Terming as "serious" the promise of "irrational freebies" made by political parties during elections, the Supreme Court on Tuesday wondered why the Centre was hesitant about taking a stand on the issue.
In a response to the August 3 order, the Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said till the time either the legislature or the poll panel steps in, the top court must lay down "dos and don'ts" for political parties in the 'larger national interest.'
Feature for feature, bank FDs are indeed better than debt funds today, mainly thanks to Ms Sitharaman, notes Debashis Basu.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday didn't join his cabinet colleagues Devendra Fadnavis and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in visiting the Nagpur-based memorial of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder.
Prasar Bharati has approved a scheme of self financed commissioning under which the outside producers would be required to produce programmes at his own risk and cost, Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy said on Monday.
Imane Khelif beat Hungary's Luca Anna Hamori by unanimous decision in a welterweight quarter-final fight at the Paris Games on Saturday to ensure Algeria's first Olympic boxing medal since 2000.
An order was issued to terminate 223 contractual employees of the Delhi Commission of Women after Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to a proposal on it, officials said on Thursday.
No limit exists on the number of electoral bonds that a person (including corporate entities) can purchase.
Collectively, these companies spent Rs 628 crore (Rs 6.28 billion) on political contributions in the past five years, according to their annual reports.
Out of the GST of 12 per cent, states should receive seven per cent while the rest five per cent should go to the Centre's kitty, said the task force.
The Congress leader also lamented the exclusion of current Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge from the committee
Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday assumed charge as the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister for the second consecutive term and is slated to soon present the final Budget for FY '25 that is going to set the tone for the Modi 3.0 government's priorities and direction for Viksit Bharat. Upon her reaching the North Block office, Sitharaman was greeted by Finance Secretary T V Somanathan and other top officials. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary was also present. Chaudhary assumed charge on Tuesday evening.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services whose director is the lottery magnate Santiago Martin is the top purchaser of electoral bonds having purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368, according to data uploaded by the Election Commission of India on its website on Thursday.
The government decided to table in Parliament on Tuesday the report of the Liberhan Commission that probed the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, a day after the leakage of the findings set off a political storm.
The time is ripe for debate on city governments in India.
An increase in the farmer income support scheme PM Kisan Nidhi, the introduction of a 'robot tax' to fund reskilling of people who lose their jobs to artificial intelligence (AI), and a reduced income-tax (I-T) to bring relief to the middle classes - these are some of the items in the Budget wish list submitted by Sangh Parivar affiliates to Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman. Representatives of the affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), such as the farmer organisation Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS); trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS); Laghu Udyog Bharati, which works for micro and small industries; and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), which works on economic and policy issues, met the FM and other officials over the last couple of weeks as part of the pre-Budget consultations.
Banerjee said her microphone was stopped after five minutes, while other chief ministers were allowed to speak for longer durations.
Civil servants, armed forces and paramilitary personnel will get to rejoice this Independence Day with the government all set to approve the Sixth Pay Commission report in its Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
Singh asserted that Deshmukh set a staggering collection target of Rs 100 crore for his officers, specifically from Mumbai, while also discussing plans to target key opposition figures, including former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Thursday said that he was apprehending a threat to his security because of the presence of the current contingent of Kolkata Police posted at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.
This move will enable it to incur higher-than-mandated borrowing, and possibly spending, till the 2024 Lok Sabha election cycle.
For every rupee in the government coffer, 58 paise will come from direct and indirect taxes, 34 paise from borrowings and other liabilities, six paise from non-tax revenue like disinvestment and two paise from non-debt capital receipts, according to the Budget documents for 2023-24.
Whether she will pare the fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of GDP, using the record dividend received from the RBI, or expand flagship government programmes will be keenly watched.
Kharge said conducting polls in seven phases meant that nearly all the development works will be stopped.
The commission said enforcement authorities have seized Rs 4,650 crore even before polling begins for the Lok Sabha elections and it is the "higher than total seizures" made in the 2019 polls
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while legal affairs secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel.
Life has come full circle for Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus, who faced persecution during Sheikh Hasina's regime for embezzlement, is now all set to head of the interim government in Bangladesh after she resigned and fled the country.
Megha Engineering had emerged as the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds and donated the highest amount of about Rs 586 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to the data released by the Election Commission on March 21.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) gave a huge blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance by winning 43 seats out of total 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, as per the Election Commission.
The Election Commission (EC) had, in 2019, flagged its concerns in the Supreme Court on the changes made in several laws relating to political funding to facilitate the electoral bonds scheme, saying it will have 'serious repercussions' on transparency.
As many as 417 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.77 lakh crore in September this year, an official report said. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above, out of 1,763 projects, 417 reported cost overruns and as many as 842 projects were delayed. "Total original cost of implementation of the 1,763 projects was Rs 24,86,402.70 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 29,64,345.13 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,77,942.43 crore (19.22 per cent of original cost)," the ministry's latest report for September 2023 said.
Pakistan has been on the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing, and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, has said that helming the NCP away from the shadows of his uncle and founder Sharad Pawar after the split is a huge responsibility.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, said, "Amit Shah has set a target of 35 seats. We will achieve that".
According to the Election Commission of India, the code has evolved over the last 60 years to assume its present form.
Engineer Rashid has been lodged in the Tihar jail since August 9, 2019 on charges of alleged terror financing, while Singh has been booked under the National Security Act and sent to the Dibrugarh jail of Assam.
The comments from Das assume importance as the government for two consecutive terms have missed its fiscal deficit targets by 10 bps
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