The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will likely consider on Saturday a GST rate cut for Covid-19 relief essentials and drugs for treating the black fungus disease and might leave the vaccines untouched. The meeting is being held following a report submitted by a Group of Ministers (GoM) to the GST Council on Monday. The GoM, set up by the Council on May 28, was mandated to look at tax exemption and concessions on various Covid items including vaccines, drugs, and equipment.
The picturesque landscape of Pettimudi was flattened into a rough patch of boulders and mud with parts of asbestos and tin sheets seen scattered around.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai held a meeting with experts, and senior ministers and officials of his government to assess the COVID-19 situation in the state and curbs that were put in place to control its spread.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated Atletico de Kolkata for winning the maiden Indian Super League.
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist Politburo on Saturday began a two-day meeting to finalise a document, to deal with its organisational problems, which led to its rout in the recent polls in its strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala. The purpose of the meeting is to give final touches to amend and strengthen its 'rectification document' that had been prepared several years ago. The meeting is being attended by all top leaders barring CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
'If we want a better life, we have to treat nature better, and behave properly.' 'That's nature's message to us.'
'At least half the population in UP has been infected.'
The Kerala Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, on Wednesday rejected as "baseless", the Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan's charge that a consultancy firm had been given Rs 2 crore for preparing the agreement between the state government and the IT proj
The Congress party continues to be racked by arbitrary decision-making and the absence of accountability.
Ravinder Gosain, 60, was returning home after attending a morning drill at RSS shakha when he was attacked.
A rebellion by NCP leaders in Sindhudurg may scuttle Congress MP Nilesh Rane's chances of regaining the seat. Neeta Kolhatkar explains the politics behind the turmoil in Maharashtra's Konkan region.
The cow, who smashed the previous record of 69.07cm, was bed and bred just like any other cow, but never grew higher than two feet.
Senior leader K Karunakaran and his son Muraleedharan boycotted the swearing in ceremony.
As the new year arrives, the Bharatiya Janata Party's finds itself on the cusp of the most consequential cycle of state polls since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the results will tell if the road ahead in its bid for a third straight term at the Centre is getting any bumpier or a strong opposition challenge remains elusive.
Singh, who was accused by the Akhilesh camp of trying to destroy the party, thanked SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, and his brother Shivpal Yadav, the state party chief, for standing by him and described Mulayam as the 'core' and 'father' of the Samajwadi Party.
CM Amarinder Singh said the Centre would have to make the necessary amendments to the CAA if it had to be implemented in Punjab and other states opposing it. He also made it clear that the census in Punjab would be conducted on the old parameters and the new factors added by the Centre for the purpose of the NPR would not be included.
Joining hands with smaller parties with a political base in different castes was a part of the BJP strategy as it won big in Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Trinamool Congress-led alliance was on the cusp of a historic victory in West Bengal while Congress appeared set to capture Kerala and retain Assam but its ally Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam was facing rout in Tamil Nadu in the elections to state assemblies.
'Curiously, Pinarayi's approach, stressing the imperatives of development, is robustly backed by Nitin Gadkari.'
'I stand next only to Gadkari, one of the few outstanding ministers in the Modi government, in applauding Pinarayi's political courage and vision,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
She said the prime minister neither asked how West Bengal is handling the COVID situation and nor did he enquire about the stock of vaccines or oxygen.
It is increasingly clear that for the BJP to try and establish itself as an electoral force in Tamil Nadu, the party has to come out of the old Brahminical mould, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A court in Thiruvananthapuram has issued an arrest warrant against former Kerala chief minister E K Nayanar quite late--five years after his death--with the police failing to inform the magistrate about the Marxist leader's demise. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate S Gopalakrishnan issued the warrant for the second time on Tuesday as police had not informed the court that Nayanar had died when the court issued the warrant for the first time in the case in January 2007.
Three guys stood out at the swearing-in ceremony of Deve Gowda's son, says Sudhir Bisht.
As many as 31 air conditioners and 25 heaters were among a number of electrical appliances installed in the official bungalow of Sheila Dikshit in Delhi when she was chief minister.
A phased roll-out of prohibition will hit revenues of companies, which get 5% of their volume sales from the state
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Gujarat government and Chief Minister Narender Modi -- on a petition seeking an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged fake encounter -- in which a youth was killed in 2004.The petition filed by Kerala-based M R Gopinath Pillai alleged that his son Pranesh Kumar Pillai alias Javed Shaikh was gunned down by the Gujarat police for having links with terrorist groups.
The India Meteorological Department introduced the present LRF models during 2007 following review of the old forecasting system.
'Even though we are very religious and God fearing, we do not subscribe to the kind of Hindutva they practise, a very hierarchical, Brahmanical, Hindutva.'
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
"The season averaged maximum temperatures in Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Konkan, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh are likely to be higher than normal by 0.5-1.0 degree Celsius," the Met department has said in its forecast.
During his interaction with the chief ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that more economic activities would resume; he also said that zone identification may be left to the states.
Congress leadership would take a call on who would be its deputy chief minister on Tuesday.
The first COVID-19 vaccine shots in India were given on Saturday to nearly two lakh frontline healthcare and sanitary workers as Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest inoculation drive against the pandemic that has caused 1,52,093 deaths and upended millions of lives in the country.
"Thank God, we don't have a Bal Thackeray here," declared Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday, while calling Delhi a unique city where people from across the country can live comfortably. In an apparent reference to the attacks against north Indians in Mumbai by members of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Dikshit said, "Everyone knows what is happening in Mumbai. It certainly does not happen here. Thank God, we don't have a Bal Thackeray here."
He also said he does not want any other member of the Gandhi family to succeed him, virtually ruling out Priyanka as well for the top party position.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
The resolution 'earnestly' appealed to the Centre to withdraw and not carry out the whole exercise of NRC and NPR 'in the interest of the nation, particularly when the economy is witnessing the worst-ever downslide and unemployment is witnessing a terrifying growth, and with the threat of the corona pandemic looming large'.
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