Budget proposals have set four goals to transform Indian Railways.
India's new policy commission has received a makeover and a dream team has been formed to head the Think Tank, NITI Aayog.
The Centre has constituted a five-member expert committee to study various alternatives available to it to decide on a new capital for Andhra Pradesh.
Diplomats agree that amid stormy relations with China and Pakistan, Modi has posted impressive foreign policy successes, notes Aditi Phadnis.
The Ministry of Science and Technology has approached about a dozen well-known scientists from across the world in an effort to bring them back to various departments under the ministry, said Jitendra Singh, minister of state (independent charge) for science and technology.
For well-travelled Modi, the first trip to the U.S. West Coast by an Indian leader in more than 30 years is a chance to get help on his top policy initiatives.
New government will have to mobilise money to complete pending irrigation, infra projects
'India has 1 lawyer per 1,000 population.' 'Opportunities in the field of law are plenty.'
U R Ananthamurthy was one among the most creative triumvirate of Modernist Kannada literature of the late sixties and seventies (the other two being the late P Lankesh and K Poornachandra Tejaswi). He will be missed by all who care to step out and fight for justice and human rights of ordinary people in India despite being surrounded by the consumerist fog, says Shivanand Kanavi.
'Charging that some main political parties are trying to "dangerously" disturb the communal harmony in Uttar Pradesh ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday warned such forces of stringent action.
'History will never forgive Manmohan Singh for having ended the Indian growth story and created a culture of entitlement instead of creating a culture of hard work and development,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Dismissing allegations that a letter written by him to Union HRD ministry led to the suspension of the five scholars, Dattatreya sought to clarify that he merely forwarded a representation given to him by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The man behind Aligarh Muslim University 200 years on.
Experts consider Sebi's takeover code in its present form to be on a par with any foreign code governing public mergers and acquisitions.
A group of high-powered individuals led by Anand Mahindra have come together to set up Krea university. The campus is expected to be ready by 2019 and the first batch of 100 to 125 students will commence classes in August next year.
'Karpoori Thakur must be remembered by people today who are tired of witnessing fractious politics where corruption, bigotry, hatred and violence seems to have become distressingly recurrent,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
This does not mean isolating parochialism but of new way of thinking about economic systems, says Rajni Bakshi.
The Planning Commission has not been central to the policy making process since the mid-1960s, says Nitin Desai.
Connectivity is what SAARC needs the most but Pakistan is not interested, says Rajeev Sharma.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
Support for the dreaded Haqqani network across the militant group's historical stronghold in eastern Afghanistan is gradually turning into "resentment" as local leaders say the Haqqani supremo's war is for "Pakistani rupees and power" and they cannot follow him "blindly".
T C A Anant, former chief statistician to the government, will soon be heading a panel to decide whether the monthly payroll data released by EPFO, ESIC and PFRDA could replace the quarterly enterprises-based survey on job creation by the labour bureau, the prime minister's office decided last week.
Wary of how its alliance with the BJP in the past had cost it votes, the party is determined to steer clear of any harm by association, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'This generation wants to try different things, are ready to take risks and experiment with their careers.'
In a veiled attack on Congress and Samajwadi Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused them of continuing to practice vote-bank politics to divide society and asserted that disturbance of peace and harmony will not be tolerated.
UP now has 16 ministers, the maximum from any state, in an apparent bid to keep the Dalit and other backward class votebank content.
If indeed we want the board to manage the RBI, probably the government should take a close look at the US Federal Reserve system which has a two-part structure - a central authority in Washington, DC, and a decentralised network of 12 Federal Reserve Banks located throughout the country, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Without civilisational moorings, India, more a sub-continent than a country, could not exist. Primacy of Dharma has been the cornerstone of Indian civilisation, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
De-scaling of businesses, job losses and subsequent impact on disposable incomes has created negative sentiment among traders, business owners and workers alike, says Abhishek Waghmare.
'Deep down, it betrays a transactional view of politics. That, to get, the voter must give,' argues Krishna Prasad.
Voicing "dissatisfaction" over remarks by Modi on Friday at a university in Lucknow, the Joint Action Council spearheading the stir asked if the prime minister would now take action against his ministers.
The Prime Minister's Office has clarified that the total sanctioned strength of the PMO has been around 525 in the period 2011-14. As against this, the actual strength of the PMO in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 was in the range of 407 to 411. The number has now declined to 385.
'The government is using the Intelligence Bureau to go after NGOs.' 'It is not only the NDA, the UPA also didn't like NGOs.' 'NGOs predominantly work with the poor. So, when you cancel an NGO, the affected are the poor, the Dalits, the tribals, the street children and the marginalised.'
'It was China's rise that caused the New Cold War in Asia as it prompted the United States to rebalance its forces in Asia to experiment with engagement and containment at the same time,' says T P Sreenivasan.
Following her spat, 'Aunty National' Irani took to Facebook to speak out against her detractors. Here's the Facebook post in response to her critics which Rediff.com represents verbatim:
'This health emergency has brought a lot of people together with the common purpose of getting Feluda to play detective as quickly as possible.' 'As a scientist, if we can make a small difference in people's lives, we are happy'
The change in policy for the three companies, from listing to merger, shows the level of discomfort within the government about their ability to take on the expanded load for insurance coverage with their current financial strength, including the massive premium and claim settlement cover under the proposed universal health coverage plan announced in Budget 2018.
'We are completely engaged in fighting poverty; alas, our neighbour Pakistan seems only engaged in fighting us.'
The need for co-ordinated policy between Centre and states was likewise foreseen and assigned.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
