An Empowered Group of Ministers on drought headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday approved Rs 1,207-crore relief package to Maharashtra. "Rs 1,207 crore drought relief package has been approved for Maharashtra," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is also a member of the EGoM, told PTI after the meeting of the minister.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will head the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on the effective management of issues related to drought.
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 was originally scheduled to meet on Wednesday but has been deferred because of non-availability of certain ministers in the grouping.
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.
An Empowered Group of Ministers on drought headed by Sharad Pawar on Friday sanctioned Rs 480 crore as immediate relief to Gujarat for rural drinking water and also announced increase of man days under MGNREGA from 100 to 150 per person.
Actor Poonam Pandey is not being considered as the brand ambassador of the government's national campaign to spread awareness on cervical cancer, Union health ministry officials said on Wednesday.
Airbus Helicopters will partner with the Tata Group to establish a final assembly line for helicopters in the country, a development that will help in boosting indigenous manufacturing activities. This will be the second final assembly line that will be built by Airbus in India after the 'Make in India' C295 military aircraft manufacturing facility in Gujarat. The Final Assembly Line (FAL) will produce Airbus H125 helicopters from its civil range for India and for exporting to some of the neighbouring countries, Airbus Helicopter said in a statement.
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.
Modi's last interaction with chief ministers was on March 17 during which he had expressed concern over the rise in COVID-19 cases in parts of the country and called for "quick and decisive" steps to check the "emerging second peak".
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 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.
The ministry wanted to use spectrum in the 700-MHz band for mobile TV services.
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.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora has sought reconstitution of an empowered group of ministers to decide on allocation of gas from RIL-operated KG-D6 fields to new customers. Deora, who met T K A Nair, principal secretary to the prime minister on Sunday, has formally written to the Cabinet secretary for reconstitution of the eGoM on the lines of the previous ministerial group headed by the then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
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.
The prime minister emphasised on improving the intelligence mechanism.
They will take call on the number of telecom circles in which spectrum to be auctioned.
Monday's meeting of the empowered group of ministers on pricing of gas from Reliance Industries' D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin has proved inconclusive.
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.
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.
Besides Mukherjee and Deora, the EGoM would have power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, law minister Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
It is sad that the legislative pre-consultation on such an important bill is being done in a very biased manner, notes Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information Commissioner, recounting his experience with Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar.
While asserting that the CoWIN portal is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy, it said an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security measures of CoWIN.
The ministerial panel is now likely to meet on June 24 or 25.
Finance Minister is unhappy over lack of storage capacity.
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 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.
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.
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.
The base price would be made public only after the close of market hours on Thursday.
'Interim Budget has ignited the entrepreneurial spirit.'
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.
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.
Government will offload 9.5 per cent of its ownership.
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.
