Hazem el-Beblawi, a liberal economist and Egypt's former finance minister, was on Tuesday appointed as the country's new prime minister in a transitional government as the interim president unveiled a roadmap for fresh polls by early next year to end the raging political crisis.
No matter how much the likes of Modi brag about cleaning up politics, the goondas and the godfathers will flourish until India can deliver justice to its poor and the system can work to the benefit of ordinary Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
The finance minister said he said, "The judgement has upheld the primacy of one basic structure -- independence of judiciary -- but diminished five other basic structures of the Constitution, namely, Parliamentary democracy, an elected government, the Council of Ministers, an elected prime minister and the elected leader of the opposition."
The alliance will resume its boycott of Parliament indefinitely from Tuesday protesting against the United Progressive Alliance government's 'hostile and vindictive' attitude.
Bowing to the pressure of Left parties, the government on Wednesday referred the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
Amid a stalemate between the government and the Opposition over the issue, the House failed to transact any significant business and was adjourned for the day.
Heading to the third year, will Urjit Patel be busy firefighting a currency crisis? Almost no governor of the RBI managed to evade it and Patel perhaps knows it.
The system envisaged under the FRDI Bill, if implemented properly, would help improve the efficiency of capital allocation without harming consumers, and without risking the stability of financial firms, says Ajay Shah.
Speaking at the all-party meeting called by the government, Modi said, "People have great expectations and that is why Parliament should function and be productive."
On the proposed Grand Alliance of the Congress and other parties in the state, Shah said the Telugu people had not forgotten how the Congress had treated their leaders like former (undivided) Andhra Pradesh chief minister Anjaiah and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday indicated that the government would not issue oil bonds worth over Rs 10,000-12,000 crore (Rs 100 to 120 billion) to petroleum companies before November, as the move required Parliamentary approval.
Broader market outperformed with the S&P BSE Midcap index adding 0.7%, while S&P BSE Smallcap index gained 0.6%.
The government on Tuesday said it would carefully consider proposals of a parliamentary standing committee to allow FDI in pension sector on the pattern of the insurance sector.
His remark comes hours after the government disclosed before the Supreme Court eight more names, including that of Pradip Burman, one of Dabur India promoters, a bullion trader and a Goa miner against whom it has started prosecution for allegedly stashing black money in foreign banks.
A Parliamentary panel that went into a Bill to create a pension fund regulator has favoured 26 per cent FDI in the sector, but found many lacunae in the legislation.
In a major reach-out to the main Opposition, the prime minister invited Gandhi and Singh over tea at his Race Course Road residence around 7 pm.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed them about the operation that destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
'The AMs are a different beast and reflect the political play within the government.' 'Prime Minister Modi does not need to assuage any interest group to take the final call on any decision that belongs rightfully to the Cabinet,' points out Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Modi said this government will offer all 'sahyog' to Kovind.
'If Urjit Patel had resigned after the five-state elections results people would have taken a different view. So this was the right time for him to resign.' 'He rightly resigned as he felt the differences with the government were not getting settled.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday moved several amendments to the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha, including raising the Income Tax exemption limit for senior citizens to Rs 2.5 lakhs and hiking Provident Fund interest rates to 9.5 per cent.
No mention of cab aggregators in GST bills
The finance minister is "reasonably confident" that when it comes to the crunch, "it would be extremely difficult even for the Congress party to take a contrarian view" on the GST Bill.
Yale University has issued a statement saying that Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani attended a weeklong programme and received a certificate from the university last year, along with several other lawmakers from India. George Joseph/Rediff.com reports from New York
Congress members also vociferously pressed for a discussion on the Comptroller and Auditor General report.
The proposed bill seeks to raise FDI cap in the sector to 49% from the present 26.5%
Major portfolios like home, finance and education were on Tuesday allocated to People's Democratic Party ministers by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who will himself hold the charge of home ministry.
The Congress has reasons to enjoy the BJP's discomfiture. After all, the Insurance Bill was introduced by the UPA government in 2008 but was constantly blocked by the BJP on some pretext or the other which was then in the Opposition.
Congress has repeatedly alleged a "scam" in the purchase of Rafale fighter jets claiming the cost per aircraft in 2012 was agreed at Rs 526.10 crore while the one signed by the Modi government costs 7.5 billion (Rs 1,670.70 crore per aircraft).
Saket was among the nine members of Legislative Assembly who rebelled against the Harish Rawat government.
Modi had campaigned with promises of jobs, infrastructure and development.
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