'My interest is to open up transparency to the people who unnecessary raise these issues. The prime minister has full right to go wherever he is going but the question is why is he not transparent on expenditure.' 'When the prime minister went to the UN, he spoke of transparency. You are not complying with it. It shows hypocrisy.' Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) on why he filed an RTI to find out how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent on his foreign visits.
The apex court said that 'satisfactory progress' has been made by the Executive in identifying children who have either become orphans or have lost one of their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
China on Friday hiked its defence budget to $209 billion, maintaining a single-digit growth for the sixth consecutive year with a 6.8 per cent increase in 2021.
Amid concerns over growing incidence of "paid news" during polls, the Election Commission has detected over 400 "confirmed" cases during the recently concluded Gujarat assembly polls.
Successful bidders will have to pay 25 per cent of the amount upfront for sub 1 GHz, and 50 per cent upfront for higher frequency bands.
In his last Budget, Suresh Prabhu, set an ambitious target for capital expenditure.
It is worrisome that salaries are consuming as much expenditure as equipment.
Even if the new body focuses on long-term planning, it is unlikely to do so through five-year Plans.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved 'Mission Karmayogi', dubbed as the biggest bureaucratic reform initiative, aimed at capacity building of government employees to make them more "creative, proactive, professional and technology-enabled". The core guiding principles of the competency-driven programme will be to support a transition from "rules based to roles based" HR management to prepare the Indian civil servant for the future, according to a government statement.
The model code of conduct comes into immediate effect, he said.
There is lack of scientific basis in computing the poverty line, says govt.
After securing an approval for a plan size of Rs 59,000 crore (Rs 590 billion) for this fiscal, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on sparred with the Centre over social sector development in the state as he countered Planning Commission's assessment that lot more needs to be done.
'The only credible explanation for the niggardly approach to defence expenditure must be that the government does not expect a war.' 'But wars can happen when you don't expect them, and re-arming at the last minute is not possible,' says T N Ninan.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not be a star campaigner for the Trinamool Congress as the Election Commission has rejected the list of her party's star campaigners for the Himachal Pradesh assembly polls. The expenditure incurred on the party campaigners, including Banerjee, will not be exempted now as they are not 'star campaigners' approved by the EC and such expenses will be included in the candidates' expenses, sources said.
Enhanced revenue generation is a priority for the government.
In the five poll-bound states, the poll machinery has said that all politicians' faces need to be covered or removed.
The technical report of the NSSO has generated controversy following its observation that as much as 36 per cent units forming part of MCA-21 database, used in computing GDP, could not be either identifiable or traceable in the field.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian's interview.
Seeking to provide a level-playing field for parties in elections, the Election Commission has proposed making paid news an electoral offence to provide a strong deterrent in a bid to stamp out the menace. It also wants a ceiling on the campaign expenditure of political parties that is used as a ruse to pump in unlimited resources.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Law Minister Somnath Bharti on separate pleas of two BJP leaders seeking to declare their election as void on the ground that they exceeded the poll expense limit of Rs 14 lakh each.
"Numerous rounds of talks have taken place with the Chinese counterparts to deescalate the situation without compromising on India's stand of 'complete disengagement and immediate restoration of status quo ante'," the defence ministry said.
The Seventh Pay Commission had decided to choose the CPI-IW as the index for adjusting inflation for central government employees.
'Every Finance Commission creates its winners and losers' point out T N Ninan.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and ex-Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda were on Monday asked by the Election Commission to appear before it on May 23 for allegedly giving incorrect accounts of their poll expenses.
The recommendations will benefit 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.
As regular promotional discounts and offers rolled out by well-funded apps determine the demand trend, online hospitality aggregators face growing discontent from restaurants and hotels over commissions and pricing power.
'An era of fiscal pessimism is setting in, which, if not countered intellectually, is going to have the same effect as export pessimism has had,' notes T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
However, the social media giant hasn't responded to as yet.
Upon implementation of the 7th Pay Commission the expected yearly burden on the central exchequer will be more than Rs 100,000 crore. Central government employees will get on an average a 24 per cent pay hike. Still, the unions aren't happy.
The recently concluded assembly polls in the four states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and one Union Territory -- Puducherry saw a blatant use of money power. But interestingly, the newly elected members of Legislative have claimed in their expense statements submitted to the Election Commission that their expenditure was well below the prescribed limit.
"I believe the biggest issues in front of us are malnutrition and toilets, these are the two faces of one coin... I have MNREGA, PMGSY, drinking water etc under me but I spend maximum time on toilet only," said Ramesh, who holds the portfolios of Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation, in what apparently was his take on the toilet controversy for which the plan panel has drawn flak.
The Delhi high court on Friday gave the green signal to the Election Commission to probe Ashok Chavan and Madhu Koda, former chief ministers of Maharashtra and Jharkhand respectively, in connection with alleged discrepancies in their poll expenditure accounts. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna gave the order while dismissing the pleas of Chavan and Koda challenging the poll panel's power to proceed against them.
This curious piece of information was given by External Affairs Ministry in response to query posted by Mumbai-based RTI activist Ajay Marathe, who was intrigued by the reports of expenses incurred on various embassies by India.
Six national parties collected 86.91 pc (Rs 1,041.80 crore) of their total income from voluntary contributions for 2017-18.
The government had pegged food subsidy at Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) in the 2013-14 Union Budget.
The panel headed by Justice M S Liberhan was constituted on December 16, 1992, by an order of the Home Ministry and was expected to submit its report within three months. It has already taken over 15 years and incurred an expenditure of more than Rs seven crore so far.
