The Supreme Court of India has ruled that Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi can no longer serve as chancellor of state-run universities, a decision welcomed by the ruling DMK party. The court's judgment stems from a long-standing dispute between the state government and the governor over the assent of 10 bills passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly. The DMK alleges that the governor had obstructed the smooth functioning of universities by delaying appointments and other critical matters. The judgment paves the way for the Tamil Nadu government to appoint new chancellors for its universities, effectively removing the governor's influence in higher education.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to get reservation for women in legislatures promises to shape the political discourse ahead of key state polls and Lok Sabha elections, and a parliamentary approval to the long-contested proposal will be used by the Bharatiya Janata Party to burnish his credentials as a decisive leader.
'Trump is likely being purposefully vague, hoping that this lack of clarity will pressure India, fearing the worst, to agree to scale back its imports of Russian oil.'
The government on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill reserving 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, reviving a proposal pending for years and blending history, politics and societal imperatives on the first day in the new Parliament building.
A substantial number of castes and groups are already placed in the reserved category, getting about 52 per cent of reservations altogether. It would be completely inequitable to place the Maratha community in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category, it said.
It was also the only session in the 17th Lok Sabha when the lower house did not lose any time due to adjournments, according to data compiled by a think tank.
The MiG-21 episode demonstrates that procurement is always strategic.
Choices about what aircraft to acquire, who builds them, who supplies the spares, who trains the pilots and technicians are decisions with political consequences lasting for decades.
Who else will take on the might of Microsoft, Google, and Amazon if not the Adanis, Ambanis, Birlas, or Tatas?, asks R Jagannathan.
India's goods exports rebounded in July after two months of contraction, with outbound shipments rising 7.3 per cent to $37.24 billion, led by a surge in exports to the United States before the country's reciprocal tariff kicked in and bolstered by a recovery in exports to other key markets.
Earlier attempts by the state governments to introduce the reservation for Marathas have been struck down by courts.
The Karnataka cabinet has approved a bill mandating 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in private firms for Group C and Group D posts, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Tuesday.
UPI has catapulted India into the forefront on the global digital payments landscape. Working hand in hand, the AePS payments system is making life easy for rural folks, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Eighteen BJP MLAs were suspended for six months from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for disrupting the budget session and disrespecting the Speaker. The incident occurred on the last day of the budget session, when the opposition BJP MLAs staged a massive protest over the allocation of a four percent reservation to Muslims in public contracts. The MLAs climbed onto the podium where the Speaker's chair is situated and threw papers at him.
'There is responsibility to make great games that are played by audiences, that fill the gap from an entertainment perspective.'
Nitish Kumar has pledged to create 10 million jobs in the next five years apart from offering voters many other sops.
It also saw the suspension of 100 members in a span of four days for unruly conduct and a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack.
The latest book, in Singh's words, is "not merely a recounting of events but a mosaic of narratives, each woven with the depth and nuances of storytelling".
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
Pakistan on Tuesday increased its defence budget by 20 per cent, allocating PRs. 2,550 billion ($9 billion) for the fiscal year 2025-26, amid tensions with India.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar denied on Monday making any comments regarding changing the Constitution to accommodate four per cent reservation for Muslims in the state. He claimed he was "misquoted" and warned of moving a breach of privilege motion. Shivakumar's remarks came after the BJP forced repeated adjournments in the Lok Sabha over his alleged comments on the matter. The BJP has accused Shivakumar of seeking to change the Constitution for political gain, highlighting the ongoing controversy surrounding reservation policies in India.
Major credit issuers, including the largest - HDFC Bank - have integrated their systems with the Bharat Bill Payment Systems (BBPS) for receiving credit card repayments via third-party applications.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the incident of Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad slapping an employee of a canteen at the MLAs' hostel in Mumbai sends out a wrong message about all legislators that they indulge in misuse of power.
'Revolving credit without full repayment causes interest to outpace repayment capacity, and leads to financial distress.'
The Tamil Nadu government has argued in the Supreme Court that Governor R N Ravi's repeated withholding of assent to bills passed by the state legislative assembly would lead to the failure of the democratic system in India. The top court has questioned the delay by the Governor in granting assent to several bills passed by the state assembly and asked why governors should wait for parties to move the court with their grievances. The court has also said that the Governor cannot refer bills passed by the legislature and re-adopted by it for presidential assent.
A Governor does not possess any discretion in exercise of functions under Article 200 of the Constitution in respect to any bill presented to them and must mandatorily abide by the advice tendered by the council of ministers, the Supreme Court has held.
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'.
'The (Maratha) community people have understood that this is the same reservation that they were given earlier also (but was later struck down)'
In President Donald Trump's big priority bill, there is a proposal for a 5 percent excise tax on remittance transfers that would cover more than 40 million people, including those holding green cards and H1B visas.
In the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, there were 135 women candidates while in the second phase, there were 100 women candidates, bringing the combined total for the first two phases to 235 women candidates.
Any industrial policy is only as good as how it is applied and the other reforms that support it. This was as true 40 years ago as it is now, points out Debashis Basu.
The Governor of a state cannot refer bills passed by the legislature and readopted by it for presidential assent, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday, and asked Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi to hold a meeting with Chief Minister M K Stalin in an effort to end the impasse over 10 such pending bills.
Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal has criticised Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar for questioning the judiciary over the timeline for the president to take decisions, calling it "unconstitutional " and a lowering of the dignity of the chair. Sibal asserted that Dhankhar's remarks are not neutral and amount to an attack on the judiciary by the executive. He also pointed out that the president acts on the aid and advice of the council of ministers, and therefore, the president's power cannot be curtailed. Sibal urged Dhankhar to seek a review of the judiciary's decision or an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court if he has problems with it. He also questioned why Dhankhar only focuses on actions taken during Congress governments and not after 2014.
Besides the bills, the government has listed the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2023-24 for presentation, discussion and voting during the session.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday searched locations in Karnataka, including educational institutions linked to state Home Minister G Parameshwara, as part of a probe into alleged gold smuggling-linked money laundering case against Kannada actor Ranya Rao and others. The ED sources said an educational trust is suspected to have "diverted" funds and made a payment of Rs 40 lakh towards the credit card bill of Rao, allegedly on the instructions of an influential individual. The sources claimed the trust is linked to Parameshwara and the "influential" individual is a politically exposed person. The searches found there were no supporting vouchers or documentation to "substantiate" this payment (for credit card bill payment), they said.
The Indian economy could remain less affected by global trade wars than other countries because the two engines of domestic growth - consumption and investment - are likely to face a limited impact from such headwinds, according to an article on the 'State of the Economy' in the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) bulletin, released on Tuesday.
Marshals had to forcefully evict the BJP MLAs who had surrounded the Speaker's chair.
Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre on Monday said the state government will pay the hospitality bill of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had come to Mysuru in April last year to commemorate 50 years of Project Tiger, which runs up to Rs 80 lakh.
Manjhi's son Santosh Suman, who is a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, made the statement a day after reports emerged that a seat-sharing formula has been arrived at in the National Democratic Alliance, and the HAM was likely to get only one of the state's 40 constituencies.
Trump's method are more destabilising than his policy. So, a good idea these couple of years is to sip Kool-Aid, and savour the joys of Trumplomacy, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
PM to meet SP, RJD and JD(U) as Congress managers fear for passage of Finance Bill.
