The prime minister's directive comes in the wake of telecom minister A Raja seeking his intervention for early resolution of BSNL's tender controversy.
Key proposals not feasible for BSNL, says telecom official.
An attempt is to be made over the next month to get over the opposition of staff unions to the Pitroda Committee recommendations on the revamp of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), the state telecom network outside Mumbai and Delhi.
The recommendations include divestment of 30 per cent government equity in BSNL, reducing the company's workforce by a third, and cancelling the telecom equipment order for 93 million GSM lines, replacing it with network outsourcing deals.
The Congress party in India has condemned the seizure of assets belonging to the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, and announced nationwide protests against the action. The party's general secretary, KC Venugopal, described the action as "draconian" and said it was a politically motivated attempt to silence the opposition. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, among others, on charges of money laundering in the case. The Congress has called for protests in front of ED offices across the country on Wednesday.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said it had filed a chargesheet on April 9 in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. Apart from Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, the chargesheet also names senior Congress leaders Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey as co-accused.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet in the National Herald case, accusing Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of a "criminal conspiracy" to "usurp" properties worth Rs 2,000 crore of its public company AJL by transferring 99 per cent shares for just Rs 50 lakh to their private company Young Indian. The ED has named Sonia Gandhi as accused no 1 and Rahul Gandhi as accused no 2 in the chargesheet, which was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The principal opposition party though appeared content securing 99 of the 543 seats in the 2024 national elections as against its all-time low of 44 in 2014 and then 52 in 2019.
Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi government that wanted to do so.
With billionaire Gautam Adani charged in the United States with alleged bribery and fraud, the Congress on Thursday said it 'vindicates' its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the various 'scams' involving his conglomerate.
The high court was hearing a plea moved by Swamy seeking to lead evidence before the trial court in the National Herald case, in which the Gandhis and others are accused.
Deepak Parekh, HDFC Bank Chairman, M S Verma, former SBI Chairman, Raghuram, Professor IIM, Ahmedabad, Rajiv Lal, IDFC MD and Vinayak Chatterjee, Feedback, Infrastructure Services Chairman are members of the committee.
A committee headed by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister, has suggested that state-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd should retire or transfer about 100,000 of its employees through measures such as a voluntary retirement scheme. This is a third of BSNL's total employee strength, of 300,000 across the country.To improve organisational performance and employee productivity substantially, BSNL should induct young talent in all spaces.
The board will now be headed by Vinod Kumar Yadav as chairman and CEO, and it will have four other members.
A committee headed by Sam Pitroda, advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, suggested that state-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd scrap its controversial 93-million GSM lines tender.The committee said BSNL should change its method of growth from outright purchase of equipment to lease arrangement. The vendor who would supply the equipment should be responsible for installation, maintenance and operations, besides future expansion.
The move to disinvest the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has united all central trade unions once again and they have called an indefinite agitation from April 19 against the move.
After dilly dallying for over 20 months, state-owned telecom firm BSNL on Friday decided to scrap its controversial Rs 35,000-crore (Rs 350 billion) tender to procure equipment for expansion of its mobile services.
The Telecom Commission, the policy-making wing of the DoT, will soon take up the issue of divestment in state-run BSNL, Telecom Minister A Raja said on Wednesday.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur hit out at Gandhi over his claims of being under surveillance by intelligence agencies and accused him of maligning India on foreign soil.
The department of telecommunications has agreed to set up a search committee to look for new chairmen and managing directors for both, as suggested by the Sam Pitroda-led committee on the organsiation's revamp.
Subject to Union government approval, the board of state-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Thursday cleared a proposal for the divestment of 30 per cent government equity in it, as suggested by a committee set up under Sam Pitroda, the prime minister's telecom and infrastructure advisor.
A high-level committee set up to suggest a blue print for modernisation of cash-strapped railways will submit its report shortly, said its chief Sam Pitroda while dismissing report of having recommended 25 per cent hike in passenger fares linking it to inflation.
He sought a seeking a direction to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi and other accused to either admit or deny if certain documents filed by him were original.
'It is really troublesome that someone in a position of power is misleading people and presumably, citizens of the country to give up data.' 'That is not a part of informed consent.'
Party chief Rahul Gandhi formed a nine-member Core Group Committee, a 19-member Manifesto Committee and a committee comprising 19 top party leaders who will look after the publicity during the elections.
LHB coaches are safer. Two high-level railway safety commissions came down heavily on ICF coaches, recommending their replacement by LHB, says Bibek Debroy.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu aligns priorities, funding and organisation to shape a transformation agenda.
Share swap has moved the 'founder tag' from Sam Pitroda and Suman Dubey to the Gandhis.
Television owners might have to again shell out a licence fee- this time to fund state-owned Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio, if a government committee has its way.
The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on May 15.
Escalating further the controversy over his interview to Doordarshan, Narendra Modi on Saturday rued the "decline" in journalistic freedom in the public broadcaster and invoked "horrific" memories of the Emergency days in 1975.
The party managed only 52 seats on its own and many of its top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia were defeated in the polls.
GCIG is a two-year initiative launched by the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Chatham House.
Railways must pull back its share of freight traffic.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and others were on Tuesday directed to appear in person on December 19 by a Delhi court which allowed their plea seeking exemption from personal appearance for the day in the National Herald case.
Just like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's 'chai pe charcha' where he connects with various sections while sipping tea over the internet, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will take part in a 'Google Hangout' on March 15, where he will interact with block, district and Pradesh Congress Committee presidents to give them pep talk on the coming elections and to get their feedback on their states and their districts. Renu Mittal reports
Accusing the government of spreading misinformation in the National Herald case, the Congress said it was proud to be associated with the newspaper that stood up in pre-independence times against the British for throttling free speech, similar to the present day climate.
Parekh said divestment can unlock huge funds.
For the past few weeks, the government has been in an overdrive, pushing stuck projects with the larger aim to improve the country's economic growth, which had fallen to a four-year low of 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year.
Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi's live video chat session appeared to be a last-ditch effort to bridge the gap with party workers and boost their morale with an eye on the coming general election. Anita Katyal reports
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