Flash floods and landslips triggered by the monsoon fury left eight more persons dead, taking the number of people killed in calamity-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh to 138 even as 2700 pilgrims and locals were rescued from Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and various other state ministers sat on a dharna in Mumbai on Thursday to protest against the arrest of their cabinet colleague Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
The demand for extension of the GST cess regime among others was made by several state finance ministers at a pre-budget consultation called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Besides, many states also demanded raising the share of the Union government in the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). Currently, the central government and state government share in some CSS is 60:40 while in others it is 75:25.
'Drought in the 1990s was essentially the drought of a poor India.' 'This 2016 drought is of a richer and more water-guzzling India.' 'The severity and intensity of the drought is not about lack of rainfall.' 'It is about the lack of planning and foresight, and criminal neglect.'
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India's hydroelectric power generation grew 17.5 per cent to 7.5 billion units in January this year from 6.4 billion units in the same month of 2012.
Sharad Pawar reckons that the NCP has value as a united, going concern, not as a gaggle of leaders in search of followers, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Wang Yang and Xi Jinping's visits signal the beginning of a major Chinese push to bring about a transformation of Tibet, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
It also asked the governments of Punjab and Haryana to take immediate stringent actions to curb stubble burning and authorities in Delhi-NCR to strictly check biomass burning.
'The issue is not whether the farm laws are beneficial for the farmers or not.' 'The farmers have taken a stand that they do not want these laws.' 'Why do you want to thrust these laws down their throat?'
SYL has been a contentious issue between the two states with the Punjab portion of the canal still incomplete.
Senior state leaders of the two parties pointed to propping up of the "new set of leaders not having much political stature" and lack of communication for the failure to reconcile differences.
Stating that 'we cannot...infuse creativity in your bureaucracy', the apex court warned it will have to do something extraordinary if the authorities failed to control pollution.
Exploiting the killings to ratchet up the tension in the region and harden negotiating positions with the central government serves nobody, least of all the people of Nagaland. The peace process must not be stalled because of this incident or distracted by calls to repeal the AFSPA, argues Vivek Gumaste.
'Many times when Khalistan slogans are raised, it is from those who feel alienated, not because they want a separate state.'
Voters can be relied on to punish a party which makes reckless promises without actually implementing them, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Shah said that the people of the country will decide about the principal opposition party to BJP in the 2024 polls and they have not given this label to any party.
If the presentation made by the Commission to the chief ministers is followed in letter and spirit, central sector and sponsored schemes will no longer be the domain of central ministries alone.
The PM-CARES fund, which has been set up to provide relief during the coronavirus pandemic, has contributed over Rs 2,200 crore for the first phase of vaccination drive, which is looking to inoculate frontline healthcare workers, the Expenditure Secretary said on Tuesday.
The government on Monday announced a one-time Rs 10,000 interest-free festival advance to all its officers and employees as part of plans to increase consumer spending to spur demand in the economy.
The Supreme Court will hear two review petitions -- one by the Central Ground Water Authority and the other by 21 eminent citizens -- and decide on whether to issue notice and hear the same at length, a press release stated.
'In the coming two-three months, we need to be cautious that there is no upsurge'
Merely bringing down the government stake below 51% may not find any taker for the PSBs. The government must bring down its holding to at least 26%, recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
A memorandum, signed by the chief ministers or finance ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Karnataka, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab, said the terms were disruptive and a cause for concern.
'DMK is taking a wrong image of BJP to the people.'
'During Congress rule, the government used to get both the fishermen and the boats released whenever the Sri Lankan navy apprehended them.' 'Under BJP rule, only the fishermen are being released.'
'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
A homemaker in every family would get a monthly assistance of Rs 1,000, the manifesto said.
He said though there was a "ray of hope", certain issues he had flagged remained unresolved.
'How much rain fell on June 16 and 17 is NOT known because the area of Kedarnath is not covered by the Indian Meteorological Department,' M Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority tells Sheela Bhatt. Because of this, the NDMA will not know "what exactly happened over there, in and around the Kedarnath temple."
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reviewed the post-cyclone situation and damages caused by Cyclone Yaas in the state at a meeting in Bhubaneswar where Odisha government demanded long term solutions to mitigate problems of repeated cyclones and provision of disaster resilient power systems.
Xi's visit to Nyingchi, bordering Arunachal Pradesh, signals China's opening of another front to India in the eastern sector, observes Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
Challenging the verdict is a deterrent to future peace and harmony and a socially irresponsible act, argues Vivek Gumaste.
But it would be unwise on the government's part not to heed the suggestions made by the experts group, set up by the Supreme Court, in particular the one on involving the states and giving them the flexibility in designing and implementing the farm laws, observes A K Bhattacharya.
If the initial analysis of this YJ-21 is correct, then China becomes the first country in the world to operationally field such a missile from a naval vessel.
Gandhi accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of bringing back the idea of a 'king of India' that was 'smashed in 1947" and targeted the PM saying that the 'idea of a king is back.."
On Sunday, Rajya Sabha passed the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
The Centre on Monday earmarked a separate Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres to tackle air pollution and announced the much-awaited voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and polluting vehicles, even as it shrunk the budgetary allocation for the environment ministry from the last fiscal by nearly eight percent. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech for 2021-22, announced a total of Rs 2869.93 crore for the ministry, Rs 230 crore less than the last fiscal. Officials said the outlay has been lesser this time as the economy is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
India's electricity regulator, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, has proposed a new tariff scheme for power generated from hydroelectric stations, whereby the risks associated with changes in water flow would now be borne by producers. This is a move that is likely to bring down the price being paid by users, usually the state electricity boards.
Niti Aayog has come out with an initiative to improve governance in states.
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