22 companies won bids for the 31 contracts on offer; 15 were new entrants to the oil and gas business. Three years on, none of them have started production.
Pointing at regulation of environment sector as a case in point, Goyal said the sector suffered due to "over regulation as regulators are not able to justify many decisions"
Rahul Gandhi said he had helped the party conceptualise its 'Nyay' scheme to help remonetise the economy.
While the gold policy covers every aspect, from sourcing gold to trading and investing in it, experts assert that the policy is incomplete if mining of gold in India isn't promoted.
'Defaulters like Mallya can't be offloaded, but activists like me are. And that too for raising questions.' 'Today, what is the meaning of development?' 'Take over land, water and forest from the Adivasis and hand it over to corporates.' 'I am surprised how a minister who is supposed to protect the forests and the environment is happy reaching out to investors for more and more clearances.'
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday sought answers from Narendra Modi on CNT/SPT Acts, starvation deaths and 'divisiveness',a day after the prime minister threw challenges to Congress on citizenship, Article 370 and triple talaq. She also attacked the prime minister on economic slowdown, Citizenship Act, National Register of Citizenship and alleged assaults on women in different parts of the country.
BJP CMs promote a lawless culture, one where groups backed by the State are encouraged to attack fellow citizens, where being trigger-happy is the official police policy, notes Jyoti Punwani.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Lakshadweep Research Collective said it along with 60 other signatories from the scientific community have written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his intervention to withdraw the "incautious draft" Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation of 2021.
'Guarding the borders in extreme weather conditions is not easy and most people don't realize it is a very tough job.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Arunachal Pradesh has urged the union home affairs ministry to pay special attention and expedite 'action-oriented' measures to build defence infrastructure in the state.
"Saluting your valour, 130 crore countrymen of India are standing firm with you today. Today every Indian is proud of the strength and bravery of his soldiers. They are proud of your invincibility," said PM Modi.
Opposition parties in Lakshadweep and Kerala are up in arms against various measures initiated by the Administrator of the group of islands, terming them as 'anti-people' and have sought his recall.
...and getting GDP to measure India's data economy, recommends Ajit Balakrishnan.
Observing that there are "definite and proved" allegations that complaints of the victims of violence in the aftermath of the West Bengal assembly polls were not even registered, the Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into all alleged cases of heinous crimes like rape and murder, while accepting the recommendations of a National Human Rights Commission panel.
After talks between the King and President Kovind, the two sides inked three pacts providing for cooperation in polar science, innovation and research and in maritime spheres.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
Unlike the regimes of Jayalalitha, Palaniswami and Karunanidhi, ministers are actually getting to make decisions on their own, with the unmentioned rider that they would be held responsible and accountable, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Our confidence has been strengthened by the fact that the Supreme Court has decided to examine the Constitutional validity of all that has been done on August 5.' 'That in itself is an achievement because the Supreme Court could have very well said you don't have a case at all.' 'The very fact that the honourable court has decided to admit it for regular hearing, and refer it to a Constitutional bench, tells us that the Supreme Court has found merit in our case.'
An Indian-American woman elementary teacher from Texas has been honored by US President Barack Obama at the White House for her excellent work in the field of education.
'We are rushing to 'develop' without carefully valuing natural areas.' 'With careful land use planning and scientific zonation at least 5 to 10 per cent of the country's land can be secured for tigers and other such species, and another 5 to 15 per cent kept under low-impact uses to support biodiversity that can coexist with human uses.'
The Niti Aayog has finalised the first draft of a new national energy policy.
'What prevents infection are masks, physical distancing and good ventilation.'
Since the US, the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, has shifted in a major way to shale gas, the focus of global environmentalists' ire has fallen on India, which is the third biggest emitter, reports Darryl D'Monte.
Some 74 projects from Odisha and another 51 projects from Chhattisgarh have lined up before the Project Monitoring Group.
India has remained obsessed with cheap capital and infrastructure spending when instead the central constraint on Indian development remains the abysmal quality of Indians' skills, says Mihir Sharma.
On his PIL, the SC had in 2013 directed the Centre and the states to set up a Civil Services Board to decide on transfers of officers.
Government's objective is to bring down the cost of cultivation through efficient use of fertilisers and agro chemicals, and increase in realisation. It is, thus, planning to connect 200 agricultural mandis with electronic National Agricultural Mandis this year and 225 next year, to enable farmers to sell their produce hassle-free online.
The Narendra Modi-led government has issued around 50 fresh guidelines easing conditions for industry in about six months, beside launching an online system for applying environment clearances.
The prime minister, who spoke in the Upper House as it bid farewell to 53 retiring MPs, noted that Rajya Sabha members are representatives of the states and the interest of their state should be a priority for them.
Even in this darkest hour of a crumbling economy and raging disease, there is hardly a murmur of protest against the government, observes Sumit Bhattacharya.
Mining companies will now have to cap mining activities in Goa.
'The novelist's dilemma in facing climate change is really the symptom of a wider failure.'
The 'Make in India' vision cannot survive in the long-term without concrete measures to build a concurrent 'Create in India' movement.
Most of these road contracts are spread across Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, with the government struggling to restart them.
'Trump will do significant damage in the short term'
What Rajya Sabha can do for the states, no other House can do, the Prime Minister said.
'So you have a middle class, and an elite that have seceded into outer space and they look down and say, "What's our bauxite doing in their mountains?" and "What's our water doing in their rivers?" There's a sense of entitlement there.' Arundhati Roy captures minds with her thoughts on capitalism, Indian politics, war, and more in New York.
The BJP on Saturday accused Congress and its "first family" of leveling "false and baseless" allegations against PM Modi over the Gujarat land deal issue to cover up its own corruption and fraud.
'When the courts intervene, we are attacked for judicial activism'
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