Beneficiaries to get hospitalisation cover up to Rs 30,000.
The loss of income has severely dented the loan repayment ability of small borrowers
"Saudi Arabia continues to be a land of opportunity for Indians. Indians have benefited the most from the amnesty scheme as 1.4 million people got their residency and work status legalised," says Faiz Ahmad Kidwai, Consul-General of India, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In the run up to three years of the National Democratic Alliance government, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) Nirmala Sitharaman says it is time to consolidate some of the major initiatives as well as take new steps.
Equations have changed in the new India. If the '60 and the '70s saw migration of people from South India to North India, it is the reverse right now. And without understanding this new dynamics, if the ruling party were to impose on the majority a language spoken by just 45 pc of the people, it is unlikely to be accepted without demur, says Shobha Warrier.
'Evacuating' Devyani's maid's family from India on T visas -- associated with severe sex or labour trafficking... The maximum number of persons thus evacuated by the US from foreign countries last year was from India... A thorough investigation of this is required at India's end,' says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, 'with the US warned that such interference in India's judicial system will not be tolerated.'
The government is keen to amend the MMDR Act for transparency in the mining sector.
A day after the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to the prime minister to not induct those with criminal record into his Cabinet, Rediff.com examines how serious are the charges against some of Narendra Modi's ministers.
Her departure from the cabinet marks an abrupt halt to the meteoric rise of the Gujarati-origin MP, often touted as a potential future leader of the Conservative Party and a prime ministerial candidate.
With the first salary date after demonetisation around the corner, will India's labourers be able to take their hard-earned wages home?
The BJP's manifesto for UP elections promised many things. But, given the state's precarious financial position, fulfilling these promises is likely to prove tricky, says Ishan Bakshi.
The company has already shifted production to Aurangabad.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday allocated portfolios to the twenty-member council of ministers, including 10 of the Shiv Sena, who were inducted into his expanded cabinet.
Modi's visit to some developed countries such as the US, Japan, China and Australia were sprinkled with humongous investment figures. But do we have the wherewithal to absorb such big investments?
An NSSO survey has revealed that some are using the new toilets as store rooms.
The 'Make in India' vision cannot survive in the long-term without concrete measures to build a concurrent 'Create in India' movement.
Rishi Sunak, Sailesh Vara and Suella Fernandes were the three new Indian-origin MPs to be inducted into the Theresa May govt.
A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus on Wednesday morning.
Modi is as divorced from reality as Manmohan Singh. He might want to sound expansive and visionary, but to be credible he must have his feet on the ground and know the reality around him. Instead of delivering irrelevant homilies to small and hence poor farmers, the prime minister should be thinking in terms of creating a huge demand for alternative employment, mainly in the construction sector, and his promised hundred new cities is a capital idea, says Mohan Guruswamy.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley more than halved the central government's financial support.
Getting the first tyres out from the Sahaganj plant will still require a lot of effort, but with the state government on its side, the hopes are high.
'You can't make the poor rich overnight.' 'Nor can you fly millions in planes.' 'But remember that word: Empathy.' 'Who in the BJP is speaking in that language to these millions?' 'Someone putting an arm of understanding, warmth, comfort around them?', asks Shekhar Gupta.
'How many people have been skilled up and thus able to escape from needing to be in NREGA? The true success of NREGA would lie in its irrelevance -- that is, people no longer need it as a crutch.' 'NREGA should enable them to climb out of poverty and stand on their feet.' 'But this is expressly forbidden by NREGA rules. Skill development, which is what India needs more than anything else, appears to be outside the purview of NREGA,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
By region, Thiruvananthapuram leads with 247 defaulters, followed by Kolkata with 173 and Bhubaneswar with 115
Modi is optimistic that the reforms will be passed soon.
Modi has the ideas for a new, hopeful India, and an idiom in which to sell optimism to voters. But he doesn't yet have the team for it, and soon enough, questions will begin to be asked by an impatient, non-ideological, I-don't-owe-anybody-anything generation of Indian voters, says Shekar Gupta.
The government on Wednesday unveiled the FTP for 2015-20.
Creating many more half-decent jobs for the 10 million plus new entrants to the labour force each year must surely constitute the primary development challenge for India today.
'There is no question of diverting funds. This government is pro-poor, pro-worker and pro-progressive.'
The local labour force is streaming out of the region, creating a vacuum that makes it easier for the Bangladeshis to fill in, says R N Ravi
Close friend Tarun Vijay pays tribute to the four-time Goa chief minister and former defence minister who passed into the ages on Sunday.
The ISI network of spies has been operating in India for over a decade.
Unique Identification Authority of India said the alleged data breach took place on a website that does not belong to it.
Full list of the rejigged Union Council of Ministers
The processes that create a seven per cent-plus GDP growth rate without a similar growth in jobs are far from fully understood, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
The contentious Land bill passed the Lok Sabha test after the government carried out nine amendments.
How China's all powerful Communist party bungled the response to the coronavirus crisis.
'The world is going to be more insular.' 'What India needs to do is develop the domestic market for domestic consumption.' 'The emphasis has to be on Bharat as against India.'
Make in India has big shortcomings when it comes to natural resources.
