This is part of the government's plan to raise Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) from disinvestment in the current financial year.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Decks were cleared for tabling the report of Justice Nanavati Commission, which probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots with the union cabinet clearing the action taken report.
BJP leader Pema Khandu took oath as the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for the third consecutive term on Thursday.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna passed away at his residence in Bengaluru early Tuesday morning, his family said.
Key point under deliberation remains the requisite number of people whose consent is required for acquisition of land by govt.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday lashed out at the Congress, saying a Union cabinet minister is "shielding" Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal, who is accused of sexually assaulting his junior.
A blame game began in the Congress on Tuesday as it failed in its bid to come back to power in Haryana after 10 years, with senior party leader Kumari Selja saying the party high command should assess all reasons that led to the disappointing result and identify the people responsible.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, and Personnel in its report in December last had recommended passage of the Bill in its present form and suggested that the issue should not be left to the discretion of political parties.
Dr T V Somanathan is the first finance secretary to be appointed Cabinet secretary since 1985. His appointment at this juncture seems to carry much meaning for the forthcoming trajectory of reforms and restructuring of India's steel frame.
The Union Cabinet is likely to take up the issue of airport privatisation before the Budget Session of Parliament resumes early next month, official sources said
Sources in the prime minister's office said a meeting of the Union Cabinet scheduled for the evening has been postponed.
Senior leader Oscar Fernandes, who is currently minister without portfolio, could be brought full time to the organisation amid reports that the known loyalist of the party chief could get a key assignment.
In another round of big-ticket reforms, the Union Cabinet will consider tomorrow raising the FDI cap in insurance sector to 49 per cent and opening the pension sector to foreign investment besides creation of a National Investment Board.
The Bill proposes to constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India and lays down the powers and functions of the Authority, the framework for issuing unique identification numbers (aadhaar numbers), major penalties and other related matters through an Act of Parliament.
The Union Health Ministry approached the Cabinet for a direction in this regard to seek clarity about the demands being made by other ministries who are facing the brunt of decrease in tobacco production in the country, official sources said on Friday.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
The states can enact their own laws according to their own requirements, Dasmunsi said.\n\n
In a bid to provide functional and financial autonomy to prestigious institutions of higher learning, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a modified block grant scheme for funding institutions like IITs and IIMs.\n\n
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday night is understood to have cleared the agenda for action initiated by the Planning Commission to spur economic reforms in the current fiscal.
Five Parliamentarians from Karnataka including Janata Dal-Secular leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Nirmala Sitharaman and Pralhad Joshi, who were part of the previous Cabinet, on Sunday took oath in the new National Democratic Alliance Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee is 'almost certain' to enter the Cabinet.
The government reiterated its strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said he would be making "minor changes" in his Cabinet and a new external affairs minister will be in place "as soon as possible".
The pension bill is listed in the name of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the agenda papers of the Lok Sabha for Wednesday.
The government on Thursday cleared 65-day bonus for 16 lakh Railway employees for the year 2005-06, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the dissolution of the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation Limited as part of the government's move to identify and close down "irretrievable" cases.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has made it clear that it will not campaign for ally Nationalist Congress Party's candidate Nawab Malik in the assembly polls due to his alleged links with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, but has no objection to his daughter's candidature.
The Union Cabinet is likely to be reshuffled on Sunday. Speculation has been rife about a possible reshuffle in the wake of the exit of Trinamool Congress ministers and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam representatives A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran in the last two years.
Seeking to enhance green mobility, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 'PM-eBus Sewa' scheme under which 10,000 electric buses will be provided to 169 cities under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
The telecom giant has asked FinMin for a settlement.
Nearly 13.04 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 9 am on Wednesday in 43 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand where voting is underway in the first phase, officials said.
The decision to make these changes to the Union Cabinet was apparently taken last week, but the timing of its announcement could not have been more unfortunate, writes Neerja Chowdhury
Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday didn't join his cabinet colleagues Devendra Fadnavis and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in visiting the Nagpur-based memorial of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder.
The bench asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Congress leader Jaya Thakur, who sought a stay on the new law, to serve a copy of the petition to the Centre's counsel.
The Centre on Thursday evening took the first significant step towards creation of a separate Telangana state from out of Andhra Pradesh and decided that Hyderabad will be the joint capital of the two states for 10 years.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday. The meeting comes amid speculation in party circles that an expansion-cum-reshuffle of the Union Cabinet could be carried out soon.
If the Cabinet approves the long-pending Forward Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Bill, the regulator will be empowered to levy penalties besides getting the powers to approve options trading. In addition, it will pave the way for the entry of institutional players like mutual funds and foreign institutional investors into the trading arena, which many believe will deepen the markets. Similarly, the FMC will be able to decide on who can set up commodity exchanges.
The name of Mahto, the party's former Jharkhand unit chief, was announced here by national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan.
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