While there are some new faces in the cabinet, leaders such as BJP president JP Nadda and Jual Oram have returned as ministers.
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
Earlier in the day while addressing the media ahead of the session, PM Modi had said that this Parliament session may be of short duration but is big on occasion, and is of 'historic decisions'.
There have been allegations of inflation of marks in NEET-UG which has led to a record 67 candidates sharing top rank with perfect score.
The credibility of the examination system has also come under question, they said.
'Elections are fought to win.' 'In our party, the leadership takes the final decision, and our leaders are very clear about it.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre, the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others on petitions seeking the cancellation of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024 (NEET-UG 2024), and a court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam.
Dressed in colourful attire, members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday got their group photograph clicked in the old Parliament building, hours before legislative proceedings shift to the new Parliament House.
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
The National Testing Agency, under fire over the lapses in the conduct of NEET and UGC-NET, is gearing up to conduct on Sunday a retest for the medical entrance exam for 1,563 candidates who were earlier awarded grace marks to make up for the loss of time at six centres.
It's obvious to all that the Congress is overestimating its success and the BJP is underestimating the people's message delivered through the ballot box, notes Sheela Bhatt.
He said one of the objectives of the new National Education Policy, unveiled in 2020, was to reduce academic stress on students.
'The tide started to turn against the BJD when V K Pandian toured the districts gathering people's grievances last year.'
'Many veteran leaders in the Odisha BJP had met them, but their problems were never sorted out.'
Many senior BJP leaders and outgoing Rajya Sabha MPs, including seven Union ministers such as Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav, have not been renominated by the party for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls amid strong indications that several of them may contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
'Aspiring doctors have put in years of their lives to study in preparation for NEET exams as they start studies from Class 9 to get good marks.' 'And today, after the NEET paper leak, these students even after getting good marks are unable to get admission in any good medical college (because of inflated merit marks due to the paper leak).' 'They are thinking, was it worthwhile to study so hard for the examinations to become a doctor?'
'I do not think the scam is limited to 1,563 students. The number is too low to have caused such an inflation in the marks'
The core committee of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP met at the party headquarters in Lucknow in the presence of Nadda.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a strong team of Union ministers figure in the list of the party's 40 star campaigners for Karnataka assembly elections next month.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
For renomination to the Rajya Sabha, Nadda will have to look for a seat outside his home state of Himachal Pradesh as the Congress is in power there.
Now, every state election -- first up, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year, then Delhi in January and Bihar in September next year -- will be seen by his followers for evidence of his recovery, and by rivals of sharpening decline, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Karnataka would vote on May 10, and the results will be declared on May 13.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
The party fielded Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit.
State-owned BSNL will start 5G services in 2024, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. BSNL has shortlisted a TCS and C-DOT led consortium for rolling out 4G network, which will be upgraded to 5G in about a year of placing the order under the contract. "BSNL will start 5G services in 2024," Vaishnaw said while speaking to reporters in New Delhi.
Over 100 Indian institutions offer semiconductor design curricula, but hardly any of them focuses on manufacturing and process technology, a top official from global memory and storage major Micron Technology said on Thursday. There is significant global demand for such chip engineers, its president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said at the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar. "While more than 100 Indian institutions provide a semiconductor design curriculum, hardly any focus on semiconductor manufacturing and process technology.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
The tax department has deployed about 40 large and small machines to count currency notes and brought in more department and bank staffers to finish the counting process, which began on December 6 following raids against Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd and others, they said.
Jani said that as a food blogger, she has informed people about local cuisines of various places and that's what happened in Kerala video, whose screenshots are being used.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
Pradhan, who is also the skill development minister, said he has received positive feedback from students on the plan to conduct board exams twice a year.
As soon as the House resumed at noon, Joshi said, "In protest against the action of their party's former president (Rahul Gandhi) and in your honour and in honour of the Constitution, we would participate in the Question Hour while remaining standing in silence. We request for your permission".
Vaishnaw on Saturday said he had ordered a high-level probe into the derailment on Friday night.
Fondly remembering the contribution of retiring members from the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said the wisdom shared by them would be greatly missed and their departure would leave a void.
Here is the complete list of ministers in Modi 3.0 and their portfolios:
Over 65 Union ministers are likely to take oath, going by the visual of the meeting Modi held with his likely council of ministers.
President Murmu reached the new Parliament building in a six-horse buggy accompanied by the Presidential Bodyguards riding horses.
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