'I was not there at the spot and I don't know who was driving the car.' 'It is a matter that needs to be investigated by the police and it is their job,' says the father of the journalist who was killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.
'The BJP's real weapons are Hindutva, organisation and finance.'
Prime Minister Modi has certainly pulled back, and his political capital -- dependent as it is on an image that he knows best and never retreats -- may have taken a bit of a beating. But, equally, it is hard to say that the protesters have 'won', argues Mihir S Sharma.
Addressing Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and workers on the birth anniversary of party's ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay, Modi asked them to reach out to farmers on the ground and inform them about details and benefits of the new agriculture reforms and how these will empower them.
'The rail network all across the state of Punjab is presently totally clear for uninterrupted movement of goods trains,' a home department statement said in Chandigarh. However, hours after the Punjab government's statement, the Railways accused it of 'misguiding' people over the extent of blockade of rail tracks in the state by the protesting farmers.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had moved the resolution at a special session on Thursday which was unanimously passed by the House with the ruling Left Democratic Front, Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front and the BJP supporting it.
Releasing the manifesto at the party office, NCP general secretary and chief spokesperson D P Tripathi said the party's endeavour will be to bring radicalised youth of Kashmir Valley into the mainstream and take stern action against those involved in 'brainwashing' them.
"I have been the chief minister twice with your blessings. I have decided that the 2023 assembly election will be my last fight. It is not for me to come to power or become the chief minister," he said.
The decision will help farmers earn an additional income of Rs 62,635 crore
The moves on basic income for farmers - Rs 6,000 per person in three installments per annum - and subsidised agricultural loans are likely to boost the rural economy through consumption in the near-term, but will have a fiscal cost, it noted.
'Why does a State that sees a national security issue at every turn not recognise the seriousness of the data from sensitive databases being breached?'
However, the growth, driven largely by a bumper rabi harvest and facilitated by relaxation in lockdown, may not have resulted in a big rise in income for a section of farmers.
According to Fitch rupee is expected to weaken to 72 to a dollar by the end of December 2019, and further to 73 by December 2020, from 69.82 to a dollar in end December 2018.
'Everyone is still trying to understand the quantum of impact demonetisation will have on the economy.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday unveiled the budget for fiscal 2020-21, vowing to boost income of Indians and their purchasing power, in a bid to revive domestic economic growth that has slumped.
With economic growth slowing to a six-year low, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath says the government should undertake structural reforms such as bank clean-up and labour reforms to address the slowdown in domestic demand. She rooted for government policies focusing on managing a slowdown in domestic demand, and on boosting productivity growth and supporting employment creation in the medium term.
But the measures, particularly in agriculture, may not be enough to revive the sector and double the farm income, says S Mahendra Dev.
If eight states could join the VAT system much after the rollout date and after seeing how it works, why can't the same apply to states opposed to the farm laws, asks A K Bhattacharya.
Over 10 million farmers have received Rs 2,000 crore under the flagship scheme says Virendra Singh Rawat.
Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget has not disappointed but vision and details, particularly for the revival of agriculture, are missing.
Nitin Tyagi is a young farmer in Budhagaon village of Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. A few years ago, Tyagi left his fairly lucrative job in the medical industry and shifted base to his ancestral village to look after his land and property. He opened a small shop selling farm inputs in the village and also started taking a greater interest in agricultural matters which had so far been looked after by his father and uncles. Tyagi and his brothers primarily grow sugarcane, potato and wheat on nearly 10 acres of land with sugarcane taking up most of his time and effort. Being one of the most important and lucrative cash crops of the region, sugarcane is directly linked to the fate of millions of farmers in west UP and with it, the electoral fortunes of political parties seeking their votes in the coming assembly polls.
Journalist Rana Ayyub rejected allegations on Friday that she "misused" donor funds raised in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying money-laundering charges levelled against her are "preposterous and wholly mala fide".
This rise was spurred by record kharif sowing - after a good rabi season - that ensured high disposable incomes in rural India.
'For the politics of patronage in West Bengal, it has always been important to have territorial control.'
The government has put off by one month the levy of an additional Rs 2 per litre excise duty on petrol and diesel that is not doped with ethanol and bio-diesel in a bid to give the industry more time to implement the measure.
Vadra was asked to join the investigation at the tax authority's office but as he cited COVID-19 restrictions, a team of officials visited his premises in Delhi's Sukhdev Vihar area.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana', the erstwhile ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party questioned if financial transactions of film personalities who openly support the government at the Centre were clean and transparent.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of getting his telephones tapped and listening to the conversation every evening.
The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party against the Congress government in Chhattisgarh where assembly polls are due next year, was defeated by voice vote in the state Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
The report admits that converting MSP to a floor price of auction on the eNAM portal will not completely solve the problem as the current data shows that average modal prices in e-NAM mandis is lower than the minimum support price in all commodities except urad.
However, Sonu Sood has no such plans for himself.
Rinku Singh has become a household name after his sensational power hitting in IPL to help Kolkata Knight Riders clinch victory from the jaws of defeat against Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday.
In May, Satpal Singh, who runs a dairy business with three buffaloes in Jewar, near Noida, was worried about the steep spike in input costs. Singh said dry fodder rates, which cost Rs 1,500-2000 per tractor trolley last year, were quoting at Rs 4,500-5,000. The price of other cattle feed ingredients (that include mustard meal and similar mixes) had also gone up from Rs 2,000 per quintal to Rs 3,100-3,200 per quintal.
According to a communication by the ministry to the heads of PSBs, it will be a bottom-up consultative process from the branch level onwards which will involve discussions at the branch or regional level, state level and national level.
It may sound bizarre, but incidents of public sector bankers dying by suicide could probably equal the number of such bankers quitting their jobs, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked all wings of the government to work in a synchronised manner and pressed the bureaucracy to take speedy decisions.
The Indian economy is coming out of the pandemic-induced degrowth and GDP growth will enter the positive territory in the fourth quarter of this fiscal, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Wednesday. In an interview to PTI, Kumar also said the Centre's new agriculture reform laws are aimed at increasing the income of farmers and the present agitation was a result of misunderstanding and miscommunication which need to be removed.
The new Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian believes that more than unemployment, it is the quality of employment which needs to be focused on. In an interview with Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana, Subramanian said that controlling inflation was the Modi government's biggest achievement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the target date for achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending with petrol has been advanced by five years to 2025 to cut pollution and reduce import dependence.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
