Almost a year after he was forced to resign in the aftermath of the terror attack on Mumbai, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader R R Patil is back in the saddle as Maharashtra home minister. NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar will handle the prestigious Power portfolio, in addition to the Water Resources Ministry he handled earlier. NCP leader Jayant Patil, who was home minister in the outgoing government, will now handle the Rural Development Ministry.
Yeddyurappa will have to take one of the hardest decisions of his political career when he drops Shobha from the ministry in order to save his chair.
'This confrontation could have been avoided by a less arrogant administration that initially listened, used whatever negotiating skills they had and tried to be more credible,' observes Ramesh Menon.
The government is committed to provide Rs 100 a day as wages under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, said finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The scheme is in the lines of Nabard's self-help group bank linkage programme, which is recognised as one of the largest microfinance programmes in the country.
In an advisory to the states, ministry of rural development has also asked them to take effective measures to ensure that rural households receive their 'due entitlement' under the Act in the districts facing drought.
The deadline for officers to decide on their career path in the biggest organisational rejig in the central bank's 85-year history ends on January 31. The immediate fallout could be its disruptive impact on the supervisory process for 2020 -- and beyond -- given the manpower shortfall, even as more entities are set to come under closer central bank scrutiny.
The campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly elections tomorrow has turned out to be one of the most violent ever, with bloody attacks on candidates and supporters. The violent incidents increased in the last couple of days of the campaign.
Extending the job guarantee programme much beyond digging ponds and building roads, work allotted under NREGA may cover garmenting giving employment to lakhs of people, Textile Secretary Rita Menon has said.
Likening the situation in the country to a "social emergency", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made it clear that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 cannot be lifted in one go on April 14, asserting that the priority of his government is to "save each and every life".
As indicated by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA government has already initiated process to make higher allocation in social sector.
The Union government is on a social sector roll. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had indicated that the United Progressive Alliance government was going to make the social sector the centrepiece of the upcoming Budget. According to Dilip Ghosh, special secretary, Panchayat Raj department of West Bengal, the Centre has indicated that the demand for grants for these projects should be hiked at least 50 per cent more than the present allocation.
The scheme would check fake payments made under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and ensure that the officials don't fudge the workers' wages, state rural development department sources said. Launched from Dharhar village of Paliganj area in Naxalite-hit Jehanabad district recently, the 'E-Shakti' scheme promises to cover each worker with smart cards carrying details about duration of work, the wage earned, photograph and registration number of the beneficiary.
Over 25 million more children will suffer from malnourishment by 2050 due to effects of climate change and India will be one of the worst affected in the Asian region, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute said on Wednesday.
Gadkari said that the MSME sector contributes significantly in pushing the country's economic growth and creating employment.
After the infrastructure sector, the public-private partnership model will be extended to rural job generation as well.
Ministry of rural development has asked chief secretaries of the states to inform about the remedial measures taken by them to ensure timely payment of wages to NREGA workers, an official said.
The total outstanding debt of farmers to banks in the country stood at Rs 5,90,728 crore on March 31, 2009, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.
A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Gurvinder Singh who was arrested in connection with the accident which led to the death of Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde.
C P Joshi, India's Rural Development Minister, on Tuesday claimed that a Bill to provide for acquisition of land for industrial projects and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has been cleared by the Cabinet and the timing of its introduction in Parliament will be decided by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry.
Even as the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme continues to face problems at the implementation level, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, ignoring suggestions by Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other economists, has refused to bring any major change in the scheme.
The contentious Land bill passed the Lok Sabha test after the government carried out nine amendments.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and former Minister of State Shashi Tharoor were seen having a long chat in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, after a newspaper reported their alleged link in the Indian Premier League bids for the Kochi team.
"I have been given BJP ticket from Mandi and the party has informed me about this," he said.
The government on Friday admitted certain flaws in its flagship rural employment programme like irregularities in payment of wages and said steps were being taken to set them right.
On October 2, the government will roll out the comprehensive plan in 10 districts. The ministry has had a series of discussions with the National Institute of Rural Development, which is to be the nodal body for overseeing the convergence of all rural schemes.
After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his fifth straight budget in the Lok Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party members and ministers from the Cabinet reacted positively to the Budget. Here are some of the reactions.
The clarification in this regard was made on Friday as Shiv Sena ministers met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The ministry asked the state governments to ensure that the job cards had the unique identity number, photographs of the registered members, postal account number or bank account number, elector's photo identity card number, signature or thumb impression of the applicant, seal and signature of the registering authority and signature of the officer.
The UPA government's flagship programme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that proved to be a vote churner for the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections is being expanded to cover the rural artisans like masons and carpenters. So far only manual work was available to those seeking employment under the Act.
Seva Sahayog, an NGO based in Pune (Maharashtra), is in need of volunteers.
In 2007, India slashed the additional customs duty it charged on imported (which were up to 150 per cent of value of imports depending on the spirits), but simultaneously hiked the basic customs duties to 150 per cent from 100 per cent.
The proposal aimed to provide pension for life to widows and persons with severe and multiple disabilities belonging to families below the poverty line, irrespective of age. Expenditure Secretary Sushma Nath argued that if there was no age cap, it would become "open ended" and "send the wrong message" to society. The Cabinet conceded Nath had a point and adopted the revised plan, which includes an age limit.
Revenue foregone on account of corporation tax exemptions is estimated to grow by 16 per cent in 2018-19 (FY19) versus 8.7 per cent in the previous year and 12 per cent in 2016-17, show the Budget documents.
Spanish world number one Rafael Nadal will set up a tennis school in India through his foundation, local media reported on Thursday. The Nadal Tennis School (NTS) will take shape in September and be functional by June next year in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Bihar result could be a flash in the pan but it has Nitish Kumar seriously worried. More so, because the loss represents a defeat for many of the reforms he was trying to introduce.
Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Agatha Sangma, the youngest minister in the United Progressive Alliance government, said on Sunday that her father and Nationalist Congress Party leader Parno A Sangma no longer had any issue with Congress president Sonia Gandhi over her foreign origins.
There are reports that payments of a fortnight's wages were made with one or two month delay in many panchayats.
The RBI reminded that the primary role of these banks is to lend for activities related to agriculture and rural development. The central bank said it has come to its notice that certain state cooperative and central cooperative banks have extended finance to the sector.
Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 per cent, the first socio economic and caste census released in eight decades said.
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