The seven-member grouping has seen two changes -- S Jaipal Reddy replacing Murli Deora after taking over as the Oil Ministry, while Kamal Nath has given away to the new Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi.
Across the country, the number of patients in ICU beds is 4,88,861 while 1,70,841 patients were on ventilators and 9,02,291 patients were on oxygen support.
'There is ample evidence to suggest that attacks on the PM's probity and his connections with business houses do not resonate with voters.'
If a package is announced, it would be the third major initiative by the government to tackle the challenges thrown up by the rapid spread of coronavirus.
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
Empowered group of ministers on fuel pricing was likely to meet soon.
Addressing a press briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country, P D Vaghela, Chairman of the Empowered Group-3, said about 19,398 ventilators are available in India and orders have been placed for 60,884 more, and of these 59,884 will be made by domestic manufacturers.
Addressing a press briefing, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said 16 districts which earlier had positive cases have not reported any new case of COVID-19 in the last 28 days.
Goyal added the central government did mapping in a meeting with governments of 12 states and union territories most affected by COVID-19 and 6,177 metric tonnes of oxygen will be given to these states.
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.
Not only does there appear to be no meeting ground on the issue of a pricing formula proposed by the committee, the petroleum ministry wants another committee headed by Vijay Kelkar to look into the other major recommendation of moving to the revenue sharing model in exploration and production.
The finance ministry has rejected the formula and, instead, suggested an alternative that takes into account well-head prices of suppliers in Qatar, Oman, Abu Dhabi and Malaysia.
Says tradability will ensure greater economic efficiency & higher revenues for the government.
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".
A high-powered ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday"tentatively resolved" all issues concerning a proposal to levy one-time fee on existing telecom operators, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said.
The Jordanian-drafted resolution did not make any mention of the militant group Hamas, with the US expressing outrage at the "omission".
Official sources said Chidambaram's name tops the list of ministers who will be part of the EGoM from whose chairmanship Pawar recused earlier this week citing attempts to drag him into controversies.
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 78-year-old Naveen is on the cusp of creating history. He must win the forthcoming Assembly polls to become India's longest-serving chief minister, a record held by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
After refarming, over 142.5 MHz of spectrum is expected to be available for auctioning next year.
Prioritising portion control fosters a healthier approach to well-being in the long run, explains Shilpa Joshi.
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.
"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.
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 was originally scheduled to meet on Wednesday but has been deferred because of non-availability of certain ministers in the grouping.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
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.
They will take call on the number of telecom circles in which spectrum to be auctioned.
Earlier this week, the Empowered Group of Ministers approved the draft of the Food Security Bill, which will entitle 75 per cent of rural households and 50 per cent of urban households to subsidised foodgrain.
According to sources, as per the new schedule given by the agency which will operate the auction process, the bidding for the airwaves can be started only by early November.
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.
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.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will head the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on the effective management of issues related to drought.
It expects Rs 39,895 crore from it.
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.
Migration option scrapped for incumbent telecom operators; EGoM meets under Pawar today.
In a move that could hold a flicker of hope for telecom operators, who have been opposing the high base price for the auction of 2G spectrum, the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) has quietly modified the key objective of the auction. The text of the objective has been tweaked from "revenue maximisation" to "maximising revenue but within set parameters" determined by the government.
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, which had set a reserve price of Rs 14,000 crore for pan-India spectrum broadly drawing from the basis used by Comptroller and Auditor General in calculating the loss in the previous sale in 2008, managed a meagre Rs 9,407.64 crore (Rs 94.07 billion) in the auction that lasted barely two days.
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