'BJP has lot of money. Even a rich person like me is scared of taking on the financial muscle of the BJP.' 'What is the point of throwing money? Result toh aane wala nahi hai.'
Preparing for the second phase of the battle on the women's reservation bill, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has called her partymen for a dinner on Thursday to 10 Janpath to give them a pep-talk on the women reservation bill amid reports that a number of MPs are unhappy with the amendment.
'If you are weak economically, you automatically lag behind in other aspects of life.'
If she cannot recast the party, bring together the factions opposed to her, and present herself as her brother's true challenger, there will be little left for her in politics, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Following are comments from economists at leading financial institutions, banks and rating agencies on the interim Budget:
Several Union Ministers and leaders of various political parties apologised on Monday to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari for the disrespect shown to him by some members and their unruly behaviour in the House on the issue of taking up the Women's Reservation Bill.
He criticised the ruling UPA for its failure to bring in the Women's Reservation bill aimed at reserving seats for women in the Parliament and state legislature.
The contribution from asset management companies (AMCs) has surpassed the Rs 3,000 crore target for the creation of a Rs 33,000 crore backstop facility for debt mutual funds (MFs). The initial corpus for the Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) is nearly Rs 3,100 crore, according to multiple government officials and AMC executives. "The fund is operational now. "The required corpus has been raised by AMCs and the remaining part (Rs 30,000 crore) is in the form of a guarantee from the government which will be activated only in case of a credit event," explained D P Singh, joint CEO and deputy MD, SBI MF.
Batting for early passage of women's reservation bill, Rahul Gandhi on Monday vowed to work for larger representation to them in Parliament, government and Congress and noted that the party and the country cannot ignore the views of half of the population.
For the banking system a new cycle starts in FY2024. It's fraught with fresh challenges on asset quality and profitability, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government has introduced the Code on Wages Bill 2019 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill 2019 in Lok Sabha on July 23.
Continuing with his opposition to the Women's Reservation Bill, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh alleged that quota for the fairer sex would impede the progress of backwards and minorities on Friday.
Lok Janshakti Party supremo Ramvilas Paswan on Saturday urged the Centre to raise the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 814 and make provisions for a separate quota for women from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other weaker sections of society and minorities."I have serious apprehensions over the passage of the Bill in its present form. We have suggested increasing the number of seats from existing 543 to 814," said Paswan.
The bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley is expected to table the report of Rajya Sabha's Select Committee on Lokpal in the Upper House on Friday, the second day of the winter session of Parliament. The committee is headed by Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi and such reports are usually tabled by the chairmen of the committees. The government is expected to consider the recommendations made by the Select Committee.
For the convenience of people to pay school fees and municipal taxes and utility bills through an integrated platform, the Reserve Bank on Thursday proposed setting up an "anytime anywhere" bill payment system.
It does not bar any state or the Centre from continuing or launching other food-based schemes.
The transfer of powers to the Centre has been necessitated after the ownership of the SBI was transfered from the RBI to the government.
Terming the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as 'anti-Dalit', the Bahujan Samaj Party on Friday demanded that a special session of Parliament should be called in August to clear the Bill for reservation in promotions for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe employees.
Even as the deadlock between the Gujjars and the government over the quota issue persisted for the 13th day on Saturday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ruled their demand for five per cent reservation in state government jobs, saying the government will work according to the guidelines of the Rajasthan high court.
The PM is seen as slipping up in confidence levels as aired by his 'exposure' of the BRS on a crucial issue as alliance negotiations, which is not done under normal circumstances, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal disrupted Question Hour in Rajya Sabha on Monday over implementation of Ranganath Misra Commission report on minority welfare, leading to adjournment of the House till noon.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi appears to be playing for larger -- and long term -- stakes and the move to provide reservation to women is not bereft of political calculations, writes Neerja Chowdhury
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress members of Legislative Assembly on Friday disrupted proceedings in the Delhi assembly demanding tabling of the Lt Governor's communication to the Speaker against the introduction of Jan Lokpal Bill in the House without Centre's clearance.
A more vigilant Opposition and a more aware civil society including the media could have certainly helped keep a check on an unhealthy trend, says A K Bhattacharya.
The inflation target of the RBI would be reviewed once every five years.
Lauding the contribution made by the retiring members, the prime minister hoped they will continue to serve people with the same zeal and determination.
The government is learnt to have deleted the term 'minorities' from the Lokpal Bill with regard to the provision of having 50 per cent quota in the Lokpal bench and the Search Committee.
The SBI (Subsidiary Banks Laws) Amendment Bill 2009, introduced by minister of state for finance P K Bansal, was necessitated as these powers were vested with the Reserve Bank of India from whom the ownership of these banks were transferred to the Centre few years ago. Once passed, the bill would empower the Centre to increase or reduce the authorised capital of a subsidiary bank.
In his first response to the issue, Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) has already responded to the matter twice.
At a time when crude oil and natural gas prices are sky-high, public sector behemoth ONGC's haphazard planning and mismanagement in developing showpiece deep-sea KG-D5 block is costing the nation over Rs 18,000 crores due to the delayed output of oil and gas, government officials said. ONGC was originally to start gas production from the Cluster-II fields in block KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) in June 2019 and the first oil was to flow in March 2020. But these targets were quietly shifted to end-2021 because of deferments in awarding the fragmented work packages of the project, two officials with direct knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The government expressed confidence over passage of Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament on Monday, saying though it did not want to "bulldoze" those opposing it, but they should understand that equality was a fundamental right.
Moitra said she has been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist and that there was no evidence of cash or gift given to her.
'We want to send a notice to the BJP that Rajputs are no longer their slaves.'
Mallikarjun Kharge, meanwhile, came to the defence of his son, saying he never made those comments.
Raising the pitch against the quota bill, thousands of Uttar Pradesh government employees on Monday marched down the streets of Lucknow, expressing their ire against Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The agitators blamed them for pushing the constitutional amendment bill in the Parliament for introducing reservation in promotions in all government jobs.
Passed by a voice vote, the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2022, also bans "mass conversion" - described as two or more people converting at the same time - through force or allurement .
With the issue of safety and security of women taking precedence on International Women's Day, the demand for early passage of the women's reservation bill appeared to have taken a backseat in Lok Sabha.
Rajasthan is reeling under a huge financial burden with the state's debt having gone beyond Rs 5.59 lakh crores. Rajasthan has increased expenditure on education by 203.4 percent, by 105.4 percent on health, by 227.14 percent on housing. Its expenditure on social welfare schemes has increased by almost 2,475 per cent.
