Nationalist Congress Party ministers on Thursday boycotted the meeting of Union Cabinet in New Delhi to show their unhappiness over party leader Sharad Pawar not being given the number two position in the government.
With Google announcing the milestone of Willow - a state-of-the-art quantum computing chip that can solve complex problems in under five minutes, a computation so complex it would have taken a supercomputer around 10 septillion (10^25) years to complete - tech experts believe this breakthrough could impact artificial intelligence (AI), particularly by making it more accessible to the masses. However, industry players caution that it may take several years for this innovation to become commercially viable.
The government also approved the State Bank of India's Rs 10,000 crore equity issue.
The Union Cabinet is believed to have approved a 'moderate' increase in the price of petrol and diesel in view of the surge in international crude prices.
Industry experts believe that health insurance companies are unlikely to experience business cannibalisation due to the central government's decision to extend health coverage to people aged 70 and above, regardless of their income level, under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet expanded the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) to include all senior citizens aged 70 and older. This move is expected to benefit nearly 45 million families, comprising 60 million senior citizens, by providing Rs 5 lakh in free health insurance coverage per family.
Paswan said he was willing to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly polls as an NDA partner "if the BJP so desires", and made light of estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras' recent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The exit of Dayanidhi Maran from the government has fuelled speculation of a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet early next week, possibly on Monday or Tuesday.
"It is just that Fadnavis and I have swapped our chairs. Only Ajit Pawar's chair is fixed," said Shinde, who was the CM before the assembly elections with Fadnavis and Pawar as his deputies then.
P K Mishra, a retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, is currently serving as the principal secretary to the prime minister.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of pleas seeking to review its October 2023 verdict declining legal sanction to same-sex marriage.
He said the RPI-A will also demand tickets to contest at least two Lok Sabha seats (out of the total 48 in Maharashtra) and 10 to 15 assembly segments in the 2024 elections from the NDA quota.
If it was Andhra Pradesh last Budget, it's poll-bound Bihar that has now turned to Centre with a list of demands. How the NDA government is delivering on promises.
While addressing the media after the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the upper limit for permitting abortions has been extended from the present 20 weeks to 24 weeks. He also said that this will ensure safe termination of pregnancies and also give women reproductive rights over their bodies.
Seasoned bureaucrat and a stickler for rules Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey will be at the helm of capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for three years. The 1987-batch Odisha-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Pandey, would replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year term ends on Friday.
Though the extended tenure of incumbent president JP Nadda ends on June 30, a recent amendment in the BJP's constitution has empowered its apex body, the Parliamentary Board, to take a call related to a president, including his term, in "emergency" situations.
He drew the roadmap of India's economic reform, unshackled it from the licence raj and pulled it back from the brink when even its gold reserve was pledged.
Some ministers Monday voiced concern over the deliberations of the Union Cabinet appearing in the media following which all the ministers were counseled not to leak the proceedings.
Besides the not-so-hidden unease between Modi and Adityanath, Modi chose to address the Lok Sabha to ensure that he could personally claim all the kudos, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared utilisation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for provision of mobile connectivity in 7,287 uncovered villages across five states at an estimated cost of Rs 6,466 crore. Briefing media on the Cabinet decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said these uncovered villages of 44 aspirational districts across five states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha will get 4G-based mobile services.
Jaishankar said his father was also a very upright person, "may be that caused the problem, I don't know".
A meeting of the Union Cabinet scheduled for Thursday morning was postponed as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was indisposed.
He also said Shiv Sena, led by Shinde, and BJP will fight all elections together, which was discussed during their meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod for amendments in the Insurance Act, paving way for 74 per cent foreign direct investment in the sector. Currently, the permissible FDI limit in the life and general insurance stands at 49 per cent with ownership and management control with Indian. According to sources, the Cabinet in its meeting has approval for amendments in the Insurance Act, 1938.
The Union Cabinet has approved amendments to the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, paving the way for privatisation of government-owned insurers. The amendments, approved by Cabinet, will remove the clause for the Centre to hold at least 51 per cent in public sector insurance companies at any given time. It will also have an enabling provision for the transfer of management control from the government to the potential buyer of the public sector insurance company. The finance ministry will move amendments to the insurance Act in the ongoing Parliament session.
Sharad Pawar and other NCP-SP leaders will take a decision on whom to take back in the fold, said the MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed in Ahmednagar district.
In 2019, an all-party meeting was held in Delhi and it was attended by 19 political parties to discuss critical reforms in governance. One of the subjects of the discussions was simultaneous elections
The main thrust of the policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational impact of such services on the overall economy.
The ordinance will be tabled in the next session of the legislature, it said, adding that 27 posts were approved for the commission.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State were sworn-in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening.
Manjhi's political journey took a dramatic turn when, in 2014, he was unexpectedly anointed Chief Minister by Nitish Kumar, who had resigned after a disastrous Lok Sabha election.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the participation of the private sector in the entire range of space activities, including planetary exploration missions, Union minister Jitendra Singh said. The newly-created Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) will provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure, Singh, who is the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday warned of "another language war" amid the ongoing Hindi imposition row, stating that the state is "ready" for it. He also expressed concerns about the potential loss of Lok Sabha seats due to the proposed delimitation process, which he believes will disadvantage states that have successfully implemented population control measures. Stalin has called for an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss the issue, urging unity across political lines to address the perceived threat to Tamil Nadu's representation in Parliament.
'Mahayuti leaders will sit together and discuss and go to Delhi and then a decision will be taken'
Congress party circles are talking about a major Cabinet reshuffle on September 18. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Public Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad and Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik are said to be tipped for party organisational work, while party spokesman Janardan Dwivedi and his junior Manish Tiwari are likely to be included in the Union Cabinet.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will have to resign within two weeks from one of the two seats he won in the just-held Lok Sabha elections, a constitutional expert said citing provisions in the law as well as the Constitution.
'If Pakistan's army wants to escalate violence in Kashmir, they have an unlimited supply of jihadis they can train and send. That's not an issue for them.'
"I do not think the idea of turning India into a 'Hindu Rashtra' is appropriate," Sen, 90, said.
'More than Eknath Shinde's wish, we want him (Shinde) to lead us in the government.'
EPS has had its way on most things, alliance-wise. A week earlier, he reiterated that he would not re-admit OPS and Sasikala Natarajan back in the party. It was a message not just to detractors in the AIADMK. It was even more so for the BJP leadership in Delhi. Even more important for the AIADMK was their demand for accepting EPS as the chief ministerial candidate of any alliance that the party would form, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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