As the country eagerly awaits an expected coronavirus vaccination drive in January, at least 125 intended beneficiaries each in four states who had registered on the Co-WIN App were on Monday sent SMSes informing them about the time and place of their 'COVID-19 vaccination' under a mock-drill to administer the shots at designated centres.
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.
Major focus will be on adequately funding existing schemes to ensure their timely completion before the next General Elections.
Every young diploma and degree holder in the country will have the right to apprenticeships in the private and government sectors, he said.
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.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
Economy has become a major cause of concern for the new government with GDP dropping to 5.8 per cent in the last quarter of the 2018-19.
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.
'it's not just youth in India who are left behind because of their inability to find jobs; nearly two-thirds of Indian women of working ages do not participate at all in the paid labour force.'
As indicated by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA government has already initiated process to make higher allocation in social sector.
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.
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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has named 10 non-government organisations, including the US-based Omidyar, as accused in the case of allegedly conspiring to illegally facilitate the registration and renewal of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act licences.
She said that access to justice for all has been a theme close to her heart and mentioned several steps taken to help economically disadvantaged sections of society to approach legal institutions for remedial action.
The passage of the women's reservation bill has ignited hope among stakeholders about attaining gender equality in India's political landscape, especially at the policy-making level, even as some raised concerns over its effectiveness given the uncertainty in the deadline for its implementation.
'Favourable treatment to selected areas has been a pattern throughout the state.'
People in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand say the Agnipath military recruitment scheme and the Ankita Bhandari murder case will have a bearing on the electoral prospects of the Bharatiya Janata Party here as these issues weigh heavy on the minds of the electorate.
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.
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.
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.
'We need to be far more careful given the fact that while this is group lending, it's essentially unsecured.'
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.
'Narasimha Rao asked me why China was doing so well in attracting foreign investments and I gave my frank opinion.' 'I told him that giving thrust to exports had to be a national effort.' 'But in India, the system was very centralised in the Government of India and the state governments had no role to play.'
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.
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.
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.
The Congress is not fielding a candidate in Mandya in order to support Darshan and open the constituency up for a direct contest between the SKP and the Janata Dal-Secular which is hoping to retain its seat.
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.
Rajasthan minister Ameen Khan, whose remarks on President Pratibha Patil triggered a controversy, on Thursday submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
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.
Heaping praises on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's leadership for not only driving industrial growth but also boosting rural development, Ratan Tata on Wednesday said the Tata Group will partner the state in providing transportation into the hinterlands.
Bora said in his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that infighting within the grand old party helped BJP and compelled him to leave despite having been a member since student days in 1976.
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.
Whether the age-old cry of kendrer banchana will be able to drown out pangs of Sandeshkhali, the EVM will tell.
A 14-member council of ministers was sworn in Patna by Governor Phagu Chauhan on Monday and the BJP bagged seven berths.
