The government will stand guarantor for loans to be disbursed to youth from the community.
In potentially controversial remarks, Union minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday asked his party workers to take advantage of the multi-phase polling in the state by voting twice, first at their hometowns and then at their places of work.
NCP president Sharad Pawar said the allegation against the social justice minister was serious and added the party will discuss the issue and decide on it "as soon as possible.
Delhi, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra on Monday confirmed bird flu cases, adding to the list of seven states -- Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh -- which had already reported avian deaths due to the disease.
It is curtains down for Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls. Here's a look at political biggies, who made it and who didn't.
The raids, taking place mainly in South India, was termed by the NIA as the 'largest ever' investigation process 'till date'.
The Association for Democratic Reforms in its report has stated that Maharashtra's Beed district tops the list of red alert constituencies with 9 tainted candidates contesting the elections.
Fissures in Maha BJP were out in the open at a rally organised in memory of the late Gopinath Munde, with Eknath Khadse and Pankaja targeting former CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Five other convicts were also granted varying jail terms by a special MCOCA court.
The government has directed inspection of all maternity homes and centres for Medical Termination of Pregnancy across Beed district after two aborted female foetuses were found in a garbage dump on Saturday.
A man demanding reservation for the community jumped to his death in a river in Aurangabad district.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
BJP made inroads into the Congress and NCP strongholds, winning 851 seats. Shiv Sena won 514, NCP 638, Congress 643, MNS 16, BSP 9, unrecognised parties 119, local coalitions 384, CPM 12 and Independents 324 seats.
Protests broke out in some states on Friday, including Delhi's Jama Masjid and stone-petling at policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj and Saharanpur, over the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad by two now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries with demonstrators in Jharkhand injuring a few policemen while authorities in Jammu imposed a curfew in few areas and parts of Kashmir observed a shutdown.
'The people who were assigned the role to look after the affairs of the Congress in Maharashtra have failed.'
'What will we drink if we start fearing these wells?'
A local court has ordered the police to issue a Non-Bailable Warrant against a doctor couple in Parli, Maharashtra -- Sudam and Saraswati Munde -- in an illegal sex determination case. In 2010, Satara-based social activist Varsha Deshpande had carried out a sting operation at Sudam Munde's hospital in Parli tehsil of Beed for allegedly conducting illegal sex determination tests.
'The minister is not concerned about our daughters' well-being.' 'Just when the sex ratio for girls is showing an improvement across every district, the minister wants the onus to be on the women knowing very well that decision making in India is in the hands of the male.'
Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and PepsiCo will jointly help Maharashtra government tackle the drought in Marathwada.
Data spanning the years 1951 to 2014 show that temperature and pressure conditions at specific locations in the Arctic region during the pre-monsoon period correlate with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, points out Charu Bahri.
Most farmers want to give Modi a second chance. They hope that the BJP loses at least 50 seats, so that it is dependent on its coalition partners who will then keep a check on Modi.
Pankaja Munde, who is the MLA from Parli, led the campaign for Gopinath Munde during the Lok Sabha elections against the single-minded, 'undo the Mundes' campaign by the Pawars and the Nationalist Congress Party. She is not set to take over his mantle, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
If the situation demands, the prisoners from drought-hit Beed and Latur districts will be shifted to places like Nashik and Dhule.
After former Shiv Sena MP Pradeep Jaiswal, ex-MLA of BJP from Latur, Shivaji Patil Kavekar, has resigned from the party with his supporters. Similar revolts had been reported from Nanded, Beed and Hingoli districts also.
Maytas was awarded the Rs 4.8 billion contract for commissioning of sub-stations, transmission and distribution lines in the Ahmadnagar, Beed and Latur districts in September last year. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said, "After the fraud committed by Raju came to light and the connection between Satyam and Maytas became evident, I have ordered Mahavitaran to cancel the contract and start bidding process afresh."
New government will have to mobilise money to complete pending irrigation, infra projects
The administration and people in draught-hit Marathwada are pinning their hopes on monsoon as only one per cent water is left in the dams of the parched region.
"It is now my ambition to move to Delhi as a member of Parliament. This I will do with the blessings of people," Munde said while addressing a rally at Shri Kshetra Bhagwangarh, at the border of Beed and Ahmednagar district, on Friday. Speaking for the first time in a public meeting after his stand-off with the party central leadership on the issue of appointment of key functionaries of the Maharashtra unit, Munde said, "Nothing new can happen without me in Mumbai, Delhi."
What do the leads from Maharashtra tell you about the emerging trends in the state? Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com explains.
The death toll in rain-related incidents in Marathwada region of Maharashtra has risen to 52, with 18 more people killed by lightning, officials said in Aurangabad on Thursday.
With mercury soaring in Maharashtra and the onset of monsoon still a fortnight away, as many as 1,998 villages and 2,607 hamlets are reeling under acute water shortage where about 2,358 tankers are being used to supply drinking water.
Maharashtra and Haryana voted in assembly elections on Monday. Several prominent personalities also exercised their franchise.
Water scarcity condition in Maharashtra has become "critical" due to deficit rainfall, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Wednesday while asking citizens to save water and use electricity carefully.
The ashes of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former union minister Gopinath Munde were on Sunday immersed in the Godavari river.
'I would like to express my anger at the way party affairs have been handled by some people.'
'Drought in the 1990s was essentially the drought of a poor India.' 'This 2016 drought is of a richer and more water-guzzling India.' 'The severity and intensity of the drought is not about lack of rainfall.' 'It is about the lack of planning and foresight, and criminal neglect.'
The Lok Sabha election will be held in 7 phases, beginning on April 11, 2019 and ending on May 19, 2019.
The Maharashtra government is pushing hard to get a Rs 4,500-crore financial package from Centre, reports Sanjay Jog
The decision came on a day when Thackeray said Maharashtra government should stop water supply to the beer manufacturing units in the drought-hit Marathwada region to tackle acute shortage of drinking water.
