Biennial elections are being held for 58 Rajya Sabha seats across several states and by-poll for one in Kerala.
With domestic retail fuel prices jumping to record high on rising international oil rates, India on Thursday pressed oil cartel OPEC for 'affordable' oil price within a 'reasonable band' and that the producers should phase out production cuts. OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia have traditionally been India's principal oil source. But, OPEC and its allies, called OPEC+, ignoring its call for ease supply curbs had led to the world's third-biggest oil importer tap newer sources to diversify its crude oil imports. As a result, OPEC's share in India's oil imports has dropped to about 60 per cent in May from 74 per cent in the previous month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met Bharatiya Janata Party general secretaries and discussed organisational matters as also measures to strengthen the party ahead of assembly elections in some key states.
The political war of words over Manipur intensified on Saturday with the BJP raising the incidents of atrocities against women in West Bengal and Rajasthan and questioning the 'silence' of the opposition, which termed it as a diversionary tactic to avoid debate on the situation in the north-eastern state.
The 78-year-old Naveen is on the cusp of creating history. He must win the forthcoming Assembly polls to become India's longest-serving chief minister, a record held by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
A G20 dinner invitation from President Droupadi Murmu describing her position as 'President of Bharat' triggered massive debate on Tuesday, with the opposition alleging that the government is planning to drop India and stay with just Bharat as the country's name.
Shah asserted that the BJP will once again form the government in Uttar Pradesh with a comfortable majority.
Government sources said the GoM on coronavirus crisis also reviewed various measures being initiated by concerned ministries to allow partial economic activity in 'non-hotspot zones' from April 20.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and workers here on Friday that they must focus on polling booths if they want the party to win the coming assembly polls.
Shettar said he has not lost his hopes and would wait till the evening.
Tata Motors was the top gainer in the Sensex pack rallying 5.32 per cent. Among other prominent gainers were Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and TCS.
Many factors like women, caste combination, education qualification, age and performance of the legislators will be taken into consideration before the formation of the Yogi government 2.0, sources said on Thursday. Several rounds of meetings have taken place within the party after the poll results came out on March 10.
Ahead of a meeting of oil producers' cartel OPEC, India on Tuesday said the current oil prices are "very challenging" and rates need to be a "little bit sober" lest they impact a consumption-led recovery of the global economy. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who last week again urged OPEC to phase out its production cuts, said India is a price-sensitive market and it will buy oil wherever it gets competitive rates. The rebound in international oil prices from lows hit last month on the back of demand recovery has led to a spike in petrol and diesel retail prices in India.
Petrol costs more in India than Pakistan.
During the first round of discovered field auctions, there were 134 bidders for the 34 blocks on offer
President Ram Nath Kovind along with First Lady Savita Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and other leaders joined the fellow citizens on Sunday to express their gratitude towards all those who are safeguarding the health of the nation in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
All subsidies will be eliminated by March 2018
The 77 ministers have been divided into eight groups to develop technology-based resources, create a pool of professionals for recruiting in their teams and other similar initiatives to be adopted in the offices of all ministers' offices to bring more transparency and further improve and efficiency of the Modi government, the sources said.
Under-recovery or the gap between retail selling price and the cost of import, this month dipped to an all-time low of 8 paise a litre, helped by the monthly increases and softening in international oil rates.
The five women were arrested after interrogation by the police team probing the case, a police official told PTI.
India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, has conveyed to OPEC countries its concern over high oil prices that are threatening to impact the nascent economic recovery after the devastating pandemic. New Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has made phone calls to key OPEC nations to convey the desire for an affordable price for consumers. After calling his counterparts in Qatar and the UAE, he called Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) kingpin Saudi Arabia on Thursday evening.
Petrol and diesel prices on Monday were hiked for the seventh day in a row as a rally in international oil prices took retail rates in India to new highs. Petrol price was increased by 26 paise per litre and diesel by 29 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. This pushed retail rates, which differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT and freight charges, to their highest level. The hike took petrol price in Delhi to a record Rs 88.99 per litre and to a highest-ever rate of Rs 95.46 a litre in Mumbai.
Addressing a summit in Varanasi on the implementation of the National Education Policy, Modi said the system should not just produce degree-holders but provide human resources needed to take the country forward.
Since 2015, Odisha has been embroiled in a bitter battle over the origin of the delicacy with West Bengal, which had in 2017 secured the GI tag for 'Banglar Rasogolla'.
The new government on June 25 decided to defer the implementation till September-end to hold wider consultations.
With foreign investment almost drying up in India's oil and gas sector, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has promised an overhaul to make policies predictable, transparent and fair to investors.
I begin a new chapter in my political journey. Jai Hind," he wrote on Twitter sharing his brief resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.
Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Prahlad Patel, Subramanian Swamy, known for his strong views on a host of issues, Suresh Prabhu, Dushyant Singh, who is the son of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Vijay Goel, Vinay Katiyar and S S Ahluwalia are among those who have not found a berth in the new list while Union minister V K Singh is no longer a regular member and has been named as a special invitee.
Traditionally, Singapore and the UAE have been India's biggest sources of petrol and diesel.
Modi is believed to have signed on Ashok's appointment file before he left for Brazil to attend BRICS Summit, an oil ministry official said in New Delhi.
Much before Rashtrapati Bhavan confirmed the new ministers' portfolios, we had said who will get what in Narendra Modi's Union council of ministers!
Surjewala has alleged that the "forged, fabricated material" and the claims made under the #CongressToolkitExposed by various ministers are identical to the material that has already been marked as 'manipulative media' by Twitter.
The languages which are now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English.
Infrastructure, manufacturing and telecom are understood to be among the focus sectors
The visit will provide thrust to expand bilateral cooperation
Arun Jaitley and Amit Shah and other ministers will listen to PM's radio talk 'Mann ki Baat' while having tea with people across poll-bound Gujarat on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party rejected this was any sort of demonetisation and instead reminded the Congress that even during the rule of Manmohan Singh, old currency notes were taken off circulation.
Petrol and diesel prices were on Wednesday hiked by 24-25 paise per litre, the steepest increase since July 5 Union Budget, as a fallout of turmoil in global oil markets following drone attacks on Saudi Arabian crude oil facilities.
The government was planning to come up with a new fiscal model giving 'special incentives' for fields that were given out on nomination to ONGC and Oil India, reports Shine Jacob.
Sitharaman, who was holding the Commerce portfolio (Independent charge), was on Sunday promoted to the Cabinet rank as was Goyal.
