Parliament met for a brief special session on Saturday to announce the vacancy in the presidency following the resignation of Rajapaksa.
Thopte's supporters attacked 'Congress Bhavan' in Pune and vandalised the property in protest against his non-inclusion in the Maharashtra ministry.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
Navjot Singh Sidhu quit as the Punjab PCC chief, triggering other resignations and plunging the party into a fresh crisis just months ahead of the assembly elections.
Amid internal rumblings in the Punjab and Chhattisgarh Congress, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday said his government will complete its full five-year tenure.
'With each ED, CBI raid on us the BJP thinks we will soften down.' 'But every such raid has strengthened the resolve of Shiv Sena leaders.'
Earlier bidders in the SHAKTI auction were finding it difficult to meet their PPA obligations owing to shortfall in coal supply. The industry lobby has urged the Centre to review the guidelines and allow former participants as well.
Breaking a long tradition, the PMO has ensured that specific divisions in each ministry are allocated to junior ministers.
'My fight is issue-based and I have stood by it for a long time. There can't be any compromise on a pro-Punjab agenda'
Cabinet nod to ordinance to set up India's first sports university in Manipur
"I will work day and night to offer relief to the people in distress due to COVID or the recent floods. I will initiate all steps to improve the economic condition of the state in the coming days," he told reporters.
It is baffling how the PM chose the LCH as an indigenous product to celebrate on Rashtriya Raksha Samarpan Parv, even while his Cabinet holds up manufacturing clearance for 15 LCHs on the grounds that they are not Indian enough.
The government has merged the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with the finance ministry to give it a better control over state-owned firms and facilitate its ambitious privatisation programme. Finance ministry will now have six departments while DPE's hereto parent ministry, the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises will now be called the ministry of heavy industries. Previously, the disinvestment ministry - created under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government - was merged with the finance ministry and is now a department under it. Also, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was abolished and administration of foreign investments was given to the finance ministry (FinMin).
During the 13-minute special session, Dhammika Dassanayake, ecretary general of Parliament, announced the vacancy for the post of president.
Sources said while the Janata Dal-Secular will have nine new ministers, the Congress will have nearly 12 of its legislators inducted into the cabinet. Lone Bahujan Samaj Party MLA N Mahesh will also be a part of the cabinet expansion and will be given a key portfolio.
Indication to this effect came as Antony was allocated the seat next to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at cabinet meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
When Kapil Dev lifted the 1983 World Cup at the Lord's balcony, the erstwhile BCCI president and one of the powerful ministers in the Indira Gandhi cabinet, late NKP Salve had a different worry.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday allocated portfolios to his six Cabinet colleagues while keeping the key departments of home, finance, power and vigilance with himself.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Ajit Singh was sworn in as the 33rd member of the Union Cabinet, and 77th in the Union council of ministers on Sunday morning. Singh is widely expected to be allotted the civil aviation portfolio. This is the fourth time Singh has been inducted into the Union Cabinet.
The prime minister also decided to stop using special plane for foreign visits or domestic travelling and use business class.
In the course of his various tenures, Yediyurappa made many adversaries. Bommai, by contrast, knows the Opposition well and has many friends, cutting across parties -- he is, after all, only a 2008 BJP entrant.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a five-year-long reform-based result-linked power distribution scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore, for strengthening system of utilities to improve efficiency. Briefing after the CCEA meet here, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said, "We have done a lot for power distribution reforms. It needs to be strengthened. Today, the Cabinet has approved the new scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore, including Rs 97,000 crore central outlay." He said the funds would be given to power distribution companies (discoms) to strengthen their system.
Strengthening the portfolios of the home minister and the finance minister is a message that should not be missed, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Analysts have their doubts how much independence she has as finance minister. As Amit Mitra advises the chief minister, day-to-day work is done by the finance secretary and the chief secretary.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting five measures to conserve money for the fight against COVID-19, including a complete ban on media advertisements by government and PSUs for two years and suspending the Central Vista beautification project.
The 36 new ministers included 10 cabinet and four ministers of state (MoS) of the NCP, eight Cabinet and four MoS of the Sena, and eight Cabinet and two MoS of the Congress.
The government has made its flagship crop insurance schemes voluntary for farmers with existing crop loans or those willing to take new ones, as it seeks to address the concerns raised by farmers' body and states in implementation of these programmes. "The Union Cabinet has approved the revamping of 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)' and 'Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS)' to address the existing challenges in implementation of crop insurance schemes," an official statement said.
Just a few weeks ago, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw did some tough talking with the senior managers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the ailing state-owned telecom service provider. The message was clear: They had to perform, quit by taking the voluntary retirement package or be compulsorily retired from service. The terse message from an otherwise polite and soft-spoken minister came just days after he announced a second and bigger package of Rs 1.64 trillion as part of a four-year turnaround plan for BSNL.
There was no law or autonomous body governing digital content in India so far. Now, OTT and other platforms, including digital news websites, are expected to fall within a governmental framework of rules and regulations.
A great deal of infighting is taking place in Karnataka over the allocation of portfolios in the new cabinet headed by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar. The Reddy brothers camp (and members of Legislative Assembly from the coastal belt of the state are unhappy over the lack of representation in the cabinet, and have held a series of meetings.
PM also said that states must act against any hoarding of oxygen and directed officials to ensure that the oxygen supply to various states happens in a smooth, unhindered manner and called for fixing responsibility with the local administration in cases of obstruction.
The combativeness reflects her insistence not to meekly acquiesce to what has been going on in Raisina Hill for years or decades, observes Kartikeya Tanna.
Members of the civil society including former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami, ex-navy chief L Ramdas and former cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian on Thursday approached the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe into the coal block allocation scam.
The government expects the expenses on tours of ministers and former Prime Ministers in the current fiscal to be Rs 3 lakh less than the total budget allocation, but still this would be more than Rs 160 crore (Rs 1.6 billion).
The government has earmarked Rs 270.05 crore for the tour expenses of Union ministers in the General Budget 2013-14 which is slightly more than the last fiscal's allocation of Rs 269.94 crore.
He was the financial secretary when the 2G licences were allocated.
'An expanding army, rising salaries due to the 7th pay commission, and raised pensions due to OROP are consuming money at the cost of badly needed bulletproof jackets, rifles, artillery, submarines, warships and fighter aircraft,' notes Ajai Shukla.
The broader NSE Nifty also settled lower by 23.10 points, or 0.19 per cent, at 11,922.80.
The government will now auction 23 mines, instead of 24
