As 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of world's worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, India plans to construct a memorial for the victims of the tragedy,Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Saturday.
The Congress party suffered a crushing defeat in the Delhi elections, failing to secure a single seat in the 70-member assembly for the third consecutive time. Key candidates, including Sheila Dikshit's son, Sandeep Dikshit, lost their deposits. The only consolation for the party was a slight improvement in its vote share, which they attribute to a vigorous campaign and a renewed focus on contesting elections independently. However, the defeat raises questions about the party's ability to compete in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, particularly in light of its performance in other recent state elections.
Ramesh said the local leadership and admitted there were shortcomings in the party's campaign there.
The party has asked members to put an immediate end to the campaign for and against Soni.
In a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Saturday appointed Avinash Pande the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh.
Infosys will comply with whatever regulations and guidelines Karnataka comes up with, a top company official said on Thursday on the proposed reservations for locals in private firms in the state. Infosys employs over 3.15 lakh people at present across the globe. "We are planning to work with all the regulations of the state and central governments.
Soon after the suspension of 33 opposition Lok Sabha MPs, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms have been thrown into the dustbin by this "autocratic" government and it has shown zero accountability towards Parliament.
Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) chairman Bibek Debroy passed away this morning, a senior EAC-PM official said. He was admitted to AIIMS. Debroy (69) was educated in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur; Presidency College, Kolkata; Delhi School of Economics; and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Three of the cheetahs have been born in June 2020, comprising two female and one male, while the second oldest of the lot is seven years and ten months old, they added.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh believes that renaming the Land Acquisition Bill was felt necessary to eliminate the danger of the price spiralling once the first land is acquired in an area.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India had recently stated that real estate projects were experiencing time and cost overruns due to shortage of labour because of schemes like Nrega.
The Congress on Friday hit out at the Election Commission after it rejected allegations over irregularities in the Haryana assembly polls, saying if the poll panel's goal is to 'strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality', then it is doing a 'remarkable job' at creating that impression.
"This is ENTIRE political science," Jairam Ramesh said apparently taking a dig at PM Narendra Modi.
Hundreds of rural women who gathered to collect forms for a newly announced government scheme in Jorhat district of Assam left their queues to greet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was leading the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' through the area on Thursday.
In a statement, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also described the government's strategy in dealing with the Chinese in Ladakh as 'DDLJ- Deny, Distract, Lie and Justify' and Jaishankar's remarks an implied cheap shot at former party chief Rahul Gandhi.
Asked whether it was an effort at unity, he said this is not an attempt but a reality. "We are one."
This will be the last visit of Zoellick as President of World Bank as he is retiring on June 30.
The satyagraha will begin at 10 AM and end at 5 PM on Sunday.
During his month-long tour, Ramesh would seek views from scientists, agriculture experts, farmers' organisations, consumer groups and non-government organisations on the report submitted by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee on Bt brinjal in October.
Officials have said an absence of drainage system and safety measures, and use of basement for commercial activities in violation of norms led to the death of three civil services aspirants at the coaching centre.
Several leaders of the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have given a privilege notice against leader of the house in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal over his certain remarks against some opposition leaders.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday met Jan Satyagrah activists and agreed to their demands for framing a National Land Reforms Policy, defusing a crisis that could have been triggered by their march to the national capital.
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties will make all-out efforts to thwart the government's move to pass the bill even as the numbers are stacked in favour of the NDA with BJD and YSRCP pledging their support to the government on the bill.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Wednesday announced five guarantees for women, including annual direct cash transfers of Rs 1 lakh to one woman from each of the country's poorest families and 50 per cent quota in all new recruitments in central government jobs.
The opposition party is set to stage protests across the country against the questioning of its chief and has slammed the agency's action against its top leadership as "political vendetta".
Observing that the United Progressive Alliance government's Land Acquisition Bill is "a political response to a political problem", Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said his party leader Rahul Gandhi was the force behind the speedy introduction of the bill in Lok Sabha.
As Election 2024 hurtles towards result day in a medley of mangalsutra, mujra, mutton, machli and other barbs, these may sound like character names from Hindi comics of yore. Instead, these are the mocking, sometimes vicious monikers given by political rivals to each other.
Just eight months after its good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) seems to be running out of steam with internal bickering and conflicting ambitions resulting in diminishing electoral returns that have once again put the Bharatiya Janata Party in the driver's seat in national politics.
The party said it was 'an inexcusable slip-up', for which responsibility was being fixed and action would be taken.
"His own government has destroyed Gandhian institutions in Varanasi, Delhi and Ahmedabad," the Congress leader alleged.
The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh has announced that trade across the Line of Control will start as soon as a government is installed in Pakistan. In all 23 items of trade will move across the LoC. Nine of these 23 items have been proposed by Pakistan and 14 by India. Once started, the trade across LoC will add another significant milestone to the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process. The foundation stone for ITC for trade exhibitions was laid near Srinagar.
In a move to apparently woo All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Congress leader and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has offered an additional grant of over Rs 93 crore to her government, under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme. In a letter written to the CM, Ramesh mentions that the state government had utilised 60 per cent of the over Rs 273 crore allocated under the NRDWP.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday dared the opposition to share evidence of allegations that returning officers and district magistrates were influenced to vitiate the poll process so the panel could take action against them.
The Environment Ministry was hit by controversies in the year gone by which saw clearances for two big ticket projects -- POSCO and Lavasa -- and exit of Jairam Ramesh as the green minister.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee will not be part of the virtual meeting on Saturday morning as she is preoccupied with prior engagements, they said.
"The agenda as published at the moment, is much ado about nothing - all this could have waited till Winter session in November. I am sure the legislative grenades are being kept up their sleeves to be unleashed at the last moment as usual. Parde ke peeche kuch aur hai!" he said.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said like other states, the BJP started the game of using money power, power of the government and muscle power to destabilise the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh but has failed.
The Congress, however, distanced itself from the statement made at the party's 'Satyagraha' protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the Centre's Agnipath scheme, saying it does not endorse any indecent remarks against the prime minister.
The Congress leader's remarks had drawn a sharp response from the treasury benches, with Law Minister Kiren Rijiju asking him not to level "wild allegations" and to furnish proof of his claims.