Here are the 10 key issues likely to be the centre of discussion in the seven-phase general elections that begin on April 19.
A high-level committee on Thursday recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
If you think that revenue officials are going berserk, acting on their own, while the government chants the mantra of 'ease of doing business', you would be wrong. These moves appear to have full official backing, points out Debashis Basu.
Some of our leaders were busybusy over the weekend.
All 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed on Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently.
A bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap, however, extended the time for the 83-year-old activist to surrender before the Taloja prison authorities by three months, to enable him to undergo a cataract surgery.
The government had declined to appoint Justice Joseph's to the top court and asked it to reconsider his name.
A three-member inquiry commission on the encounter killings of four suspects in a case of gang-rape and murder of a veterinarian (named changed as Disha) in Hyderabad in December 2019 revealed that the firing by the police personnel was deliberate.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday issued summons to Ramdev on a lawsuit by several doctors' associations for allegedly spreading misinformation against allopathy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the plea was not frivolous and a case for its institution was 'definitely' made out.
A total of 74,44,260 voters will exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives.
The five-member Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said that there was 'nothing adverse' regarding suitability of Justice Joseph.
Banks may become more cautious in extending loans, as more and more farmers may take loans, relying on the assurance that a debt relief commission will back them in the event of default.
Vacancies in high courts continue to mount with the collegium which made a comeback three months ago yet to recommend fresh names for the posts, including that of chief justices to eight of them.
Shinde also said directives will be issued to give the Kunbi caste certificates to blood relatives of a person who already possesses similar documents.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday questioned Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar in the National Herald money laundering case, officials said.
However, the Telangana statehood was not even on the agenda of the assembly which reconvened on Thursday morning.
Hopefully, all's well that ends well, and business should get back to normal soon, says Alok Chandra.
If Tamil Nadu voters preferred the DMK combine, it owed to the Modi-Annamalai combo's ideological battle which often crossed the line of political decency and also challenged 'Tamil pride', argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
The order for Mohan's release follows the cabinet nod for amending the prison rules under which, previously, those involved in serious cases like the killing of a government servant could not be released even after the elapse of 14 years.
Stalin still enjoys a lot of sympathy and empathy as someone wishing well for the state, but not full-throated support as in 2019 and 2021, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
The assembly bypolls in Bihar and Maharashtra, scheduled for November 3, are set to be the first electoral test of the popularity of the respective state governments after a change in the political alignment.
If Saudi Arabia, with just two Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, can create a huge tourism-based ecosystem beyond oil, Ayodhya is sure to become the world's hottest religious tourism site in less than a decade, predicts R Jagannathan.
The Andhra Pradesh government heaved a sigh of relief on Friday over the Telangana agitation with the Supreme Court staying the high court order which directed paramilitary forces to be moved out of Osmania university, nerve-centre of the Telangana agitation.
The birth of India's 29th state will be delayed if the President's rule in Andhra Pradesh is not passed in Parliament before April 30, reveals Governor ESL Narasimhan's "top secret " letter to Pranab Mukherjee
BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao submitted a representation to the Enforcement Directorate in Hyderabad to investigate into the matter.
An all party-meeting to discuss legislative business in Parliament's monsoon session on Thursday saw a fierce debate on the issue of Telangana with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding that a bill be brought on it in this session and some other parties fearing repercussions of the decision in other states.
The Centre stressed that the next three weeks will be critical for the country reeling from the worst health crisis as it announced a series of measures to shore up medical infrastructure and supplies and scale up vaccination.
The CBI has sought help from authorities in the US in tracking two accused, C Prabhakar Reddy who is also known as "Punch" Prabhakar and Mani Annapureddy, believed to be staying in that country in connection with a case related to alleged derogatory social media posts against judges and the judiciary, officials said on Thursday.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao has described the 'secret report' of the Srikrishna committee as shameful and demanded that it should be made public immediately.
Chief Medical Officer M Rajshree, who confirmed Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's death, has rebuffed Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani's claims in Parliament, saying she had reached the scene in three-five minutes.
Seemandhra Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Lagadapati Rajagopal on Tuesday moved Delhi high court seeking its direction to Speaker Meira Kumar to accept his resignation as member of the House, submitted two months ago.
Defending its three-capital decision, the government said since inception in 1956 the state had failed to integrate people from all regions, reports B Dasarath Reddy.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday stayed all further proceedings, including arrest of Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter Kavitha.
The quantum of sentence for the convicted Indian Mujahideen operatives will be announced next Monday.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
In a bid to stall the formation of Telangana, leaders from Seemandhra region have decided to move the Supreme Court. This decision comes in the wake of a public interest litigation filed by the group on Friday which was admitted by the Andhra Pradesh high court.
The Punjagutta police station in Hyderabad has registered the case against the members of the Justice Srikrishna committee, which had recently submitted a report on Telangana
A cache of weapons was recovered from the encounter site
