Union minister MK Alagiri has shifted his base from Madurai to New Delhi since last week. After a massive rout in Tamil Nadu, MK Alagiri has now shifted his attention to Delhi.
The farming community expects much more substance from the government, Ajay Vir Jakhar.
The high-pitched election speeches skipped corporate issues, unlike during the assembly polls about four months ago.
While most experts suggest the government loosen its purse strings and not worry about the fiscal deficit in a pandemic impacted year, it will be a tightrope walk for the government to increase spending without going overboard.
'The question is, how soon we can expect to re-attain the pre-lockdown levels of output and income.'
The current crisis has forced the government to announce measures to ensure that India becomes self-sustaining for any kind of bulk drug. The government says India will not depend on any other country for vital key ingredients for drugs within six years, reports Sheela Bhatt.
'With the largest number of malnourished people on the planet, India is poised to be a nation that significantly under-performs as an economy.'
'The PM cannot give a single reason why farmers should trust him.'
Free provision of food, cash transfers, and jobs in villages see enhanced flow of funds despite a precipitous fall in revenue. Till May, defence spend was nearly 30 per cent less than the previous year.
Ajit Balakrishnan on learning from past technology revolutions.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has been asked to look into demands for bringing 23 anti-cancer drugs within the ambit of price control.
In the last one week several companies have had to face the hurdle of making a distinction between what's essential and what's not. To help them the government has now clarified that grocery would include hygiene products such as hand wash, soaps, disinfectants, body wash, shampoo, surface cleaners, detergents, tissue paper, toothpaste, oral care, sanitary pads, diapers, chargers and battery cells, etc.
The government on Thusday said it is examining a proposal for setting up a venture capital fund to promote drug discovery in India.
The formula for success of farm economy is very simple -- farmers should be able to produce more from the same piece of land at reduced cost while minimising risk and be connected to market to get higher realisation for their produce, points out Siraj Chaudhry.
Governments must encourage micro-irrigation, use of natural manure and pesticides in a big way. Farm income can be doubled by reducing cost as much as by increasing MSP, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
The PM alleged that a 'PC' (percentage commission) culture has become the state government's identity.
Currently, FDI up to 100 per cent is allowed in the drugs and pharmaceuticals on the automatic route.
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
RIL now has the capacity to produce 60 mmscmd but is constrained to produce less as the government is yet to identify customers beyond the initial 40 mmscmd that had been allocated primarily to fertiliser and power producers in accordance with the Gas Utilisation Policy.
That day is not very far when farmers will get double their present income, says PM.
A day after deciding to nearly double natural gas prices to $8, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday hinted that power and fertiliser units may get gas at subsidised rates to keep electricity and urea costs down.
Government has initiated action against six pharmaceutical companies, including Cadilla, Wockhardt and Lupin, for overpricing medicines and launching unapproved formulations in the market.
Softening inflation, Das said would make available more policy space to the central bank to address risks to the growth going forward.
The government also proposed promoting 'one product one district' for better marketing and export of horticulture crops. It also called on states for early implementation of three key central model laws on land leasing, agriculture produce and livestock marketing and contract farming.
'This is for the first time that a strong, solid evidence-based investigation has happened.' 'It can meet international standards and put the onus on the Pakistanis.'
Apart from cotton, copper, petroleum and industrial machinery, India does not export much to China. This means that India buys six times the merchandise it sells to China, points out Abhishek Waghmare.
"Since the inception of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority in August 1997, it has raised a total demand of Rs 1,626.51 crore till October 15 this year, for recovery towards overcharged amount in 585 cases," Minister of State in the Ministry for Chemical and Fertilisers B K Handique informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Under the provisions of Drug Price Control Order 1995, NPPA has been able to recover Rs 131.71 crore (Rs 1.31 billion).
Novartis India is up in arms against a two-month old decision of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to reduce the price of its flagship brand Voveran on public interest grounds. The annual sales of Voveran, the brand name for pain reliever medicine diclofenac, exceed Rs 100 crore and account for one-fourth of the company's total sales turnover. The company has filed a review petition with the chemicals and fertilisers ministry against the authority's decision.
Within days of approving a price formula for gas to be produced by Reliance Industries, the government said on Friday it will ask the Mukesh Ambani company to prioritise fuel sales to fertiliser plants, city gas and existing power plants.
Expressing anguish over incidents targeting north Indians in Mumbai, Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday said he had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue.
The prime minister sought to allay slowdown concerns saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong, with low inflation and a potential to boost exports.
Over 300 life-saving medicines may become cheaper by at least 25 per cent, if the finance ministry considers a proposal by its chemicals and fertilisers counterpart to provide customs and excise duty waivers on all drugs that are part of the National List of Essential Medicines. The chemicals and fertilisers ministry proposal has been supported by pharma companies, who have also agreed to pass on the benefits of such waivers by slashing retail prices.
Govt has given the medicine price regulating body a freedom to control prices of medicines.
The derivative contracts in the underlying Essar Oil, IFCI, Rajesh Exports, Adlabs Film, Arvind Mills, Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Bongaigoan Refinery are currently in the ban period, a NSE circular said on Wednesday.
The GoM was told that six states -- Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- account for 86 per cent of the deaths caused by COVID-19 and 32 districts account for 80 per cent of such fatalities, the Union health ministry said.
In the run-up to the polls, a survey has revealed that better employment opportunities is the single most important issue for citizens and that the government has fared below average in this aspect.
'The road ahead for the government's fiscal management will be full of many new challenges,' warns A K Bhattacharya.
Do the actual numbers bear out the claims made by the government or do they suggest something else? asks A K Bhattacharya.
The 61-year old is credited with initiating big-ticket reforms as power minister, including the Electricity Act of 2003, under then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
