With 'go solo' being the mantra for Congress after its success in Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the party is now set to dump Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal in the Bihar assembly elections scheduled later this year. An indication to this effect came when All Indian Congress Committee in-charge of the state Jagdish Tytler and Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Sharma recently met party president Sonia Gandhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
The Energy Co-ordination Committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, would meet on Tuesday with gas pricing, gas sourcing and gas allocation as the main topics on the agenda, an official source said.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took potshots at the rival Shiv Sena over its minister not finding a place in the reconstituted NITI Aayog.
In a season of political deal-making, it would seem the BJP is not only keener to win new friends but is ahead of rival Congress in the game. Its only competition, if at all, has come from regional satraps and the Left parties, which on Tuesday resolved to fight the elections together against both the Congress and BJP.
A delegation of members of Parliament and civil society members, who are on a "fact-finding" tour of Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday asked the Centre to start a dialogue process for resolution of Kashmir issue and include separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani in it.
Roads and bridges that Nitish Kumar built have brought his alliance back to power. They made his journey safer. The mandate is clear.
'The arithmetic of the outcome shows that Nitish is not likely to jettison the BJP, which he might have been tempted to do had he won a majority on his own.'
'Mere communal-secular binary of political rhetoric will hardly help the Congress to attract enough votes to get power.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejigged his team only once, in July 2021, in his second term, unlike in his first stint, when he reshuffled and expanded his council three times.
Government on Friday assured the Rajya Sabha that essential drugs would not come under the new patent regime and companies manufacturing patented drugs would not be closed down.
Paswan has said that this is not a vote gimmick but a genuine concern of the party.
The government today said it will look into the matter relating to a ship named SS Oceanic carrying 250 tonnes of asbestos, which is reported to be heading towards the Alang shipbreaking yard in Gujarat.
The Australian government has supported a proposal from Indian steel companies for acquiring equity stakes in coking coal companies and coking coal properties in the country.
Accompanied by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, 72-year-old Pratibha filed the documents before the returning officer and Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary at the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The LJP will also be given a Rajya Sabha berth and Paswan is likely to be its candidate.
Another CD on the cash-for-votes episode surfaced on Monday with three United Progressive Alliance parties claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party had stage managed the entire show for political gains.
A proposed Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) greenfield modernisation and expansion programme is expected to give a fresh lease of life to Iisco Steel Plant, a unit of Steel Authority of India.
Sonia held discussions with Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan in an effort to break the logjam over the issue that has created a face-off between the Congress and the Left parties. The leaders of the UPA constituents conveyed to Sonia that they back the nuclear deal, but do not favour early polls, particularly because of high inflation.
As per the new guidelines, the wholesalers will get 15 per cent margin while retailers will 35 per cent over the cost of manufacturing of generic medicines, Minister of Chemicals and Fertiliser Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters.
''I strongly denounce the way you are conducting yourself. It is shameful and disgusting behaviour,'' Chatterjee told BSP member Brajesh Pathak, who continued to agressively counter Union Fertilizer Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, despite repeated requests from the Chair to resume his seat. But Pathak refused to listen to the Chair, prompting Chatterjee to remark: ''Ham yeh hone nahin deyenge... Hamko hataiye yahan se .
The Union government has reconstituted the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as its chairman.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said his party would contest the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar in alliance with the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Lok Janashakti Party, but ruled out conceding more than 13 seats given to the United Progressive Alliance allies in 2004 elections.
The government has already decided to accord priority to fertiliser and power units for allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin. According to sources, the empowered group of ministers on gas, which met last week, has made it clear it will be able to provide additional gas to steel firms only after meeting the requirements of the power and fertiliser units. Among the steel majors, Essar, Ispat and Vikram Ispat have gas-based units.
Expressing concern over depleting mines reserves in the country, Minister of Steel Ram Vilas Paswan today said the Indian government is looking out for overseas acquisition of mines.
The leak was not from any tanker lorry, sources said adding, FACT officials had informed them the trucks were not filled with the gas since Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan visited the unit on Thursday.
The new pharma policy proposed by Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is likely to call for a central mechanism to oversee research and development projects in the country.
The Union Cabinet on Friday cleared the proposal to hike dearness allowance for central government employees following the rise in inflation.
The 11-member Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance has frozen the prices of all decontrolled medicines until March 31, 2005, in view of high inflation.
Keeping its word to make drugs affordable to consumers, the government on Thursday announced caps on margins on the sale of pharmaceutical products.
JD-U leaders came down heavily on the Begusarai MP for his snide remarks.
It is estimated that over 95 per cent of drugs being produced in India are off-patent and would not be affected by introduction of product patent,
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances