The first-ever district development council (DDC) elections will be held in eight phases to elect 280 members in 20 districts from November 28 to December 22.
Several companies and technology heavyweights including Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce are working to create a digital vaccination passport or health passport app in the hope that governments and airlines will require travellers to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and immunisation. The vaccine passport will effectively create digital credentials that could be the key to attending crowded events or even visiting countries.
'We have learnt lessons from Mamata Banerjee who overcame the BJP's canard by reciting Chandi Path and playing up her Brahmin origins in her campaign. We need to adopt strategies like asking Muslims to lie low and distributing tickets prudently so that we are not accused of favouring one community.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday allocated portfolios to the twenty-member council of ministers, including 10 of the Shiv Sena, who were inducted into his expanded cabinet.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
As households age, they pile up debt, a peculiarity unique to Indians, a Financial Stability and Development Council report has found. Here are the key takeaways.
Early reform of the United Nations Security Council, terrorism and peacekeeping will be among the main issues that India will pursue during the world body's General Assembly session, Indian ambassador to the UN has said.
Among the three Deputy Chief Ministers are Govind Karjol, who has also been given the charge of PWD and Social welfare; Ashwath Narayan the portfolio of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology; and Laxman Savadi with Transport department.
The appointment of new expenditure secretary comes a month-and-a-half ahead of the Budget for 2020-21 to be presented on February 1.
In run-up to the session, while over 4,000 people including MPs and staff have been tested for COVID-19, most parliamentary operations have been digitalized, entire premises sanitised and doors made touch-free.
Good intentions and elaborate roadmaps apart, there is an urgent need for the Tamil Nadu chief minister to come up with branded schemes like MGR's meal scheme, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Our automakers export 50 per cent of what they manufacture and once the policy comes into play, which is in the next 2-3 years, we would become a Rs 10 trillion industry.'
Don't expect the synthetic stones to surpass natural ones anytime soon because the world's biggest miners of diamonds aren't looking to get into man-made diamonds.
If the challenge of the government is to regain the confidence of the minorities, it has to first overpower its own unruly gangs and their heroic masters, says Sunil Varghese.
Prime Minister Modi will address three rallies -- at Dehri-on Sone (Rohtas district), Gaya and Bhagalpur -- to seek support for National Democratic Alliance nominees on different assembly constituencies going to vote in the first phase on October 28. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also slated to launch his campaign in Bihar elections on Friday.
Mayor Beverly Whaling of Clay in West Virginia has resigned after she came under fire for approvingly commenting on a racist Facebook post calling United States First Lady Michelle Obama 'an ape in heels'.
History shows us that even effective vaccines could have unknown side effects that could develop over time, warns former Cabinet Secetary K M Chandrasekhar.
'The only way to minimise logical inconsistencies and confusion is to develop the two rates of 12% and 18% as the ones that apply to almost all items.' 'At a later stage, these two rates could be merged into a single rate,' advises T N Ninan.
Jyoti 'Jay' Chaudhuri, general counsel and senior adviser to the state treasurer of the US state of North Carolina, was elected chairman of the board of the Council of Institutional Investors, last month.
The Union Cabinet today approved the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance at 6 per cent to central government employees and dearness relief to pensioners. The allowance will be released with effect from January 1, 2008. The DA rate now stands at 47 per cent.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second COVID-19 wave, a central team report has said, highlighting that there is very limited active effort to track, test, isolate cases and quarantine contacts, and there is no adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour among people in rural and urban areas in the state.
While there were speculations that IPL will start from September 26, the BCCI decided to advance it by a week in order to ensure that the Indian team's tour of Australia is not jeopardised.
Developers had been urging dual usage of their SEZ land since the beginning of global financial recession in 2008.
Recent IMF forecast said China's growth is expected to slow down.
In a phased and planned manner the countries will go for Free Trade Areas, a Customs Union, a Common Market, and a Common Economic and Monetary Union.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that justice should not only be delivered in time but must also be accessible to the most marginalised of the society.
Businesses that either take local communities for granted or see them as an obstacle to be 'managed' are skating on thin ice.
He accused Modi of reducing the cabinet to a 'rubber stamp', 'betraying' backward classes and giving Bihar only 'jumlas'.
She said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) adopted last year by India's Parliament was of 'great concern'.
Addressing a massive public rally to celebrate the signing of the accord on January 27 that is expected to bring lasting peace to the troubled state, Modi said now the time was to work together for peace and development of the North-East.
'Unfortunately, during this pandemic, everybody started saying that well, these are desperate times and desperate times need desperate solutions.' 'Purely out of fear, anxiety, panic, this knowledge that people started acquiring from WhatsApp University and social media, it pushed science completely to the backseat.'
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has come out with a communiqu announcing distribution of portfolios of the ministers sworn-in on Monday in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers:
'I hope that the incoming Biden-Harris Administration works with India to address some of the most profound geopolitical transboundary challenges.'
Once the two parties finalise the common minimum programme, it would then be shared with the Shiv Sena which is then expected to add issues that are close to its heart, reports Prasanna D Zore.
Swaraj also called on Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw and held discussions with him on issues of mutual interest.
'The BJP's solo aim in Mumbai and Maharashtra is to finish off the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP.'
"Though we reiterate our commitment to peace, our defence forces -- the army, the air force and the navy -- are adequately mobilised in a well-coordinated move to thwart any attempt to undermine our security. Our national interest will be protected at all costs. We have also ensured a widespread understanding in the international community of India's firm and principled stand," the President said. India and China are locked in a nearly nine-month long military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
