Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State were sworn-in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening.
Existing vacant government-funded housing complexes will be converted into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes through concession agreements for 25 years.
In big bang reforms, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a relief package for the telecom sector that includes a four-year moratorium on payment of statutory dues by telecom companies as well as allowing 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route. Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said nine structural reforms for the telecom sector were approved. The definition of AGR, which had been a major reason for the stress in the sector, has been rationalised by excluding non-telecom revenue of telecom companies.
At the same time, the Cabinet approved reducing government's stake in select PSUs such as IOC to below 51 per cent while continuing to retain management control.
The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved the roll-out of the 'PM POSHAN in Schools' scheme that will provide hot cooked meal to students of elementary classes in government and government-aided schools across the country.
The Rs 12,450 crore capital infusion will enable the three public sector general insurance companies to improve their financial and solvency position, meet the insurance needs of the economy, absorb changes and enhance the capacity to raise resources and improve risk management.
With development of the Vadhavan port, India will break into the countries with top 10 container ports in the world.
Pressure mounted for the removal of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Thursday as more instances of impropriety tumbled out amidst talk of a reshuffle of the Union cabinet in which beleagured Law Minister Ashwani Kumar may be shifted to a different portfolio.
The proposed ordinance on food security is likely to be taken up again at a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, when it will consider whether to go ahead with promulgating it or convene a special session of Parliament for its passage.
Gig workers are usually spoken of in the context of the sharing economy, like Uber, Ola drivers, delivery persons for Zomato and Swiggy and so on. This is the first time such workers will be covered under India's social security law.
The approval is in addition to the existing scheme for the wage months of March to May, 2020 approved on April 15, 2020. The total estimated expenditure is Rs 4,860 crore and over 72 lakh employees in 3.67 lakh establishments will be benefitted.
Influential Patel community leader Parshottam Rupala, minister in the first Narendra Modi government Mansukh Mandaviya and three-time MP Darshana Jardosh, all from Gujarat, were among those inducted in the Union cabinet on Wednesday.
Twenty-six per cent FDI cap in sector is not incorporated in Bill as govt retains flexibility.
First time violators will face a jail term of up to one year and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. For subsequent offences, a jail term of up to three years or a fine of Rs 5 lakh, or both according to the ordinance.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved revision in guidelines for providing direct to home (DTH) services in the country under which licenses would be issued for 20 years, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said. The Union Cabinet has also approved 100 per cent FDI in the DTH broadcasting services sector, Javadekar said, adding that while the commerce ministry had spoken of 100 per cent FDI in the DTH sector, the guidelines of the information and broadcasting ministry needed to be changed.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the dissolution of the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation Limited as part of the government's move to identify and close down "irretrievable" cases.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate of 9.25 per cent through the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. The ECLGS was the second-biggest component of Rs 21 lakh crore comprehensive package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week.
The contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB), which generated widespread protests in the north-eastern states, is expected to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday for consideration and passage.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the handing over of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur to a joint venture (JV) company for upgrading it to a multi-modal international passenger and cargo hub.
The Union Cabinet held a special meeting on Wednesday night to discuss terrorism and approved certain measures like strengthening of intelligence gathering by the states to effectively combat the menace.After a nearly three hour meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee came out with a brief statement, but there was no word whether a minister for internal security is being appointed as widely speculated.
The government hopes that the PLI schemes would provide 200,000-300,000 direct employment over five years, according to sources in the know.
Sources in the government said the ordinance is being brought as it was found to be necessary to prevent future litigations against the government for junking Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Once completed, the 10 reactors of 700 MW each will give much needed fillip to the domestic nuclear industry.
Prior to the Cabinet meeting, Gandhi had a meeting with senior Congress leaders at her residence amidst reports that she was averse to inclusion of NAC Chairmanship in the proposed law.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for the proposed SAARC Limited Multilateral Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in tax matters.
According to CAPA, partial abolition of the 5/20 rule was a serious compromise.
Asian Paints was the top gainer after the paints major posted robust first quarter earnings.
The National Recruitment Agency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters, the PM said.
The NRA will have representatives of IBPS, SSC and Indian Railways.
It will allow states to detain students in class 5 and class 8 if they fail in the year-end exam.
A recent report by Citi had pegged the total amount stuck in stalled projects across seven major Indian cities (Bengaluru, Mumbai Metropolitan region, National Capital Region, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune) at Rs 80,000 crore.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved 'Mission Karmayogi', dubbed as the biggest bureaucratic reform initiative, aimed at capacity building of government employees to make them more "creative, proactive, professional and technology-enabled". The core guiding principles of the competency-driven programme will be to support a transition from "rules based to roles based" HR management to prepare the Indian civil servant for the future, according to a government statement.
A proposal, which will empower the Juvenile Justice Board to decide whether a juvenile above 16 years involved in heinous crimes such as rape is to be sent to a observation home or tried in a regular court, is learnt have been cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
The clearance to the proposal of "procurement of VVPAT units" was given by the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a brief discussion. The EC has sought Rs 3,174 crore in all for procuring over 16 lakh paper trail machines to cover all polling stations in the country.
This is likely to be the last extension of the central rule in the state as the Election Commission had issued a statement recently stating that elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be announced after the annual Amarnath Yatra beginning on July 1.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday night is understood to have cleared the agenda for action initiated by the Planning Commission to spur economic reforms in the current fiscal.
In yet another round of sops, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Wednesday said the exemption on dividend distribution tax to open-ended equity-oriented scheme of mutual funds should continue for full year beyond March 2004.
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