Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel allocated portfolios following a major cabinet reshuffle, with Harsh Sanghavi becoming Deputy CM and receiving Home and Industries. New ministers, including Rivaba Jadeja, were also assigned responsibilities.
While demand for sub Rs 50-lakh affordable housing prevails, market players cite increased land rates, escalated construction costs and low margins as key prohibiting factors.
'... that it once again shies away from renewing its commitment to strategic divestment,' points out A K Bhattacharya.
The government is finalising a policy for urban areas that will encourage the role of private players to make owning a house affordable in towns and cities.
A freebie once granted can hardly be discontinued. All that can happen is to substitute it with a bigger freebie, notes A K Bhattacharya.
The HC also criticised the principal secretary of the urban development and urban housing department for preparing and submitting such a report, nearly 6 months after 14 persons lost their lives in the tragedy.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget proposals lay out a comprehensive road map for transforming India into a developed nation, focusing on key priorities that aim to generate ample opportunities for all citizens in "Viksit Bharat". It sets the stage for sustained economic growth, social development, and technological advancement.
Few finance ministers announce any taxation measure that could upset the stock market. Ms Sitharaman decided to take that risk, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Of the top four companies, which collectively hold more than half of India's market share, two have pitted Shah Rukh Khan and Sunny Deol against each other.
Elections are not won or lost by expounding on such macro-economic matters. For the aam admi, what matters in manifestos are promises that will improve their quality of life, notes Vinayak Chatterjee.
Project Vivaan won big at the Solar Decathlon, placing second overall (and missing the first position by a whisker). Members of the award-winning Team Shunya tell Mrigank Warrier how they built a carbon-neutral, water-neutral, energy-positive home for a family of four.
Portfolios were on Tuesday allocated in the new Bihar cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who, predictably, retained the all-important home department which helps him keep direct control on the state police.
Patel was administered the oath as the 18th chief minister by Governor Acharya Devvrat at a function held at the Helipad Ground near the new Secretariat.
The new cabinet, predictably, has a sizeable number of Yadavs and Muslims, though members of other sections of the society also find a place.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut fuel subsidies while slapping additional fuel taxes on unblended transport fuels in the latest Union Budget. The former will hit the rural poor, households that secured a subsidised LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a programme that was partly instrumental in helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the 2019 general elections. The latter will pretty much hurt the entire population after it kicks in from October. That's what it looks like. Or, perhaps, it's not as it appears to be, at least on the subsidy front.
The government has used four methods to value the assets that it is looking to monetise under its Rs 6-trillion National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). The value of the assets on the block is indicative that the government is expected to realise either in the form of upfront accruals or by the way of private sector investment, NITI Aayog said in its report. Valuations are essentially estimates, so multiple methodologies are useful to get a range, said Manish Agarwal, infrastructure expert and co-founder of AskHowIndia.org. Different valuation methodologies depend on the different assumptions that are being considered for valuing a business, he said.
Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath to 10 cabinet ministers and 14 ministers of state, including five ministers of state with independent charge.
The blaze ripped through the interior design coaching centre located in Takshashila Arcade in Surat's Sarthana area, claiming at least 20 lives.
While most experts suggest the government loosen its purse strings and not worry about the fiscal deficit in a pandemic impacted year, it will be a tightrope walk for the government to increase spending without going overboard.
Aiming to provide temporary shelter for migrants and homeless people, the government is firming up a new initiative to launch a rental housing project in the big cities.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new job creation scheme by giving subsidy to those establishments that make new hires. The subsidy would be to cover for retirement fund contributions by employees as well as employers for two years, she said. Employees contribution (12 per cent of wages) and employer's contribution (12 per cent of wages) totalling 24 per cent of wages would be given to establishments for two years, she said. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, every Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)-registered establishment taking new employees would get this subsidy.
For the current woes of the state to end, in city after city, town after town, village after village, unauthorised constructions have to be removed, no questions asked, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Between 2010 and 2050 India is expected to add about 500 million to its 2011 urban population of 377 million.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday announced a Rs 2,000 crore urban housing fund, while making luxury homes costlier by cutting abatement on service tax on a flat with a floor area of over 2,000 sq ft, or prices exceeding Rs 1 crore.
The housing schemes for the urban poor must involve slum dwellers, who will have to take ownership of their area's development.
The first meeting of the Group of Ministers on inclusion of caste categories in the census is likely to be held on July 1.
Mukherjee, however, did not roll back the hike in excise and customs duty on petrol and diesel.
In a conversation with Sreelatha Menon, he says anything that brings assets to the poor is great, but the poor also need an access to macrofinance.
The minister was speaking at a seminar on low cost housing, organised by the Indian Building Congress.
The housing stock demand may increase further
With infrastructure claiming a larger share, movement and distribution of cement is bound to change.
On the action taken by the government to construct more houses for the poor, she informed the House that a new scheme has been launched for providing interest subsidy to make housing affordable and within the repaying capacity of the economically weaker section and low income group.
Right now the challenge before the government is to double the speed of construction in order to complete the remaining 6.6 million houses before March 2019.
In spite of all the talk of helping the aam aadmi, the outlay under the Indira Aawas Yojana (IAY) for the rural poor in 2009-10 is more or less the same as in 2008-09 (revised estimate).
Raghavendra Kamath and Ashutosh Joshi spoke to Kushal Pal Singh on the growth of Indian realty story and issues surrounding it.
Urban housing mortgage major HDFC announced that it will cut its lending rates by the end of the week.
House owners may soon get some relief from the double stamp duty incidence that currently occurs on property transactions.
It would be interesting to see what the government proposes to investors.
As the issue became a hot topic of discussion among citizens on social media platforms, Chaudhary, who claims to hold a master of business administration degree, came out with a clarification, saying he deliberately misspelt the word to test the ability of schoolchildren to detect spelling errors.
Provisions of RERA, subsidy under PMAY and relaxation in PF withdrawal to buy a house will aid affordable housing, points out Harsh Roongta.
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