The previous United Progressive Alliance government had permitted up to 51 per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail but the current National Democratic Alliance government is opposed to it.
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav behaved entirely in character when he broke ranks with the Congress and backed the Bharatiya Janata Party in the monsoon session, says Aditi Phadnis
That Australia is ready for a substantive engagement is evident from its 2013 Defence White Paper, which emphasised the need to build stronger defence relations with India, says Ajai Shukla
He said the NDA's work culture was different from that of the previous governments.
Under-recovery or the difference between retail price and its imported cost on diesel was 8 paisa per litre in the first half of September.
Modi sarkar sets the ball rolling on appointment, next cabinet secretary is expected to be in office in September.
Accusing Defence Minister A K Antony of making a "false" statement on Poonch killings, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday said he should apologise as his remarks are intended to "exonerate" Pakistan as government wants to continue talks.
After 5 yrs, firm's offer to set up private satellites for digital push has seen some interest from Isro
The Congress may get chairmanship of the prestigious Public Accounts of Committee but still there is no guarantee whether it will get the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress on Tuesday tore into the agenda outlined by President Pranab Mukherjee in his address saying it is repackaging of work done by the United Progressive Alliance and asked the Narendra Modi government to implement the promises made without trumpeting and "arrogance".
This was India's time; with a strong central bank governor and a new decisive government, anything was possible.
Sharpening his attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Narendra Modi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused them of trying to usurp the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and recalled the Congress stalwart's description of the RSS as "a venomous organisation" which could "finish" the country.
The LJP will also be given a Rajya Sabha berth and Paswan is likely to be its candidate.
Members of the BSP forced two adjournments of the Rajya Sabha till noon, creating uproar over the suicide of Dalit student, Rohith Vemula.
Once considered the unlikely heir to the political legacy of the Gandhi family, Sonia has earned the distinction of being the longest serving president of India's grand old party.
As a percentage of the military budget, the navy's share has fallen from 19 per cent in 2010-2011 to just 15.5 per cent this year. With the Indian Navy's annual budget declining steadily, security planners are reluctant to green light crucial projects, discovers Ajai Shukla.
With several Congress leaders pushing for Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's removal, the Congress is finding it difficult to keep its flock together in the poll-bound state. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports.
Come May 16, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will have more seats from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh than any formation mustered by the Congress, notes T V R Shenoy.
It is wrong to say the Congress doesn't matter. Certainly one set of people who do not believe that for a minute is the BJP. That's why even in his speech in Parliament on Constitution Day, Mr Modi called dynastic politics a threat to democracy, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The fact that the government has no specific deadline to impose this policy was revealed through a response to an RTI application in February 2017.
So how is it going to affect the common citizen?
'The strategies outlined in Jaitley's Budget won't create the millions of jobs needed to dispel the despair and cynicism of militant youth in the Red Corridor running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.'
Marking the first anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday presented a report card for one year which he asserted has been free of corruption and scams but has brought bure din (bad days) for those who have "robbed" the country in their 60 years of rule.
There is a conspiracy to get Lalu murdered, but we will give a befitting reply to the centre, said Tej Pratap.
Brushing aside opposition from the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and other parties in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa but did not give him any assurance on which way India will vote on a the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution for an independent international probe into rights abuses during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
That "Rollback Budget" ushered in an era of rollback.
The fear of news tailored by private players is a surprise in the internet age. If news websites, run by any entity, can reach out to everyone, why not radio, asks Nivedita Mookerji.
Veteran scientist P M Bhargava will return the awards he received from the government of India to protest against "the government's attack on rationalism, reasoning and science."
In a shot in the arm for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, Chirag Paswan on Sunday cast aside his ambivalence and announced that he will campaign for the saffron party in bypolls to two assembly segments in the state.
Verdict one of the most important since advent of Constitution, says Chidambaram.
Narendra Modi's stamp was written all over as the Bharatiya Janata Party announced its election campaign committee for 2014 polls on Friday including top leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley who will work under him.
Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad tells Rediff.com that the government have decided to repeal 36 obsolete laws immediately, but many more will be added to this list in the coming months. The minister also informs that this exercise was undertaken on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had flagged the issue soon after he took charge. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports.
The defence ministry stressed that the purchase of 36 Rafales was 'strictly in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure in all aspects.' However, the DPP-mandated process had not been gone through when Modi announced the agreement on April 10, 2015,' observes Ajai Shukla.
For the BJP, Telangana is a sunrise state in the South, while Karnataka is a southern success despite the ups and downs.
Decades of a state-owned monopoly selling coal at a fixed price has taken its toll on production.
Amid the bitter war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused Narendra Modi of being discourteous to his opponents, adopting double standards on corruption and favouring select industrialists.
For the third front to become a reality, it needs a party that has a pan-India presence and wins more Lok Sabha seats than all other parties in the front, say experts.
'So far there is no clear money trail nor an indisputable smoking gun.' 'But that doesn't mean there aren't disturbing questions and a strange resistance by the government to reveal the price, which only adds suspicion to concern,' observes Karan Thapar.
Milind Deora, minister of state for communication and information technology and shipping, is one of the Congress' young guns under Rahul Gandhi. He tells Kavita Chowdhury that the core problem for the United Progressive Alliance in its second term has been its inability to communicate effectively. Edited excerpts:
Aditi Phadnis predicts frequent stand-offs between the Centre and states in the future.
