Five days after the induction of 18 ministers into his cabinet, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday allocated portfolios, keeping Urban Development and 11 other ministries with himself, while giving the crucial Home Department to Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Almost a year after he was forced to resign in the aftermath of the terror attack on Mumbai, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader R R Patil is back in the saddle as Maharashtra home minister. NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar will handle the prestigious Power portfolio, in addition to the Water Resources Ministry he handled earlier. NCP leader Jayant Patil, who was home minister in the outgoing government, will now handle the Rural Development Ministry.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
Rural outlay may go up 23% to reduce pains of demonetisation
The controversial Land Acquisition Bill was on Thursday cleared by the Union Cabinet, making mandatory the consent of 80 per cent of people whose land is taken for private projects.
After UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had intervened and asked government to take consent from 80 per cent land owner for purchase of land.
Government departments have been tasked with identifying major goals, which will include annual targets from the financial year 2024-2025 to 2028-2029.
The state governments will be allowed to acquire a maximum of 10 per cent of the total land area allotted for a special economic zone for purposes of contiguity, according to a top source in the rural development ministry.
India's report outlining its steps towards the promotion and protection of human rights will be taken up for review as part of a mechanism under which UN member States review the human rights performance of fellow States, on Thursday in Geneva, according to the ministry of external affairs.
The recent blacklisting of 600 NGOs by the Union rural development ministry was meant to stem the rot in the functioning of its autonomous body called Council for Advancement of People's Action And Rural Technology or Capart.
Officials said the broad objective of the study is to evaluate the extent to which the programme has achieved its aim and find out the factors responsible for its progress and suggest remedial measures needed to overcome the difficulties.
It was under his stewardship of the Union Rural Development Ministry that NREGA, the flagship rural livelihood scheme, was implemented.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved a three-month extension in Sudan's service, beyond the date of her superannuation, i.e. April 30, a personnel ministry order said. She will continue to function as the secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare during the period, it said.
Major portfolios like home, finance and education were on Tuesday allocated to People's Democratic Party ministers by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who will himself hold the charge of home ministry.
Key infrastructure sectors -- from railways to power, and from coal to petroleum -- will not only be part of the achievements but promises too, as the BJP fights to get a third term at the Centre.
The report highlights that India's population in 2036 is expected to be more feminine compared to the 2011 population, as reflected in the sex ratio which is projected to increase from 943 in 2011 to 952 by 2036, highlighting a positive trend in gender equality.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and former Minister of State Shashi Tharoor were seen having a long chat in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, after a newspaper reported their alleged link in the Indian Premier League bids for the Kochi team.
The Centre has appointed senior IAS officers Vumlunmang Vualnam and Neeraj Mittal as new secretaries in the ministry of civil aviation and the department of telecommunications respectively in a major secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle, a government order stated.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said that the central government has not enumerated caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in census since Independence.
The United Nations General Assembly, heeding to a call by Prime Minister Modi, had made a declaration in December 2014 to observe June 21 every year as IDY.
India will issue a new decree this week for land purchases that has stirred disquiet across the country
Singh Deo will, however, remain the minister for Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax departments.
'The prime minister's comment on 'revdi culture' was welcome. But I am disappointed he did not follow up on that.' 'All political parties, including the BJP, have been guilty of this.' 'Now, Modi's guarantees, the Congress's 'nyay' path and both ruling and Opposition parties are vying with each other for freebies in my home state Andhra Pradesh.'
The Delhi high court on Monday asked the Centre to file reply on a plea seeking linking of immovable and movable property documents of citizens with their Aadhaar numbers to curb corruption, black money generation, and benami transactions.
As rural areas see a rise in COVID-19 cases, the Centre on Sunday issued new guidelines for containment of the virus advising that peri-urban and rural areas plan a minimum 30-bedded COVID Care Centre for asymptomatic cases with comorbidities or mild cases where home isolation is not feasible.
Moody's Ratings on Tuesday said India's growing water shortage can disrupt farm and industry sectors and is detrimental to the credit health of the sovereign as rising food inflation and decline in income may spark social unrest. It said decreases in water supply can disrupt agricultural production and industrial operations, resulting in inflation in food prices and hence can be detrimental to credit health of sectors that heavily consume water, such as coal power generators and steel-makers.
SVAMITVA is a new government project that primarily aims to demarcate abadi areas that includes inhabitant land, inhabited areas contiguous to abadi and wadis/basties in rural areas, using drone surveying technology.
'The government should come back as a job creator as it did in the 1960s and the 1970s.'
The socio-economic and caste census 2011 painted a grim picture of rural India, indicating that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood.
But the government will present a second tranche of Supplementary Demands for Grants during the Budget session of Parliament in February, when it can seek additional spending.
The government is targeting export of goods and services worth $2 trillion by 2030.
Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh sanctioned Rs 1133 crore to Tamil Nadu for upgrading 3,000 kilometers of roadways under Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojana.
The government has no proposal at present to release the report of the caste census carried out in 2011, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
The Centre received 5.59 lakh public grievances against various government departments in the first half of this year, with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) getting most of such complaints, according to an official report.
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