The choking of natural drainage brings monsoonal Mumbai to its knees year after year.
It is likely to be a stormy affair with divergent views on market borrowing. Centre will likely press states to borrow to make up for the shortfall, but states want either the Centre or the GST Council to do so.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government has carried out major reforms -- including labour reforms and reforms in insurance and defence sectors -- 'in less than 100 days' and stopped reversals Indian economy had been facing.
The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha began on June 17 and is scheduled to conclude on July 26.
'He is an extraordinarily focused, determined, full-time politician, who from the moment he wakes up to the moment that he goes to sleep is looking at the job in hand.'
It is in no way a government of the economic Right. The Right is limited to religion and nationalism. The rest is as Left as the Congress or any other party, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'The approach today is, instead of giving loans to 100 MSMEs, let us give one loan to a big-ticket corporate.' 'And so many of these big fish deceived the banks and the banks are in the doldrums now with high NPAs.'
'Today, we being the majority pass a law and if the Opposition parties do not like it, they throw files at the Chair, and beat up women marshals.'
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But critics caution that over-centralisation can lead to new bottlenecks
'Well begun is half done, today there are more hits than misses by the Modi government in its support towards science in India,' says Pallava Bagla.
Meanwhile, a group of college students, donning degree robes and selling 'pakodas' to passers-by in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks over job creation, were on today whisked away by the police, hours before the PM's rally in Bengaluru.
The coming year will be one that will test sabka vishwas to the utmost, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Most Indians expect their personal happiness will improve over the next five years, posing a concrete benchmark against which to measure the future success of Modi govt
When you say, Make in India, it means, Indians will work for you, but we should create our own brands and create a market for them internationally. Only then, money will come back to India.
'We're going to see a defence relationship that really takes off -- now that India is a major defence partner of the US, the sky is the limit for arms sales.' 'The economic partnership will lag behind the security relationship, but the meeting and joint statement give cause to believe that it will progress more robustly than many of us would have expected.'
Modi government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms of broadband cable.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on accused the Gandhis of disrupting Parliament to avenge defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
On August 15 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the Indian Railways would launch 75 Vande Bharat Express trains by August 2023. Later, in her 2022 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 400 Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in the next three years, which are expected to cost between Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. Those upbeat announcements come after a series of cancelled tenders, vigilance actions against officials and interdepartmental rivalry that delayed the addition of these iconic trains developed entirely indigenously by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.
Not only has the Mudra loan mela generated no jobs, it has frittered away trillions of taxpayers' money and it's time to bury the scheme, argues Debashis Basu.
'What's on offer for India is to establish a production line here that would be the world's only production line.'
'People will realise sooner or later that there are no jobs, inflation is unchecked and loads of corruption charges are coming from various states which the government is totally brazen about.'
Modi's unexpected announcement of achieving net zero by 2070 may have neatly deflected the pressures on India to sign up to an ambitious pledge but it does nothing to dispel the ecological emergency that threatens all life on the planet, , points out former forerign secretary Shyam Saran, the prime minister's special envoy and chief negotiator on climate change 2007-2010.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys a close relationship with Shinzo Abe. For Abe, "a strong India is in the best interest of Japan, and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India."
By driving a hard bargain with Russia in procuring crude oil at the lowest price possible, India is furthering the policy of G7 and Washington is "comfortable" with New Delhi over its approach in addressing issues relating to energy security, a top Biden administration official said.
'And so, despite demonetisation, people in business feel safe with Mr Modi,' points out T N Ninan.
In putting the country's economy back on the rails, it is best that Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley draw on grass-roots feedback and their own practical sense and native wisdom without allowing themselves to be sucked into the quicksand of economic punditry, says B S Raghavan.
India is Asia's other bad debt headache.
World trade has been growing slower than world GDP since 2012.
On the occasion of the Narendra Modi government completing one year in office, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com speaks to BJP president Amit Shah who is yin to Modi's yang. Don't miss it!
'Rahul Gandhi has shown courage to heal the heart of democracy.'
Right now, in Modi's Cabinet and in the BJP, there is no challenge whatsoever to Modi's leadership but even those leaders who have some potential, who the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh can think of backing in an unforeseen circumstance, are fast turning into damaged goods, reports Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
'Maybe, India will never be reformed and maybe India will continue to have a quagmire for the rest of history.'
In the new Parliament House, with a soft launch this Winter Session, paper is expected to disappear. For the guidance of ministers, secretaries can scribble notes on linked pads even from their offices to respond to queries from members.
'India should think big: About how in a multi-polar world, India can indeed be one of the poles, rather than being a secondary power that has to worry about 'alignment' with one of the poles. A G3 in other words, India should look to getting others to align with itself rather than the US or China,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
India was already in the midst of a protracted economic slowdown before the virus hit due to a festering crisis among shadow lenders and declining consumer demand and private investment. Service sector activity in India is still effectively on hold.
'We will do whatever is necessary when the day and moment arrives.' 'As a party which has ruled Maharashtra for most of its existence, we also have our base and turf to protect.'
Sounding the Congress' poll bugle in the state, Gandhi attacked the Modi government repeatedly alleging that it was working with an approach of 'Hum do, Hamare do' -- a term he recently used while speaking in Lok Sabha to claim that the country is being run by only four people.
Sharad Pawar reckons that the NCP has value as a united, going concern, not as a gaggle of leaders in search of followers, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Modi sought the cooperation of public in making the "war on corruption" a success and said the wrongdoings of some are being caught only with the support of common people who are coming forward with concrete information about hoarders.
With the Gujarat going to the polls, name calling has peaked this election season with words like neech and Babar bhakt being flung around.
