The fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election witnesses several high-stake battles between the Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition parties, with people from 51 Lok Sabha constituencies across seven states casting their votes today to form the next government. Here's a look at who were among the early voters!
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday described the indictment of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the United States as a "defeat" for India, saying that the criminal case against her would remain in America.
"The fourth quarter results of GDP data showed a phenomenal 7.7 percent growth rate and has established India firmly as the fastest growing global economy. This trend, according to experts, is likely to continue for the next few years," Jaitley said in a Facebook post.
The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
This is the first full-scale review of VIP protectees by the Union home ministry after the Modi 2.0 government took charge.
'Right time, right place, right business and I could see I was the right person. It was a now or never moment in a sense. If I didn't do it then, then when? There is little point in entering a business as an entrepreneur when someone else has proven the concept.' BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's son started ReNew Power during the UPA II government to focus on clean energy.
Shortage of ICU beds, oxygen, ventilators, vaccines, doctors, nurses and crematorium space in India has dominated headlines around the world in the past few weeks with Covid-19 cases surging beyond control and the government failing to deliver. Yes, election rallies, Kumbh Mela, blatant flouting of social distancing and mask protocols coupled with a messy vaccination process are said to be responsible for the health crisis of colossal proportions that India is facing today. But an analysis of Budget speeches made by finance ministers over 75 years also offers a glimpse of how low on the priority list healthcare has featured for the political class and policy-makers, which is a significant reason for the current situation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday again asked its senior leader Yashwant Sinha to come out of jail and participate in the next phase of agitation to "exert people's pressure on a psychologically defunct" Jharkhand government.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy questioned the party's decision to suspend Kirti Azad over the DDCA row.
The Government on Friday managed to have its way in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G scam when the panel approved the draft report giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram with a 16-11 vote in its favour.
Former RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya on Tuesday sought to dissociate himself from the criticism by the BJP elders against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Bihar polls, and said the senior leaders should have discussed the matter internally.
Seeking to defend its leadership from the attack by its veterans, the BJP said the "healthy precedent" of collective responsibility for poll defeats was set by Vajpayee and Advani.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi will pronounce the verdict.
The trio also accused PM Modi of single-handedly changing the parameters of the deal.
'As a seasoned politician I know how to talk and understand the opinion and sentiments (of other political leaders).'
A committee tasked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to assess the situation on the China border is understood to have reported that Indian troops are not being allowed to patrol up to the perceived Line of Actual Control by Chinese army.
Chidambaram also hit out at senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, saying his performance as finance minister.
'If Rajinikanth has any interest in joining politics he would tell me first.'
Attacking the United Progressive Alliance government, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday said 4.9 per cent economic growth is not because of government's policies but due to good monsoon.
While reserving the verdict, the apex court had said that the pricing details of Rafale jets could only be discussed after it decides on whether to make it public.
'Everybody knows that any solution would upstage and expose official bungling.' 'That is something Mrs Sitharaman's masters will not allow.' 'No matter how high the cost in human misery, they will squander a fortune on the unnecessary Central Vista extravaganza,' notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
With a tagline "Dui hajaar uneesh, BJP finish, the West Bengal chief minister met several opposition party leaders as well as Bharatiya Janata Party critics and in-house rebels.
Naidu said that efforts are on to bring together all non-BJP parties and that he had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi to discuss measures on protecting democracy.
The controversial report of the JPC, which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2G spectrum scam saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister A Raja, was on Monday tabled in Lok Sabha amid pandemonium.
Eight of the newly inducted ministers in the Union cabinet have criminal cases against them, a report released by election watchdog Non-Governmental Organisation's on Monday said.
Unfazed by Bharatiya Janata Party's aggressive stance on Robert Vadra land deals controversy, Congress on Tuesday ruled out discussion on the issue in Parliament and dared Yashwant Sinha to move court after he sought a probe by Special Investigation Team into the matter.
The much-touted Food Security Bill was taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday but the discussion was scuttled by disruptions over Telangana issue caused by Telugu Desam Party members storming the Well.
But their trajectory and direction have been largely influenced by politics and the political leadership's understanding of how the economy needs to be managed, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Before 2019, an estimated 22 million individual income-tax returns did not have to pay any taxes. But after the change in the exemption level, another 13 million individual tax returns did not require to pay taxes. Thus, of about 58 million returns, as much as 63 per cent or 35 million went out of the direct tax net, A K Bhattacharya points out.
The old India was economically fragmented. New India will create one tax, one market, one nation, said Jaitley.
The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
The trio said the top court had relied upon 'patently incorrect' claims made by the government in an unsigned note given in a sealed cover in the court.
Farooq Abdullah requested the PM to consider the proposal, supported by opposition parties, reports Archis Mohan.
More than 20 national leaders will attend the meeting, TMC sources said. Most of them have already arrived in Kolkata.
RBI will make a presentation on January 24 before the panel on the state of NPAs and stressed loans.
The FM could scrap the secrecy around tax rates.
Pranab Mukherjee's stewardship of the economy will stand out as much for the manner in which he managed controversies as for creating quite a few of them, says A K Bhattacharya.
About 3,500 jurists, academics, actors, artistes, writers and people from other walks of life called the registration of the FIR against The Wire's founding editor an attack on press freedom.
In an interview, Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister, speaks of the formation of a new Congress under the tutelage of Rahul Gandhi in which older leaders would play an advisory role.
In its essence, GST is a national level system of value added taxation of goods and services, says Shankar Acharya.
