After five years of stay in the 340-room Presidential mansion, Pratibha Patil on Wednesday moved to a four bedroom bungalow here at a high-security area in the heart of the capital.
Is Chiranjeevi the tourism ministry's secret weapon? Why is Vijay Mallya upset with Veerappa Moily? What in-house problem is the railway minister grappling with? All this, and more, in this week's Dilli Gupshup...
Bowing to party pressure, the government on Thursday raised the quota of subsidised LPG to 12 cylinders per household in a year from nine at present and also put on hold paying users the subsidy into bank accounts using Aadhaar platform.
In September 2012, the government had capped the number of LPG cylinders at six to reduce the subsidy burden.
Power plants, involving investments of Rs 100,000 crore, facing closure.
"Mercy petition filed by Tabassum, wife of the Parliament House attack convict Afzal Guru, should be rejected. Nature of the crime committed is heinous and he deserves no mercy," a ministry note said. Guru was awarded the death sentence by a Delhi court on December 18, 2002 after being convicted of conspiracy to attack Parliament on December 13, 2001, waging war against the country and murder.
Controversial Jairam Ramesh was on Tuesday elevated to Cabinet status and shifted from the high-profile Environment Ministry and Veerappa Moily replaced by Salman Khursheed as Law Minister in a substantive reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers, in which several ministers continued to hold additional charge of some key portfolios.
Without making big-ticket changes in the economic ministries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday shifted Law Minister M Veerappa Moily to the ministry of corporate affairs and inducted young Milind Deora in his council of ministers.
LPG alone will save us Rs 8,000 cr a year: M Veerappa Moily.
The ministry is in consultation with various other stakeholders and ministries on this and the department of financial services was working on the proposal.
The Telangana issue assumed centre stage on Thursday night as Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily held consultations with Congress members of Legislative Assembly and members of Parliament. Though a lot of hope was pinned by the Telangana leaders on this meeting there was absolutely no decision taken on issue of statehood, say insiders. However, the mass resignation programme by these elected representatives will be put on hold till the assembly elections in five states.
Besides Mukherjee and Deora, the EGoM would have power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, law minister Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Those losses, or 'under-recoveries', are of course eventually covered partly by the central government, and are the most potent contributor to India's problems with its fiscal deficit.
India's policy to subsidise retail prices of fuels such as diesel, which accounts for about 40 per cent of refined fuel consumption, is a major drain on the budget.
There will be no change in LPG and kerosene rates, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi after the meeting on Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs. "I am happy to inform the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided to raise the cap on subsidised LPG to nine cylinders per household in a year from existing six cylinders," he said.
Congress on Saturday doubted the veracity of a 'WikiLeaks' cable, which said that a section of the party leadership was seen playing religious politics after one of its leaders, A R Antulay, raised suspicion on the truth behind Anit-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare's killing during 26/11 attacks.
Taking suo moto cognisance of reports of the Centre's move -- ahead of Gujarat assembly polls -- to increase the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, the Election Commission has directed it to stop the same forthwith. The Commission held an emergency meeting soon after the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily said the government will raise the cap on the supply of subsidised cooking gas to nine cylinders per household a year from six at present.
The corporate affairs ministry has mooted the idea.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Tuesday ruled out any move to regulate airfares saying the government only wants the system to be made transparent.
The government is looking into demands for raising the cap on supply of subsidised cooking gas (LPG) cylinders per households, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said.
RIL stated on Saturday that it had never contested the government's right to get spendings on the flagging KG-D6 gas fields audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India but added that the consent must not lead to a performance audit of a private firm.
Use of Iranian crude oil in Indian refineries came down by over a quarter in 2012-13.
Replying to a debate on the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill, 2010 to allow NRIs to exercise their franchise in Indian elections, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said the government would hold a national consultation on comprehensive electoral reforms in two to three months.The Rajya Sabha had passed the bill on Monday.
The Congress on Wednesday night denounced as "most mischievous, highly motivated and perverse" the editorial in the Nationalist Congress Party mouthpiece calling Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi arrogant.
Power Minister Veerappa Moily informed the Rajya Sabha, on Monday that steps are being taken by the government to bridge the gap between demand and supply of power in the country.
'Can governments which consistently let their lawyers down, be trusted to uphold the rights of their people? How much longer will the State fight against its own citizens, inside and outside court?' asks activist Nandini Sundar.
Regretting that the concept of voluntary CSR has not picked up in India, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily on Wednesday said the new Companies Bill would make it mandatory for corporate to earmark part of their profit for corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
Civil society members of the joint committee on Lokpal will seek a referendum on the points of difference with government representatives including the issue of bringing the prime minister and the higher judiciary under the ambit of the anti-graft ombudsman.
Contrary to Anna Hazare team's description of government's Lokpal Bill draft as a "very big hoax", Swami Agnivesh, an associate of the Gandhian's anti-graft campaign, on Friday termed the latest draft as an "improvement" of its 2010 draft.
The scheme was to be rolled out in 20 districts initially but the launch in Mysore in Karnataka and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh has been put off by a month due to assembly and Parliamentary bypolls, official sources said.
The Staff Selection Commission has planned a three-tier selection process based on a single application for nearly 30 posts, where separate examinations used to be conducted till now.
Rights activist Binayak Sen, released on bail while serving a life sentence for sedition and links with Maoists, on Monday night asserted he is not a 'traitor' and said the Supreme Court observation in his case will have 'deep political implication.'
Friends, family members and Union ministers on Friday hailed the Supreme Court order granting bail to activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition by a Chhatisgarh trial court.Union ministers P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid expressed happiness over the court's decision to release Sen, who was convicted and sentenced for helping Naxals set up a network against the State. Law Minister M Veerappa Moily termed it as an "eye opener".
The Congress on Thursday said it was wrong to interpret the request for convening the meeting of Board of Governors of IAEA as going to IAEA.
On the eve of an all-party meeting on Telangana, Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said the Centre should follow its announcement on creation of a separate state with a resolution in Parliament but set no deadline for it.
Welcoming the fresh initiative of the Centre to find a solution to the decades-old problem, 13 Congress ministers from Telangana have withdrawn their resignations.
Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas resigned from his post on Thursday following the Supreme Court verdict which quashed the appointment of the former bureaucrat.
Veteran Congress man and former chief minister of Karnataka Veerappa Moily believes that his party will win a comfortable majority.
BP Plc, Europe's second biggest oil company, and Reliance Industries will invest $5 billion in developing untapped gas reserves in the KG-D6 block as the partners attempt to reverse the fall in gas production.
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