The representatives of thousands of agitating farmers, who are sitting on various borders of the national capital since November 26 demanding repeal of the three agri laws, have said that the countrywide strike on Tuesday would be observed with full force.
The new government order to review the service record of employees who have completed 30 years in the job to identify inefficient or corrupt staff and retire them prematurely has invited the ire of labour unions, who believe that this is a step towards privatisation.
'Non-separation of religion from politics is India's most daunting challenge'
Experts attribute the lower target to increased allocation under the credit guarantee scheme for small businesses. Out of the Rs 3.21 trillion worth loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in the last financial year, Rs 3.12 trillion were disbursed to entrepreneurs, according to official data.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "Is Trump God that 70 lakh people will gather around to welcome him. He is coming here for his own interests. Trump is not doing the trade deal. He just wants to work for the benefit of America and is not coming to make us happy."
The scheme calls for banks, refineries and hallmarking centres to work together.
The death toll climbed to 4,73,537 with 211 fresh fatalities.
'The regime -- and particularly the home ministry under Amit Shah -- have sought to suppress and destroy these struggles through intimidation, bullying, threats, through false cases, arrests, custodial torture, the use of draconian laws like the UAPA.'
From the Republic Day violence to Lakhimpur Kheri incident and terms such as 'toolkit' and andolanjeevi entering the Indian political lexicon, it was controversies galore during the year-long farmers' movement against the contentious agri laws.
As the nation woke up to images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi splashed across the front page of newspapers by Reliance Industries to announce the launch of its 4G services, Shiv Sena's Member of Parliament from South Mumbai, Arvind Sawant, was not impressed.
Left parties and Kolkata police were on Tuesday involved in a tussle over the cremation of the body of a 16-year-old gangrape victim, who died in a city hospital after attempting suicide.
He maintained that the laws were for their benefit and then apologised to people of the country, adding that the government could not convince a section of farmers despite its clear heart and clean conscience.
The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari and continued to stay put Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.
Senior freedom fighter, social worker and former Union Minister Dr Mohan Dharia passed away on Monday morning. He was 88. Dharia was a close associate of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar and was among the Young Turks of the Congress during the late 60s.
The markets gained nearly 7 per cent in the 4 trading sessions of March.
Almost all recent labour strikes were declared illegal by the labour department of Gujarat.
Hundreds of farmers, chiefly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, continue to encamp Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur border points of Delhi despite "a few" of them being removed after testing positive for COVID-19 and some symptomatic protesters undergoing medication.
The weekly service was suspended on August 19 after authorities in PoK did not respond to a call from their Indian counterparts to let a bus get across the LoC.
The minister, in an eight-page open letter to farmers, said the Modi-government was committed to their welfare and stressed that the new legislations were aimed at benefitting small and marginal farmers.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal urged start-ups to focus on three Ps - product, process, people - for building Aatmnirbhar Bharat.
The objective behind the move is to "retain the membership of PF subscribers and to address the social security needs at the time of unemployment."
However, a net amount of Rs 11,119 crore was withdrawn from the debt segment during the same period. This translated into a net investment of Rs 1,003 crore.
Officials said there had been no official word or indication from the top yet. The expectation from officials is to do what they can, but it is understood that all fiscal and budgetary targets don't matter anymore.
Expressing displeasure over a tweet posted by a media organisation which falsely claimed that Chief Justice of India N V Ramana had met the kin of victims of Lakhmipur Kheri violence, the Supreme Court on Friday said it respects the media and their independence but this is 'not at all fair.'
We have our own problems for sure and they are not trivial, but for now, our economy is in not too bad a shape, our politics is as personality-driven and authoritarian as that of most countries in the world. We must make the best of what we have and not be excessively unhappy looking at the grass on the other side of the septic tank which may not be greener after all!, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
'Both the Centre and the states cannot say that they have been taking good care of public health.'
'The term 'pro-growth' must be qualified somewhat because, while a rising tide will lift all boats, it will not necessarily do so equally.'
According to industry figures, the pre-Covid demand for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) before the pandemic was 700 tonnes per day across the country. Now, with the second wave, the demand has gone up more than seven times, reports Jyoti Mukul.
Till such time that a new governance framework comes into being, the progress of reforms in health, education, land, labour, electricity and agriculture could remain fraught with problems, agitations and delays, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Just an hour or so from the ones we commonly throng to, they promise a lot more for a lot less.
Among the Sensex losers, Yes Bank tumbled 5.46 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance 5.40, ICICI Bank 3.82 per cent, IndusInd Bank 3.10 per cent and HeromotoCorp 2.55 per cent.
'The government is sincerely working on employment generation. Unfortunately, they are depending on these people from Harvard. Their wrong policies are killing jobs. The government has to come out of the Western framework on which they depend upon a lot.'
India achieved record foodgrains production this year but the withdrawal of three agri-reform laws and spike in cooking oil prices cast a shadow on the country's resilient agriculture sector that is on course for better harvest in 2022 despite pandemic blues. While soaring production of foodgrains that also helped the government provide free additional rations for COVID-hit poor families for many months together came as a relief, the passing year will be remembered for the long drawn farmers' protest at Delhi borders against the three laws and subsequent repeal of the legislations. The Indian agriculture sector, which was among the few segments that remained robust amid the pandemic gales, is expected to register a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in the current financial year ending March 2022.
There had been few signs of social distancing as thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana began their protest last week against the three new agro-marketing laws, setting off on a march to the national capital.
With satisfactory progress of monsoon rainfalls prompting farmers to bring in additional area under basmati sowing, prices are set to fall lower going forward.
India is the second largest buyer of Iranian crude, after China.
Modi announced a USD 14-million grant for community development projects in the Caricom and another USD 150 million line of credit for solar, renewable energy and climate- change related projects, a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
'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.
Indian markets rose 19 per cent in the first half of this financial year, the best performance by any market during this period, globally.
The Shiv Sena accused Jyotiraditya Scindia of working hard to see that Pilot quits the Congress.
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