Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday sought an apology from the Congress for the controversial statement by party MP that suggested a call for a separate south nation over fiscal injustice, but the opposition party's president said it stands for a united nation and will not tolerate any such call.
Analysts and economists have hailed the fiscal projections in the interim Budget, saying the lower fiscal deficit forecast shows that the government, even in an election year, is serious about fiscal consolidation and that the numbers look achievable. According to Devendra Kumar Pant, the chief economist at India Ratings, the two broad themes of the interim Budget are fiscal consolidation and stepping up focus on agriculture/rural to course correct, to some extent, the differential benefits of the ongoing economic growth that's tilted in favour of upper-income bracket/urban households. The projected fiscal deficit numbers for FY24 and FY25 suggest that the government is serious about achieving the fiscal consolidation path of 4.5 per cent fiscal deficit by FY26, and given the nominal GDP growth assumption and revenue buoyancy, the target appears plausible, Pant said in a note.
'2019 was fought on delivery. But in 2024, you can see the before and after effects.'
A contractor who had accused the Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister K S Eshwarappa of demanding 40 per cent commission for a contract, was found dead in a lodge in the coastal town of Udupi on Tuesday morning.
The move is aimed at cutting the fiscal deficit, which the government wants to contain at 4.1 per cent of GDP.
The affordable housing segment may be seeing an uptick which is a good sign of consumption momentum. This is the biggest-ticket purchase for middle income and lower income families. The current activity is at least partly driven by a pause in interest rate hikes.
RBI Governor has dismissed the notion that the rural employment guarantee programme is behind the massive spurt in wages in rural areas.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced a 66 per cent hike in the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY) outlay to Rs 79,000 crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed to farmers and other stakeholders associated with the cooperative sector to make GCMMF, which owns the 'Amul' brand, the world's number one dairy company from its current eighth position. He was addressing nearly one lakh people, mostly cattle rearers and farmers, gathered at the Narendra Modi stadium in Motera area of Ahmedabad for the golden jubilee celebration of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF).
Kamal Nath said the meeting identified "some areas of concerns and interest" from both sides impacting two-way trade, like "the issue of setting up titanium plants for the aircraft sector.
NASSCOM Foundation and DataWind Corporation, have started a pilot project to provide internet connectivity in the rural areas.
India will become the world's third largest economy by 2026 as its GDP in current dollar terms will reach $5 trillion in that year and further rise to $5.5 trillion in 2027, former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Friday. Delivering the 18th C D Deshmukh Memorial Lecture titled 'India at 125: Reclaiming the Lost Glory and Returning the Global Economy to the Old Normal', he said it is unlikely that GDP in current dollar terms of either Germany or Japan will cross $5 trillion-mark in the coming three years. Japan will have to sustain a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in current dollar terms to reach $5.03 trillion in 2027 from its 2022 level of $4.2 trillion, he said.
Bio-toilets developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation on Tuesday earned praise from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who said that these could go a long way in solving the problem of open defecation in rural India.
'Pandi was promised something, that is not happening, so his anger is not of a villain's.' 'That's how all normal humans would react, or they stay silent.' 'Our violence is our silence. So in this world, everybody is innocent.'
Well ahead of the November 12 assembly elections, the BJP projected Thakur as the next chief minister.
'The water crisis is so obvious that people see no point begging for it from politicians.'
The prime minister will be part of the launch of several development initiatives on his birthday.
Launching the Rs 1,000 crore scheme to meet the water problem in different parts of the country, he asked the people to turn the mission of water conservation into a 'People's Movement'.
Attributing to three studies on agriculture, energy and migration, the ADB said on Wednesday the impacts of rising temperatures in Asia would fall disproportionately on the region's poor, and rural women from developing countries would be among the most affected groups.
It was under his stewardship of the Union Rural Development Ministry that NREGA, the flagship rural livelihood scheme, was implemented.
The rural development ministry has asked NGO's to run the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in in Naxal-hit areas.
Harish Hande had a strong belief in the potential of solar energy for solving energy utility issues, and decided to take the challenge head on.
With this allocation of portfolios, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has got most of the 'plum' ministries.
The project would ensure basic minimum facilities for villages like water and sanitation, power, schools and markets.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday came down heavily on the Congress government in Karnataka for flaunting their 'rich fortunes and luxury lifestyles' following a viral video on social media showing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleague B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan in a private jet.
Among the Sensex firms, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement, JSW Steel, Titan, Bajaj Finance, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Nestle were the major laggards. Maruti, Power Grid, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, NTPC, HDFC Bank, ITC and IndusInd Bank were the gainers.
US technology company NVIDIA and billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Friday announced a partnership to build AI supercomputers in India. "The companies will work together to build AI infrastructure that is over an order of magnitude more powerful than the fastest supercomputer in India today," the firms said in a statement. Days before the announcement, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.
Singh was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the NREGA (National Rural Guarantee Employment) Act.
On the other hand, another minister, Rajendra Singh Gudha, once again endorsed senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot's name for the chief minister's post.
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.
A further reduction in termination rates would seriously impact mobile operators' plans to expand in rural areas, say Rajat Kathuria and Mahesh Uppal.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday cleared a proposal that offers an option of availing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to the state government employees who joined the service after November 2005.
This will be done across five cities - Delhi, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong. Thereafter, it will be scaled up and launched in 100 cities over a period of six months, said a senior government official.
The Tata Group has decided to defer its plan of setting up a rural business process outsourcing unit near the proposed steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa by two years.
Employment generation in the midst of a global meltdown will be the central idea of the Interim Budget that the United Progressive Alliance will present on February 16, just ahead of the general elections.
In Chamoli district, a flood-like situation has developed along the banks of a dozen rivers, including Alaknanda and its tributaries Pindar, Nandakini and Birhi.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
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