He also announced unemployment allowance for the youth, as the party's fourth poll guarantee, on coming to power.
Accusing the previous governments of not making efforts to change the 'narrow' mindset towards sports, Modi said the sports world was marred by maladies like games of nepotism, casteism, corruption and discrimination earlier at every level right from the training to team selection.
The new bill will now be introduced in the Lok Sabha for passage in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament beginning November 29.
A joint forum of central trade unions has given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29, to protest against government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people. The Joint Platform of central trade unions held a meeting in Delhi on March 22, 2022, to take stock of the preparations in various states and sectors for the proposed two-day all India strike on 28-29 March 2022 against "the anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies" of the central government, a statement said. The statement said that roadways, transport workers and electricity workers have decided to join the strike in spite of the impending threat of ESMA (Haryana and Chandigarh, respectively). Financial sectors, including banking and insurance, are joining the strike, it stated.
Where do the four members of the Supreme Court appointed panel to interface with farmers stand on the Modi government's farm laws?
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, the deputy chief minister said, "I believe that many amendments should be there. On this, we have given many suggestions to the Centre earlier and they too were agreeable on many suggestions."
'Whatever I did, I did for the farmers and whatever I am doing, I am doing for the country'
Jawaharlal Nehru did not unfurl the Tricolour at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947. But, in a gesture of nationalistic symbolism -- one that has endured by repetition over the 76 years of independent India -- Nehru took to the ramparts at Red Fort's Lahori Gate on August 16, 1947, unfurled the Tricolour there and delivered his first Independence Day speech.
The decision to roll back the farm laws will go a long way in placating the community, which had backed the saffron party wholeheartedly in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls besides the 2017 assembly polls, and may queer the opposition's pitch for forging a social alliance of Jats and several smaller communities with Muslims, another numerically strong group in the region, against the BJP, its leaders hope.
The statement of the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office comes on the heels of India issuing a notice to Pakistan seeking a review and modification of the IWT in view of Islamabad's "intransigence" in complying with the dispute redressal mechanism of the pact that was inked over six decades ago for sharing of waters of cross-border rivers.
Kejriwal's centralised way of governance might work in Delhi, but Punjab will call for delegation, observes Sanjeev Nayyar.
The petitions alleged that these laws would dismantle the Agricultural Produce Market Committee system intended to ensure fair prices for farm products
Priyanka said the party's fight will continue till the laws are scrapped.
With bird flu being confirmed in 10 states so far, the Centre on Monday urged state governments, including Delhi, not to shut poultry markets and restrict sales based on 'public perception', asserting that there are no scientific reports of transmission of bird flu to humans.
Largest in area among the 75 UP districts, Lakhimpur Kheri, known for sugarcane cultivation, with nine sugar mills in the district, is home to three or four lakh Sikhs.
Attacking critics, he said a "clique" of people exploited farmers for long as they remained in shackles of rules regulating the sale of their produce and stated that this needed to change, which his government has done.
The farm sector has been resilient to the COVID-19 shock and is estimated to grow at 3.9 per cent this fiscal, the Economic Survey said on Monday, while suggesting to the government to give priority to crop diversification, allied farm sectors and alternative fertilisers like Nano urea. The Economic Survey 2021-22 also pitched for increasing agriculture research and development (R&D) and organic farming, besides use of new technologies like drones. "The performance of the agriculture and the allied sector has been resilient to the COVID-19 shock. ...Growth in allied sectors including livestock, dairying and fisheries has been the major drivers of overall growth in the sector," the Survey said. The agriculture sector has experienced buoyant growth in the past two years.
A large car caravan of protesters from various parts of California blocked the traffic on the Bay Bridge on Saturday as they moved towards the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, while several hundreds gathered in downtown Indianapolis.
Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said farmers as well as the NCP and other parties are opposed to the new bills. "Farmers think that the laws are not beneficial for them. There was no hurry (to pass them)," he said.
'What is most distressing is that the revival of the economy, creation of more employment, and reducing poverty are not on the agenda of the government at all.' 'We are an economy on the verge of a demographic disaster.'
