Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the actual spending under the scheme in the fiscal year ending March 31 "would be highest".
'The global situation is not very good.'
Timely onset of south-west monsoon is crucial for kharif (summer) crops.
A three-hour heavy downpour accompanied by a dust storm hit Delhi-NCR early morning on Friday, causing flight delays and traffic disruptions as seven people were killed in rain-related incidents across north India.
Suspended Jharkhand IAS officer Pooja Singhal was paid "commission" by subordinate staff from MGNREGA funds of Khunti district which she and her husband subsequently utilised for acquiring various properties, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed in a statement on Wednesday.
A look at the key decisions taken by the Narendra Modi government in its six months.
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party for its "politics of India Shining," Rahul Gandhi on Thursday reached out to the poor and rural youths in Bundelkhand, hard-selling the United Progressive Alliance's flagship schemes of food security, land acquisition and job guarantee programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Dipak Brahma, a resident of Dhantola Mandaria, a forest village in Kokrajhar district, had recently returned from Gujarat, where he worked as a labourer. He was jobless and finding it hard to support his family, according to an official of an NGO working against human trafficking.
Talking to PTI Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), said, "The two-day nationwide strike by the joint forum of central trade unions has begun this morning". About the impact of the agitation, she said that the entire coal belt (mining area) is affected in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. She also said that there is a good response in industrial areas of Assam, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The AITUC official noted that the banks and insurance sectors are affected all over India, while steel and oil sectors are also seeing partial impact due to the strike. Kaur said that she has got preliminary reports that markets are closed in Odisha.
Terming coronavirus as a big health crisis before humanity, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said the only way to break the chain of transmission and contain COVID-19 cases is for people to 'close down everything' till May 15.
The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon in Demchok sector, located 250 km east of Leh, where the work for linking a village with 'hot spring' was being undertaken under the MNREGA.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has asserted that alliances are formed only at the time of elections and declined to categorically say if his party would align with the BJP for the 2026 Assembly polls. Palaniswami met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday and brought to his attention several issues faced by Tamil Nadu, including the need for funds release, the implementation of the Godavari-Cauvery river linking plan, and a probe into the "TASMAC scam." He said that while the party would decide on an alliance at the time of the election, he did not rule out a tie-up with the BJP.
The top court's remark came while setting aside an order of the Madras high court which directed the Tamil Nadu government to create the posts under the designation.
Measures that quickly boost demand and increase employment are needed to push up growth. Moreover, without announcing new planss, the government should strengthen schemes such as PM KISAN, MNREGA and programmes to build rural roads.
She has been called again on Wednesday for a fresh round of grilling.
The party's research department team, which Rajya Sabha member M V Rajeev Gowda heads, has sifted through the suggestions received in the last five months, and the manifesto is slated to be released later this month, reports Archis Mohan.
On Gandhi Jayanti, she also invoked the Father of the Nation, to assail the government which, she claimed, swears by his name but demolishes his ideals through its actions.
Of the cash outgo, Rs 64,598 crore is for enhanced expenditure on fertiliser subsidy under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 3.0 and Rs 20,466 crore for the capital outlay in defence services.
NDA under Mr Modi is as focused on the rural poor with doles and hand-outs as the UPA under Dr Singh was.
'The Jharkhand government is increasingly intolerant of voices of dissent.' 'Recently 20 persons, including activists, writers and academics, were booked for sedition.' 'Many of them have been critical of the government's apathy towards Adivasis,' notes Siraj Dutta.
Taking serious note of the rampant corruption in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Uttar Pradesh, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Friday ordered a Central Bureau of Investogation probe into the alleged large scale financial bungling brought to its notice through a public interest litigation, moved by local journalist Sachchidanand Gupta .
Later, there may be some tax relief aimed at the middle class and measures to benefit the sectors worst hit by Covid-19 and the resultant nationwide lockdown.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee along with party leaders and workers sat on a dharna at the Rajghat in New Delhi on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on Monday demanding the release of funds for West Bengal by the Centre.
Hitting the campaign trail in Assam for the first time this election, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party as a "party that divides the people and thinks through only one person."
Sources said the rural development ministry has sought an additional Rs 20,000 crore for MGNREGA for 2019-20 over and above the budgeted Rs 60,000 crore for 2019-20. Though, all of the PM-KISAN savings may not be transferred to fund MNGREGA's extra needs, sources said a part of this could be transferred.
The praise comes a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it a 'monument of UPA's failures'.
The centre pays only an insulting Rs 200 per pensioner each month at a tight-fisted 0.04 per cent of GDP, among the lowest in the world. Instead, as illustrated by Jean Drze, one option is for NYAY to provide individual rather than household entitlements to all pensioners of at least Rs 1200 per month.
India's share in world tourist inflows was only 0.64 per cent in 2012. It could only attract 6.97 million foreign tourists during 2013.
Of the Rs 20-lakh-crore package that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to defend the economy against coronavirus disruptions, fresh support may be only around 60 per cent of the offer as it counts the first financial stimulus and liquidity support that Reserve Bank has given already, and will overburden the bond market, says a report.
As a leader, he was ambitious, not for himself but for India and its people. His was not the short-term election cycle calculation of individual political gain. His was a practical vision of how to better the lives of his fellow citizens, asserts Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, who served as foreign secretary and national security advisor when Dr Singh was prime minister.
Ekka, who is embroiled in the controversy for allegedly signing official documents at a private place, was removed from the post following Bharatiya Janata Party's allegation of his conniving with middlemen.
The new Land Acquisition Act to provide just and fair compensation to farmers came into force from January 1, 2014.
'It has been an ongoing process, talking to the relevant ministries about eliminating leakages and curbing non-core expenditure in various schemes.'
The rising goods and services tax (GST) and personal income-tax collections may bolster the Narendra Modi government's ability to announce new schemes or enhance existing ones.
Condolences have poured in from across the globe, including from the United States, Canada and Sri Lanka following the demise of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Joseph Stiglitz says India should not bothered on inflation and instead focus on rapid growth.
The Odisha government told the assembly over 40,000 workers migrated from the state last year, with the highest number -- 26,151 -- from Balangir.
'Usually, urban wage rates are 50 per cent higher than rural wage rates. But, this could be narrowing very rapidly now,' points out Mahesh Vyas, CEO, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.
Singh Deo will, however, remain the minister for Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax departments.
