The contrast between the two meetings couldn't have been more stark, yet, both were organically linked, the latter a show of support for the former.
Union minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani said it was "absolutely shocking" to see the former Haryana chief minister sitting calmly on a tractor while having woman members of his party pulling it physically.
IOC and other oil firms have been paying LPG consumers in 54 districts up to Rs 500 to help them buy a 14.2-kg cooking gas refill at market price, which is more than double of Rs 410 per bottle rate in Delhi.
Sri Lankan police on Monday came under pressure to arrest the Rajapaksa family loyalists involved in attacks on peaceful protesters last week, even as it arrested over 200 people on various charges following the violence that left nine people dead.
Oil Ministry felt it did not have a clear mandate to reduce rates post the January 2013 decision of the Cabinet to raise prices by 40-50 paisa a litre every month.
Onions had the highest inflation rate among all major commodities.
The stellar rise in corporate earnings in financial year 2021-22 (FY21) and FY22 did not result in a corresponding boom in capital expenditure (capex), with listed companies' investment in fixed assets rising just 2.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in FY22, growing at the slowest pace in the last six years. In comparison, the firms' combined net profit jumped 63.5 per cent YoY in FY22, while net sales increased 31.1 per cent - the fastest pace in over a decade. The 955 non-financial companies in Business Standard's sample reported combined net profit of Rs 7.18 trillion in FY22, compared with Rs 4.39 trillion in FY21 and Rs 2.59 trillion in FY20.
Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, suggests T N Ninan.
Wearing black clothes, Congress leaders hit the streets on Friday to protest against price rise and unemployment with a host of them, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, being detained by police amid dramatic standoffs outside Parliament and the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi.
Scores of Punjab farmers protesting against the government over various issues, including a bonus on wheat and beginning paddy sowing from June 10, spent the night on the road after they were stopped from marching towards Chandigarh.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is currently facing public demand for his resignation over his mishandling of the economic crisis, is the man who ruthlessly ended Sri Lanka's nearly 30-year civil war with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs may raise the subsidised LPG cylinder quota from 9 to 12 at the next meeting, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily said.
Inclusive of the July hike of 25 paise, a monthly increase of similar amount would result in a saving of Rs 2.25 a litre for the current financial year alone.
'Nationalism built on divisiveness cannot strengthen the country, or help the economy improve its performance,' points out T N Ninan.
If oil prices stay at their new level of $72 or drop further, India will be in the happy position next year of enjoying a surplus on the trade account.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's biggest oil firm, on Tuesday reported a 31.4 per cent drop in the fourth quarter net profit as record refining margins were wiped away by a margin squeeze in petrochemicals and losses on auto fuel sales. Standalone net profit of Rs 6,021.88 crore, or Rs 6.56 a share, in January-March, compared with Rs 8,781.30 crore, or Rs 9.56 per share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a stock exchange filing. Sequentially, the profit was higher than Rs 5,860.80 crore in the previous quarter.
'80% of the rural and urban population don't have enough purchasing power.'
Upstream firms pay for a portion of fuel subsidies by extending discounts on crude oil they sell to refiners who are forced by the government to sell diesel and cooking fuel at rates lower than cost of production.
The fact that Gehlot has stayed relevant these five years with his populist schemes is one reason why he may beat incumbency in a state that votes for change every election, observes Ramesh Menon.
'Reliance on crude oil is still very high. Globally, natural gas is 25 per cent of the energy basket. In India, it has fallen to 6.5 per cent, from 11 per cent in 2014.'
Everyone must sample these tiny pan-fried idlis stuffed with onions or vegetables once before they die.
Budget is widely seen as a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the general election campaign less than six months away, the BJP has more to think about than it had on the eve of 2019. It's the states that will be robbing BJP strategists of their sleep at this point, not the Lok Sabha, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Sonia hit out at the BJP, saying the ruling party's "divisive agenda" has become a regular feature of political discourse in all states and that history is being "mischievously distorted" to add fuel to its agenda.
The rates are hikes by almost 8 per cent.
Business subsidies may attract tax
India, which imports over 80 per cent of its oil needs, spent $87.7 billion on importing 220.43 million tonne (MT) of crude oil in 2017-18. For 2018-19, the imports are pegged at almost 227 MT.
Sri Lankans were on the edge on Tuesday as they waited whether embattled Gotabaya Rajapaksa will honour his offer to resign as president, amid signs that key members of the erstwhile powerful ruling family were attempting to flee in the face of massive public anger against them for mishandling the economy that has bankrupt the country.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday hailed the Union Budget as an "all-inclusive" document while the Opposition dismissed it as "anti-people" and mere rhetoric lacking the vision for creating jobs and taming inflation.
He also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to create a Delhi-like situation in Puducherry and take power away from an elected government.
Senior policymakers say it is a tough task and the finance ministry may resort to the time-tested method of carrying forward part of the subsidy payment burden to the next fiscal year.
Tikait says PM Modi was supporter of MSP law when he was CM
One of the major challenges before the government is that the annual average refill by a PMUY consumer is 3.28 cylinders compared to seven for others.
Every dollar increase in crude oil price will add Rs 4,000 crore to the overall underrecovery.
We have not suffered such huge price shocks across so many basic commodities, at the same time, in decades. Has the inflationary impact of all this been factored into stock prices as yet, asks Debashis Basu.
Angry protests in Colombo as Sri Lanka grapples with its worst ever economic crisis.
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The year 2014 was one of the most challenging years for India. For two consecutive years our GDP growth was sub 5 per cent. Employment generation had declined, the revenue buoyancy was low and the country had become investment starved.
Sri Lanka's former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is the youngest brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was stopped from boarding a flight to Dubai on Monday evening, local media reported.
Stating that the economic costs of shutdown of the global economy are accumulating rapidly, Moody's projected that all G-20 advanced economies would contract by 5.8 per cent in 2020.
Punjab's 117 assembly seats are going to be a keenly-watched contest with the Congress, the AAP, the SAD-BSP alliance, and the BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) battling to form the government in the state, with a probable entry of farmers' front in the form of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha.
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