A public interest litigation has been filed in the Bombay high court to challenge the decision taken last month by the Maharashtra government, allowing the sale of wine in supermarkets and walk-in stores in the state.
The two main factions in Karnataka's Congress party -- one led by Siddaramaiah and the other by D K Shivakumar -- are both contenders for the chief ministership. Both groups have fought hard to get their choice of MLAs the party ticket, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Prime Minister Modi has certainly pulled back, and his political capital -- dependent as it is on an image that he knows best and never retreats -- may have taken a bit of a beating. But, equally, it is hard to say that the protesters have 'won', argues Mihir S Sharma.
However, onion arrivals have been normal with farmers bringing in 1,400 tonnes of the bulb to Lasalgaon on Friday, substantially lower than 2,429 tonnes on Thursday, but there is no dearth of supply to mandis.
'Crony capitalism will gain due to these Acts.'
In a meeting with the President on behalf of these 18 non-National Democratic Alliance parties, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said he has requested the President to return the bills, and only give his assent after they have been passed after following proper rules and procedures.
'After toiling in the field and selling vegetables in the local market, we don't make more than Rs 1,500 a week.' 'That is just enough for the five of us to survive.' 'My family cannot afford to pay for private coaching for IIT-JEE.'
The Congress released a booklet 'Nau saal, Nau sawaal', asking nine questions from Modi. The BJP rejected the Congress' criticism as a 'bundle of lies and mountain of deception' and said the questions are born out of 'pathological hatred' of the PM.
If eight states could join the VAT system much after the rollout date and after seeing how it works, why can't the same apply to states opposed to the farm laws, asks A K Bhattacharya.
'Will you declare MSP for 100 odd crops that the farmers of India grow?'
Farmers have been protesting seeking repeal of the three contentious farm laws on the borders of New Delhi for the last five months now. The Supreme Court had, on January 11, stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union leader, who has held a series of 'kisan mahapanchayats' in Haryana this month, also warned that the government could find it difficult to stay in power if the new agri-marketing laws are not repealed.
Retail prices across the country continued to be at Rs 80 a kg.
Addressing the members of the House, Singh said agriculture is a state subject but the Centre ignored it. "I find it very strange what the government of India wants to do," he said.
Talking to PTI Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), said, "The two-day nationwide strike by the joint forum of central trade unions has begun this morning". About the impact of the agitation, she said that the entire coal belt (mining area) is affected in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. She also said that there is a good response in industrial areas of Assam, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The AITUC official noted that the banks and insurance sectors are affected all over India, while steel and oil sectors are also seeing partial impact due to the strike. Kaur said that she has got preliminary reports that markets are closed in Odisha.
Nasscom Foundation along with Google has set up a call centre in collaboration with a not-for-profit body ISAP to help women farmers scale up their business. The project is being run on a pilot basis to initially reach out to 20,000 rural women entrepreneurs across six states -- Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan, Nasscom Foundation CEO Nidhi Bhasin said at the launch of "DigiVaani Call Center". "DigiVaani will be one place where rural women entrepreneurs will be able to call and get the information around various schemes available for them, which can help them scale up their business, be it government scheme or any other information that can be of help for them.
About 150 years ago, in British India, big farmers in the western region of Maharashtra agitated over unfair lending practices and demanded a more fair and inclusive financing structure. People say this is where the seeds of the cooperative movement, now omnipresent in the country, were sown. Today, more than 800,000 cooperative societies thrive in India, with 300 million members, a number close to the population of the United States. Despite a reach this deep--grass roots as they call it--cooperatives do not occupy a lion's share in the Indian economy.
To tide over the difficulties due to incessant shutdowns, several farmers in Maharashtra have turned into aggregators and started selling their produce without the help of mandis or agents. They have started contracting with bulk consumers like hypermarkets and co-operative housing societies to sell their produce directly.
'We plan to touch Rs 1 trillion of Amul brand's turnover in the next five years.'
State Bank of India's house economists on Monday said the recent farm sector reforms reek of parochial thinking and promote lazy farming as they only cater to cereal-producing states. In the recently concluded monsoon session, the government rushed through three legislation to change the way agricultural produce is marketed, sold and stored by dismantling the decades-old APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) mandis.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances