Several Indian companies might have to set aside 2 per cent of their average net profits during the preceding three years to meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending requirements. A parliamentary standing committee on finance, which vetted the Companies Bill, 2009, said in its report that the ministry of corporate affairs has agreed to the suggestion.
Parliament's standing committee on finance, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, on Thursday finalised its report on the Companies Bill, 2011.
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain DoPT, Atomic Energy as well as all important policy issues and portfolios not allocated.
The Congress has conceded the plum Finance portfolio to its junior partner, resolving a thorny issue, after its president Rahul Gandhi intervened and spoke to Kumaraswamy.
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Monday said he was not unhappy with the Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to select Bhupendra Patel as the state's next chief minister, soon after the CM-designate met him at his residence in Ahmedabad in the morning.
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.
'Biometric Aadhaar-based surveillance is not only about violation of privacy, but also about the treasure hunt for unprecedented financial surveillance and economic intelligence in the economic history of mankind,' asks Gopal Krishna.
With months to go for the Karnataka assembly elections, the man in the hot seat, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah says he'll make billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and the Punjab National Bank scam an issue in the upcoming Karnataka elections . In an interview to CNN-News18's Deepa Balakrishnan, the CM also says that Hindutva is not a campaign issue in the state.
'This is not a Sanjay Baru or Natwar Singh type of book. It's not a memoir. It's not a book to reveal conversations, real or imaginary. This is not a book to position myself at the centre of the world.' Jairam Ramesh on his stint as environment minister.