Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
The defence minister has to correct a major asymmetry. Will his discipline come in the way?
Residents in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra continue to struggle as floods leave them in a watery hell.
Sidbi acquires Ahmedabad-based start-up at hefty premium; founders deny link to govt.
Broader market outperformed with the S&P BSE Midcap index adding 0.7%, while S&P BSE Smallcap index gained 0.6%.
The choice clearly is between prompt corrective action and slow but sure destruction, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'If Urjit Patel had resigned after the five-state elections results people would have taken a different view. So this was the right time for him to resign.' 'He rightly resigned as he felt the differences with the government were not getting settled.'
The enforcement agency is looking to ensure that no big deals or transactions, such as the one Mallya struck with Diageo for Rs 500 crore, take place.
The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill passed amid din.
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
Long queues outside grocery stores, inflated prices, difficulty in getting important items -- these were some of the problems encountered by people in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The BJP alleged that former French president Francois Hollande is part of the "nexus" to sabotage the procurement.
Even Delhi does not have a full-time registrar of chits.
Amid Opposition uproar over reports of schools being ordered to remain open on Christmas Day to observe 'good governance day', the government on Monday clarified that no such instruction has been issued and only an online essay competition on the subject is being organised.
The Union Health ministry put the number of positive cases at 82, eight more since Thursday night, which includes the woman and a 76-year-old man from Karnataka who became the country's first coronavirus fatality besides 17 foreign nationals, Health Ministry officials said.
A whistle-blower in Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam scam was transferred even as the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the SIT and STF of the state to file chargesheets in the cases.
Kirti Azad, a known detractor of Jaitley, egged on the Congress to seek a time-bound SIT probe.
Modi said Nepal and India can benefit if they cooperate and work together for the promotion of five Ts: Tradition, Trade, Tourism, Technology and Transport.
'They must take the bull of conservatism within their own ranks by its horns as much as they need to speak out against the fallacies of the non-Hindutva (or 'Muslim-friendly') political forces as well,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Kejriwal, the AAP national convenor, indicated that the party may contest the next assembly polls in Gujarat, alleging that an "atmosphere of suppression" was prevailing there and people wanted to overthrow the BJP regime.
Whistle-blower bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who has been selected for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, expressed disappointment over the functioning of the Prime Minister's Office and said he was able to "survive" only because of an "independent judiciary".
The finance minister is "reasonably confident" that when it comes to the crunch, "it would be extremely difficult even for the Congress party to take a contrarian view" on the GST Bill.
'Passive euthanasia is actually more important in the sense that the need to administer it arises every day in some hospital or the other. And it can be administered without a living will,' Vipul Mudgal, director of the NGO Common Cause -- which had filed a plea to declare 'right to die with dignity' as a Fundamental Right flowing from Article 21 or the Right to Life, -- tells Rediff.com's Swarupa Dutt.
'Will Muhammad Habib Zahir -- who was part of the team that arrested Kulbhushan Jadhav and went missing in Nepal -- figure in a Jadhav-for-Zahir deal?' asks Aditi Phadnis.
Top moments from around the world in the week that was.
'The temptation of governments, to have a finger in the RBI pie will be just too great to resist, unless extensive amendments are carried out in the RBI Act treating it almost as the fourth branch of the government.'
"Talks are the only option," Mehbooba said. "How long can you have a confrontation?"
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
'The Modi government would chaff at the very idea of holding talks with Pakistan, facilitated by Washington and under close US monitoring, when the 2019 poll is sailing into view.' 'But in politics and diplomacy, there may be moments when drinking from the chalice of poison is necessary,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A reformed Planning Commission should reflect the diversity of Indian debate.
The manifesto, on the lines of the party's promise in Delhi in 2015, also says the AAP government will set up Aam Aadmi canteens at sub-division and district levels where one time meal will be available for Rs 5, and reduce the power tariff to half for usages up to 400 unit.
At least eight persons, including three Haqqani network commanders, were killed on Thursday in a rare United States drone strike outside Pakistan's tribal belt, just a day after a top official said the US had agreed to halt such attacks during negotiations with militants.
Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday rejected allegations that her ministry was trying to push books written by Hindutva ideologues, saying it will abide by "constitutional modalities" before taking any step.
Today, with the 'Cauvery row' in full flow, the DMK has managed to wrest the 'pan-Tamil initiative' for the Dravidian polity as a whole. What more, the DMK has also stolen much of the 'Tamil thunder' that had belonged to peripheral pan-Tamil groups over the Jallikattu protests in January 2017, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Given the Opposition majority in the Rajya Sabha, the LARR Bill passed by the Upper House may be a deeply diluted version of the government's own 2015 Bill
'Do you know there is a 500 page report prepared by an inquiry committee headed by myself? When I placed the report in Parliament, have you heard any single Opposition leader give a notice for discussion? Why are they not demanding a discussion in Parliament on the report? They could have established that there was a scam. Today, a Parliament Committee report is as good as a Parliament report and this report says the 2G scam is no scam. Our government is suffering because of the media hype on these scams,' Congress MP P C Chacko tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
Economic reforms seem to be on a slow train, while good old fiscal populism is alive and flourishing.
'This man has aged, but does not know the difference between words spoken on the streets from those of spoken in Parliament.' 'He does not allow his hair to turn gray, so he hasn't learned or matured.' Rashme Sehgal reports on how Subramanian Swamy has riled the Congress yet again.
BJP President Amit Shah -- arguably the second most powerful politician in the nation -- granted a rare television interview to the Network 18 group of news channels. Rediff.com's Rajesh Alva checks out what the BJP boss said in this word cloud assessment of the interview.
'Biometric Aadhaar-based surveillance is not only about violation of privacy, but also about the treasure hunt for unprecedented financial surveillance and economic intelligence in the economic history of mankind,' asks Gopal Krishna.