Union Minister for Railway Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Railway Budget for 2013-14 on Tuesday.
As experts have to say, this year's Railway Budget will by no means a populist one.
Past recipients of the award include Mother Teresa, cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, actors Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna, among others.
Poet, artist and award-winning diplomat Abhay K will release his second book of poems Remains Thursday, June 28.
Effective from midnight of January 21, the hike will help railways earn an additional Rs 6,600 crore a year. Railway Minister P K Bansal said it was imperative.
In a written reply to the House, Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the recommendations are presently under examination by the ministry.
Worried over Baba Ramdev's indefinite fast from Saturday, the government on Wednesday took an extraordinary step to woo him by deputing Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and three other senior ministers to the airport for talks but he appeared not to relent on his plans.
Defending champions Mumbai got their Ranji Trophy campaign back on track with an emphatic nine-wicket win over Maharashtra in their second group A league game in Mumbai on Monday, offsetting the heavy loss to Baroda in the opening game.
The much-hyped Lokpal Bill could be tabled in Rajya Sabha in the ongoing monsoon session if a parliamentary panel looking into the legislation gives its report before the end of the session, the government said on Thursday.
Ahead of Anna Hazare's dharna in New Delhi on Sunday, government on Friday said Team Anna should await the passage of the Lokpal Bill before going ahead with any agitation on the issue.
The Centre on Wednesday appealed to Tamil Nadu and Kerala to amicably settle the issue of Mullaperiyar Dam between them and expressed its willingness to play a role of "facilitator".
After introducing the controversial nuclear liability bill in the Lok Sabha amid opposition protests, the government on Friday said it hopes to bring it for consideration in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The United Progressive Alliance is seriously considering increasing the strength of the proposed Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G scam from 21 to 30 members to accommodate more parties, but it is in no mood to expand its scope of the JPC to cover Commonwealth Games (CWG) fiasco, the Adarsh Society scam and the cancelled ISRO S-band spectrum sale.
With the washout of winter session of Parliament weighing heavily on its mind, the government on Sunday appealed to the opposition to ensure a smooth budget session beginning next month expressing readiness to discuss all issues, including 2G spectrum, "on priority".
Hectic political activity is on in New Delhi with the government upset with what it terms as Team Anna's attempts to seek political consensus on its Jan Lokpal Bill. There is also uncertainity surrounding the scheduled debate in Parliament over the draft bill.
'They voted me out as they realised that I am not a meethi choori, but a teeki one.'
These ministers are meeting select group of editors and senior reporters every week to put forward their viewpoints. The wooing of journalists at the ministerial level is unprecedented and shows the defensive mood prevailing within the government.
The suicides have involved more NEET aspirants than JEE. 'It's a make-or-mar situation.' 'Either you get into a government medical college, where the fee is much lower than in private institutes, or you don't make it.'
With no breakthrough in the over three-year-old Samjhauta Express blast case, the Centre has decided to handover its probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to unravel the conspiracy.
Several Supreme Court lawyers on Monday wrote to the apex court alleging that they have received calls threatening judges over the case involving the security breach that left Prime Minister Narendra Modi stuck for 20 minutes on a flyover in Punjab last week.
Accusing Punjab of running a campaign blaming it for floods in its territory, Haryana on Monday sought the Centre's intervention over the issue and defended construction of the Hansi-Butana link canal.
A move is afoot to extend the session of Parliament by three days from December 27 to 29 after a five day break from December 22, when it was scheduled to conclude, to facilitate adequate time for consideration of the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill is expected to be brought in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has sounded Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on the move and has promised to get back.
The complainant accused Kejriwal and his brother-in-law of indulging in corruption.
Due to paucity of time, the UPA government will drop the traditional scrutiny of the Budget by the Parliamentary standing committees. Instead, Pranab Mukherjee is in touch with BJP and the CPM, while Pawan Kumar Bansal and Anand Sharma have been asked to liaise with the smaller parties to ensure the Budget moves smoothly through Parliament.
Governor E S L Narasimhan met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath to apprise her of the prevailing situation in Andhra Pradesh.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Sunday night ordered the removal of the Sagar district collector, superintendent of police and sub-divisional magistrate following the deaths of nine children on Sunday, an official said.
The delegation, to be led by Home Minister P Chidamabaram, is expected to meet a cross-section of people of the troubled state before arriving at a package of solutions
'Rahul Gandhi is going to turn 54 and in India political leaders peak when they are around 60.' 'This 'bhai-behen ki jodi' has done a wonderful job for the Congress.' 'Priyanka Gandhi was a very effective campaigner.'
However, the final decision on the date of presentation of the Budget will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
"We are here to welcome Modi ji for giving us new employment under pakoda yojana. We want to sell pakodas at Modi's rally, so that he knows how great it is to sell pakodas for the educated youth," a woman protester said.
A much talked about bill seeking a three-fold hike in salaries of MPs from Rs 16,000 to Rs 50,000 and doubling their two key allowances to Rs 40,000 each was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The government on Friday said that 92.6 per cent bank deposits are fully protected under the Deposit and Insurance and Credit Guarantee scheme.
After the Amendment Bill is passed by Parliament and comes into effect, businesses like casinos would also come under a legal obligation to report their activities in the country. For fighting the menace of terrorism, the Bill introduces new category of offences which have cross-border implications. The draft legislation also empowers the Enforcement Directorate 'to search premises immediately after the offence is committed.'
The government said on Friday there is no proposal to ban participatory notes, which are instruments through which unregistered entities invest in the Indian securities markets.
The study of the Targeted Public Distribution System, which covered 18 states, held that though the offtake per household has shown improvement yet only about 57 per cent of the below the poverty line households are covered. The information was given by minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Based on evaluation studies and feedback received from states, a nine point action plan has been jointly formulated.
Liberhan report debate in LS rescheduled to Dec 7.
Three Pakistani banks, including Habib Bank, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank, have expressed interest in opening branches in India.
Coach of the silver medal-winning Indian team at the Azlan Shah hockey tournament A K Bansal says the fact that he had three drag-flickers -- Sandeep Singh, Diwakar Ram and V R Raghunath at his disposal provided him a luxury few Indian coaches afforded.
Responding to a supplementary during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said there was no proposal to waive loans of the landless. Indian Banks Association have asked its members to provide loans to the landless so that they can pay back the money-lenders, the minister said.
Maharashtra was followed by Delhi with 33 cases from April 2005 to September 2008 and the money involved was little over Rs 47 lakhs (Rs 4.7 million), minister of state for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. In the current fiscal till September this year, 66 cases have been reported in the country where the money involved is more than Rs 100,000 while 46 incidents have come to notice where amount involved was less than Rs 100,000.
