'The move to appoint a person with a profile, markedly lower than the leader Nitin Nabin will replace, has the potential to put the brakes on the careers of several others in the party and government in the positions they currently hold,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Veteran BJP leader Prem Kumar has filed his nomination for the post of assembly Speaker in Bihar. With the NDA holding a majority, his election is likely.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Aroop Biswas's resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress said.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has launched an integrated audit across 32 states and Union Territories to assess the ease of doing business for the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector.
Nitish thought that his stakes as chief minister were far greater than his stakes in protecting one of his party MLAs. He could not allow his rule-of-law train to be derailed by a small rock on the track. On the contrary, if he removed it to keep the train moving at a steady speed he would gain strong public admiration and sympathy that would help him take the masses along in carrying out other tasks. A fascinating excerpt from Arun Sinha's Nitish Kumar And The Rise Of Bihar.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered the closure of Darbar Move offices in Srinagar on October 31, following Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's announcement to restore the tradition. The Darbar Move, which involves shifting government offices between Srinagar and Jammu, was scrapped in 2021 but is now being reinstated.
Few people have left the kind of imprint on India's advertising canvas as Piyush Pandey. An observer who seemed to know what made the country tick, a man who could find humour in life's everyday struggles and spin magic from it, one who understood that to reach the masses you needed to communicate with them in their language and context -- he was all of this and more.
Winnability to be paramount in selection of candidates, followed by clean public image and proven loyalty to the BJP.
Asrani may have never been a marquee name up in sparkling lights or on outsized posters but the sheer proficiency with which he realised his characters has unleashed gales of laughter over five decades and made a significant contribution to several landmark films. Dinesh Raheja salutes the iconic actor.
Mithun Manhas: Street-Smart cricketer, who was always at the right place at right time
Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha was appointed as the next cabinet secretary of the country on Friday. He will succeed Ajit Seth who has been holding the position for the last four years.
Former Jharkhand chief minister and BJP leader Champai Soren was placed under house arrest on Sunday to prevent law and order issues in view of a protest by tribal outfits against land acquisition for a multi-crore state-run health institute, police said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 1,600-crore assistance package for flood-hit Punjab after reviewing the damage. He also announced ex gratia for the deceased and injured. The state is battling its worst deluge since 1988.
In a significant administrative reshuffle, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ordered the transfer and posting of 48 J-K Administrative Service (JKAS) officers, potentially creating friction with the National Conference-led government in the Union Territory. The move, seen by many as an attempt by the LG to assert control over the bureaucracy, includes the transfer of 14 additional deputy commissioners and 26 sub-divisional magistrates. The timing of the order, coinciding with the elected government's wait for approval on business rules, raises concerns over power dynamics in the region.
The latest extension will allow Bhalla to stay in the post during the general elections due early next year.
The L-G will take decisions on police, officers of all-India services such as the IAS and the IPS, and giving sanction for prosecution in various cases.
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
The Bihar squad for the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season was finally picked on Tuesday after extensive deliberations and legal wranglings.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
Sinha, a retired IAS officer of 1977 batch, was appointed as Principal Advisor to the Prime Minister in September 2019, after a brief stint as an officer on special duty.
'The critical event signalling a new era for India was Dr Singh's 1991 Budget in which he quoted Victor Hugo to say that no power on earth could stop an idea whose time has come,' recalls T N Ninan.
On eve of completion of one year of the Narendra Modi government one of the not-so-debated issues has been the indecision and confusion in selecting a cabinet secretary suitable for the National Democratic Alliance government.
India's opposition parties have sharply criticized the Union Budget, calling it inadequate to address the country's economic woes and accusing the BJP-led government of using it to woo voters in Bihar and Delhi ahead of upcoming elections. Leaders from the Congress, TMC, DMK, SP, and CPI(M) voiced their disapproval, highlighting concerns over inflation, unemployment, and the lack of substantial measures to support the agricultural sector and the poor. They also criticized the tax cuts for the middle class as insufficient and coming too late after years of high taxes and rising prices.
Will Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who gets his orders from New Delhi, call the shots or allow a democratically elected government to independently govern, questions Ramesh Menon.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
Ending the logjam persisting for 42 days in the wake of the rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar hospital, the agitating medics withdrew the 'cease work' after holding a march to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Salt Lake in Kolkata from the state health department's headquarters, where they had been demonstrating for over a week.
The appointments committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared Bhalla's appointment as OSD in the ministry with immediate effect.
Asansol is home to a sizeable migrant population, and the BJP had hoped that Singh would be an effective counter to Sinha, the actor-politician who was in the saffron party for decades before walking out in 2019.
In a first, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met the secretaries of all the government departments collectively and asked them to directly get in touch with him to resolve issues and expedite decision-making.
Last week, Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha said that the government is confident of adding 1,18,000 MW capacity by 2017.
India's tactical and operational response demonstrated its ability to prosecute tri-service operations, even without a formal tri-service doctrine or the higher command structure needed to coordinate it, points out Ajai Shukla.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana will enable one crore families to get up to 300 units of free electricity monthly and help them save up to Rs 18,000 annually. "There is provision of Rs 10,000 crore for rooftop solar (scheme) in the Budget," said finance secretary T V Somanathan in press conference on Budget later in the day. Earlier in the day Sitharaman in her interim Budget speech said through rooftop solarisation, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity each month.
The outspoken Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, in a no-holds-barred assault on the Modi government, said its ministers were a "bunch of sycophants" 90 per cent of whom were hardly known to people.
A day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar formed the government in Bihar in alliance with the National Democratic Alliance, hectic lobbying started for the post of assembly speaker, and other legislators to be included in the council of ministers.
Nagaland and Meghalaya BJP chief Temjen Imna Along and Ernest Mawrie, respectively also named party candidates approved by the party's central election committee.
The way the present government has dealt with appointments of civil servants remains to be a cause for concern.
He was administered the oath of office by Governor Rajendra Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving yet another six-month extension to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has created ripples in the corridors of power since the latter was a United Progressive Alliance appointee and was seen as the main reason behind the non-performing image of the UPA government at the fag-end of their tenure.
Retired army personnel will be appointed as additional superintendents of police to impart training to the police force in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in Dergaon on Monday.
'Nobody is speaking up for Muslims today.' 'Secular parties too have calmed down because they feel this will hurt the Hindu vote (bank).' 'In this scenario, where does a Muslim go?'