These ministers are meeting select group of editors and senior reporters every week to put forward their viewpoints. The wooing of journalists at the ministerial level is unprecedented and shows the defensive mood prevailing within the government.
With the washout of winter session of Parliament weighing heavily on its mind, the government on Sunday appealed to the opposition to ensure a smooth budget session beginning next month expressing readiness to discuss all issues, including 2G spectrum, "on priority".
A move is afoot to extend the session of Parliament by three days from December 27 to 29 after a five day break from December 22, when it was scheduled to conclude, to facilitate adequate time for consideration of the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill is expected to be brought in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has sounded Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on the move and has promised to get back.
After introducing the controversial nuclear liability bill in the Lok Sabha amid opposition protests, the government on Friday said it hopes to bring it for consideration in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday said Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi had no right to submit the draft report on the 2G scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it was 'rejected' by a majority of the committee's members.
Senior Congress member P C Chacko was on Friday made the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, setting in motion the probe into what the opposition is alleging as the biggest scam in independent India.
'Capital punishments have rarely acted as a deterrent. What we need to do is to make our society, our workplaces, our streets safe for women'
Accusing Punjab of running a campaign blaming it for floods in its territory, Haryana on Monday sought the Centre's intervention over the issue and defended construction of the Hansi-Butana link canal.
The delegation, to be led by Home Minister P Chidamabaram, is expected to meet a cross-section of people of the troubled state before arriving at a package of solutions
Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was on Monday sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dalit to hold the top post in the state.
Governor E S L Narasimhan met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath to apprise her of the prevailing situation in Andhra Pradesh.
Due to paucity of time, the UPA government will drop the traditional scrutiny of the Budget by the Parliamentary standing committees. Instead, Pranab Mukherjee is in touch with BJP and the CPM, while Pawan Kumar Bansal and Anand Sharma have been asked to liaise with the smaller parties to ensure the Budget moves smoothly through Parliament.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Monday postponed a debate in the House on the report of the Liberhan Commission, which was scheduled for Tuesday, due to non-availability of Hindi version of the Commission's report on Banri mosque demolition.
A much talked about bill seeking a three-fold hike in salaries of MPs from Rs 16,000 to Rs 50,000 and doubling their two key allowances to Rs 40,000 each was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
However, the final decision on the date of presentation of the Budget will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
The government on Friday said that 92.6 per cent bank deposits are fully protected under the Deposit and Insurance and Credit Guarantee scheme.
After the Amendment Bill is passed by Parliament and comes into effect, businesses like casinos would also come under a legal obligation to report their activities in the country. For fighting the menace of terrorism, the Bill introduces new category of offences which have cross-border implications. The draft legislation also empowers the Enforcement Directorate 'to search premises immediately after the offence is committed.'
Liberhan report debate in LS rescheduled to Dec 7.
An impartial probe into the coal scam can only take place once Prime Minister Manmohan Singh steps down from office, Bharatiya Janata Party said on Friday in reaction to his offer to face CBI in a coal block allocation case.
The government said on Friday there is no proposal to ban participatory notes, which are instruments through which unregistered entities invest in the Indian securities markets.
The study of the Targeted Public Distribution System, which covered 18 states, held that though the offtake per household has shown improvement yet only about 57 per cent of the below the poverty line households are covered. The information was given by minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Based on evaluation studies and feedback received from states, a nine point action plan has been jointly formulated.
Responding to a supplementary during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said there was no proposal to waive loans of the landless. Indian Banks Association have asked its members to provide loans to the landless so that they can pay back the money-lenders, the minister said.
Maharashtra was followed by Delhi with 33 cases from April 2005 to September 2008 and the money involved was little over Rs 47 lakhs (Rs 4.7 million), minister of state for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. In the current fiscal till September this year, 66 cases have been reported in the country where the money involved is more than Rs 100,000 while 46 incidents have come to notice where amount involved was less than Rs 100,000.
Three Pakistani banks, including Habib Bank, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank, have expressed interest in opening branches in India.
The Reserve Bank of India has recommended the names of State Bank of India and Bank of India to its Pakistani counterpart for allowing them to open of branches in that country.
The spacetech startup is expected to launch the first rocket which can hurl satellites of 250-700 kg into a lower Earth orbit by end-2021.
State Bank of India, Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have sought permission to open branches in Pakistan, the government said in Parliament on Tuesday.\n\n
More than half of the total number of IPOs listed on BSE and NSE in the last two years are trading below their offer price, with around one-third of them trading at a discount of 40-60 per cent, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
Gandhi met the president and handed over a memorandum signed by two crore farmers demanding a repeal of the laws, saying they will not benefit farmers or labourers.
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday attacked Congress for its decision to give tickets to "tainted" leaders, saying "Adarsh candidates" including Ashok Chavan and Pawan Kumar Bansal have been "rewarded".
Rather than lose direction with the Karnal protest, farmers decided to focus more on UP to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming assembly elections there, reports Nitin Kumar.
Some disgruntled Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Chandigarh greeted Kirron Kher, party nominee for the local Lok Sabha seat, with black flags when she arrived in the city.
While I&B Minister Manish Tewari seems desperate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, the Congress leadership is having a tough time choosing the right candidates. Anita Katyal reports
Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was on Tuesday given a clean chit by the CBI in the Rs 10 crore cash-for-post Railway bribery scandal in which the agency filed charge sheet against his nephew Vijay Singla and suspended Board Member Mahesh Kumar along with eight others for graft and other charges.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday said with slew of graft cases surfacing during the UPA government, corruption has taken the shape of a "small scale industry", and the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be a fight between morality and immorality.
Union Minister Manish Tewari, who has been hospitalised due to a heart ailment, is unlikely to contest the Lok Sabha polls, sources said on Sunday.
It was conveyed that he would not have a free rein in making bureaucratic postings. Sunil Bansal, handpicked by BJP president Amit Shah to execute his UP blueprint, has made it clear the party's writ would run over the government. But Adityanath has institutionalised a system to keep Bansal out, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Senior party leaders slug it out for tickets in Chandigarh, Kangra
The Aam Aadmi Party's candidate Savita Bhatti on Sunday opted out of Lok Sabha polls from the lone Chandigarh parliamentary seat. Savita, widow of comedian and satirist Jaspal Bhatti shot off an e-mail to the AAP office in Delhi mentioning that she is "not interested" in contesting the general elections.
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