Realising that there was no possibility of being re-elected on a Congress ticket, Rao has now decided to hitch his wagon to the Bhartiya Janata Party. In an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal Union Textiles Minister K S Rao explains the reason for leaving the Congress, his assessment of Rahul Gandhi's leadership and his future plans.
It said 33,510 slums were estimated to be in the urban areas of the country of which 41 per cent were notified.
A total 95 deaths deaths were reported since Friday morning, of which 37 in Maharashtra, 24 in Gujarat, nine in West Bengal, seven in Madhya Pradesh, four each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, three from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and two from Delhi and one each from Punjab and Haryana.
The Republic Day parade, which will begin at around 1030 am, will be a unique mix of the country's military prowess and cultural diversity, depicting the country's growing indigenous capabilities, Nari Shakti and emergence of a 'New India'.
A home ministry official said while 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat members and their primary contacts have been quarantined till now across the country due to "massive efforts" to check the outbreak, the Centre has written to all states and union territories that "the lockdown measures should be implemented in letter and spirit".
As per the preliminary estimates, the BJP has significantly improved its national vote share from 31.34 per cent in 2014 to a new record high, while there appeared to be only a marginal change in case of the Congress from its 19.5 per cent score of the last elections.
Forty per cent of population will have no access to drinking water by 2030 and 21 cities, including New Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, will run out of groundwater by 2020.
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand will have to do a significant amount of catching up.
While the United States' share in global COVID-19 cases is 22.4 per cent, those who have recuperated there comprise 18.6 per cent of total worldwide recoveries, according to data presented by Bhushan.
DroughtThe Centre is expected to discuss issues related to drought management and also review the progress of major central schemes like soil health cards, irrigation programmes
'With English the most rapidly growing medium of instruction in India's schools and accounting now for more than one-sixth of the total (next only to Hindi, which accounts for a half), India is not about to turn its face away from a language that has global currency,' notes T N Ninan.<
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 7,409, as many as 764 people have been cured and discharged, and one had migrated, it said. Of the total 273 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 127 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 36, Gujarat at 22 and Delhi at 19.
India is the seventh worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the number of infections, after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy. While the recovery rate in coronavirus infections is improving and has reached 48.19 per cent in India, there has been steady decline in the case fatality which is now 2.83 per cent, the health ministry said.
The move comes following a recent verdict by the Supreme Court in this regard.
Following is the gist of the controversy over sudden transfer of West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, who retired on Monday, to Delhi and related rules.
India's COVID-19 fatality rate has dropped significantly to 2.43 per cent from 3.36 per cent on June 17 due to effective clinical management of coronavirus cases, the health ministry and asserted that the country has handled the pandemic 'relatively well'.
He was earlier questioned in the case for over six hours on Monday. His son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed his displeasure and tweeted the party statement on his father's questioning with the comment: 'This on a day when my father turns 84!'
All travellers and contacts have been tested and quarantined.
Performance-based incentives were recommended by the 13th Finance Commission, but omitted by the 14th Finance Commission
In this interview with Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com, KTR speaks about the plans while adding that the state government is capable of managing law and order in Hyderabad and there is no need for Central interference.
AAP, set to form the government in Delhi, had said it was opposed to foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail.
No one's quite sure on the retail FDI issue in this regard, after the new Rajasthan and Delhi governments cancelled the approvals given by their predecessors
'We will see footfall returning to pre-COVID levels by January.'
'If deaths had been properly reported, it would have helped contain the pandemic.'
Punjab faces many mortal threats. For most of these the people of Punjab are themselves responsible. And unless they take a brutal hard look within, their future generations have to be resigned to continue living with this constant slide, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Some 74 projects from Odisha and another 51 projects from Chhattisgarh have lined up before the Project Monitoring Group.
The ultimate consequences of Rahul Gandhi's yatra may be known only in 2024, points out Dr Sudhir Bisht.
In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures.
As round one of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election began in 91 constituencies across the length and breadth of India, from the hills of Kashmir to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, reports of unrest and irregularities cast shadows over the world's biggest poll process.
The govt said that states have been asked to classify districts which have reported a higher number of cases as hotspots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hotspots, and green zones where no cases have been reported.
Authorities also said the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients was improving consistently in India and it was in a much better position in handling the pandemic, which has seen more than 63 lakh people testing positive for this virus since its emergence in China last December and over 3.7 lakh having lost their lives.
The dry-run was being conducted in state capitals in at least three session sites. Some states also included districts that are situated in difficult terrain or have poor logistical support, according to officials.
Meanwhile, water will be released from Chembarambakkam lake, one of the key drinking water sources to Chennai, since it was nearing capacity, the government said.
While other states are becoming competitive, Gujarat, say experts is not paying enough attention to maintaining its own position in terms of business reforms.
In its daily briefing, the government also reported Goa is now free of coronavirus.
The highest number of jobs were created in the age group of 18-21 at 1.29 million, followed by 22-25 years of age at 1.12 million during these seven months.
Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir seek more time.
Tamil Nadu's finances most stressed, with gross fiscal deficit estimated at Rs 31,830 crore.
This is the fifth consecutive day that coronavirus infections have increased by more than 15,000. There has been a surge of 3,38,324 infections from June 1 till date.
India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.
