The minister was asked about the steps taken to prevent damage to Railway property due to CAA related protests.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Iqbal Singh on Thursday accused Union minister Ajay Mishra of being behind the Lakhimpur violence and sought his sacking from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government has asked Chinese mobile companies to increase their exports from India and there is no proposal to ban the sale of handsets below Rs 12,000 made by such firms, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday. The Minister of State for Electronics and IT also said that Indian companies also have a role to play in the country's electronic ecosystem but it does not mean exclusion of foreign brands. "Only issue that we have raised and done very transparently with some of the Chinese brands is that we have said that our expectation is that they will do more exports.
With two cabinet ministers and three ministers of state, the Northeastern region was on Wednesday handsomely rewarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first reshuffle of his ministry in the second tenure.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night as they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi demanding a meeting with the minister and released around three hours later.
Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary also said the government is always ready for talks but it is up to farmer unions to decide whether they want to go ahead with the scheduled ninth round of talks on January 15.
Mishra said neither he nor his son was present at the spot when the incident happened.
On Opposition's relentless attack on him and demand for his resignation, the minister said, "Vipaksh to kuch bhi mangta hai (Opposition can demand anything)."
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday seeking immediate resumption of talks with the government over their six demands, including a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for all farmers.
Known for railing up controversies, Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was back in the game again on Wednesday evoking sharp criticism after he charged the Centre with ignoring the interest of the state and said seven union ministers from the state would not be allowed entry if they failed to bring desired assistance for the region.
Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday that the number of public grievances received by the government has increased from 2 lakh in 2014 to nearly 22 lakh at present, and added the 10-fold rise reflects the trust people have shown in the current dispensation.
People may belong to any caste and religion, they are not safe, the Congress leader alleged.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other ministers took charge of their respective offices on Thursday, a day after taking oath at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday made the first arrests in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence taking into custody two people and had also summoned Ashish, an accused, for questioning on Friday, hours after the Supreme Court set the same day for the state government to explain who are the accused in the first information report (FIR) and whether or not they have been arrested.
"Now the gof India has decided to soon initiate procurement from local industries to reduce import dependence," he said. Reddy, the Union Minister of State for Home, said for many years India was dependent on worldwide Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for procuring arms and ammunition.
Although the credit for acquiring the technological skill must be given to India's outstanding nuclear scientists, the decision to go nuclear was a political one that entailed clarity of vision, courage and resolve, points out Rup Narayan Das.
Ahir said there is a process for putting such issues in perspective which was duly followed by the Army as well as the government.
Singh said the nation and the society as a whole are gradually getting conditioned to look at things in the eye instead of getting confused by duplicities.
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.
State BJP spokesperson and OBC Morcha national general secretary Nikhil Anand came out with a stinging statement against the young Rashtriya Janata Dal leader in response to a press conference held by the latter.
Hitting back at Union minister and former Army chief General VK Singh's 'jobless' jibe, former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari on Monday said that by God's grace, he had much more work to do than a minister of state.
China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 sq. kms. of Indian territory in the Union Territory of Ladakh for the last six decades, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan informed Lok Sabha on Friday.
Annapurna Devi, Subhas Sarkar and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh will be the new ministers of state for education.
"Those named in the FIR should go to jail. The government should take immediate action and the matter should be probed by a sitting judge of the high court. There are videos clips, statements of eyewitnesses, the statement (of minister) in which he is threatening. As he (accused Ashish Mishra) is the son of the MoS, action has note been taken yet," he said.
The government on Monday said that matters regarding Chinese intrusion can't be discussed in Parliament as it concerns the security of the country.
The Indian government has sent Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri to represent India at the event.
"I congratulate all the colleagues who have taken an oath today and wish them the very best for their ministerial tenure. We will continue working to fulfill the aspirations of the people and build a strong and prosperous India," the PM posted on Twitter.
Top Union ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including party chief Amit Shah, on Wednesday reviewed the political and security situation in Jammu and Kashmir besides discussing rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.
Like last year, Sitharaman opted for a traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry budget documents. Dressed in a crisp yellow silk saree, the minister carried the documents wrapped in a red silk cloth, adorned with the Indian emblem in golden.
A total of 74,44,260 voters will exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives.
Nine MLAs, including Babul Supriyo, took oath as ministers in West Bengal on Wednesday, in a major reshuffle of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's cabinet.
The Indian Express newspaper, on Thursday, reported that athletes and coaches training at the Delhi government-run Thyagaraj stadium are asked to wrap up by 7 pm because Delhi's Principal Secretary (Revenue) Sanjeev Khirwar walks his dog at the facility about half-an-hour later.
Delegates of all G20 countries, barring China, arrived in Srinagar on Monday for the third working group meeting on tourism -- a much-anticipated event for which authorities have made extensive security arrangements and spruced up the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that the government of India has never accepted this illegal occupation.
While the 6.5-km the Z-Morh tunnel is expected to be completed by next year, ahead of the target date of December 2023, the 14.15 km Zojila tunnel is also scheduled to be completed ahead of the target date of 2026, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited officials said.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait exhorted farmers to be ready for a massive nationwide agitation over their demands as a 75-hour sit-in by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha in Lakhimpur Kheri seeking the removal of Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra and a law on minimum support price (MSP) entered the second day on Tuesday.
'It's the court, not the government that decides where to put the people who indulge in corruption'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman on Saturday proposed a budget of Rs 85,000 crore in 2020-21 for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes and Rs 53,700 crore for Scheduled Tribes.
He hinted the decision was partly due to losing the ministerial berth and also differences with the state BJP leadership.
Sources said they discussed and finalised the government's position for the Wednesday meeting.
