The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday created an uproar in the Lok Sabha over the government's 'failure' to provide long-term solutions to the recurring problems of droughts and floods in various parts of the country. "I assure the House that the inter-ministerial group and central teams will carefully look into the reports of floods and droughts and take a view sympathetically and compassionately," Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
Panel to submit recommendations to the Cabinet for approval.
The government will soon work on a plan to make electricity distribution grids 'smart', which may enable users to choose tariff plans and help distributors check power theft. The Power Ministry would shortly be setting up an 'India Smart Grid Task Force', to be chaired by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on innovation.
The finance ministry is also collating the data on entire food supply chain to identify the bottlenecks in the process.
The government by mid-January will appoint merchant bankers for the mega Rs 13,500 crore (Rs 135 billion) public offering of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), which is targeted to hit the market in March.
government approved on Thursday expansion of community radio stations by non-profit organisations after ensuring security clearances from the defence and home ministries.
With the information and broadcasting ministry still unsatisfied over Star's responses to concerns raised by it, the Inter-Ministerial Group is unlikely to give its nod to the group's proposal to uplink its 24-hour news channel from India.
A group of ministers (GoM) headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is scheduled to meet on April 30 to finalise its recommendations for a policy that would attempt to balance the interests of the common man and the industry. The GoM is also expected to give recommendations on the regulation of trade margins on all medicines, public procurement of drugs, price negotiation of patented drugs and medical devices, in addition to the legislation of new Acts.
Outlets of telecom companies such as Airtel and Vodafone may soon double as bank kiosks for financial services like funds transfer or bill payment, especially in parts of the country where there are very few banks or none at all.
The Inter-Ministerial Group on restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports asked global consultant ABN-AMRO to shortlist the bidders, ten of whom have expressed interest in modernising these airports, by Thursday.
A senior civil aviation ministry official said this was one of the key issues discussed during Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday to ask for a relief on ATF. Top airline executives like Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal and Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya also met the PM to highlight the issue.
A year after it declassified steel and its products from the list of essential commodities, the government is preparing to bring it back under the ambit of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The Act gives power to the government to control production, supply and distribution of essential commodities at a fair price.
Seven companies including Royal Dutch/Shell, BP Amoco, Reliance Industries and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation were left in the fray for acquiring government stake in oil PSU Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd after bidders were shortlisted.
As many as six merchant bankers including UTI Bank are in the fray for a government mandate to act as advisors for the privatisation of Mineral Exploration Corporation.
Concerned over the fallout of the Red Sea crisis and severe shortage of containers against the backdrop of a steep decline in merchandise exports in August, the Union government is pulling out all the stops to find a solution. To begin with, the government has devised a strategy aimed at boosting container supply and supporting exporters.
The government is likely to sell 20 per cent of its equity in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd in the overseas market while another 15 per cent stake would be offloaded in the domestic markets.
The divestment ministry said on Thursday that the inter-ministerial group on the divestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation would meet next week to discuss the quantum of shares to be offered in the domestic and global markets.
The divestment ministry is now all set to flag off the process of divestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation with the Inter-Ministerial Group scheduled to meet on February 13.
A meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group may be held next week to discuss the draft shareholders and share-purchase agreements for divestment of the State Trading Corporation.
'The idea is to frame the ToR quickly, so that Trai can begin its consultations with industry stakeholders.'
With a view to attract small investors, the government will offer in lots of 10, the shares of state-owned exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corporation for public issue to divest 10 per cent of its equity.
The government will invite bids by next week from advisors for selling its 8.0 per cent stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd.
The government on Friday gave Star another fortnight's extension for temporary uplinking of its news channel, even as the Inter-Ministerial Group is expected to finalise its views on the matter when it meets on Saturday.
Worried that Star's proposal for uplinking its 24-hour news channel smelt of "proxy" editorial control by foreigners, the government has shot off another list of queries to it even as the inter-ministerial group of officials met on Saturday.
Government is expected to invite initial bids for sale of majority stake in Manganese Ore India by next week.
The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) on Wednesday held an inter-ministerial meeting with various departments to discuss issues regarding revenue sharing between Big Tech companies and digital news publishers, according to sources. The meeting - chaired by I&B Secretary Sanjay Jaju - invited senior officials from the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), Competition Commission of India (CCI), ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) and departments of promotion of industry and internal trade, legal affairs and consumer affairs.
The government is likely to mop up between Rs 950 crore and Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 9.5 billion and Rs 10 billion) from the public offer of shares in car-maker Maruti Udyog Ltd at Rs 122-125 a share.
HPCL advanced further on Monday on buying support from institutions following reports that a inter-ministerial group is likely to meet on Thursday to shortlist the names of bidders for the state-run oil refiner.
The Centre has conceded most of the demands of potential buyers of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL). These include lowering the lock-in period for sale of assets to one year and allowing the new buyer to undertake the amalgamation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) into NINL. An inter-ministerial group led by Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey and the core group of secretaries on divestment (CGD) headed by Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba have decided that the lock-in period can be reduced to one year from the date of completion of sale, from the earlier three years proposed by Dipam, an official in the know said.
Alleging that something was fishy in the Jet-Etihad deal, BJP today demanded that the Prime Minister's Office should come clean on the issue.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances