Bowing to demands by several political parties, government on Thursday decided to carry out a caste census next year.
The Congress continued its losing spree on Saturday posting its worst-ever show in Maharashtra and ending up a distant junior partner to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand, further diminishing its role in the opposition bloc as other allies perform better.
'The deceased persons might be sitting or lying down when the tragedy struck them in the wee hours of Tuesday'
A census report on religion shows that the Muslim population in the country grew at the rate of 36% between 1991 and 2001. The Hindu rate of growth was 20.3% in the same period.
The CAA was enacted in December 2019 for granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. These include Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians.
Embarrassed by the debate on whether its suggestion that a human being can live on Rs 32 a day in urban India, the Plan panel has said those who are not really poor should be excluded from being enumerated as being poor.
'It would be reasonable to assume that Modi 3.0 would be more focused on projects and schemes which do not require any legislative change or which have the support of its coalition partners,' asserts A K Bhattacharya.
A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran passed the order on a bunch of petitions which had opposed the legislations brought by the Nitish Kumar government in November 2023.
New census will include questions about religion and castes.
According to the government, the additional chief secretary of the state housing department is designated to sign an agreement with the Union government for the land lease transfer.
The economic census excludes all farming and plantation work, as well as workers in administration and defence services.
According to the 2011 Census data, there is 38.01 crore population in the age group of 5-19 years of which 26.98 crore (71 per cent) is attending educational institutions. 4.49 crore (11.8 per cent) people have attended schools earlier while 6.54 crore (17.2 per cent) have never been to a school.
Stalin's comments came two days after Naidu said there was a need to manage the population in Andhra Pradesh given there will be an increase in the aging population.
With most parties pushing for a caste-based census, the government does not seem to be averse to such an exercise during the process to enumerate the country's populace that began recently.
Gandhi said farmers asked him during his Bharat Jodo and Bharat Jodo Nyay yatras about why they were not getting the benefit of loan waivers like billionaire industrialists or MSP (minimum support price) for farm produce.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed his regret that the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota was not provided under the Bill brought by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in 2010.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has called for tough decisions and unity within the party after the Congress suffered electoral defeats in Maharashtra and Haryana. In a meeting with top party leaders, Kharge highlighted the need to strengthen the organization from the grassroots, fix accountability, and address internal bickering. He also urged leaders to remain united and avoid public criticism of each other. The Congress chief expressed concern over the party's performance in state elections despite a strong showing in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. He acknowledged the need to learn from the setbacks and improve the party's strategy and communication to counter its rivals' propaganda.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday urged all citizens to participate in Census 2011, saying that enumeration will constitute an important input in the processes of planning and development of the country.Dr Singh, who was enumerated for the Census in New Delhi on Saturday, requested each citizen to participate in the national endeavour and ensure that every person is included in the exercise.
The National Advisory Council, headed by United Progressive Alliance Chairman Sonia Gandhi, will also meet on Thursday to look at the Food Security Bill, a crucial component of the second UPA government's promise to provide cheap and plentiful food to the poor.
Kumar, whose NDA-allied Janata Dal-United has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, has emerged as a key player in government formation
The provisions in the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill make it clear that the women's reservation will come into effect only after the delimitation exercise or the redrawing of constituencies taking into account the data of the census conducted once the bill becomes a law.
'Nitish Kumar may take a decision to dump the BJP alliance by November.'
With the Centre taking a U-turn on caste-based census and agreeing to include it as a part of the ongoing census exercise, an angry P Chidambaram virtually walked out of the Lok Sabha and did not return even for Vande Mataram recital when the House came to a close after the eventful Budget session.
Questioning the Congress's stand on caste census, the BJP leader made certain remarks on Gandhi's caste that triggered the uproar and had Congress members trooping into the well of the Lok Sabha. "Anurag Thakur insulted me and I don't want any apology from him. Abuse or insult me as hard as you can but don't forget we will pass the caste census in this Parliament for sure," the Leader of the Opposition said.
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.
In his maiden public speech eight months after announcing the launch of TVK, Vijay said the late veterans MG Ramachandran and NT Ramarao were ridiculed as mere cinema actors when they made their political plunge "but they continue to remain in the hearts of the people" of the respective states, i.e Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
If everything goes according to the plan, the exercise will begin after the Lok Sabha elections, the official said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday promised free education in government schools and colleges in Chhattisgarh and Rs 4,000 a year for 'tendu' leaves collectors if his party retains power in the state.
In a major policy reversal the US Commerce Department has officially announced that the US Census Bureau would report married same-sex couples in the 2010 census.
The panel will look into aspects like decrease in fertility rate, infant mortality rate and how minorities can help control the population.
"Preliminary reports indicate rise in tiger population from 238 to 303 in the previous census in 2001," Maharashtra Forest Minister Babanrao Pachpute said in Mumbai.
'Adjusted' figures released show the growth rate of Muslims at 29.3 per cent as against 32.9 per cent in the 1991 Census and not 36 per cent as brought out earlier.
With Nitish Kumar on its side, a BJP-led government may feel increased pressure to conduct a nationwide caste-based census.
The Bihar government has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Patna high court verdict that has set aside the amended reservation laws in the state, which enabled the Nitish Kumar government to increase the quotas for Dalits, tribals and backward classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.
Former Delhi government minister Rajendra Pal Gautam on Friday quit the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the Congress, alleging discrimination against Dalit and minority leaders in the Arvind Kejriwal led party.
'I think of that young baby, still in her diapers, balancing with her arms held up by her mother, a Tamil woman wearing a salwar kameez and a dupatta, seated on a stoop,' recalls Aseem Chhabra.
In an attempt to curb bogus voting and monitor the migration of voters across India, the Election Commission is planning to link the Census data of 2011 with its electoral rolls. The EC then plans to use global positioning system to automatically record the voters' migration or shifting of residence.Once the Census data is made available to the Election Commission, it will be clubbed with the electoral rolls. The GPS chip would be added to the electronic photo identity cards.
Opposition parties Nationalist Congress Party and Samajwadi Party on Wednesday demanded reservation for OBCs in the women's reservation bill and questioned the reason for calling a special session when the bill cannot be implemented before census and delimitation.
Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 per cent, the first socio economic and caste census released in eight decades said.
'Christians, for example, make up 2 per cent of India's population but an estimated 16 per cent of those who were born in India now reside elsewhere,' said Pew.
