The Bodoland Territorial Region in Assam is slowly picking up the pieces and finally finding peace after being subjected to decades of insurgencies and violence.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who has been on a fast unto death to press the demand for cancellation of a Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam, on Sunday sought the support of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.
According to the Centre's legislative business list for the upcoming session, three bills have also been listed to replace three ordinances.
The move comes days after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi asked states under party's rule to enact legislations to bypass Centre's three farm-related laws that have triggered protests by farmers.
This year's Sundance Film Festival was rich with films and the theatres were warm, even as temperatures outside dipped to below freezing point. It snowed only once but the sidewalks remained slippery for a few days.
The Delhi Police later said they detained AAP MP Bhagwant Mann and over a hundred protesting workers after 'they started getting agitated'. Addressing his party workers from Punjab at the protest, Kejriwal said the AAP has a very clear stance on the farm laws.
Daulatpuria, who had joined the party ahead of 2019 assembly polls after switching over from Indian National Lok Dal, announced his decision at a Panchayat held at his village Daulatpur. Talking to reporters later, he said the three agriculture laws "are anti-farmer which should be repealed immediately".
Ghanwat, also a senior leader of Shetkari Sangathan, said he will mobilise one lakh farmers and bring them to Delhi in the next couple of months demanding farm reforms.
The government's agenda also includes the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021.
On the cusp of launching its Rs 11,327 crore initial public offering (IPO) next week, food and grocery delivery major Swiggy believes quick commerce to be its future growth engine and anticipates that it will outpace its core food delivery business over the next five years. Currently, the quick commerce business of Swiggy - backed by Prosus and SoftBank - is 40 per cent of the size of its food delivery revenues.
'The Love for Veggies!' Sakshi's post read.
The finance ministry on Thursday raised concerns over the possible impact of El Nio conditions on India this year, saying if recent forecasts came true, the country could see lower agricultural output and higher inflation. "Some meteorological agencies predict the return of El Nio conditions in India this year. "If these predictions are accurate, then monsoon rains could be deficient, leading to lower agricultural output and higher prices," the ministry said in its monthly economic review.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
We the people are left in the wind, waiting on the whims of an unengaged president and an oligarch with a nearly bottomless wallet, observes Sree Sreenivasan.
"Those who are sitting on dharna are farmers and are born to farmers' families. We have a lot of respect for them," Singh said.
The Congress on Monday attacked the government over the passage of the farm laws repeal bill in the Lok Sabha without a discussion, charging that all parliamentary norms have been 'thrown to the wind'.
'Can we give young India the tools to solve the problems the country or society faces and uplift the community?'
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said the country's farm production and procurement increased during 2020-21 crop year despite the pandemic and agricultural exports reached a record level of Rs 3 lakh crore during the same period. In his address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget session, Kovind said the government is focusing on making the country self-sufficient in edible oils besides making special efforts to promote organic farming, natural farming and crop diversification. "My government is working continuously to empower the farmers and the rural economy of the country... I would like to give maximum credit to the small farmers of the country for this consistent success and strengthening of the agriculture sector," he said.
The Congress is strongly opposed to the three Central legislations which were signed into laws by President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday.
The protesting farmers celebrated Holi at the borders and maintained that their agitation will continue till the farm laws are repealed and a separate law on minimum support price is enacted, it said in a statement.
'If the BJP detoxifies the nuclear liability law, it will bring economic, environmental and, most of all, strategic benefits.' 'Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that this Budget promise is met soon -- ideally, before Mr Modi heads to his first meeting with Trump 2.0,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
'We face the risk of remaining a low-income country for a very long time unless something changes in the next few years.' 'Instead of constantly talking about becoming a developed economy, we need to start fixing the problems of the economy one by one.' 'There is so much potential, and we are squandering away the opportunity.'
A special session of the Kerala Assembly is being convened on Wednesday to discuss the three contentious central farm laws and pass a resolution against the acts, whose repeal is being insisted by farmers agitating at the borders of Delhi for nearly a month.
High nitrate levels have been found in groundwater of 440 districts across India, with 20 per cent of the samples collected exceeding the permissible nitrate concentration, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has said in a report.
'When people have money in their hands, they make their judgment about whether they want to spend it entirely or spend some out of it.'
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Facing the brunt of farmer's ire over perception of it being a beneficiary of new farm laws, Reliance Industries on Monday said it neither buys foodgrains directly from farmers nor is it in the business of contract farming. In a statement, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's firm said its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) has filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking "the urgent intervention of government authorities to bring a complete stop to the illegal acts of vandalism (of telecom towers) by miscreants." Reliance said it "has nothing whatsoever to do with the three farm laws currently debated in the country, and in no way benefits from them."
Talking to reporters Khatkar Kalan, he also suggested that Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence will use farmers' unrest over the new farm laws and will try to foment trouble in the border state of Punjab.
"Stop dreaming of opening the borders," Chaduni told the government while addressing a "Kisan Mahapanchayat" at Kurukshetra's Ismailabad, adjoining Punjab's Patiala district.
'Interestingly in spite of slightly more than half (52%) the respondent farmers opposing the three new agri laws, almost 44% respondent farmers said the Modi government was 'pro-farmer'
'Our politicians solely depend on bureaucrats who are unaccountable and follow their own agenda.' 'Our politicians would dare not dream of establishing a DOGE,' argues Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
In a rare gesture, not only the legislators of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-headed Left Democratic Front and Congress-led United Democratic Front, but the lone Bharatiya Janata Party member in the 140-member state assembly, O Rajagopal, also supported the resolution against the Centre, saying 'it is the democratic spirit'.
And the only answer one can think of is that this is being done to preserve the image of toughness and 56 inches and all the rest of it, notes Aakar Patel.
A delegation of opposition parties including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar and Left leaders on Wednesday met President Ram Nath Kovind seeking repeal of the three farm laws against which thousands of farmers have been protesting on various borders of the national capital.
A large car caravan of protesters from various parts of California blocked the traffic on the Bay Bridge on Saturday as they moved towards the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, while several hundreds gathered in downtown Indianapolis.
The Aam Aadmi Party MLAs spent the night in the state legislative assembly building demanding copies of the Bill which the state's Congress government is now expected to introduce on Tuesday.
Standing by his cycle, the 36-year-old from Punjab Moga's district said he could have taken a bus or a train to Delhi, but that could mean his family would have to go hungry.
Latest GDP growth numbers a one-off development and not the beginning of a trend, says CEA V Anantha Nageswaran.
Extending support to farmers who have been agitating against the new agricultural laws, the Wayanad MP told media persons, "I have brought farmers' message to Parliament. They (The government) are suppressing the voices of farmers and not letting a discussion take place in Parliament. They will have to repeal these black laws. The entire country knows these laws favour 2-3 big businessmen."
The MPs criticised the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership for being in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA even after these bills were proposed by the government.
