The Union Budget 2011-12 is just round the corner. On February 28, even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announces his Budget proposals there are a lot of challenges that face him.
Former Union minister C K Jaffer Shareif, in a letter to Mukherjee, expressed surprise over the move and said he like other secular people was 'stunned' to hear about his attending the RSS function.
Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party official spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain on Sunday said his party would disclose its strategy on Presidential elections only after the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition announces name of its candidate.
Here is the entire text of the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget Speech:
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected to issue a statement on Wednesday on Telangana, which the party hopes would undo some of the damage of the December 9 midnight statement by Chidambaram, without in any way going back on the statement made by the home minister.
May 27 is the last date for filing nomination papers and June 3 is the deadline for withdrawal.
The negotiations on a draft Lokpal Bill on Monday gained momentum with government and civil society members agreeing on a number of basic principles of the proposed law and deciding to meet more often.
This is Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's fourth regular Budget.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has trained its focus and its guns on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and has asked him to answer their long list of questions on the 2G spectrum issue, wanting to know why he has been changing his stand on both 2G and jailed former Union minister A Raja.
However, Dr Singh made it clear that he had no idea who floated the three names and under whose directive.
The government on Monday constituted a Group of Ministers to look into pricing and auctioning of spectrum for 3G telephony that will revolutionise the way data is received and transferred on mobile phones.
The party high command has set up a high profile three-member panel of Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, and political adviser to Congress president Ahmed Patel to review the performance of Deshmukh, who has been at the receiving end from his detractors.Speculation is rife for the past some months that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is keen to replace him."The Congress periodically conducts in-house exercises, " Tiwari said.
All India Congress Committee chief Sonia Gandhi has taken a conscious decision of being neutral to Andhra Pradesh politics in the wake of the sudden demise of its chief minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy, and wait for a three-member committee to brief her. Till such time, she is not likely to meet any leader from the state.
The Ratnagiri Gas and Power Project, earlier known as the Dabhol project, will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coming year, chairman of the Empowered Group of Ministers said.
Mukherjee presented the Union Budget in the Parliament on Friday.
"A decision is unlikely before October 23 as Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee, [who is] leading the talks on behalf of the Congress, will be in West Bengal for Puja festivities," a leader closely associated with the negotiations said.
There is a serious move afoot to reschedule the second half of the budget session of the Parliament with sources disclosing that leader of the Lok Sabha and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would discuss the rescheduling of dates in the meeting of floor leaders of political parties which he has called on April 5.
India has had 28 finance ministers since independence.
The sister of Sarabjit Singh, the death row prisoner languishing in a Pakistani jail, on Friday met President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his intervention for his release and demanded that the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad visit him in the prison to check on his health.
About 43 MLAs and 200 MLAs have been named.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Finance Minister, broke away from the colonial tradition of carrying a Budget briefcase in July 2019, opting instead for a traditional 'bahi-khata', to carry the Union Budget papers.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was the first and only women till now to have presented the Union Budget.
Even as the Congress Working Committee met on Monday morning to salute its seniormost member Pranab Mukherjee (who became a CWC member in 1978) and put on record its appreciation of his services both in the party and the government, the union finance minister spent his day tying up loose ends and saying his goodbyes.
The finance minister said this while presenting the Union Budget 2009-2010 at the Lok Sabha on Monday.
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
Antony will take over as Defence minister from Pranab Mukherjee who has been appointed the next External Affairs minister.
On July 18, 2022, two individuals with a Jharkhand connection will contest the Presidential election.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met President Pranab Mukherjee in the midst of a raging speculation over a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, which now appears to be on the cards only late this month or early next month.
Troubleshooter for the Congress and the government not long ago, Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday refrained from making any comments on UPA-II at a time when it is accused of non-performance.
Hazarika and Deshmukh were given the Bharat Ratna posthumously.
A host of political leaders and the cream of Tamil film world were among those who turned up for the wedding reception of Union Minister M K Alagiri's son Durai Dayanidhi on Wednesday at the sprawling Tamukkam grounds in Madurai, which was converted into an excellently decorated wedding hall.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said this while presenting the Union Budget in the Parliament on Friday.
India has had 28 finance ministers since independence.
He indicated that the government was looking into the problems of the small and medium sector. To a question Mukherjee said, 'there will always be a gap between what should be done and what can be done. The Union Budget is usually presented on the last day of February every year'.
Venu Rajamony, a career diplomat, has been appointed as press secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee.
Venu Rajamony, a career diplomat, has been appointed as press secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee.
The first Unique Identification Card to citizens will roll out in 12-18 months.
Certification of Election of Pranab Mukherjee as President of India has been handed over to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday accepted the resignation of Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution, Raosaheb Dadarao Danve, from the Union Council of Ministers.
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