The government on Thursday amended the controversial Lokpal Bill, de-inking it from the setting up of Lokayuktas in the states and transferring powers of sanction of prosecution against public servant to the ombudsman. The Union Cabinet accepted 14 of the 16 recommendations made by the Rajya Sabha Select Committee, which was set up in May last year amid sharp differences among political parties, because of which the legislation has been stuck in the Upper House.
Cheering the move, shares of Jet opened the day on a bullish note and further jumped 7.26 per cent to Rs 414.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Union Labour Minister and a prominent BJP leader from Delhi Sahib Singh Verma, however, said the subject of law and order will remain with the Centre.
P Chidambaram was on Tuesday made the finance minister as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook a minor reshuffle in portfolios in the Union Cabinet, necessitated by the exit of Pranab Mukherjee in June. According to the announcement, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is the new home minister in place of Chidambaram.
Almost five years later, the three services have still not fully understood that joint/theatre commands are not a discussion point; they are the prime minister's diktat on a military reform measure that is in line with what armed forces around the world have implemented, points out Ajai Shukla.
This was decided at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Congress on Monday said it welcomed the reported move as the party has been raising the demand for long.
The Union Cabinet approved the DMIC project outline on the eve of the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunshi told reporters here.
According to the government, the additional chief secretary of the state housing department is designated to sign an agreement with the Union government for the land lease transfer.
The Congress on Saturday accused the Centre of insulting Dr Manmohan Singh, the country's first Sikh prime minister, by carrying out his last rites at the Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated spot that could later become his memorial.
It will allow states to detain students in class 5 and class 8 if they fail in the year-end exam.
Opposition leaders in Punjab have claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls signals the beginning of its downfall in the state as well. They cited the party's inability to deliver on promises and allegations of corruption as reasons for the setback in Delhi and predicted a similar fate for the AAP in Punjab, where it is currently in power.
The retirement age of doctors in some departments is 60 years and in some others, it is 62.
The ordinance did not come up at the Cabinet meeting.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations of Pakistan links of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's British wife Elizabeth Colburn. Sarma alleged that Colburn had visited Pakistan after her marriage and that there are apprehensions of ISI infiltration into the Chief Minister's Office when Gogoi's father, the late Tarun Gogoi, was the chief minister. Sarma also shared screenshots of social media posts by Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an advisor of the Pakistan Planning Commission and a former colleague of Colburn, claiming that the relationship between the Gogois and Sheikh appeared to be "deeply rooted." Sarma's allegations have been rejected by the Congress as "laughable and entertaining."
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.
For the past one week, Modi has been holding in-person meetings with Union ministers apparently to take stock of the work done by the government in the last two years and to discuss various issues.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to increase reservation for women to 50 per cent in panchayats.
The BJP leadership too has rallied behind Vajpayee, saying he would remain the party's undisputed leader.
The government plans to come up with a contributory pension scheme for its employees who joined service after October 2002, and set up a National Tax Tribunal to speed up settlement of disputes.
From highways connecting once-remote regions to aviation networks carrying millions, India's infrastructure story is one of transformation.
The government on Wednesday increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for wheat by Rs 150 to Rs 2,425 per quintal for the 2025-26 marketing season, a move that comes ahead of key state elections. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved price hikes for six rabi crops, with increases ranging from Rs 130 to Rs 300 per quintal for the 2025-26 marketing season beginning April 2025. "Like for kharif crops, there is a significant increase in the MSP for rabi crops," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a media briefing after the Cabinet meeting.
In a letter to the secretaries of the various ministries under the United progressive Alliance government, Union Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar has urged them to ensure that the websites of their respective ministries are updated, accessible and reader-friendly in terms of usability and design.The two-page letter by Chandrasekhar exhorts the secretaries to "take vigorous action to revise and enhance your department's websites".
Delhi will be brought under President's rule and the assembly will be kept under suspended animation, with the Union Cabinet on Saturday accepting the recommendation of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung in this regard.
'Our attempt to honour the taxpayer has been since 2014 and more actively since 2019-2020 onwards.'
Much drama is likely to continue in the coming year, within the Sangh Parivar as well as involving the Opposition parties and, of course the BJP's allies, predicts Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'Someone who cannot even take his cabinet into confidence, how will he take the NDA alliance into confidence?'
The name of Mahto, the party's former Jharkhand unit chief, was announced here by national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan.
'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.'
The inaugural Afro-Asian Games will be held in Hyderabad from October 24 to Novermber 1.
The Janata Dal-Secular, whose refusal to transfer power to the BJP led to President's rule being imposed in Karnataka, later offered support to the BJP.
The Union Cabinet has been summoned for an unscheduled meeting Tuesday morning before the start of Parliament's day's sitting, strengthening speculation that the government may be pushed to tabling the Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition.
Ahead of Diwali festival, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday increased the dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief by 4 per cent effective July 1, 2022, benefiting 41.85 lakh central government employees and 69.76 lakh pensioners. The additional instalment of DA and dearness relief (DR) is an increase of 4 per cent over the existing rate of 34 per cent of basic pay/pension. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs 12,852.5 crore per annum, said Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur while briefing reporters about the decisions of the Union Cabinet.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said earlier that the Cabinet would take a decision on the issue in a day or two.
The Ministry of Finance may seek the Union Cabinet's approval for the proposed 10 per cent stake sale in state-owned Coal India Ltd by the end of this month, a senior Coal Ministry official said
'I had to persuade him. I think he was a sceptic to begin with, but later on he was convinced that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that there was no other way out.'
Gauba is said to be the key architect of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act under which Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union territories following the abrogation of the special status given to the erstwhile state under Article 370 of the Constitution.
The Union ministry of consumer affairs has given the finishing touches to the policy framework to allow foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investment in India's national commodity exchanges.
