The last government on March 21, 2011 commissioned the study on estimation of unaccounted income or wealth both inside and outside the country.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was elected to Rajya Sabha for the fifth consecutive term on Thursday as Congress won both the seats to the Upper House from Assam.
What is most troubling is that not a single party that is part of INDIA has talked about any kind of reform and economic sense, argues R Jagannathan.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday came under sharp attack from Opposition as well as ruling United Progressive Alliance allies Samajwadi Party and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which trashed his statement on Hyderabad blasts as "totally disappointing" and "devoid of any concrete and meaningful plan of action".
There are a number of problems that plague the implementation of MGNREGA, including corruption, administrative paralysis and other hardy perennials. Massive amounts of funds on this scheme remained unspent in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Seeking to gauge his party's strength and weakness in Odisha ahead of next general election, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi Monday wanted partymen to make people aware of various development and welfare schemes undertaken by the United Progressive Alliance government.
Senior advocate Goolam E Vahanvati was appointed as the new Attorney General on Monday, the country's top law officer.
Key United Progressive Alliance ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Saturday condemned the petrol price hike and demanded that the government retain its control on the pricing of petroleum products, besides seeking a change in the pricing policy. Party chief M Karunanidhi said the issue had become similar to that of attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen -- allegedly by the Sri Lankan navy -- with political leaders issuing statements expressing concern during such incidents.
Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy, who represents the Chevella Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh, is considered a front runner for the post of chief minister of the proposed state of Telangana. He gives his first formal interview to rediff.com's Anita Katyal.
Senior leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party Sushma Swaraj on Saturday alleged that the United Progressive Alliance government was discriminating against the National Democratic Alliance ruled states. She claimed that this discrimination extended to railway projects, distribution of wheat and rice through the public distribution system, relief packages for natural calamities like draught and floods etc.
The unsurprising descent of India's most successful government
This time, BJP is keen to make a decisive mark, either on its own or with help from allies
With Parliament deadlock escalating, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday told the allies that it will be difficult to withdraw the decision to allow foreign direct investment in retail and that they should vote with the government on the issue.
The controversy over allowing FDI in retail rocked Parliament for the third day on Tuesday with a united opposition forcing adjournment of both the Houses till noon. Shortly after the Lok Sabha met for the day, members rushed to the Well, demanding rollback of the decision to allow FDI in the retail sector. Members of Trinamool Congress, a key partner of the United Progressive Alliance, kept shouting 'Cancel FDI in retail'.
The work on seat sharing with other allies will begin from Thursday, he told reporters.
It has blamed lack of political will for the slow reform process.
In a recent public appearance, Mr Chidambaram was quite candid in saying that UPA-II misread the signals from its electoral performance in 2009.
A weak and troubled United Progressive Alliance government has stumbled badly by issuing the ordinance to counter the fine judgment by the Supreme Court that forces the disqualification of lawmakers convicted for a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of over two years.
Bharatiya Janata Party has claimed that it exposed the United Progressive Alliance government during the Budget session, which ended on Friday, and brought out the internal contradictions within the ruling alliance by exposing scams and the ineffective handling of law and order situation in the country.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked Congress, accusing it of trying to help Communist Party of India-Marxist in the coming civic polls in West Bengal and virtually compared its United Progressive Alliance partner to collaborators of Pakistani army during Bangladesh liberation war.
The Samajwadi Party is ready for mid-term Lok Sabha polls but it is supporting the United Progressive Alliance government to keep communal forces at bay, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of encouraging Hurriyat Conference leaders to hobnob with anti-India elements abroad by allowing them to visit Pakistan. BJP was referring to the purported meetings held in Pakistan by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat delegation with Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul chief Sayed Salah-ud-Din and senior functionaries of the Inter Services Intelligence.
Projecting a united face on the eve of vice presidential poll, all constituents of United Progressive Alliance and those supporting it from outside including arch rivals Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati attended a lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Who will take over the tasks of the prime minister and oversee the functioning of the government during the third week of September? This is the question that is being discussed in the corridors of power in Delhi, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be in the United States from September 21 to September 28 to attend the United Nations General Assembly session. United Progressive Alliance trouble-shooter and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will also be away, in Washington.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
With the government moving a resolution in the Lok Sabha to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, the battle lines between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party have become more tightly drawn with the Congress preparing its ammunition to target the BJP during its National Democratic Alliance government, in a bid to expose the actions of their telecom ministers.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal, with five members in the Lok Sabha, on Monday formally joined the United Progressive Alliance amid speculations that its chief Ajit Singh would be included in the Cabinet as the civil aviation minister. With the RLD joining the ruling coalition, its strength has gone up from 272 to 277 MPs. In the backdrop of speculations that Ajit Singh will be inducted into the Cabinet, Digvijay Singh was asked who will be the next civil aviation minister.
Taking a cue from the UPA's recent tussle with the DMK, foreign investors may consider selling into rallies in the future.
The government hurried through the scheme, which required a complete re-engineering of welfare delivery, severely challenging its implementation.
In what Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has called the UPA's 'slog overs', several policy changes were announced, and proposed laws cleared.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday pointedly accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of attempting to 'blackmail' party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav , who had earlier threatened to withdraw his party's support to the ruling coalition.
Creating a positive reform that does away with an official who constitutes a flawed aspect of Indian democracy will allow the BJP to rightfully claim this as one of its positive legacies, suggests Karan P Shah.
Dubbing the Narendra Modi-led government as "anti-people", Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday raised the poll pitch alleging the Bharatiya Janata Party-led dispensation in Gujarat is indulging in "wrong-doings".
In an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Singh speaks about his candidature from Varanasi, the party's prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and how the Congress is likely to fare in Andhra Pradesh.
The Congress has almost made up its mind to nominate Vyricherla Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo for the Vice President's post.
Janata Dal - United chief Sharad Yadav on Friday strongly denied that his party was gravitating towards the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance in the wake of its support to Pranab Mukherjee's Presidential candidature."That is absurd. It has no meaning," he said when asked about perceptions of his party cosying up to the Congress.
United Progressive Alliance candidate Hamid Ansari was on Tuesday re-elected as Vice President, becoming the second person to get the second consecutive term as he defeated National Democratic Alliance nominee Jaswant Singh by a large margin of 252 votes.
United Progressive Alliance Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee on Friday telephoned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and is understood to have expressed his gratitude for extending support to him in the July 19 Presidential poll.
'In Parliament, he was the one person who stood for democracy and secularism even when the principal Opposition party was not very forthright in taking on the BJP and RSS.'
Brushing aside opposition after dithering for nearly four years, the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance coalition on Tuesday unanimously endorsed creation of a separate Telangana state from out of Andhra Pradesh.