Amethi member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi's corporate style of electoral management is causing nightmares to those seeking Congress tickets for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Congress' senior spokesperson Anand Sharma Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must 'walk the talk' and announce the measures required by giving money in the hands of the poor and small and medium enterprises to help reboot the economy.
The party also promised reservation to minorities on basis of their population after the caste census.
The districts have provided 64 days of jobs under the 100-day job scheme as against the state average of 45 days.
In its report for the year ended March 31, 2008, the CAG has expressed serious concern over deficiencies like 'non-provision of the envisaged job guarantee to rural poor, fake payment of wages and delay in payment of wages to labourers'.
However, demand was still much higher compared to the previous years, underlining the scheme's vital role in providing employment to the rural poor, a vast majority of whom are migrants.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi launched a no-holds-barred attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha on Monday, saying the leaders of the ruling party are not Hindus as they engage in "violence and hate" round the clock, drawing massive protests from the treasury benches, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the Congress leader of calling the entire Hindu community violent.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday assured that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will not be implemented in Assam if the party is voted to power in the state in the coming assembly poll.
Targeting Modi over inflation, Priyanka called him a "mehengai" man.
Free provision of food, cash transfers, and jobs in villages see enhanced flow of funds despite a precipitous fall in revenue. Till May, defence spend was nearly 30 per cent less than the previous year.
Holding up pictures of Lord Shiva, Guru Nanak, and Jesus Christ, he referred to Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism and Jainism to underline the importance of fearlessness. He also cited the attributes of Lord Shiva and teachings of Guru Nanak, Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Mahavir to state that all religions and great people of the country have said "daro mat, darao mat (do not be scared, do not scare others)".
Gandhi said farmers asked him during his Bharat Jodo and Bharat Jodo Nyay yatras about why they were not getting the benefit of loan waivers like billionaire industrialists or MSP (minimum support price) for farm produce.
"During the Congress regime, the news headlines were of India handing over another dossier to Pakistan about terror activities. Some of our friends in media used to clap after such any such dossier was sent," Modi said at an election rally in Maharashtra's Latur.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Could it have been more reformist? Of course, but this is an election year Budget, observes Akash Prakash.
Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, suggests T N Ninan.
It should announce its candidates 45 days before the elections; trust rooted leaders; start its campaign focused on five guarantees six months before elections.
Core sector companies have seen volumes drop to single digit in the first nine months of FY16.
The stimulus package announced by the government for the revival of the pandemic-hit economy has been found to be "inadequate", according to a Parliamentary panel report. The report of the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has noted that in the process of economic recovery post-first wave of the pandemic, the second wave has even more vigorously ripped the economy particularly the MSME sector. "The committee observes that the stimulus package announced by the government for the economic revival from the pandemic hit economy has been found to be inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering and long-term measures instead of improving the cash flow to generate demand as immediate relief," it said.
"If implemented 'honestly and sincerely', the programme would increase the rural income and 'certainly we will be able to soften very considerably the harsh edges of extreme poverty," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
The government may raise the number of job days under the NREGA scheme to compensate rural households for loss of income due to a poor monsoon in large part of the country.
'The global situation is not very good.'
In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
Rahul Gandhi, along with a dozen Congress leaders, had met the prime minister on Wednesday to demand that the scheme, which guarantees 100 days employment to each rural household, be extended to the entire country.
Official panel points to bid deficiencies in rural job guarantee, pensions, housing and other programmes.
Personal loans have about 80 per cent share in exposures restructured under regulatory package 2.0 by eight banks who have declared results for the second quarter. The remaining 20 per cent are loans to individuals used for business and credit to MSMEs. The total recast exposure of these banks under One Time Restructuring (OTR 2.0) was Rs 27,708 crore.
A performance audit on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guatantee Act found that Bihar was deprived of grant of Rs 9684.24 crore (Rs 96.84 billion) during 2007-12 in the shape of central share due to less creation of mandays, sharp increase in demand for fund without sufficient justification and unspent balance grant, said the report.
Seeking to make inroads in Chhattisgarh, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced 10 'guarantees' for the upcoming assembly polls in the Congress-ruled state including free electricity, monthly 'samman rashi' for women and Rs 3,000 monthly allowance for the unemployed.
The plan includes step-wise expansion of a crucial credit guarantee net, establishment of an unprecedented number of functional clusters and increased government procurement from MSMEs.
Muzaffarpur tops the list with 96,855 double job cards under MNREGA.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its manifesto for the November 17 Madhya Pradesh elections promising MSP for wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal and paddy at Rs 3,100 and houses for beneficiaries of the state's flagship scheme 'Ladli Bahna'.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.
It has raised rural consumption, created new markets and shored up growth when investment falters.
'Nyay scheme will cost between 1.2-1.5 per cent of GDP at its peak.' 'Our nearly $3 trillion economy has the fiscal capacity to absorb this expenditure.'
Did you know that women can avail for a loan of upto Rs 20 crores to set up a manufacturing business?
Why did Karnataka's economic prosperity fail to influence the nature of electoral promises made by political parties in the run-up to the assembly elections? asks A K Bhattacharya.
The withdrawal right is hemmed by many conditions.
Former Union panchayat raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, lately in the news for denouncing the Commonwealth Games, is aiming his guns much closer to the United Progressive Alliance government's heart, at the way it is implementing the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
