pave way for Hindi blockbusters to release, say multiplex operators.
Deaths have so far been reported from Maharashtra (5), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (2), Madhya Pradesh (2) and one each from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
A study by eminent economists, by Jean Drze, Reetika Khera and Meghana Mungikar released few days back shows that more than 100 million people are excluded from the PDS because the central government insists on using 2011 population figures to calculate state-wise coverage under the National Food Security Act.
The protests brought home the fact that the Sri Lankan public is in no mood for halfway measures, as voices against Rajapaksa 'family rule' and 'securitisation' of the civilian administration began sidestepping the more critical economic crisis, affecting the nation and afflicting the individual, observes Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha who joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday said his tipping point to join the party was when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got attacked in Nandigram.
The move came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told chief ministers of the seven worst affected states on Wednesday that his government has increased the states' limit to spend the SDRF to boost infrastructure to fight the pandemic.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh was briefed about this and other activities being done at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) for the training of bureaucrats on COVID-19 related issues during a video conference with the director and faculty of the premier institution.
However, there will be no inter-state movement of workers during the lockdown, which has been extended till May 3.
His about-turn in the farm laws proves that he sees everything in just one dimension: Politics. That helps sometimes. But not always, observes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Data from market research agency Nielsen shows that 152 new players entered the hygiene market in March as the lockdown was implemented to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease. The trend is expected to continue, the agency says, as hygiene and health emerge as key themes.
Khichdi -- prepared using rice, pulses, coarse cereals and spices -- has been selected as Brand India Food
Having developed a taste for what humans eat, the monkeys are wreaking havoc in Shimla, reports Ashwani Sharma.
In a communication to chief secretaries of all states and union territories, Union home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the ministry of home affairs, under the Disaster Management Act, has allowed manufacture or production, transport and other related supply-chain activities in respect of essential goods like foodstuff, medicines and medical equipment during the 21-day lockdown.
'All they need is proper leadership.'
Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian on Friday said there is an "upside potential" in the estimates about the economy during the current financial year amid a faster-than-expected recovery. He said the final print could be better than GDP estimates given by various institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India, which projected contraction of 9.5 per cent during 2020-21. During the second quarter, India's economy recovered faster than expected as a pick-up in manufacturing helped GDP clock a lower contraction of 7.5 per cent and held out hopes for further improvement on consumer demand bouncing back.
Esha Wali, who is the vice president of technology at a Mumbai bank, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar what she would like to see in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget.
Any NGO critical of the government is unlikely to receive a green signal. The new amendment will leave NGOs vulnerable to harassment. It was the NGO sector that helped provide compassion and food to millions of people during the lockdown. The new Bill will render such cooperation and camaraderie impossible in future, observes Rashme Sehgal.
'It makes no sense at all to leave because I have my whole family with me.' 'My wife and children are citizens here.'
The fault line between the West and Russia has widened into a deep chasm and this is likely to endure in the foreseeable future. Far from forcing its way into the European tent, Russia may be reduced to the status of an even more sullen and weakened bystander on its periphery. The US appears to have won this hand with little cost to itself, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'It is just an excuse to say that the Centre has run out of money.' 'Pruning these schemes would mean hard time for the people of India.'
"I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uyghurs, the Yazidi -- what ISIS did to them was truly cruel -- or Christians in Egypt and Pakistan killed by bombs that went off while they prayed in the church," Francis says in a new book, Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future, published on Monday.
From road transport to health insurance, tax rules have changed from October 1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pitch for a united global approach in dealing with the situation in Afghanistan and combating challenges of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic at the two-day G-20 Summit in Italy beginning October 30, people familiar with the development said on Sunday.
'It is unclear whether clothing or home items qualify as essential items. A lot of professionals are working from home, and they need electronics for their productivity. Does this qualify as essential?'
The prime minister appealed to people not to panic, saying thronging shops will pose the risk of spread of COVID-19. 'There is absolutely no need to panic; the Centre and states will work together to ensure availability of essential commodities, medicines, etc,' he said.
Thousands of migrants were stranded in places across the country since the lockdown was enforced on March 25, many even attempting to walk home.
In 2020 India was compelled by China to change its national security strategy. From counter-insurgency, which the army has been focussed on for years, we shifted to conventional war, observes Aakar Patel.
A total of 77 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 27 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, 17 from Gujarat, 11 from West Bengal, seven each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, three from Delhi, two from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and one from Karnataka.
There are 907883 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 13.44 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
'The government is saying that essential commodities are exempted, but on the ground there is no competent officer from the government who can say which is an essential commodity and which is not.'
'Despite the pandemic, we aspire to maintain the momentum of last year.'
The proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, that are envisioned to protect consumer interests, may further compound the impact of multiplicity of regulations on the e-commerce sector, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) had told the ministry of consumer affairs. IACC, the apex bilateral chamber for Indo-US business, had told the government that the proposed amendments would increase compliance liabilities that risk severely impairing the growth of the sector.
Of the total 420 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 187 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 53, Gujarat 36, Delhi 32 and Telengana 18.
''I had no idea that my life would turn into a horror show.' 'I was stuck as the Russians kept bombing Kyiv non-stop.'
Bharat Krishak Samaj demanded that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana should be replaced with a new crop insurance and compensation scheme.
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