Reacting to reports that Home Minister P Chidambaram may be appointed as head of the Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said, this is a "cruel joke" on the nation and goes against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim of maintaining a high level of integrity.
The meeting of the EGoM, the first after Pranab Mukherjee resigned as the Finance Minister to contest Presidential election, was to decide on auction of telecom spectrum.
The ministry wanted to use spectrum in the 700-MHz band for mobile TV services.
The ministry had sent a draft proposal for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers to price all domestically produced natural gas -- be of state-run ONGC or private sector Reliance Industries - as per the formula suggested by the Rangarajan Committee.
The EGoM meeting, attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Food Minister K V Thomas among others, reviewed the situation in drought-hit states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The two major changes include: keeping an option open for supplying more than 3 kg of subsidised foodgrains to general households and widening its reach to include lactating women, destitute and aged people and providing nutritious food to children.
With a high-powered ministerial panel on fuel pricing being scrapped, a cabinet committee may consider raising the prices of diesel, LPG and kerosene, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy indicated on Wednesday but refused to say when the issue would be taken up.
Finance Minister is unhappy over lack of storage capacity.
Pawar, who postponed Monday's scheduled meeting of the EGoM, saying he was busy, sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to relieve him as head.
The empowered group of ministers has been reconstituted after Pranab Mukherjee, who was heading it, resigned as Finance Minister to contest the Presidential elections.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal -- contribute 85.5 per cent of active caseload and 87 per cent of total deaths in India.
Though no decision was taken by the EGOM as it was the first meeting of the EGOM, environmental groups and those in possession of the land have raised their ante against such a plan.
The Inter-Ministerial Group for modernising Delhi and Mumbai airports would shortlist the preferred bidders for the airport revamp joint ventures within the next few days, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked all chief ministers to reduce state levies on diesel, kerosene and cooking gas to mitigate the impact of the price hike on the common man.
Telecom Commission has recommended that existing mobile operators vacate airwaves in the 900 MHz band at the time of renewal of licences in 2014 -- a move that GSM players say would cost them over Rs 66,000 crore (Rs 660 billion) in replacing infrastructure.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia supports operators' plea. He tells the finance minister that existing players should not be charged for the remaining licence period.
The EGoM headed by Defence Minister A K Antony was scheduled to meet on Tuesday to consider abolishing the priority ranking in natural gas allocation so that fuel currently consumed by urea plants can also be diverted to fuel-starved power plants.
"The Empowered GoM will discuss what to do with the proposals where land acquisition is not an issue and where it is an issue," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.
'Interim Budget has ignited the entrepreneurial spirit.'
As of now, monsoon rains are deficient by 21 per cent across India, affecting sowing of kharif crops. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and West Rajasthan have been the worst-hit regions this year.
They will take call on the number of telecom circles in which spectrum to be auctioned.
The decision to this effect was taken by an empowered group of ministers on Food headed by Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Still battling the fallout of last month's steep Rs 7.54 a litre hike in petrol price, the government on Friday said it is not considering raising rates of diesel, domestic gas (LPG) and kerosene for the moment.
Limiting the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders is likely to save the government over Rs 12,000 crore in subsidy outgo annually.
The high-powered panel, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, which was to discuss the roadmap for auction of unsold GSM spectrum in Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka, has been deferred twice last month.
The government on Friday said it would be able to meet the budgeted target of earning Rs 40,000 crore from the telecom sector this financial year, even as the response to the recently concluded auction of 1,800-MHz band spectrum was lukewarm.
Dismantling a legacy of United Progressive Alliance rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has abolished all the 30 GoMs and EGoMs and told ministries and departments to take decisions on pending matters.
Ahead of the much anticipated meeting of a high power panel of ministers, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Friday said his ministry has made no specific proposal on increasing auto and cooking fuel prices.
Top sources in the government told Business Standard the Congress managers wanted the rise in prices to be a collective decision of the United Progressive Alliance and also make sure allies could not wriggle out of the exercise to take harsh economic decisions.
In the Union Budget for Financial Year 2023-24 (FY24), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had held forth on the need for better governance and investor protection in the banking sector. She had proposed certain amendments to the Reserve Bank of India Act (RBI Act), 1934; the Banking Regulation Act (BR Act), 1949; and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970.
Dabhol is part of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd.
An Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, will seek legal opinion from Attorney General on its decision to charge around Rs 27,000 crore one-time spectrum fee from existing telecom operators.
ADAG group company Reliance Energy Ltd is the second-lowest bidder for the Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) project, after Lanco. However, with the Lanco bid becoming invalid, REL could claim to be the lowest bidder.
The base price would be made public only after the close of market hours on Thursday.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is upset with the prime minister's office for not including DMK's M K Alagiri in the Empowered Group of Ministers on drought.
In a move indicative of a hardening of stand against the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling Congress has decided to cock a snook against the BJP. Renu Mittal reports.
In a move indicative of a hardening of stand against the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling Congress has decided to cock a snook against the BJP. Renu Mittal reports.
The finance minister's office had sought the Cabinet Secretary's opinion whether Mukherjee should remain part of the EGoM in the wake of his presidential candidature.
Government will offload 9.5 per cent of its ownership.
NITI Aayog's attempt to bust coronavirus myths provokes a virtual storm of controversy.
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