The Narendra Modi government on Monday sprang a surprise when it appointed senior IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi as Union home secretary in place of incumbent L C Goyal, who sought voluntary retirement after taking over the charge seven months ago.
The high point of the trip will be Goyal's meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on November 13, which is expected to see the USTR push India towards lower import duties in a broad range of areas.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
Terming infrastructure as the "backbone" of any nation's development, Goyal while presenting the interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha said India aspires to be a USD 10 trillion economy in the next eight years, and on the anvil is next generation infrastructure of roads, railways, seaports, airports, urban transport, gas and electric transmission and inland waterways.
Do you know how to buy the best lady's fingers? Or choose the best cauliflower?
An articulate ex-banker and a chartered accountant by training, Piyush Goyal is particular about numbers.
The jan man survey seeks the people's response on various aspects of governance and leadership and its questions include both central-level development and specifics related to the user's constituency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers.
On Monday, former state health minister Rustam Singh quit the Bharatiya Janata Party after being denied a ticket from Morena and joined the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has fielded his son from the seat.
A picture showing Indian flag placed upside down during the meeting of two ministers went viral. The picture was released by photo agencies.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
Bollywood celebrities like Prasoon Joshi, Bhushan Kumar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Anu Malik, Abhishek Kapoor, Kunal Kohli, Vipul Shah, Urvashi Rautela, Kailash Kher, Ranvir Shorey, and Anil Sharma were among the Bollywood personalities who attended a special meeting with Union minister Piyush Goyal and Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Bijayant Panda on Sunday as part of central government's Citizenship Amendment Act outreach programme. The dinner was organised at a five-star hotel in Mumbai and was an invitation-only affair.
Here are the key highlights of the Interim Budget 2019-20 presented by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Several food and grocery delivery firms witnessed their highest ever single-day orders on New Year eve, December 31. Zomato achieved a record-breaking number of orders on its app. The company carried out nearly as many orders on December 31 as the total for the equivalent day in the period from 2015 to 2020.
Bihar's demand for electricity was assessed at 2,994 MW
Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Thursday after passage of two bills amid continuous protests by opposition members over the violence in Manipur.
Nine out of 13 ministers in the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in Chhattisgarh have suffered defeat in the state assembly polls.
Goyal said he tried to buy out ColorPlus from Raymond a few years ago.
'An important dimension that shone through was the enormous pride in India, a general belief that as Indians we are starting to count globally and we are at the forefront of the world.'
Amid a massive ruckus after the suspension order, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned.
A day after stating that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a fall at her Kalighat residence 'due to some push from behind' leading to injuries on forehead and nose, state-run SSKM Hospital director Manimoy Bandyopadhyay on Friday clarified that all he meant was that the CM may have felt 'a sensation of push'.
The top court had come down heavily on the ED and said it is not expected to be "vindictive" in its conduct and must act with utmost probity and fairness.
This meeting came in the backdrop of a controversy raked up by some politicians, including those from Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and Trinamool Congress, who objected to the sale of 24 per cent of Jet's equity to Etihad at a cost of Rs 2,058 crore, saying it was not in the national interests.
The government's largesse was widely expected after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost power in the recent assembly polls in three Hindi heartland states, where rural distress was cited to be one of the reasons for the defeat of the saffron party.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday claimed that the resignation of Delhi minister Raaj Kumar Anand vindicated its stand that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest was aimed at finishing the party.
The Tejas Express between Ahmedabad and Mumbai Central will run six days a week except on Thursday. The train will halt at Nadiad, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi and Borivali stations in both directions. The train will have AC Chair Car Executive Class and AC Chair Car coaches. Meals will be served to passengers by on-board service staff.
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
India will never provide company or enterprise-specific incentives in the electric vehicle sector, a top government official said on Friday, amid a push from American electric carmaker Tesla for special sops to set up its factory in the country. If the government has to consider providing incentives then it will only be for all EV makers and entrants who want to come to India, the official said. The official added that inter-ministerial discussions have happened on the customs duty concession demand of the US-based electric car maker Tesla, but "we never" came to any conclusion on those.
The increase in production will be from the existing mines.
India, the US and 12 other members of the IPEF grouping have signed a supply chain resilience agreement that would help mitigate risks of economic disruptions from supply chain shocks and improve crisis coordination. The agreement would help member countries like India to reduce their dependence on China and provide timely information to the IPEF member countries about potential supply disruptions. The COVID outbreak severely disrupted the global supply chain, as most countries were dependent on China for various products like pharma raw materials.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also joined the meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 in Chandigarh.
'No human bias is involved as happens in active funds.'
According to CAIT, e-commerce policy should take within its ambit not only foreign players but also domestic ones.
A panel of Union ministers will hold a fourth round of talks with farmer leaders in Chandigarh on Sunday over their demands, including loan waiver and bringing an ordinance on giving legal guarantee to a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
After the government's online monitoring system for the import of electronic hardware items went live on November 1, inbound shipments of laptops and tablets slipped in November to a nine-month low at $225 million, contracting 17.15 per cent year-on-year. This decline was primarily driven by reduced imports from Singapore (down 43.7 per cent), Hong Kong (down 27.4 per cent), and China (down 14 per cent), according to the data released by the commerce department. China accounts for approximately 83 per cent of such imports.
A case has been registered against the organisers of a Hindu Rashtra Panchayat held in north-east Delhi, which was rocked by the 2020 riots, for not taking permission to hold the meeting, the police said on Monday.
The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) will on Saturday hold dharnas outside the residences of three senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Punjab on the fifth day of the farmers' protest over their various demands, including a legal guarantee for a minimum support price (MSP).
The opposition parties had till now been calling for a debate under Rule 267, which entails voting, and a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Any government support or incentive to help exporters deal with high freight and insurance costs is unlikely.