Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will set a record by presenting the sixth Budget in a row -- 5 annual Budgets and one interim -- a feat achieved so far only by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. With the presentation of interim Budget on February 1, Sitharaman will surpass the records of her predecessors like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who had presented five budgets in a row. Desai, as Finance Minister, had presented five annual Budgets and one interim Budget between 1959-1964. The interim Budget 2024-25 to be presented by Sitharaman on February 1, will be a vote-on-account that will give the government authority to spend certain sums of money till a new government comes to office after the April-May general elections.
Never before has the need for creating an ambience for economic policy reforms been as critical as it is now, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
The National Democratic Alliance presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Thursday consolidated her lead after the second round of counting by getting nearly 72 per cent votes of the total votes of all MPs and MLAs of 10 states counted so far.
The analysis of five candidates could not be completed as their affidavits are either badly scanned or complete affidavits are not uploaded on the Election Commission of India website, they said.
Mody, the returning officer for the presidential election, said 115 nomination papers of 94 persons were received till Wednesday, of which 107 were rejected for not meeting the required criteria.
The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday filed his nomination papers for the July 18 election, with a host of leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and Farooq Abdullah accompanying him.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's barbs at Congress "wearing the burqa" of secularism triggered a fresh war of words with the party hitting back at him while senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha was worried that the "spurious" communal-secular debate would only help the ruling party.
According to Yashwant Sinha, a national-level pre-poll alliance of all opposition parties should be formed or a nationwide pre-poll alliance of regional parties should be made to defeat the BJP in the general elections.
Teen Murti Bhavan served as the official residence of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Droupadi Murmu, India's 15th President, will be the youngest (she is only 64) and India's first President to be born after Independence.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday assured farmer leaders led by Rakesh Tikait and Yudhvir Singh of support to their agitation against the new agriculture laws.
'The government is using the agencies of the government to suppress the Opposition.'
The Income Tax Department on Tuesday also raided 20 premises linked to Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and suspected shell firms in connection with an alleged tax evasion case against them, official sources said.
There are enough indications that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, with a third term victory behind him, intends to set the pace of events inside the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Gokhale was taken into custody under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in Ahmedabad where he is lodged in judicial custody in a Gujarat police case.
The first time most of us heard of Droupadi Murmu was when she was appointed governor of Jharkhand, where by all accounts she impressed Prime Minister N D Modi with her dignified and measured six-year tenure in the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. So much so that Modi picked her as the National Democratic Alliance's Presidential candidate.
Political watchers are keen to see if the party will now opt for a more seasoned face from its ranks for the vice presidential candidate.
The Election Commission on Friday issue a 'certificate of election' to NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu who has emerged victorious in the presidential poll.
'Certainly if Advani had agreed to Vajpayee in sacking Modi, then we would never have been talking of Modi today.'
'As a seasoned politician I know how to talk and understand the opinion and sentiments (of other political leaders).'
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday voiced its support for Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj as National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate, a day after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha backed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for it.
Vajpayee had travelled to Lahore in a bus from India in 1999 and started a peace initiative with Pakistan in 2004.
The Sena also suggested that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should join Pawar's effort to unite the Opposition, only then can a consolidated front gain real strength.
Amid rumblings in the Bharatiya Janata Party over Bihar poll rout and attack on its leadership by party veterans, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday strongly defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah, saying they cannot be held responsible for the defeat.
President-elect Droupadi Murmu will take oath of office of the highest constitutional post of the country on Monday followed by a 21 gun salute.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present Union Budget 2023-24 in a paperless format just like the previous two years. She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.
Voting for the presidential election in which NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu is pitted against joint Opposition pick Yashwant Sinha began at 10 am and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to cast his vote followed by BJP President JP Nadda.
Many of the 45 passengers of the private tourist bus were employees of a company located in Ambernath in Thane district who were heading for the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district, officials said.
Here are 5 BJP MPs who have taken up cudgels against their party leadership for its handling of Dalit issues.
Broadly speaking, the expansion of the Council of Ministers sent out three major political signals.
Yeshwant Sinha has been made vice president. Arun Jaitley is secretary of the party's Parliamentary Board.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary board on Tuesday named Droupadi Murmu, the party's tribal leader from Odisha, as the ruling National Democratic Alliance's candidate for the presidential election.
From the point of view of qualification, Murmu is probably educationally the least qualified among India's recent Presidents. But then, with the BJP in command, she will be required to do little but sign on the dotted line.
'The BJP is saying we have Modi, who have you got?' 'We have the people of India on our side.'
'Vajpayee used to consult the Opposition; Indira Gandhi used to consult the Opposition. Which khet ki mooli is Modi?'
Over 20 political parties, except the Biju Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front, took part in the massive rally.
The government says MPs will be busy campaigning in Gujarat. The Opposition counters this, saying campaigning for elections in 5 states was held in the midst of the Budget session earlier this year.
