The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new job creation scheme by giving subsidy to those establishments that make new hires. The subsidy would be to cover for retirement fund contributions by employees as well as employers for two years, she said. Employees contribution (12 per cent of wages) and employer's contribution (12 per cent of wages) totalling 24 per cent of wages would be given to establishments for two years, she said. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, every Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)-registered establishment taking new employees would get this subsidy.
Electricity will be restored in affected areas by June 20, he said, talking to reporters in Bhuj, the headquarters of the Kutch district which bore the brunt of the cyclone.
The list of drought-hit taluks will be notified, following Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's approval.
24x7 power supply to farmers emerges as a political lightning rod in the state.
The government on Friday hiked the debt waiver and relief for small and marginal farmers from Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) to Rs 71,680 crore (Rs 718.80 billion).
The sanction of Rs 8 lakh from Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund for a dance troupe's visit to Thailand has sparked a row with the opposition questioning the BJP-led government's "priorities" at a time when the state is reeling under severe drought.
With different agencies showing divergent predictions regarding the southwest monsoon, the central government and states are gearing up to face adversity with various line ministries reportedly being directed to undertake mock drills and hold preparatory meetings. Around 56 per cent of the net cultivable area of the country is rain-fed, accounting for 44 per cent of foodgrain production. The June-September rains contribute around 73 per cent of the annual precipitation.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said the Congress would root out the weeds in the form of the Akali-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.
In the coming few weeks, agriculture markets in North and Central India will be full of wheat, mustard, and chana - the three main rabi crops grown in these parts. Not only will the price trajectory of these determine the course of food inflation in the months to come, but it could also have a wider impact on the rural economy in the main growing states for these crops. Wheat and chana are largely grown in Madhya Pradesh (MP).
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday came down heavily on the Congress government in Karnataka for flaunting their 'rich fortunes and luxury lifestyles' following a viral video on social media showing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleague B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan in a private jet.
Onion prices are likely to start shooting up in the retail market towards the end of August before going up further to around Rs 60-70 per kg next month due to tightened supplies, a report said on Friday. However, the prices will remain below the highs of 2020, it said. "The supply-demand imbalance is expected to reflect in onion prices towards end-August. "As per our ground interactions, prices are expected to show significant increase from early September in the retail market, reaching up to Rs 60-70 per kg during the lean patch.
Gandhi said that he had already told the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that these states should take the lead in ushering in the second Green Revolution.
Responding to pressures within government, the farm debt waiver and relief scheme has been enhanced to Rs 71,680 crore from the earlier Rs 60,314 crore, even as its coverage was widened to include 7 million more marginal and small farmers, taking the number of beneficiaries to 43 million from the originally proposed 40 million.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
The Congress on Friday promised that if the party is voted to power in Gujarat, where assembly elections are due by the yearend, it would waive farm loans of up to Rs 3 lakh and provide free electricity for 10 hours daily to farmers in the state.
"How can the judge go into postmortem report etc. We are hearing a bail matter, we do not want to prolong.This way of going into merits and going into wounds etc. is unnecessary for the question of bail," the bench observed.
The Centre will sell tomatoes at Rs 80 per kg from Sunday, as against Rs 90 per kg earlier, to provide relief to people from high prices of the key kitchen item in retail markets.
Sharad Joshi, president of the newly formed Swatantra Bharat Paksha, tells Business Standard that all the Indian farmer wants is a free access to the market.
Governments in most of the world saw their approval ratings dip as they struggled to contain the raging virus, which hit economy hard everywhere, but Indian politics followed a different script, with the outgoing year marking further shrinking of a rudderless Congress while the ruling BJP soared riding on Modi's enduring appeal.
Harassment, corruption and the burden of compound interest for years are also the reasons.
Raut said industrialists should be supported, but not corruption.
Gandhi kicked off his 15-km padyatra from Koritical village in Adilabad district to highlight the problems faced by farmers.
Tourism is badly affected. Entire apple orchards have been washed away. 2 million people are threatened with loss of livelihood.
Around 800 people, including children and the elderly, are living in pitiable conditions in relief shelters near Thangjing temple and Moirang Lamkhai which are being run by three organisations.
Modi also announced Rs 2 lakh aid to the kin of those who died in the deluge.
Several Delhi hospitals treating Covid-19 patients faced a major medical oxygen crisis with their depleting stock for the second consecutive day, prompting the Centre to increase the city's quota to 480 metric tonnes against the AAP dispensation's demand of 700 MT.
The cultivators who take pride in feeding the world have no time to cook for themselves during the harvest season, and that is why they rely on the 2-minute noodles, finds out laxmi Negi/Rediff.com.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced Rs 1,000 crore as interim relief for the cyclone-hit Andhra Pradesh as he undertook a survey of the worst-affected city.
The worker said there was a natural source of water in the tunnel but they had no clothes to change.
Speaking at the inauguration and laying of foundation schemes of various schemes, Modi said, Leh and Ladakh will also be benefited by this.
Nineteen people have been killed in rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours, the state relief commissioner's office said Monday evening.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal apologises for not stopping the event and making a speech after the incident.
A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanded central assistance of Rs 12,000 crore to tide over the drought in 33 of the 38 districts in the state, opposition leaders appeared keener to politicise the issue by portaying themselves as champions of millions of drought-hit farmers.
A Ganesh Nadar speaks to onion farmers in Nashik, India's largest wholesale onion market, about the high prices.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to release funds for MNREGA and to pay compensation to farmers in drought-affected areas.
Thackeray also claimed that the Maharashtra government is yet to receive a total of around Rs 38,000 crore from the Centre.
'The number of deaths attributable to warming is likely to rise in the future.'
States have been told to prepare in advance to counter any impact of an adverse southwest monsoon.
B D Agarwal, who is India's largest manufacturer and exporter of guar gum powder is taking the Congress by storm Rajasthan
