The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) with a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore to promote domestic cultivation of oil palm in the next five years, and reduce the country's dependence on edible oil imports. The decision comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the new central scheme on August 15 during his Independence Day speech at Red Fort. Briefing the media, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the Cabinet approved the NMEO-OP with a focus on the northeast region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore.
India finished the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) tournament with 10 gold, nine silver and five bronze for a total of 24 medals.
Stepping up its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday slammed Prime Minister Narendra for keeping silent in the controversy involving Lalit Modi and other scandals and threatened to launch a nationwide agitation if the tainted ministers and leaders are not sacked.
The PM also said that the country does not face problems in farm production but in post-harvest losses and therefore efforts are being made to strengthen post harvest infrastructure facilities and ensure better income for farmers.
Another bill related to the farm sector, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, was passed on Tuesday.
Union Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday announced that a high-level committee will be constituted to probe into the leakage of toxic gas at SAIL's Bhilai Plant in Chhattisgarh in which six people were killed and about 30 others injured.
The 28 new ministers who joined the Chouhan cabinet on July 2 include 20 of cabinet rank and eight ministers of state.
The new bill will now be introduced in the Lok Sabha for passage in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament beginning November 29.
The committee has been tasked to come up with policy measures to boost agriculture exports, raise growth in food processing, attract investments in modern market infrastructure, value chains and logistics.
The prime minister also asked senior ministers to hand-hold the new incumbents, sources said after the meeting.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar accused the Congress of ignoring farmers' interests and keeping them poor to ensure cheap grain prices, and asserted that the Modi government empowered them by implementing the Swaminathan commission report to give them remunerative price through MSP.
Ugly scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday as opposition MPs climbed on the officials' table, waved black cloth and threw files when the House began a discussion on farmers' protest against new reform laws.
The protesting farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been at the border points of the national capital for almost 40 days now, braving the bone-chilling cold weather in the region.
On day two of the ISSF World Cup in Baku, Divya TS and Sarabjot Singh bagged gold.
The sixth round of talks between the government and farm union leaders, which was scheduled for Wednesday morning, has been cancelled. According to the union leaders, a new 'Delhi chalo' (march to Delhi)' call is being given to all farmers in the north India for December 14, while those in the South will be asked to protest at district headquarters.
The opposition made it clear during the meeting that it will press for a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Rafale jet deal and raise several issues, including the "misuse" of probe agencies and the autonomy for Reserve Bank of India.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that primary schools will be closed from Saturday in view of spike in pollution levels in the national capital.
'How can we have lunch offered by the government when our fellow farmers are sitting on roads'
By March 17 it would be clear on who will be anointed to the post.
Tomar said the union leaders kept insisting on repeal of the three farm laws, but the government side tried to explain them the benefits of the Acts and sought to know specific problems faced by the farmers.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, J P Nadda and Prakash Javadekar were among the key leaders from the BJP at the meeting.
The government has made its flagship crop insurance schemes voluntary for farmers with existing crop loans or those willing to take new ones, as it seeks to address the concerns raised by farmers' body and states in implementation of these programmes. "The Union Cabinet has approved the revamping of 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)' and 'Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS)' to address the existing challenges in implementation of crop insurance schemes," an official statement said.
Kaur, the Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, is the only SAD representative in the Modi government.
Dalit students at a government school in Champawat district refused to eat mid-day meals cooked by an upper caste woman after a cook belonging to the Scheduled Caste was sacked.
Here are some of the key farmer leaders who fronted the protests.
Expelled Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday said he has not received any official communication from the party regarding his expulsion, and still considers himself to be a part of the 'movement'.
"A full repeal of three central farm laws and enacting legislation for remunerative minimum support price for all farmers were reiterated as the pending demands of the movement," said the release signed by Krantikari Kisan Union leader Darshan Pal.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet his six-member cabinet at 1pm on Monday as the new Aam Aadmi Party gets down to work.
If Harshita has her way, she would happily miss the exams again but she can't.
'It's really sad to see a promising career cut short so rudely.'
The fifth round of talks was held on December 5, while the sixth round originally scheduled for December 9 was called off after an informal meeting of Home Minister Shah with some union leaders failed to reach any breakthrough.
The government and farm unions had reached some common ground on Wednesday to resolve protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning.
Union leaders, who came out of the meeting venue shouting slogans, said the talks remained deadlocked and some of them threatened to boycott any further meetings if no solution was found at Thursday's meeting.
Wrestlers narrate instances of sexual favours demand, sexual harassment, inappropriate touching
During the last few meetings, farmer leaders have been arranging their own lunch, snacks and beverages while refusing to have the food organised by the government.
Since a Supreme Court-appointed panel on farm laws is likely to hold its first meeting on January 19, the meeting on Friday between with the government and the unions may be the last one.
A search operation was on to trace the missing persons, the SP said.
A senior Madhya Pradesh Congress legislator joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hours after hitting out at his own party in the assembly.
The AIKS, a key member of the "Samyukta Kisan Morcha" that is spearheading the "Dilli Chalo" agitation against the three farm laws, asserted that no farmer organisation approached the court in the first place and asked for its intervention in the matter.
Aam Aadmi Party's Tilak Nagar legislator Jarnail Singh has been booked by the police for allegedly assaulting a Municipal Corporation of Delhi engineer and preventing him from carrying out his duty when the latter and his team had gone to demolish an illegal construction in west Delhi.
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