With the green cover gone, the bald roads to Puri are now reigned by lorries laden with electric poles, ambulances, fire service vehicles and cranes, signalling the rebuilding effort is in the works.
The budget, presented by Finance Minister Thomas Issac, focused on infrastructure development, strengthening of social welfare measures, steps to enhance safety of women, giving impetus to public education and health. It is the second budget by the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF after it came to power last year.
Bimal Jalan, has recommended to the government that it cut fiscal deficit to 3.6 per cent of the GDP during 2015-16.
The centre pays only an insulting Rs 200 per pensioner each month at a tight-fisted 0.04 per cent of GDP, among the lowest in the world. Instead, as illustrated by Jean Drze, one option is for NYAY to provide individual rather than household entitlements to all pensioners of at least Rs 1200 per month.
Dr Raman Singh, who on Sunday led the Bharatiya Janata Party to a third consecutive victory in the Naxal-affected state of Chhattisgarh, has earned the reputation of being a 'silent performer'.
A marginally lower stock of 21.04 million tonnes is to be maintained in the first quarter as on April 1 as against 21.2 million tonnes.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the decision could cost the government roughly Rs 15,000 crore.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to release funds for MNREGA and to pay compensation to farmers in drought-affected areas.
'The prime minister did not think that COVID-19 was a serious challenge as late as March 20.'
Fifty-six months on, the government's record in implementing these schemes and projects has been mixed, report Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana.
Addressing a separate session on world food security, Thomas said that India's food law marks a paradigm shift in approach to food security -- from being a welfare measure to rights-based approach.
The NDA is looking to reduce fiscal deficit not by chopping social sector spending but by paring it down
'If the 'ideology' is just Hindutva, meaning cattle slaughter, temple issue, love jihad, joined with random acts on the side of economics and foreign policy, then we are in deeper trouble than we think,' says Aakar Patel.
The focus is likely to be on consolidation and improvement of existing rural-centric programmes to ensure their completion ahead of the next general elections in 2019, rather than announcement of new schemes. Sanjeeb Mukherjee and Arup Roychoudhury report.
Cabinet note being readied, on basis of study, to ensure against foodgrain shortage; might require buffer of up to 50% more.
The BJP's win in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls has emboldened the top leadership to pursue a pro-woman agenda.
The new allegations take the total number of his accusers to 12.
WPI inflation even breached psychological level of 0% in Nov.
Hitting out at Prime Minister for calling note-ban a 'shuddhi yagna', senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the move is nothing short of an "uncontrolled forest fire" that has claimed several lives and hit the economy.
Last-mile verification with Aadhaar-Based Biometric Authentication have the worst record among other options available to check PDS pilferage. So the Centre's insistence on that option is bewildering, says Reetika Khera.
Recommends delisting of chana futures, open to lowering sugar import duty
According to BJP strategists, PMJAY and the PM Ujjwala Yojana will form the nucleus of the Modi government's re-election campaign.
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
According to government's estimates, there are around 110 million APL families in the country, who get 11-25 kg of foodgrain a month.
Chhattisgarh, popularly known as the rice bowl of central India, is witnessing politics over the foodgrain with ruling the Bharatiya Janata Party and main opposition the Congress trying to attract voters through it.
The socio-economic and caste census 2011 painted a grim picture of rural India, indicating that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood.
Worried about the adverse impact that price rise could cause to Congress' prospects in Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi unveiled quick fix policy prescriptions for 12 party-ruled states including reform in PDS and giving farmers a wider choice to sell vegetables and fruits.
The research found that 50% of the people were receiving either nothing or less cash than they were entitled in lieu of the subsidised grains that were stopped under the pilots starting from September 2015 till May 2016.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has managed to pull off what was unimaginable a year back -- adopting a much-needed centre-left approach, says Devanik Saha.
PDS: Smart ration cards need to be smarter
According to the final draft of the negotiating text circulated by WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo among trade ministers of the 159 member countries on Wednesday night, on public stockholding for food security purposes, a developing country like India can provide subsidies for farm support even if those exceed the permissible 10 per cent cap.
NDA under Mr Modi is as focused on the rural poor with doles and hand-outs as the UPA under Dr Singh was.
The amendment Act provides for the elimination of the exemption as it relates to compensation and resettlement and rehabilitation of families.
The Supreme Court imposed a green tax on trucks destined for other states but wanting to take a shorter route through Delhi.
The savings would be better spent and might actually reach the poor, says Rahul Khullar.
'These people are living on the edge of starvation and governments need to show much greater compassion towards them.'
PM extended some old schemes and finally said yes to one that was legally mandated for past 2 years.
There is no foodgrain shortage in the country as our total storage capacity is more than 81 million tonnes, while the public distribution system requirement is 61 million tonnes, says Ram Vilas Paswan.
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