While Arun Jaitley remains part of the decision making process, Piyush Goyal, who was given additional charge on May 14, attends cabinet meetings and takes the day-to-day decisions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the existing foreign trade policy (FTP) will be extended for six months till March 31 next year. The government had earlier extended the FTP 2015-20 until September 30 this year due to the Covid-19 crisis. The FTP provides guidelines for enhancing exports to push economic growth and create jobs.
When the Chair asked Chowdhury to raise a point of order, Goyal stood up and said that he would not allow the Congress leader to speak in protest against the disruption of the external affairs minister's statement earlier in the day on India's foreign engagements since the Budget session.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is expected to achieve a clear majority in Rajya Sabha after bye-elections for 12 seats scheduled next month, which would help the party get the nod for key legislations such as the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.
India and the visiting US officials have decided to hold a wrap-up session on Saturday morning to conclude the three-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, government sources said. They said the discussions are at a "very" early stage.
The proposed India-Israel trade pact should be beneficial to both nations and until New Delhi gets a good deal, it would not do an agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. India and Israel are negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) since May 2010. "With Israel, until we get a good deal, we will not do an FTA. It has to be reciprocally beneficial," the minister said in San Francisco on Tuesday while interacting with the Indian community.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a meeting to review the Ukraine crisis amid the ongoing exercise to evacuate Indian nationals, mostly students, from the country facing attack from Russia.
GST on 17 items used by middle class viz Paints, Refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, storage water heaters, TVs up to 68 cm was reduced from 28 to 18 per cent.
Badal, who served as the finance minister in the previous Congress government, said, "Seven years ago, I merged the People's Party of Punjab with your party. I did so with immense hope and an expectation of being integrated into an organisation with a rich history that would allow me to serve both the people of Punjab and its interests to the best of my ability."
Cameras were focused on Chief Justice of India Justice Dr Dhananjay Yeshwant Chandrachud at the Independence Day event at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Tuesday morning.
After her elevation as defence minister, Sitharaman has become a member of the cabinet committee on security headed by the prime minister.
India has reduced the time period for foreign investors to seek international arbitration from five years to three years as part of the recently signed investment pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a departure from its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, if the Indian judicial system is unable to resolve a dispute within this shortened period, investors can resort to international arbitration. The investment pact, signed on February 13 in Abu Dhabi, came into force on August 31, replacing the previous pact.
The jan man survey seeks the people's response on various aspects of governance and leadership and its questions include both central-level development and specifics related to the user's constituency.
The Rajya Sabha has been witnessing repeated disruptions ever since it met for the Monsoon session on July 20.
'Indian Railways will run 200 non-AC trains daily as per the time table from June 1 for which online booking will start soon,' Goyal said in a tweet. He also said that within the next two days Indian Railways will double the number of Shramik Special Trains to 400 per day.
The members of the cabinet committees included Union ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance partners like Janata Dal-United, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal-Secular, Shiv Sena and Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas.
India and the US have decided to hold sector-specific talks in the coming weeks to finalise the structure of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the government said on Saturday. The engagement between the two countries came in the backdrop of the USA's threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on its key trading partners, including India, on April 2.
With May 31 being the last date for filing nomination, the party is set to announce the names of more candidates soon.
"Mr Kalyan Banerjee rose in this House and said sorry. But I will say that we all come to this House with the spirit of contribution to the nation's development...but we also come with a sense of self respect.
The Centre on Thursday hiked Dearness Allowance (DA) to 50 per cent of basic pay from the existing rate of 46 per cent effective from January 1 this year, benefitting over 1 crore employees and pensioners ahead of general elections. The Union Cabinet has approved to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners from January 1, 2024, representing an increase of 4 percentage points over the existing rate of 46 per cent of the basic pay/pension, to compensate against price rise, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said after the Cabinet meeting.
