The ruling Congress is seeking to retain power in Chhattisgarh by banking on the welfare schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner it on the issues of alleged corruption, religious conversions and unfulfilled poll promises.
Every defaulter is not a wilful defaulter who has the capability of paying back and is yet not servicing the bank loan, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Modi also virtually flagged off a new train between Antagarh in Kanker district and Raipur and kickstarted the distribution of cards of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme to beneficiaries in the state.
India Post Payments Bank and Unique Identification Authority of India under an arrangement will allow postmen to update mobile numbers of Aadhaar cardholders. The service will be available through a network of 650 India Post Payments Bank, 1.46 lakh postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS).
Addressing the Grah Pravesham programme, to hand over new houses to their owners, via video conferencing, Modi said his government has given topmost priority to providing houses to the poor people.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced allocation of whopping Rs 48,000 crore for completion of 80 lakh houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), both rural and urban, during the next fiscal year. In her budget speech, the minister said: "In 2022-23, 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified eligible beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana, both rural and urban. Rs 48,000 crore is allocated for this purpose." The Centre would work with states for reduction of time required for all land and construction related approvals, for promoting affordable housing for middle-class and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in urban areas, she said.
These houses will have amenities such as LPG, electricity and toilets, she said.
The Reserve Bank has rejected applications of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal-backed company Chaitanya India Fin Credit Private Limited, and five others for setting up banks as these were "not found" suitable, an official statement said on Tuesday. The RBI in a statement said the examination of six applications has now been completed as per the procedure laid down under the guidelines. "Based on the assessment of the applications, (six) applicants were not found suitable for granting of in-principle approval to set up banks," it said.
The scam-ridden Congress government in Chhattisgarh has become a model of misrule and people have decided to root it out in the upcoming assembly elections, he said.
Charitable trusts are liable to pay 18 per cent GST on grants and non-philanthropic donations received by them, the Maharashtra AAR has ruled. Jayshankar Gramin Va Adivasi Vikas Sanstha Sangamner, a Charitable trust registered under Maharashtra Public Charitable Trust Act 1950, had approached the Maharashtra bench of the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR), seeking clarity on whether it is liable to pay GST on the amounts received in the form of donations/grants from various entities, including the central and state governments. The trust is also registered under the I-T Act as a charitable trust.
Almost 3.3 million houses awaiting completion under the IAY will be built by the end of 2016-17.
An inquiry will be held into works under the flagship Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna in Sonia Gandhi's constituency, it was decided at a meeting attended by the Congress chief and officials in Rae Bareli on Monday.
At the rally in Shimla's Ridge Maidan to mark the eighth anniversary of becoming prime minister, Modi said, "Now our borders are more secure than they were before 2014."
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Vasundhara Raje, Satish Poonia, Kailash Choudhary: Who will it be if the BJP comes to power in Rajasthan next year?
Eighteen teams are working in the investigation of the case and all angles are being probed, it said.
Eight out of about 40 schemes are with the nomenclature starting Pradhan Mantri, but except Gramin Sadak and Rozgar Yojana, most others go barely acknowledged.
The government of India will deposit Rs 200 per month for Gramin Dak Sevaks involving an annual expenditure of about Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) to provide for the financial security for them and their spouses after retirement from the service at the age of 65, Minister of State for IT & Telecom Sachin Pilot told reporters in New Delhi.
Singh Deo will, however, remain the minister for Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax departments.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved $1.5 billion (about Rs 9,000 crore) World Bank support for the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in rural areas.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the names of candidates for 59 out of 70 seats in Uttarakhand for the upcoming assembly polls.
Farmers protesting at various sites on the border of Delhi on Monday unequivocally said they are only concerned about their common goal of having the three farm laws repealed, and what has been offered to the agriculture sector in the Union budget did not matter.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com lists 11 Modi flagship schemes that may have been gamechangers in the Lok Sabha election.
Housing sales mostly declined during the first and the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic but prices did not fall in most of the cities but rather increased in some cities, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22. The pre-Budget document also highlighted that the housing demand recovered after both the waves on the back of pent up demand, low interest rates on home loans and reduction in stamp duty by some states. The survey has analysed the National Housing Bank's data on change in housing transactions in Q1FY21 (first COVID-19 wave) and Q1FY22 (second COVID-19 wave) over the pre-pandemic levels of Q1FY20. It also looked into change in housing prices index during this period.
Swachch Bharat and Jan Dhan grabbed more eyeballs across clusters, regardless of party in power across states.
Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh sanctioned Rs 1133 crore to Tamil Nadu for upgrading 3,000 kilometers of roadways under Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojana.
It was merely an obligation in the past, but financial inclusion has now turned into a big business opportunity for private banks.
PMAY-Gramin, which was launched in November 2016, aims to construct 10 million homes by March 31, 2019, with private sector and state government participation
Centre is to allocate Rs 1,000 crore for Tamil Nadu from the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana to lay roads in interiors of more than 1,000 kms connecting villages to main towns.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said there are 154,688 post offices in the country, the largest postal network in the world.
20-year old Shruti, who is simultaneously studying for CA, aims to join the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) in the future.
Ten central trade unions except Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh are observing one-day general strike on Thursday to protest against various government policies.
The weekend curfew, aimed at breaking the chain of spiralling coronavirus infections, was clamped at 10 pm on Friday and will continue till 5 am on Monday.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has kicked up yet another controversy by wiping his shoe with a garland of spun cotton that was given to him as a welcome gesture by Congress members at a public function in Bikaner district of Rajasthan.Chief Minister Ashok Gehot was also present at the function at Kolayat area in Bikaner on Monday, where the duo distributed sanction letters of the first installment of grant aid under the Mukhyamantri Gramin BPL Awas Yojana.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the residential property market during the April-June period last year but sales have improved in affordable homes segment since July onwards, reflecting economic recovery in the real estate sector, according to the Economic Survey. The National Housing Bank's (NHB) Housing Price Indices (HPIs) are a broad measure of movement of residential property prices observed within a geographic boundary. The NHB-RESIDEX captures two housing price indices -- HPI@ Assessment Prices and HPI@ Market Prices - Under Construction Properties based on the data available for 50 cities with quarterly updation.
The five-year Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana, with the aim of reaching power to 1,25,000 villages and 2,34,000 BPL families, was started in April 2005, but only 61,360 villages could be electrified till last month. To achieve the RGGVY target, the government will have to electrify more than 63,000 villages in about a year, which is a tall order.
The outcome in UP is far more significant than in the other states going to the polls next year. An unlikely setback in UP can cramp the Modi government, virtually making it a lame-duck two years ahead of the 2024 parliamentary poll, observes Virendra Kapoor.
In a cover up bid that went awry, invigilators detained 49 girl students of class XII at an examination centre in Sikar district of Rajasthan for over 24 hours after mistakenly distributing a paper that was to be held on a later date.
OMCs' Digital India move is likely to have an impact on more than 80.3 million Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana consumers, majority of whom are not exposed to digital transact.
Five armed men sneaked into the project area at on Monday night and beat up security guards with iron rods, police said. Alarmed by screams of the injured other security men rushed to the site but could not nab the attackers. The injured were first taken to Singur Gramin Hospital and then shifted to Walsh Hospital at Srirampore.
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