'Persisting with the inequalities, indeed seeing them get worse, is no one's prescription for national unity,' notes T N Ninan.
As finance ministry officials remained glued to news flashes on the LCD screens in their rooms, others were constantly monitoring news on the web. The support staff got its share of the news feed by keeping a close watch on politicians visiting North Block, reports Vrishti Beniwal
This means only about 8000 employees will be left with the carrier over the next five years.
In the absence of the aviation policy, all decisions in aviation sector are left to the whims and fantasy of the ministry.
Amid pressure from various quarters for an early decision on the creation of a separate state of Telangana, the government on Saturday said more consultations with various parties are needed on the contentious statehood demand and the exercise would take "some time" to end. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and political secretary to Congress president Ahmed Patel discussed the situation in Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh.
Goyal is expected to discuss the targets for the banks for 2019-20, as well as priority sector lending, recovery on non-performing assets, and the bankruptcy proceedings of various companies, which owe money to the banks.
The Union Home Ministry in North Block in New Delhi plans to install a surveillance system. With the introduction of biometric tracing system, every move the employee makes can be tacked.
Armed with sticks, they set ablaze thatched structures near a fishing yard in Belmajur area of Sandeshkhali, venting their fury against the elusive TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his brother Siraj. The torched structure, it was revealed, belonged to Siraj.
Despite the national capital recording its best air quality on Diwali day in eight years, pollution levels may rise due to low night temperatures and sporadic burning of firecrackers though there is a ban on their manufacture, storage, sale and use within the city.
Pre-Budget excercise next month should scrupulously avoid adventurism of all types and refrain from making excessively ambitious projections on revenue and expenditure numbers for 2023-24, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
This is not her first stint in North Block or in leading a major economic ministry. She started Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term as minister of state for finance, was made the commerce minister, and then became the defence minister.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has brought about a coup in North Block by bringing an Indian Foreign Service officer Venu Rajamoni as Joint Secretary to head multilateral institutions division.
Mr Chidambaram is known for his ability to think up new taxes to collect more revenue, and a tax for the super-rich could be one of those ideas he might introduce in the coming Budget.
Pranab Mukherjee, who resigned as the Finance Minister on Tuesday to contest for the post of President as a Congress nominee, sought to justify some of his tough and contentious decisions saying that they were taken in the interest of people.
The governor had just made an elaborate presentation in defence of the central bank's decision to not to succumb to industry's demand for rate cuts in the mid-quarter policy.
"Soon I will not be a political entity," Pranab Mukherjee remarked hours before he resigns as finance minister to contest Presidential poll, but promised to deliver his "last message" before he bids adieu.
The governor had just made an elaborate presentation in defence of the central bank's decision to not to succumb to industry's demand for rate cuts in the mid-quarter policy.
Preparations for Budget 2011-12 are in full swing. Intelligence Bureau sleuths in plain clothes are watching each and every movement of the team which prepares the Budget documents.
Ashok Chawla outlined the key thrust areas of Budget 2011.
The Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin may prove to be a much bigger play for Reliance Industries Ltd. This follows the announcement that its D4 block could hold twice the reserves of the in-production D6 block to the north.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg is the finance ministry's primary liaison with the RBI.
On the eve of the Supreme Court hearing of his petition on age, Army Chief Gen V K Singh on Thursday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who has been informally acting as a trouble-shooter in the controversy.
PM's new vigour should revive investment - but may not return India to nine per cent growth.
Reservations expressed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notwithstanding, North Block, the finance ministry headquarters, is going ahead with its plans to set up a full-fledged Debt Management Office (DMO) to manage the government debt.
While the signals of intent have already gone from North Block, the hiccups this time are coming from officials in the Finance Ministry, who had got used to a certain mindset.
'If the current mood in North Block, headquarters of the finance ministry, is anything to go by, the government will now keep a closer watch on all kinds of schemes and projects undertaken by different central ministries. 'The next six months will determine which central schemes will have to be wound up and which ones will survive the axe,' says A K Bhattacharya.
The Madhya Pradesh directorate general of Hydrocarbons has granted Petroleum Exploration Licence to ADAG for exploration of CBM from Sohagpur (north) block in Shahdol district on August 11, official sources said in Bhopal on Thursday.
Modi, while addressing a rally in Barasat, said whatever happened with women in Sandeshkhali "is a matter of shame".
Amid the raging row over the controversial 2G note, three ministers on Wednesday night met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at his residence to find a way out to end the political storm.
In an exclusive interview with rediff.com Gopalan replies back to the critics of the Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
While trying to persuade North Korea to give up its provocative actions, engaging China is the first hurdle that world leaders will have to deal with, says Rajaram Panda.
'I have been asking whether the chief minister (N Biren Singh) is in charge of the situation in Manipur.' 'Law and order is a state subject and chief minister is a Constitutional authority. Why did he follow the diktat, if at all there is a diktat from the Union government?'
The process has been suspended for the time being as Agriculture, Food & Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar, a political heavyweight, is opposed to any intrusion into his turf.
The old Parliament building, an architectural splendour and a historic landmark that guided the destiny of India for nearly a century and whose illustrious legacy will now be consigned to the pages of history, was inaugurated on January 18, 1927 by the then Viceroy Lord Irwin.
A group of Bhopal gas tragedy survivors staged a demonstration in front of the North Block office of Home Ministry where the meetings of Group of Ministers on the issue was taking place.
Leaders of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom on Thursday met Home Minister P Chidambaram as they began face-to-face unconditional talks with the Centre in an attempt to usher in peace in insurgency-hit Assam.
The posts of finance secretary and secretary, economic affairs department generate ambiguities over ownership of the finance ministry's most important annual exercise.
Having made no headway to amend a 26-year-old double taxation avoidance agreement with Mauritius, the finance ministry has hardened its stance against broadening India's economic engagement with the island nation.
