In two other changes, young MP Milind Deora, MoS in telecommunication and information technology ministry, got additional the portfolio of Shipping in the same rank and Panabaka Laxmi, who was made MoS in textile ministry on Sunday, was reallocated petroleum and gas department.
In the continuing war of words between Congress and Trinamool Congress, the two ruling allies in West Bengal, Union Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday defended his comment that Congress had not taken a VRS from the state and said it would continue to speak its mind on the state's affairs.
Major focus will be on adequately funding existing schemes to ensure their timely completion before the next General Elections.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday said 'vested interests' were responsible for the recent killings of Sarpanches and Panches even as it said it is duty-bound to empower Panchayats in the state and has taken steps in this regard.
A 14-member council of ministers was sworn in Patna by Governor Phagu Chauhan on Monday and the BJP bagged seven berths.
The Universal Service Obligation fund was set up in April 2002 and a statutory status was given to it.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said it was not possible to cancel all the coal block allocations but asserted that no one, even if a minister or a senior official, would be spared if found involved in the coal scam.
New members of the Union Council of Ministers, including Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo, were introduced to both Houses of Parliament by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. Dr Singh also introduced Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who were recently inducted as Cabinet ministers, to members of both Houses.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address, charged the government with not delivering on its various promises, including generating two crore jobs per year.
Former Rajasthan minister Mohammad Ameen Khan, who was forced to resign from Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's cabinet following his controversial remarks against President Pratibha Patil, claims that his opponents had blown the issue out of proportion with the connivance of the media.Khan had created a furore by allegedly stating that Patil was made the President due to her loyalty to the Gandhi family and cited instances of her association with Indira Gandhi.
The recent draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which pointed to misuse and non-utilisation of funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme doesn't mean the programme is a write-off. The audit will act as a deterrent and spur state governments to work more efficiently, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has said.
The Union government has released Rs 184 crore to the government of Tamil Nadu -- to construct one lakh houses for families living below the poverty line under the Indira Awaz Yojana -- in Cuddalore and Villupuram where Cyclone Thane had wreaked its havoc.
On one hand Karnataka Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti, Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar are plotting the fall of Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, while on the other hand the state continues to reel under drought with 123 taluks declared as drought hit.
Expressing displeasure over moves to deny classical status to Malayalam language, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Thursday informed the assembly that Kerala would fight for it as it is the state's right.
A Congress delegation on Monday met the family of the Dalit youth, who was allegedly beaten to death last Thursday by a group of people over an old enmity.
As indicated by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA government has already initiated process to make higher allocation in social sector.
'Favourable treatment to selected areas has been a pattern throughout the state.'
Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 per cent, the first socio economic and caste census released in eight decades said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held deliberations with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda amid speculation about a reshuffle in the Union cabinet, an exercise Modi has not undertaken since forming the government for a second time in May 2019.
'The opposition parties didn't want voting as it would have exposed the cracks in their alliance. They ran away from the House'
The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party against the Congress government in Chhattisgarh where assembly polls are due next year, was defeated by voice vote in the state Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
After announcing that the properties of corrupt officials will be confiscated and turned into primary schools, Bihar government plans to upload videos of complaints against officials seeking bribes and any genuine grievances of corruption on YouTube.
Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday replaced his 'Team-11', a group of officials tasked with managing the crises, with a new nine-member set of ministers and bureaucrats.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar on Monday urged the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership to induct controversial Reddy brothers into Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda's ministry.
It was business as usual for Jairam Ramesh in his new rural development ministry where he held extensive meetings with officials on his first day that stretched past midnight.
Agatha Sangma, who had campaigned for her father P A Sangma in the Presidential polls, on Monday offered to quit as minister of state for rural development.
The European Union on Thursday raised concern over its trade with India on two areas, differing tax rates in states and entry barriers for processed food items. Both, it said, are major concerns.
Buckling under B S Yeddyurappa's pressure, Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided to replace Sadananda Gowda with Jagdish Shettar as the chief minister of Karnataka marking the third change in the state in four years. The decision was taken at the BJP core group meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, sources said.
Calling former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda-led party "communal" following its alliance with the BJP, he urged Janata Dal-Secular, to remove the word 'Secular' from its name.
The inquiry commission probing the Adarsh Housing Society scam has issued summons to former Maharashtra chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan to appear before it as witnesses. The two-member commission, which summoned Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde last week, issued summons to Deshmukh, presently Union minister for rural development, and Chavan.Chavan had to step down as the state chief minister last year following the Adarsh controversy.
Portfolios were distributed 2 weeks after the MVA govt was sworn-in. Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde will be home minister while NCP's Jayant Patil will be finance minister.
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
The meeting was attended by all the cabinet secretaries from the SAARC member states. It was noted that SAARC is transforming into an 'implementation body' and the need to strengthen administrative and delivery mechanisms was emphasized. The cabinet secretaries deliberated upon areas where significant innovations have been tried in various member states to benefit their citizens.
The dissidence-hit Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit presented a picture of unity on Monday, with rebel leaders joining Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa at a meeting to ask partymen to work for the victory of party candidates in the April 9 bypolls to three assembly constituencies.
If the CM can steer the BJP into forming a government for a third term, he will have achieved a unique place in the party's history -- Mewat notwithstanding.
Days after he kicked up a row by stating that there are more temples than toilets in India, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday urged women not to get married into families that do not have toilets in their homes.
The BTP, a Congress ally which supported chief minister Ashok Gehlot during the revolt in his party earlier this year, is upset that the ruling party candidates chose BJP over it.
Rajasthan minister Ameen Khan, whose remarks on President Pratibha Patil triggered a controversy, on Thursday submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Several loyal party old guards were unhappy and had expressed their displeasure openly about "migrants" scuttling the chances of them becoming ministers.
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