The Congress has, however, countered this saying someone who is not an MP of Rajya Sabha cannot be called to the House and there cannot be any discussion/reflection on or about an MP of Lok Sabha.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday dismissed as wrong the allegations that two nuns belonging to a Kerala-based congregation were "attacked" during a train journey via Uttar Pradesh recently and alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was "making false statements" on the issue.
Amid a stalemate over the suspension of 12 opposition Rajya Sabha MPs, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal on Friday said how can there be a reconciliation when these members are unwilling to apologise for their unruly behaviour in the previous session.
"We now realise that the so-called farmer agitation hardly remains a farmers' agitation. It has almost got infiltrated by Leftist and Maoist elements, a flavour of which we saw over the last two days when there were extraneous demands to release people who have been put behind bars for anti-national (and) who have been put behind bars for illegal activities," Goyal, the Minister for Railways, Commerce and Industry and Food and Consumers Affairs, said at FICCI's annual meeting.
A top Republican lawmaker has welcomed India signing a trade deal with Australia, and urged the Biden administration to enter into a similar arrangement with New Delhi that can advance Washington's strong economic agenda in the strategically vital Indo-Pacific region. "I'm pleased to see #Australia & #India sign a strong trade deal," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch said in a tweet. "The US needs to do the same and advance a strong economic agenda in the #IndoPacific. "The Biden Admin's failure to lead hurts US growth and our partnership in the region," Risch said in another tweet.
Talking about the relationship with his father, Anil Antony said, "We all are different and our thinking is also different. Joining the BJP is my personal decision and my father has been associated with the Congress for many decades. He has a different attachment to the Congress."
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday credited the breakthrough agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control to the military which worked in 'very very unimaginable' conditions and deft diplomacy.
The government on Tuesday announced setting up of hubs to promote exports through e-commerce medium in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and initially 10-15 hubs will be established. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that these hubs, under a seamless regulatory and logistic framework, will facilitate trade and export-related services under one roof. "To enable MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets, e-commerce export hubs will be set up in PPP mode," she said.
Earlier in the day while addressing the media ahead of the session, PM Modi had said that this Parliament session may be of short duration but is big on occasion, and is of 'historic decisions'.
Banerjee supported 'Nyay' (poverty alleviation scheme of Congress) and people of India rejected his ideology, the BJP leader said.
Antony, who headed the digital media cell of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, slammed the Congress leadership for working for a "single family" instead of working for the country.
The Railway Board has decided to wind up the ambitious Rs 5,000-crore One ICT plan and the transformation cell
Seven candidates are in the fray for six Upper House seats from Maharashtra that will go to polls.
'Pappa (A K Antony) was seen sitting with utmost pain in a corner of the house. I have never ever seen him so weak like this in my life. He did not shed tears, that's all'
Earlier, the Railways had issued statements saying that it planned 125 trains for evacuating migrants from Maharashtra on May 25 but the state government was only able to give information for 41 trains till 2 am.
Three Union ministers and farmer leaders will meet in Chandigarh at 6 pm to discuss their demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP for crops and farm debt waiver.
The government has convened an all-party meeting on Wednesday to deliberate on a host of issues related to Parliament's monsoon session, which will begin from July 20.
Following the eviction of protesting farmers from the Shambhu border, Haryana security personnel began removing cemented barricades erected to prevent Punjab farmers from reaching Delhi. The Shambhu-Ambala road, closed for over a year, is being cleared with JCBs and other machinery. Meanwhile, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha announced dharnas outside deputy commissioners' offices in protest against the Punjab Police crackdown. The groups criticized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab for evicting the protesters and detaining farmer leaders on Wednesday. The police action was justified by Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who said industries and businesses were hit hard due to the prolonged closure of the highways. The protesting farmers, led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, had been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points since February 13, 2022.
Converting what was supposed to be an interim budget or a vote on account into an almost full-fledged budget announcement in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal proposed an array of incentives for both middle-class and farmers, whose disenchantment was said to have cost the BJP dearly in recent assembly elections.
