Ten Union ministers will be the permanent invitees to the Inter-State Council, according to an official notification.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet chief ministers on July 16 to discuss a host of issues, including inter-state relations, internal security and atrocities on SC and STs.
Addressing the Inter-State Council meeting, convened after a gap of 10 years, the Prime Minister told the chief ministers that "we should focus on how we can make our country prepared to counter challenges to our internal security".
Police have arrested the alleged mastermind, Vijayendrakumar alias Bijendra Kumar Gupta, and an associate in the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026 paper leak case, bringing the total number of arrests to 14. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) tracked Gupta, identified as the chief coordinator of an inter-state network, to Samastipur, Bihar. The arrests are expected to help uncover the financial aspects of the racket, which involved an organised criminal syndicate within a printing press.
The Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026 in Maharashtra has been postponed following a raid in Bhiwandi, Thane, where individuals were found with questions matching the actual exam paper. The Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) confirmed the breach and initiated a thorough investigation, registering a criminal case. The postponement aims to ensure transparency and allow law enforcement to probe the malpractice racket.
As India marks a decade of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the focus is shifting towards enhancing efficiency through artificial intelligence, data sharing, and process simplification. The reform, which unified India's indirect tax system, has significantly broadened the tax base and boosted revenues, with future plans including a streamlined two-tier rate structure and continued technological integration to reduce compliance costs and combat evasion.
Under the agreement reached between the two sides, Karbi community farmers from Assam will be allowed to cultivate and tend their crops for one agricultural season in fields claimed by Meghalaya.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will conduct SRY Gene Tests in national-level competitions to ensure fair competition in the women's category. They will also conduct DNA testing of upcoming athletes for research and development purposes.
The Rajya Sabha currently has 19 government Bills pending, with the oldest dating back to 1992. These bills cover a range of issues including population control, rent control, seed quality, migrant workers, and tribal autonomy.
The National Investigation Agency has arrested Jasir Bilal Wani in Srinagar, who was an "active co-conspirator" of suicide bomber Umar un Nabi, in connection with the car blast near the Red Fort last week that claimed 13 lives.
Records stretching back to 1947 suggest a consistent strategy by Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), of using terrorism as a state policy against India.
There was no money, sponsors didn't make a beeline and foreign tours were an ordeal, but there were women of steel who believed in the old adage that "the show must go on." And Nutan Gavaskar was the first among equals, one of the torchbearers of the women's cricket movement in India back then in 1973.
Around 400 people of Lapangap and other villages, backed by members of several social organisations of Meghalaya, went to the plantation area, uprooted the saplings and burnt the wooden structure around 11 am, claiming that Assam was trying to encroach into their state by carrying out the plantation.
"This entire period is highly sensitive in terms of law and order, healthcare, sanitation, education, and disaster management. Hence, all related departments and district administrations must work with coordination and accountability," Adityanath said, according to an official statement.
Will Russia's entry deter Trump on his warpath?, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Union Ministers Smriti Irani and D V Sadananda Gowda have been dropped from Inter-State Council, official sources said on Wednesday.
Kumar, a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, is currently an additional secretary in the ministry of electronics and Information Technology.
Banerjee, however, didn't clarify whether any other minister of her cabinet would attend the meeting on her behalf or not.
'Modi's intention was to create goodwill that will allow India to be seen by Trump as more than just a bad tariff problem.' 'He succeeded brilliantly on that count but none of these wins are unfortunately permanent.' 'Modi will have to do this again and again if Trump's grievances are to be durably assuaged.'
Modi believes that in the spirit of 'cooperative federalism' the venue for such meetings between him and the chief ministers should take place around the proverbial 'round table'.
Given the many policy areas where the Centre and the states have not been seeing eye to eye in the last few years, it is time the Modi government convenes a meeting of the Inter-State Council, recommends A K Bhattacharya.
Inching towards rolling out of GST, the GST Council on Saturday approved a law to compensate states for any loss of revenue from the implementation of the new national sales tax but deferred approval for enabling laws to next meeting.
However, Rajya Sabha being a continuing chamber is not subject to dissolution, and bills introduced and pending in this House remain on the live register, unless withdrawn by the government.
Only after its recommendations will the central GST, integrated GST and state GST Bills be taken up
But the Centre maintained its stand that it can send armed forces to states with their prior consent.
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
Since the legal changes in the draft laws would take some time, it was decided to postpone the November 25 meeting
Air India Chairman Rajiv Bansal has been appointed as the new aviation secretary as part of a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Wednesday. K Rajaraman, additional secretary in the department of economic affairs, has been appointed as secretary, department of telecommunications, a personnel ministry order said.
There will be a dramatic alteration in the role the Centre and the states will play to shape India's fiscal and economic destiny, report Nitin Sethi and Ishan Bakshi.
Dismissing his Assam counterpart's claim, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday asserted in the assembly that Mukroh village on the disputed inter-state border, where a violent clash claimed six lives last year, is a part of the hill state.
Two senior government functionaries said the task has been given to the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), a joint initiative of the Department of Space (DoS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC).
No longer a discretion of the tax administrator, the audit of returns filed by taxpayers is now based on a selection by algorithms, notes Tarun Bajaj.
Ahead of the second phase of polls in the state, Banerjee's letter, which was released by the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday, seeks to drum up support from opposition leaders by stating how non-BJP states have suffered due to the saffron party led Centre's actions.
Uncertain political times in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura.
India has not only been decked in tricolour hues in the lead up to the 76th Independence Day celebrations, but also put under a heavy security blanket, right from Delhi, the epicentre of the mega celebrations, to Jammu and Kashmir.
The accident happened near Sonada when the third vehicle in the Presidential convoy slipped off the road and fell down.
From opposing the NPR and NRC to demanding special status for Bihar to staying out of the Union Cabinet on principle to showing the BJP who was boss in Bihar, Nitish Kumar has wasted no opportunity at cocking a snook at the BJP leadership. But how long can he continue, asks Gopal Krishna.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.
The need for co-ordinated policy between Centre and states was likewise foreseen and assigned.
