P B Chandra finds out if the 'Modi wave' is sweeping the desert state as party workers have been claiming since the Bharatiya Janata Party's thumping victory in the assembly polls last year.
Pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party's S S Ahluwalia who has the backing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Trinamool Congress nominee Baichung Bhutia said the real issue in Darjeeling hills was not a separate state, but lack of development.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said on Thursday that the country's economy had successfully weathered the impact of volatility in world oil prices because of the war in Iraq and that the worst was over.
Under increasing pressure to cut interest rates on Employees Provident Fund, the labour ministry is expected to meet the Reserve Bank of India brass in a bid to retain the current rate of 9.5 per cent.
Admitting that fiscal deficit was a "major source of worry", Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Thursday said pegging it at 5.6 per cent of GDP for the coming year was not "unsatisfactory" given the adverse circumstances.
Government on Monday indicated the one-by-six scheme for assessing income tax will be looked into to include wireless in local loop-based mobile phones.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday announced in his Budget speech that two separate companies would be formed to raise the airports in Delhi and Mumbai to international standards.
Standard deduction of 40% or Rs 30,000 whichever is less for salary till Rs 5 lakh, above Rs 5 lakh, 20,000.
Concerned with the inadequate availability of credit to the small-scale sector, Minister of Small Scale Industries C P Thakur on Thursday said he will soon take up the issue with finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said on Tuesday that the government was committed to appointing a professional to head the UTI-II, which runs all the net asset value based schemes.
The government on Thursday ruled out any cut in interest rates on Employees' Provident Fund this fiscal from the present 9.5 per cent, but said it would be reviewed only next fiscal based on the surplus position, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma
No inflationary pressure in near future: Jalan
Vijay Kelkar, advisor to the finance minister, on Friday submitted the final reports on direct and indirect taxes to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.
The government will move fast towards a more liberal forex regime in the backdrop of a record foreign exchange reserves of 68 billion dollar and fresh inflow of $500 million a week, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Vasundhara Raje and Pradesh Congress Committee president Chandrabhan were among 861 candidates who filed their nomination papers for the Assembly elections on Monday.
Optimistic of the feel-good factor in the economy, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Tuesday said the inflation will come down to 4-4.5 per cent by the end of the current fiscal and average at 4.8 per cent during the 6-year term.
It is also considering to hike FDI cap for public sector from 20 per cent to 49 per cent
The internal debt of the government has increased from Rs 459,000 crore in 1998-99 to an estimated Rs 1.15 million crore in 2003-04, Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.
Tempers ran high over Gorkhaland issue in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with a Trinamool Congress member attacking senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh for making a strong plea for a political solution to the issue but later expressed regret.
Her speech was laced with Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and even Tamil verses.
In the midst of the poll heat, the Congress has heaped praise on A B Vajpayee to attack Narendra Modi, asking how can a person whom the tallest leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party "wanted removed" as the chief minister in the wake of Gujarat riots be the party's PM candidate.
'The culture of the BJP has changed and the party too has changed with this new culture. 'The BJP is having bad political management, bad man management, personal management and inter-personal relationships.' 'Therefore, people like me are not in the BJP.'
The Delhi Police has asked commuters to avoid Rajpath and its connecting roads on Friday morning as nearly 30,000 people are expected to throng the Red Fort on the occasion of International Day of Yoga, traffic officials said.
There was no law that prevented the government from presenting a sixth full Budget, or something similar to it.
'Governments, democratically elected governments, are custodians for a short- specified time.' 'Parents don't let baby sitters decide the course of their child's future.'
A day after Bhartiya Janata Party's veteran leader Jaswant Singh accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of betraying him as it was he who had support her candidature for the chief minister's post, Raje hits back saying that party members should accept the party's decision.
However, district authorities denied receiving any such complaint and said a case in this regard was being being heard in court.
'Despite the subsequent events at Kargil and the October 12, 1999 military coup in Pakistan, the Lahore initiative firmly established Vajpayee's credentials as a crusader of peace,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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