Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today claimed that several BJP leaders have "contacted" him to prevent Narendra Modi from becoming the prime minister.
With an epic battle of billionaires for supremacy in one of the world's most prolific markets and a pandemic-propelled surge in online shopping in the background, India's nearly trillion-dollar retail market is hoping to touch 85 per cent of the pre-COVID business in the first half of the New Year. In a year when the COVID-19 carnage ripped apart the retail business, circa 2020 will best go down for the unravelling of the war between Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man, and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani for pre-eminence in the booming market that is estimated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025. It all started with Ambani's Reliance Industries agreeing in August to buy assets of the nation's second-largest retailer for Rs 24,713 crore, just a year after Bezos' Amazon purchased an indirect stake in the indebted Future Retail.
Four people have died including one each in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra.
If the government of India is indeed interested in an amicable solution, instead of proposing half-hearted steps such as putting the laws on hold for 18 months, it can withdraw the legislations and think of other possible solutions, given the basic constitutional position that the subject of agriculture is in the State list in the Constitution, it said.
Congress took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has turned "unlucky" as the economy and exports were down and prices soaring.
From the Republic Day violence to Lakhimpur Kheri incident and terms such as 'toolkit' and andolanjeevi entering the Indian political lexicon, it was controversies galore during the year-long farmers' movement against the contentious agri laws.
Exuding confidence that the Third Front will form the next government at the Centre, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday said his party would set no preconditions to join it and help form the alliance in national interest.
The world's biggest lockdown that shut a majority of the factories and businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and restricted movement of vehicles and people, may have cost the Indian economy Rs 7-8 lakh crore during the 21-day period, analysts and industry bodies said.
Accusing the Congress of indulging in corruption and non-performance, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said there was a "severe anti-Congress wave" in the country and asserted that it would win in four poll-bound states, including Rajasthan.
Rumours of acute scarcity of salt triggered panic buying in half dozen districts of Bihar
The economic survey for 2020-21 has suggested revision in the weightage of food items to gauge the true picture of inflation in the country, and said new sources of price data also need to be incorporated in the wake of increasing retail e-commerce transactions. As per the survey, the current spike in consumer price-based retail inflation of food prices is mainly a supply-side phenomenon. The survey noted that the weights of all items in retail inflation are based on the NSO household consumption expenditure survey of 2011-12, adding the weight of food items in the index might have significantly decreased over the decade since then.
'While all organisations welcome the suggestions of the Supreme Court to stay the implementation of the farm laws, they are collectively and individually not willing to participate in any proceedings before a committee that may be appointed by it,' a statement issued by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said.
In the second major change in a year, Trai had capped individual channel subscription at Rs 12 per month, down from the earlier Rs 19, and capped channel bundle discount to 33 per cent, among other moves.
The air quality in Delhi remained poor Sunday with drop in wind speed even as authorities predicted further fall in air quality index of the national capital in the coming days.
Tamil Nadu Police on Thursday defended its action of detaining the US ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio asserting there is prima facie case against them for illegally straying into Indian territorial waters.
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party government for spurt in prices of essential commodities during its 45-day rule, Opposition Congress on Monday took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for riding to power on promise of controlling inflation yet doing nothing on it.
Police said no untoward incident has been reported in Mangaluru so far. The Internet and mobile data services have been restored. However, the police FIR names the 2 deceased.
District authorities on Wednesday reported nine more death cases in the wake of the devastation caused by cyclone Hudhud even as the worst-hit Visakhapatnam city was limping back to normalcy with adequate supplies of essential commodities.
The price of petrol is expected to come down to Rs 84.71 a litre and diesel to Rs 77.98
Sri Lanka on Tuesday deployed military personnel at State-run petrol pumps to monitor and manage fuel distribution amidst a shortage that led to serpentine queues of consumers outside filling stations.
Curfew was relaxed for six hours in Odisha's Bhadrak on Monday even as social media platforms remained blocked in the area and probe stepped up against rumormongers and into alleged abusive remarks on Hindu deities that triggered violence in the town.
The government has also told the state governments that "special care" should be taken of Jammu and Kashmir residents and students residing in their state.
A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul said it was not against the right to protest even when the legal challenge is pending but ultimately some solution has to be found.
The Confederation of All India Traders has approached Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and urged them to shut markets in Delhi.
'It is only natural that in such a national crisis, we should lend a helping hand to the less privileged members of our communities.'
Other Graded Response Action Plan measures like ban on diesel generators, hot mix plants, stone crushers and brick kilns, however, continue to remain in place.
The immediate need is to put more money in the hands of agriculture-based and rural households to improve their purchasing power, says S Mahendra Dev.
The SC said where is the question of going on protest once a party has already approached the court challenging the validity of the laws.
This is Kim's first overseas visit since he took over power in 2011 after his father's death.
Authorities were busy taking steps to restore the battered infrastructure in Visakhapatnam and other cyclone-hit districts in coastal Andhra Pradesh, apart from ensuring supply of essential commodities.
You have strangulated the entire city and now you want to come within the city and start protest again here," the Supreme Court on Friday told a farmers' body protesting against the three farm laws and seeking directions to authorities to allow it to stage satyagrah at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
How can highways be blocked perpetually, the Supreme Court wondered on Thursday while referring to road blockades by farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the three farm laws passed last year, and said it is the executive's duty to implement the law laid down by the court.
The Manipur government's plan to carve out seven new districts in the hill areas has ignited old resentments between Naga and non-Naga ethnic groups, leading to clashes and a month-long economic blockade.
Addressing a meeting of AICC general secretaries and state-incharges which she presided over, Gandhi also alleged that the country was being ruled by a government which was "systematically" handing over the rights of citizens to a handful of crony capitalists.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a statewide curfew for 15 days from 8 am on April 14 to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus in its second wave. With Section 144 being imposed across the state, Thackeray essential services have been exempted from the restrictions. The curfew will be in place till 7 am on May 1.
Rural India was left to fend for itself by those who ruled the country earlier, Modi said in a swipe at the Congress.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul allowed the review plea filed by the victim's family on the issue of the sentence awarded to Sidhu.
The government has chosen to profiteer off people's misery and suffering, Gandhi said.
Naidu said that efforts are on to bring together all non-BJP parties and that he had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi to discuss measures on protecting democracy.
A year after storming to power in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have suffered a considerable erosion of support base in Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' home turf Vidarbha, losing to Congress-Nationalist Congress Party in the municipal council polls in the region.
