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 Maha Kumbh, a massive religious gathering in Prayagraj, India, is preparing for the culmination of its events with the Mahashivratri 'snan' (sacred bath) on Wednesday. Authorities have declared the entire mela area a 'no vehicle zone' and are urging devotees to take a dip at the ghat nearest to them to avoid crowding at the Sangam. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is monitoring the arrangements and has issued an advisory for devotees, outlining specific ghats for different arrival routes. The Maha Kumbh has seen a record number of pilgrims, exceeding 64 crore. Security arrangements are robust with over 37,000 police personnel and 14,000 home guards deployed. The fair has also been hailed for its cleanliness and safety measures. The event is expected to conclude with the Mahashivratri puja.
'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
The CM said the alleged sex abuse of girls at the shelter home "has left us with a sense of shame and guilt".
The meeting was attended by CMs of Kerala, Punjab and Telangana -- Pinarayi Vijayan, Bhagwant Manna and A Revanth Reddy, Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar, and senior BRS leader KT Ramarao among others.
Stalin said he spoke to Nitish Kumar over phone and assured him that no harm would befall workers and conveyed to him that 'all workers are our workers who help Tamil Nadu's growth and nothing will happen to impact them, I have assured him'.
Bihar minister Parween Amanullah was on Thursday attacked and held up for some time by a mob in Vaishali district which was agitating over the midday meal tragedy in the state.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
The survey will encompass various indicators of backwardness such as occupation, educational qualification along with the type of educational institutions attended by members of the households to gauge the social and educational conditions of the backwardness in Odisha, the official said.
The CBI has booked officers and employees of the shelter home.
'This is going to generate a new debate on reservation because the quota for Economically Weaker Sections is 10%, and that is for nearly 16% of the population.' 'For 16% you are giving 10%. This is set to raise eyebrows among the OBCs after the caste survey.'
The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Bihar government as to why it published its caste survey data but refused to restrain it from making public further data, and said it may examine if the state has power to conduct such an exercise.
Members of allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Lok Janshakti Party, were left out from the cabinet expansion.
Ironically, rival Tamil Nadu governments expend the most on social welfare schemes, especially targeting women and youth and children, but that money comes only by selling more liquor. There is always the specious plea, which has been peddled very many times in the past, that without licensed liquor, drinkers would go after hooch and there could be more hooch tragedies and hooch deaths. No one is convinced, but no one can dispute it either, comments N Sathiya Moorthy.
'When voting clause by clause on Waqf came up in the JPC, the TDP and JD-U supported the BJP on each and every clause.'
The government's decision to confer former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur with the Bharat Ratna is a testament to the socialist leader's enduring efforts as a champion for the marginalised and a stalwart of equality, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.
Bihar's first Muslim woman minister Perween Amanullah on Tuesday resigned from the chief minister Nitish Kumar cabinet and the party Janata Dal-United, citing dissatisfaction from the present system. She was working as the state's social welfare minister
Kidwai is survived by two sons and four daughters. His funeral will be held on Thursday afternoon at the Jamia Burial Grounds.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was at the centre of a controversy over the appointment of his son-in-law Devendra Kumar as his personal assistant, evoking sharp criticism following which Kumar resigned from the post.
Yadav took to social media and shared video clips and pictures of the deployment of security personnel, including police and rapid action force, with barricades near his house here, a stone's throw away from the Samajwadi Party headquarters.
With the Bihar government releasing the findings of its caste survey, pressure seems to be mounting on the Karnataka government, especially within the ruling Congress, to make the state's Socio-economic and Educational Census, popularly known as the 'caste census', public.
Thakur, popularly known as 'jannayak', served as chief minister from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979.
Headed by Central Bureau of Investigation Deputy Inspector General Abhay Kumar, the team comprising a number of armed commandoes reached the residence on Sahu Road in Muzaffarpur, where the shelter home and the office of the Hindi daily 'Pratah Kamal' owned by Thakur, the main accused in the sex scandal, are also situated.
The BJP may win more seats in the February 5 assembly election, but not enough to trump AAP, notes Ramesh Menon.
The Bihar Police has launched a probe and dug up the grounds of the shelter home, but are yet to find the body.
Alloting more funds for MNREGA and PM-KISAN could wipe out the entire additional money that the Centre may have for FY25.
The special POCSO court in Muzaffarpur passed the order on Friday on an application filed by an accused.
Over 50 people have been arrested after the communal violence in Maharajgaj town, officials said on Tuesday, as markets remained shut and people stayed indoors for a second day in a row amid heavy deployment of police and other security personnel.
Asaduddin Owaisi, who was once the leader of a little-known outfit confined to the old city of Hyderabad, has emerged as a powerful voice of Muslims in the country in recent years.
This was a difficult election to win, but the Modi card, the caste divide and the division in the Opposition vote bank helped overcome many challenges.
In his four-page letter in Hindi, the PM said that better infrastructure and rule of law are imperative for social and economic prosperity and only the NDA can provide that in Bihar.
Ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the Congress government on Saturday night issued an order for the conduct of a caste survey in the state.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hit back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for questioning his developmental claims and manner of implementing social welfare works.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
'Nobody in our team had any idea that these things will come out.' 'We need to do a social audit of all the shelter homes across the country.'
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.
'Political elites need to feel that these are our children dying, that this is a crisis for us, a tragedy for our community, we must take immediate action to save the lives of our people.'
Among the major political parties, chief minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United is contesting in 35 of the 71 seats, followed by its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (29), while the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has fielded its candidates in 42 and its coalition partner Congress is in the fray in 20 assembly segments.
Aiming to end the 25-year rule of Lalu-Nitish combine in Bihar, the National Democratic Alliance will formally launch on Thursday its campaign for the crucial assembly polls scheduled later this year with BJP president Amit Shah set to flag off 160 'parivartan raths' from Patna.
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