The Union Cabinet has approved amendments to the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, paving the way for privatisation of government-owned insurers. The amendments, approved by Cabinet, will remove the clause for the Centre to hold at least 51 per cent in public sector insurance companies at any given time. It will also have an enabling provision for the transfer of management control from the government to the potential buyer of the public sector insurance company. The finance ministry will move amendments to the insurance Act in the ongoing Parliament session.
Nitin Gadkari is the rising star, Arun Jaitley commands respect while minister of state Dharmendra Pradhan seems to be the PM's new favourite.
The DMK leadership may now have to deal with a demand for more seats from its Congress ally in the Lok Sabha polls, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that more pharma companies should be allowed to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine in the country during the pandemic to scale up production.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday did an hour-long session of yoga exercises in the open air as he led corporate India to join the International Day of Yoga celebrations. Several public and private sector companies held yoga sessions at their offices to promote the adoption of exercise in daily routines to stay fit and healthy. Adani, chairman of logistics-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, and his wife Priti, who heads the Adani Foundation, "participated with more than 1,000 members of the Adani Parivaar team to celebrate health, mindfulness and meditation," the group said in a statement. The session was held at a football ground at Adani Shantigram in Ahmedabad. Several other business leaders tweeted pictures of their yoga sessions.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday said he would file a defamation case against Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejirwal, who has dubbed him as a dishonest man after the Enforcement Directorate carried out raids at many places, including at the premises of the Congress leader's nephew.
Patole, the MLA from Sakoli in Bhandara district, had resigned as speaker of Maharashtra assembly on Thursday.
Sources said the designers present in the meeting will submit their individual proposals shortly to the MSME ministry entailing suggestions to set up design centres.
India is celebrating its 72nd Republic Day, the day its Constitution came into force in 1950.
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry on Wednesday said the states and union territories (UTs) will provide up to 25 per cent rebate on road tax for vehicles that are purchased after scrapping old vehicles under the new National Automobile Scrappage Policy. The ministry in a press note said that in the vehicle scrapping policy, it is proposed to have a system of incentives to nudge vehicle owners to discard old and polluting vehicles. "As an incentive for scrapping, concession is stipulated in the motor vehicle tax for a vehicle registered against submission of Certificate of Deposit, which is issued by a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility.
'Our automakers export 50 per cent of what they manufacture and once the policy comes into play, which is in the next 2-3 years, we would become a Rs 10 trillion industry.'
For the past one week, Modi has been holding in-person meetings with Union ministers apparently to take stock of the work done by the government in the last two years and to discuss various issues.
Various stakeholders, including about 600 developers, bankers and officials from various wings, including the National Highways Authority of India, will also be present.
The Ram Mandir issue continues to be on Bharatiya Janata Party's "core agenda", the party said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
A tribute to the unsung heroes.
Jhunjhunwala passed away early on Sunday morning due to a cardiac arrest, a source in his newly set up airline said.
Former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was on Thursday sworn in as the 14th Vice President of India.
No major glitches in electronic voting machines were reported and the voting passed off peacefully with high security observed at the 3,360 critical booths in 493 locations where more than 25,000 police personnel, nearly 13,000 home guards and 100 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed, officials said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed the company's plans to enter the Indian market, within days of the electric vehicle maker registering its arm in the country.
Maharashtra and Haryana voted in assembly elections on Monday. Several prominent personalities also exercised their franchise.
According to an official statement, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said the 19 other places in the country include Phalodi-Jaisalmer road and Barmer-Jaisalmer road in Rajasthan, Kharagpur-Balasore road in West Bengal, Hashimara-Guwahati road in Assam, Bhuj-Naliya road in Gujarat, Leh/Nyoma area in Assam and on the Jorhat-Baraghat road, among others.
The ropeway like system runs on electricity and driverless pods and comes down at designated stations, removing the traffic burden from congested roads.
Nitin Gadkari led BJP delegation on Sunday met President Pranab Mukherjee over Kerala violence issue.
In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in the party mouthpiece Saamana, Raut said state Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in his address to Shiv Sainiks on January 23 had turned the tables on the BJP, which was criticising him over his illness.
Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Prahlad Patel, Subramanian Swamy, known for his strong views on a host of issues, Suresh Prabhu, Dushyant Singh, who is the son of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Vijay Goel, Vinay Katiyar and S S Ahluwalia are among those who have not found a berth in the new list while Union minister V K Singh is no longer a regular member and has been named as a special invitee.
When Nitin Gadkari took charge as Road Transport and Highways Minister in 2014, he had set a target of constructing 40 km a day in two years. But construction at this point is a mere 16 km a day. Megha Manchanda on what ails the road sector.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday pitched for formulating a policy for using the Reserve Bank of India's rising foreign exchange reserves for funding road projects, saying the country needs low cost finance for such infrastructure projects. Addressing a virtual event organised by industry body CII, Gadkari further said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should also have a financial arm like the power ministry's Power Finance Corporation (PFC). "We have a surplus of dollar reserves in the country. I have decided to talk with the RBI Governor, about how we can formulate a policy by which we can use this foreign exchange reserves for development of infrastructure in the country," he said.
Faced with stiff opposition on the land bill, the government on Thursday reached out to leaders of opposition parties, including Sonia Gandhi, and activist Anna Hazare inviting them to an open debate on the issue while asserting that the bill was "very much in farmers' interest".
Union minister Nitin Gadkari will head a committee which will reach out to social and volunteer organisations while his Cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj will head a group that will produce literature for the polls.
The combativeness reflects her insistence not to meekly acquiesce to what has been going on in Raisina Hill for years or decades, observes Kartikeya Tanna.
Brisk polling began on Thursday morning in 91 constituencies spread across 18 states and two union territories in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. As people queued up across the nation to cast their vote, there were some famous faces in the lines at different polling stations. Take a look.
'But the coldness between the two is definitely melting.'
'According to the survey, ideological issues like Article 370 and Ayodhya received only 14 and 12 per cent voter-backing, respectively.' 'It could well imply that hardline Hindutva issues have only that much voter-purchase, compared to Modi's overall popularity of 52 per cent -- putting the man way above the mission,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Sunday said he has tested positive for coronavirus and will work from isolation while the central bank will continue to function normally. Das said he is asymptomatic and has alerted those who came in contact with him in recent days.
'Despite the pandemic, we aspire to maintain the momentum of last year.'
'Curiously, Pinarayi's approach, stressing the imperatives of development, is robustly backed by Nitin Gadkari.'
'I stand next only to Gadkari, one of the few outstanding ministers in the Modi government, in applauding Pinarayi's political courage and vision,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, said the history of Kashmiri Pandits have a great and rich history.
The 94-year old former Tamil Nadu chief minister was under continuous monitoring and treated with active medical support, a press release by Kauvery Hospital said.
Speaking during the Question Hour, the road transport and highways minister said the country has set several world records in road construction despite COVID-19. The construction of Zoji La tunnel on the Srinagar-Leh highway will be completed before 2024, while another Z-Morh tunnel will be completed in the next three months, he added.
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