Senior bureaucrat Tarun Bajaj was appointed revenue secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle by the Centre on Tuesday.
While Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke about the consensus, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said there is no need for a separate discussion in Parliament on the Pegasus issue during the budget session.
On June 26, for the likes of me, the music died. Any impression of potential change held forth by the outcome of the 2024 general election, was vaporised, reveals Shyam G Menon.
The political slugfest has been going on between the two, which started after Tharoor's announcement that the panel would like to hear from Facebook about the report published in Wall Street Journal claiming that the social media platform ignored applying its hate-speech rules to politicians of the ruling party in India.
e of them requires MPs to follow the norms including the Code of Ethics, which mandates them not to take gifts that may interfere with honest and impartial discharge of their official duties.
The government's briefing is expected to focus on its evacuation mission from Afghanistan as well as its assessment of the situation in the war-torn country in the wake of the Taliban seizing control of almost all key Afghan towns and cities, including Kabul.
According to sources, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh reached out to other Opposition leaders for the boycott of the event.
In an urgent advisory, the India embassy in Ukraine on Wednesday asked all Indians stranded in Kharkiv to leave the conflict zone immediately.
The opposition parties will meet on Monday morning to evolve their strategy in both Houses of Parliament after protests by them on the Hindenburg-Adani issue overshadowed most of the first half of the Budget session.
During a meeting of parties convened on Sunday ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Tamil Nadu-based Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam demanded India intervene in the neighbouring country which is facing a debilitating economic crisis.
Rajya Sabha's next session will begin from April 23, three days after the second half of the budget session of Lok Sabha commences.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
It is for the first time in the history of Independent India that not a single Muslim is part of the Union Cabinet.
The avoidable stresses and strains in ties helped in one way. It showed for the entire region how a matured India handled diplomatic relations, especially with a smaller and suspicious neighbour, with practised dignity and patience, unruffled by provocations in word, deed and action, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Officials said several witnesses were heard on the impact of the pandemic. They added that this was the longest meeting of the panel without a break so far.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
It said that the opportunities presented by an open and competitive South Asian market may also be grasped and consolidated from both security and economic perspectives.
The first-of-its-kind monsoon session will see Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sitting in two different shifts, while special seating arrangements have been made for MPs in adherence to social distancing guidelines.
Rajya Sabha witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge made remarks on the manner in which political parties select women candidates from weaker sections and raised the issue of 'delayed' GST payments to non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu also made a fervent appeal to the leaders of various parties at an all-party meeting to ensure smooth and effective functioning of the House during the Budget Session.
Delayed by more than four years, rules for the CAA are a must for its implementation.
The ED had attached Sai Resort NX, constructed over the land located at Gut no: 446, Murud in Ratnagiri's Dapoli, in January.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has written to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha who is likely to consult the parliamentary affairs ministry before framing his response on the government's plans to advance the budget presentation to February 1, sources said.
With the CAA rules being issued, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from the three countries.
In a significant move to enhance its strategic resource security, India has officially released its first-ever critical minerals list, identifying 30 key critical minerals crucial to the nation's economic growth and technological development. This pioneering step aims at reducing import dependence, enhancing supply-chain resilience, and supporting the country's net-zero objectives. Union Minister Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi, while releasing the Critical Minerals for India report in New Delhi on Wednesday, said, "India is readying for an Atmanirbhar Bharat."
Sources said while the Janata Dal-Secular will have nine new ministers, the Congress will have nearly 12 of its legislators inducted into the cabinet. Lone Bahujan Samaj Party MLA N Mahesh will also be a part of the cabinet expansion and will be given a key portfolio.
The JSP has made an electoral alliance with main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist headed by K P Sharma Oli.
Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Monday said the caste-based census will help in preparing welfare schemes for people from different sections of society.
When farmers are deprived of fair MSP and jawans of the OROP, it is not the right time to hike salaries/pension for MPs, said the Congress.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and some other MPs suspended from Parliament will not be able to attend the meetings of parliamentary committees of which they are a member or chairperson till their suspension is revoked.
In the last two years, winter sessions have been convened on November 21 and ended in the first week of January.
Thakur will be part of the 21-member committee headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
'We are not secessionists, we want to coexist with our countrymen but not on the terms that will strip us off our dignity and a right to peaceful existence.'
The development comes after the Supreme Court decided to strike down the recent 27 percent reservation in favour of OBCs in local bodies made by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, had called representatives of Facebook to hear their views "on the subject of safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space," according to agenda of the meeting.
Only vegetarian dishes were served at the official dinner held at a state-run five-star hotel.
Breaking a long tradition, the PMO has ensured that specific divisions in each ministry are allocated to junior ministers.
While 392 assurances were dropped, the remaining 893 were still pending.
In a major security breach on the anniversary of the deadly 2001 Parliament terror attack, two persons on Wednesday jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors' gallery, shouted slogans and released yellow smoke from canisters that triggered panic and chaos in the House.
"I underwent a coronavirus test after developing symptoms and the report has come positive. I am getting hospitalised on the advice of doctors. I request all who have come in my contact in the past days to isolate themselves and get tested," Shekhwat tweeted in Hindi.
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