While its performance in Bihar, has boosted fund collections, corporate contributors are still waiting to see its performances in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal before committing funds to the Congress.
The NITI Aayog will now assimilate the views of states and then present a report to the PM.
Economists expect Modi to announce big-bang reforms.
The choice clearly is between prompt corrective action and slow but sure destruction, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Blaming opponents of the anti-superstition bill for the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has said organisations behind such acts should be isolated and their activities stopped.
He is starting to realise that an era is ending. And he is not ready to have a five-decade career besmirched by two alphabets -- AP -- that have cropped up in the AgustaWestland papers, says Aditi Phadnis.
Hoping against hope, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Monday refused to declare as dead the 5,748 persons missing after the June 16 calamity in Uttarakhand, saying the mission to find them will not be given up.
The new ordinance on land acquisition will allow land grabbers to deprive millions, destroy agriculture, horticulture, rivers, forests, tree cover and mangroves to extract minerals as well as ground water, without replenishment at a pace that will not leave anything for the next generation, warns activist Medha Patkar.
The Rajya Sabha on Monday saw high drama and embarrassment for the government as a Constitution amendment bill on backward classes was changed after some amendments moved by the Opposition were passed by the House.
Ahead of the Parliament session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reached out to parties appealing them not to come in the way of prosperity of farmers, saying the deadlock over the land acquisition bill is seriously impacting rural development.
'The government know very well how to pass a bill in the Rajya Sabha with consensus.' 'They got consensus from Opposition parties on the 10 percent reservation for economically weaker sections.' 'In instant triple talaq, the BJP wanted to take sole credit.' 'They wanted to take credit and see that other parties suffer (political) loss.' 'Therefore, the bill got stuck.'
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of forcing it to walk out of the alliance by not being forthcoming on Narendra Modi's future role, senior Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tiwari on Saturday said the announcement of a split in the coalition was a "mere formality".
Congress leaders told Rediff.com that if Sonia or Rahul Gandhi do not take up the leader of opposition's post in Lok Sabha, it would lead to factionalism and internal dissension, something that the party can ill-afford at this juncture. "Kamal Nath is undoubtedly a senior MP but his candidature is bound to be opposed by the MPs from southern states as they have won more seats," remarked a senior Congress functionary, adding that senior ministers like Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge can be expected to push their candidature for this post. Anita Katyal reports.
A landmark bill to replace the collegium system of judges choosing judges was on Thursday passed in the Lok Sabha after government dropped a controversial provision that required unanimity in recommendation if the President seeks reconsideration.
Chancellor Angela Merkel-led new German government has been jolted by its first political crisis after a minister resigned over claims he leaked confidential information about an international child pornography probe involving an Indian-origin ex-member of parliament.
Public Money, Private Agenda -- The Use and Abuse of MPLADS by A Surya Prakash provides a comprehensive look at the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, which was launched 20 years ago in 1993. Excerpts from the book.
'If you look at the entire protest on April 2, you will find it was not only about the Atrocities Act dilution, but the accumulated anger of the Dalit community against the BJP over the last four years.'
'Do you know there is a 500 page report prepared by an inquiry committee headed by myself? When I placed the report in Parliament, have you heard any single Opposition leader give a notice for discussion? Why are they not demanding a discussion in Parliament on the report? They could have established that there was a scam. Today, a Parliament Committee report is as good as a Parliament report and this report says the 2G scam is no scam. Our government is suffering because of the media hype on these scams,' Congress MP P C Chacko tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
APJ Abdul Kalam was passionate about everything he did. He was perfect, says Aditi Phadnis
insisting that it had tried to strike a 'fine balance' to ensure that no injustice was done to innocent children.
Following her spat, 'Aunty National' Irani took to Facebook to speak out against her detractors. Here's the Facebook post in response to her critics which Rediff.com represents verbatim:
'Decisions on nuclear power have so far been taken by a small select group, primarily interested in profiteering from their actions, stating 'secrecy' as necessary from the national security point.' 'This argument is false, because we are dealing with the 'civilian' nuclear power sector, which is open even to the IAEA,' says Dr A Gopalakrishnan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
'Arvind's face fell... He started to say something, but couldn't continue. He broke down and as the tears fell unheeded, he crumpled to the floor.'
More and more Congressmen are breaking their silence and coming out in the open blaming party vice president Rahul Gandhi for the poll drubbing. Renu Mittal reports.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley assesses Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's first ever television interview
The absence of a clear underlying economic ideology in the Budget was quite evident, say experts.
The plan of UID/Aadhaar-based surveillance does not end with the collection of fingerprints and iris scan, it goes quite beyond it and poses a lethal threat to the idea of India, says Gopal Krishna.
The Centre needs to have dialogue with the Opposition instead of letting politics come in the way; it needs to stoop to conquer, says Aditi Phadnis.
A series of political reverses like the government's failure to get crucial bills passed by the Rajya Sabha has made the prime minister realise that he needs to fine-tune his approach to both the Opposition parties and the media, says A K Bhattacharya.
Protests by various parties could be seen as they demanded the Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled back the demonetisation scheme.
Why Dalit leaders cross over to the BJP
The call to make brand ambassadors accountable has rattled filmstars and sports stars.
'There is a communication gap between the Modi government and the allies. During the last one year, the NDA has met only once and that was two hours before the land bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.' 'When Vajpayee was prime minister if any NDA chief minister asked for time , he was given it the next day. Modi is not doing it.' 'If there is tension on the streets, if there is insecurity amongst the minorities, then Make in India will remain a pipe dream.'
The government vowed to track down the main beneficiaries of the kickbacks so that "we can do" what "we could not do in Bofors
'The government's proposal to store citizens' data including Aadhaar data under its Digital India initiative on cloud is violative of the citizens' human rights because the cloud is admittedly beyond India's jurisdiction.'
The idea that every citizen in this country is to be numbered is the primary thing in the project.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Cabinet and inducted 21 new ministers. Of these, 4 - Manohar Parrikar, JP Nadda, Suresh Prabhu and Birender Singh were appointed as Cabinet ministers. Other than this, Modi has inducted 17 other ministers of state. Here's a quick look at them:
'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.
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