Stating that pushing GDP growth, which has slipped to 5-year low of 6.8 per cent in 2018-19, is the top priority, President Ramnath Kovind said Modi govt will bring more reforms and raise farm investments to boost growth.
After the Bihar setback, these are the issues the PM must address to maintain the people's faith in him.
The prime minister said he had kept this three-year-old programme away from politics and had tried to connect with the people without getting swayed by the (political) "heat" and "anger" that may prevail at any particular time.
Why the Bihar defeat can be the best thing for him as PM, but only if he has the humility to read the writing on the wall, says Shekhar Gupta.
On the occasion of the Narendra Modi government completing one year in office, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com speaks to BJP president Amit Shah who is yin to Modi's yang. Don't miss it!
Banned for life from India's cricket establishment, a beleagured former IPL boss Lalit Modi is not ready to throw in the towel yet.
Talking corporate heads are a barometer of the business community's engagement with the economy. If they have nothing to say now there should be cause for concern.
In embarking on building the world's tallest statue, Modi is hoping his stature will also rise - if not across India then at least in Gujarat, says Bharat Bhushan.
'We will be voting keeping in mind the brunt we bore because of demonetisation and high GST rate'
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is furious and has sought legal action over a fake video on YouTube that suggests he is endorsing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the next prime minister.
'I say Modi was India's last chance.' 'Because the kind of work this government has done -- I'm talking about physical delivery -- is fantastic, like no time in our history.'
Relaxing FDI norms will provide a major impetus to employment and job creation.
To set up a future-ready administration geared towards the target of $2 trillion exports by 2030, the Department of Commerce has decided to set up a dedicated trade promotion body to drive overall promotion strategy, export targets, and execution as part of a restructuring exercise. The trade promotion body will formulate and drive overall trade promotion strategy; create and drive India's branding across focus markets and sectors; drive coordinated action across missions, states and export promotion councils; strategic initiatives, including advisory and buyer-seller meet; and develop digital platforms for exporters and buyers. Based on a 14-volume 'restructuring dossier' by the Boston Consulting Group, the commerce department has already implemented some of the recommendations.
Musharraf said that the present conflict between India and Pakistan was not an ideology based issue of a particular ruling party, but due to an 'individual'.
Mandatory prescription of generic names is not a complete solution. Rather, in the absence of a range of approaches, it could mean passing the choice of selecting a drug from a doctor to a pharmacist, says Chandrakant Lahariya.
Parties expected to splurge a fourth of advertising budget on social media.
Lalit Modi has left many guessing courtesy his latest social media post.
'He is a key fulcrum point in the pan-Indian creation of an effective Opposition to the BJP.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-day visit to Britain has seen India and the UK agreeing on Rs 90,000 crore deals.
Members of the G-23, who had shown courage to point out the flaws in the party's functioning, have allowed themselves to be co-opted by the Family to go through the motions of a post-mortem, notes Virendra Kapoor.
Indian companies realise several business opportunities ahead of International Yoga Day on Sunday
'India is going to maintain its ties to China, India is going to develop a strong relationship with the United States. It means that India is going to have the flexibility to pick and choose its friends.' 'That's traditional Indian foreign policy, and it's smart.' Former US ambassador to India Frank Wisner, one of America's sharpest minds on South Asia, tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com what Washington can expect from Narendra Modi's visit.
'Where was the armed police?' 'Did you see armed constables around him?' 'There was deep negligence by the UP police and this was a deep conspiracy.'
American media has taken a critical view of his accomplishments, saying his flagship 'Make in India' drive is "so far mostly hype."
The retail sector seeing a sharp rise in FDI flows is one where the Modi government's policy is not clear and has got a little muddled by its political ideology.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a call to industry to 'Make in India' in a move to step up the country's manufacturing strength.
The party is likely to look back at 2019 with more than a touch of satisfaction as the year saw nullification of Article 370, criminalisation of triple talaq, enactment of CAA and a Supreme Court order paving the way for Ram temple construction in Ayodhya, issues which have agitated Hindutva cadres for decades.
'Benares has always encouraged healthy debate where disagreement and dissent was never frowned upon. Today, the people are faced with a situation where a political opponent is not being allowed to give election speeches and is being physically attacked.' 'We are going to hand over power to a person who has a reputation of being dictatorial, who does not brook dissent and is known to be vindictive to his opponents,' author Kashinath Singh tells Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's real test will be whether he can bring a longer-term vision to India's foreign policy planning, says Ravi Agrawal.
'Whatever the result on December 18, Rahul has succeeded.' 'He has taken the battle to the rival's territory, and forced him to take him more seriously than he has done so far, or would have wished to.' 'A party, dominating and powerful as the BJP today, is spending all its time attacking the leader of one with just 46 seats in the Lok Sabha, and in the woods in Gujarat for 22 years.' 'This isn't the script the BJP had written,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'We aren't so unreasonable as to demand that he should have fully reversed Indira Gandhi's worst economic legacy, bank nationalisation.' 'But he could have made a beginning by selling off the two most stressed small public sector banks, and then announced that each year for the next 10, one government bank with the most messed-up balance sheet will be sold.' 'It would have electrified the markets, shocked his other banks into better behaviour, and marked his name among the great reformers,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Business chambers now inviting start-ups for membership.
Modi sarkar took few initiatives to uplift the poor strate of society.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal hosted a Rs 20,000 per plate dinner for young professionals, diamond merchants and bankers in New Delhi kick-starting the party's fund-raising campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections.
'What he has done has really been to give his time to go outside India, to reach out to governments, important countries, to meet world leaders. And I am sure when he is meeting them, he is not only presenting a Tata group message, he is presenting an India message. Therefore, he has become a kind of quasi-ambassador for us which is, of course, why the government values and respects him so much as well.' Top corporate lawyer Zia Mody assesses Ratan Tata's legacy.
Modi's minimum government, maximum governance will go a long way?
'This is a political case and police is being used here right from the day one.'
'The larger intention is to create a political State where there is no opposition.'
The Centre's retreat from the farm laws is likely to have a significant bearing on the fate of laws that the Centre has made, for instance, in labour and electricity, predicts A K Bhattacharya.
Showing no fear for Archer's express pace, Pant, who hit 21 from 23 balls, made room before he launched the length delivery pitched outside the leg stump with the reverse bat over the wicket-keeper for a six.
