With its age-old fascination for education, southern states have done better than the North. Start-ups, IT hubs, and industry majors setting up shop have changed the face of the South. Nearly 79% of global offices set up by international conglomerates in India are in the South. Almost 46% of tech unicorns are from the South. The GDP per person in the South is 4.2 times higher than the North. None of these indicators can be ignored by any central government, whatever the political compulsions, notes Ramesh Menon.
The Congress high command may not have taken cognisance of their demand for replacement of N Kiran Kumar Reddy as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, but the "rebel" members of his cabinet are not ready to let him breathe easy.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday night gave the go-ahead for the creation of a 10-district Telangana and outlined the blueprint for carving out the country's 29th state from the current Andhra Pradesh.
President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the appointment of a few Governors and changes in portfolios of some others.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who chaired Tuesday's cabinet meeting, the last before the announcement of the poll schedule, presented the results of three different extensive surveys across the state before the ministers.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday informed media personnel that the Centre was referring the issue of creation of a separate state of Telangana back to the Andhra Pradesh assembly to rebuild a consensus.The Andhra Pradesh assembly had passed a resolution in January last year, seeking deletion of Clause 14(F) from the Presidential Order for the purpose. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided to refer back the resolution to the assembly, Chidambaram said.
The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has approved a bill to implement Rs 9,696 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail Project which is expected to be completed by 2011.
Andhra Pradesh Minister for Infrastructure and Investment Ganta Srinivasa Rao on Thursday resigned from his post in the backdrop of mounting protests across Andhra-Rayalaseema regions against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government's decision to bifurcate the state.
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away at the age of 92 on Thursday. He will be given a state funeral with full state honors at Nigambodh Ghat on Saturday. Singh served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014 and was known for his role in India's economic reforms. Leaders from across the political spectrum paid their respects to the departed leader, highlighting his contributions to the nation.
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu will be sworn-in as the first chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state at a grand event at 7.27 pm on Sunday.
A Congress source termed the process of drafting and presenting of the Bill before the state cabinet on Monday as a "unilateral" effort by the chief minister's office and ministers that are close to him.
The draft bill, approved by the Union abinet, seems to be much more favorable to the wishes of the people from Telangana than it is for those from Seemandhra, says Mohammed Siddique
'We don't have to go abroad for anything.' 'Anyone who thinks we have a lot to learn from the US needs to have his head examined.' 'We are in a new era.'
Notwithstanding opposition from within Congress and outside, the Union Cabinet on Friday cleared the Telangana Bill which will be introduced in Parliament on February 12.
As the Congress and United Progressive Alliance government appear to be veering towards formation of a separate Telangana state, ministers and MPs from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday opposing any division of Andhra Pradesh.
The Centre on Thursday evening took the first significant step towards creation of a separate Telangana state from out of Andhra Pradesh and decided that Hyderabad will be the joint capital of the two states for 10 years.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday gave seven more days to the Andhra Pradesh assembly till January 30 to discuss and debate the draft Telangana Bill in the House before returning it to the Centre.
Cracking the whip, the Congress on Tuesday expelled six Lok Sabha Members of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh who had opposed the creation of Telangana and had given a notice of no-confidence motion against the government.
The Hyderabad Union Cabinet's surprise and sudden move to take up the Telangana note for consideration has inflamed the passions of people in Seemandhra regions and several organisations have called for a 72-hour strike in 13 districts of two regions from Friday.
The decision about the high-powered committee was taken as the government apparently thought of taking one step at a time instead of hurrying things up in the face of growing resistance from farmers who gave their lands for the development of Amaravati as the new capital, under the previous government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, reports Dasarath Reddy.
The state Cabinet, which met in Hyderabad on Wednesday, took the decision to extend the ban on Maoist outfits, in view of the continuing Maoist violence in the state.
The Group of Ministers on Telangana will meet in the first week of February to decide on the Centre's next course of action after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy sought extension of the deadline for discussing and returning the statehood Bill.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna passed away at his residence in Bengaluru early Tuesday morning, his family said.
The BJP is focusing determinedly on the seats it lost in 2019, with the hope of winning these either independently or with the aid of its allies.
The TDP chief said he tried to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'courtesy' to inform him about the decision to quit but he did not come on line.
Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday evening to reportedly discuss the administrative and political situation in the state.The two discussed the expansion of the state cabinet, the ordinance on micro-finance institutions, trimming the administration and preparing for political developments after the Justice Sri Krishna Committee submits its report on the creation of Telangana state.
A top Home Ministry official said no note has been prepared yet to be placed before tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure and Investment Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy resigned from the cabinet as well as the state assembly on Saturday evening. Komatireddy, who had set September 30 as the deadline for the Centre to come out with a statement on the creation of Telangana state, met Governor E S L Narasimhan and submitted his resignation from the Kiran Kumar Reddy-led state government.
Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has reacted to Andhra Pradesh counterpart Pawan Kalyan's out-of-turn taunts with a one-liner, 'Let's wait', and thereby hangs a tale, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a big organisational rejig, the BJP named Union minister G Kishan Reddy, Sunil Jakhar and Babulal Marandi as party presidents in Telangana, Punjab and Jharkhand respectively.
The Chandrababu Naidu government on Thursday formally announced in the state assembly that Andhra Pradesh's new capital will be built "in and around Vijayawada". Rediff.com was the first to report the story (below) on May 18.
Besides the Union Cabinet, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are giving final touches to major changes in the All India Congress Committee and Andhra Pradesh Congress unit. There is also the likelyhood of shuffling of state governors.
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. No other member of his cabinet took the oath as he will finalise his team after meeting party president Sonia Gandhi and other central ministers.
State Tourism minister Vatti Vasant Kumar and TDP legislator Chintamaneni Prabhakar shoved each other, after an eated argument on the dais during the 'Rachabanda' (mass contact programme), they said adding the MLA was later taken into custody.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy held meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Sunday.
In a move bound to create a major political storm in Andhra Pradesh, the law ministry has given a go ahead the home ministry note on Telangana.
The struggle for a separate Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday suffered another setback with ministers from Telangana region attending the cabinet meet at the state secretariat. It was the first meeting of the state cabinet in four months to be held at the state secretariat and marked a major turnaround by the Telagnana ministers. As many as 11 of the 15 ministers from Telangana region had tendered their resignations from the state assembly in July.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Industrialist-turned-politician and Telugu Desam Party Rajya Sabha member Yalamanchili Satyanarayana alias 'Sujana' Chowdary will be inducted into the Narendra Modi government in the rank of a Minister of State as part of the Cabinet expansion slated for Sunday.
The setback could derail Rao's ambitions to expand the BRS's influence beyond Telangana and establish a national presence.