The Prime Minister's Office on Sunday said that an avoidable controversy has been created through a "deliberate and mischievious misinterpretation" of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement on minorities.
"This is very unfortunate, appalling for a prime minister to say so," BJP chief Rajnath Singh said.
Stating that there is no nomenclature for the three groups who have come together, Akato said they will approach the Centre for political talks.
The government said on Tuesday it plans allocate Rs 3 lakh crore (Rs 3 trillion) for the education sector under the 11th Plan, which would be a four-fold increase from the previous Five-Year Plan.
The suggestions have been part of the final position paper on social sciences, which is a key perspective document that helps in the development of new NCERT textbooks on the subject. The proposal has yet to get a final nod from NCERT.
Ron Somers, founder and CEO of India First Group and the former President of leading business advocacy group US-India Business Council said that when Lok Sabha election results are declared on June 4, "I believe that Narendra Modi will win Parliament by the largest majority ever recorded in the country's history.
He hinted that the same hue and cry is not made about 1984 riots not being in textbooks.
Worried over slowdown of agriculture sector due to "technology fatigue," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday assured the Chief Ministers that the Centre was willing to support their plans for enhancing productivity in the segment.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies on Tuesday welcomed the Union Budget and said it focussed on youth, farmers, women, and has 'substantial allocations' for Maharashtra, but the opposition slammed the annual financial statement, claiming it neglected the western state and only seeks to please the saffron outfit's partners in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
MS had written that seeds of the green revolution were first sown in the fields of CRRI through the indica-japonica rice crosses, and decided that the plant type should be tailored to be functionally responsive to external application of fertilisers.
India-born Gururaj Deshpande, chairman of Tejas Networks, A123 and Akshaya Patra, has been appointed co-chairman of United States President Barack Obama's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He will support Obama's innovation strategy by helping develop policies that foster entrepreneurship, create jobs and drive economic growth.
Life has come full circle for Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus, who faced persecution during Sheikh Hasina's regime for embezzlement, is now all set to head of the interim government in Bangladesh after she resigned and fled the country.
The business council aims to give impetus to trade.
The Centre has already given packages to exporters, now states should come forward to compensate the affected export sectors, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at the 54th meeting of the National Development Council in New Delhi on Wednesday. Besides giving some incentives to exporters, he said states should also initiate measures to improve functioning of the public distribution scheme. The Centre has to spend Rs 3.56 to given Re 1 benefit under PDS.
Referring to the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the likely slowdown of the global economy, Singh said, "this may impact both our exports as well as capital flows". Singh said with increased globalisation, the country's economy accounts for almost 40 per cent of the GDP and, hence, India cannot remain unaffected by global developments.
The central government is likely to extend the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme beyond 2009 only to Indian information technology-enabled services/business process outsourcing (ITeS/BPO) firms. A proposal to this effect has been included in the 11th Five-Year Plan document, which will be put up for the approval of the National Development Council, headed by the prime minister, on December 19.
The government also approved the State Bank of India's Rs 10,000 crore equity issue.
India, which has shipped 'Made In India' COVID-19 vaccines to around 25 nations, on Wednesday urged the international community to stop 'vaccine nationalism' and actively encourage 'internationalism', underlining that hoarding superfluous doses will defeat global efforts to attain collective health security and combat the pandemic.
Aiming to improve the living standards in the country, the 11th Plan draft document has set ambitious targets of per capita income growth of 7.6 per cent each year and an overall average economic growth of nine per cent. The Plan aims at an average growth rate of 9 per cent, accelerating it from 8 per cent in the first year of the Plan (2007) to 10 per cent by the end of the Plan period (2011-12).
The agenda would also include organisational polls and a fresh membership drive, though "national role for Nitish" is likely to dominate the narrative.
Sajjid Chenoy, India economist at JP Morgan is the new part-time member.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has drawn the attention of chief ministers towards the Centre's pet project of food security special programmes of wheat, rice and pulses.
The 15-member body strongly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launches.
Asif Ali Zardari was overwhelmingly elected as the 14th President of Pakistan on Saturday, becoming the only civilian President of the coup-prone country for a second time.
The move will help address apprehensions as well as potential disputes on various computational and transitional issues such as the loss of input credits and pricing that were bound to arise on account of the change.
The government on Thursday said it would open up to 20 IIITs across the country in partnership with the industry, for which a sum of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) has been approved. Planning Commission member secretary Rajeeva Ratna Shah said the National Development Council (NDC) has approved setting up of the new IIITs, which will be co-funded by industry associations and other business houses.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday expressed optimism that the country would be able to sustain four per cent growth rate in the farm sector achieved during the past three years.
Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Anil Kumar and two Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were sworn in on Tuesday as Yogi Adityanath expanded his council of ministers, weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, Modi said India has always prided itself as the first responder in the region - a friend in need.
While the coalition will not be unstable because of pressures, the effort from partners will be to constantly remind the central government and the BJP how much it is dependent on them.
There are tweaks in references to B R Ambedkar's experience about the discrimination.
The future can only get better if we continue to break silos and work as integrated teams focussed on promoting national interests, recommends Sanjeev Nayyar.
Recognising the need for massive funds for the Plan, Dr Singh said that subsidies, open or hidden, would be contained for more resources.
Banerjee said her microphone was stopped after five minutes, while other chief ministers were allowed to speak for longer durations.
You don't want to fight and do trade at the same time. Meanwhile, diplomacy is going on and sometimes solutions to difficult situations do not come in haste, Jaishankar asserted.
On the heels of neighbouring Orissa notching up the single largest FDI project in the country, Jharkhand has also bagged an investment of about Rs 28,000 crore (Rs 280 billion) from domestic steel and power utilities and is ready to sign MoU with Mit
Nikhil Anand, senior vice president, operations, at NLB Services explains why professionals who are adept at data, cloud computing and cybersecurity will earn well in 2024.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has released a draft to amend the Indian Ports Act, 1908, which aims to bring in sweeping reforms in the sector by bringing non-major ports into the national fold, creating a new mechanism for resolution of disputes, and empowering maritime state development council (MSDC). The draft bill will see comments from stakeholders before being tabled in Parliament. "The Indian Ports Act, 1908 is more than 110 years old. It has become imperative that the Act is revamped to reflect the present-day frameworks, incorporate India's international obligations, address emerging environmental concerns, and aid the consultative development of the ports sector in the national interest," the shipping ministry said.
