Damu Nagar -- a shanty colony built around a hillock in Mumbai's northern suburb of Kandivali, abutting the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, was engulfed in an inferno Monday, December 7, that left more than 2,000 homes gutted and thousands homeless. Residents displayed exemplary courage, camaraderie and chutzpah as they grappled with ways and means to overcome their personal catastrophes when Rediff.com visited them.
They were present in the pub when the blaze occurred, but fled without helping the guests, the official said.
Dhubri is the worst hit with over 8.72 lakh people affected, followed by Barpeta with more than 4.78 lakh people and Goalpara with around 4.28 lakh population.
Launching the Ayushman Bharat scheme via a video-conference to extend health insurance benefits to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he said the three-tier panchayat system has fully taken shape in the UT, describing it as a realisation of Mahatma Gandhi's dream of 'gram swaraj' (village self-rule).
India's fuel sales surged past pre-pandemic levels in March on twin impact of the economy rebounding from the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions and anticipation of price increases leading to stocking. In the first two weeks of March, dealers, as well as the public, topped up their tanks in anticipation of an increase in prices that had been on hold in the run-up to the elections in states like Uttar Pradesh. While daily price revisions restarted on March 22, the increases were calibrated.
LPG alone will save us Rs 8,000 cr a year: M Veerappa Moily.
At present, around 12 per cent of around 190 million rural households today use LPG to meet their cooking energy needs.
Modi said the country needs to increase domestic output of energy.
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.
He spent 12 hours out in the open precariously perched on a cliff as torrential rains unleashed large-scale devastation on Kedarnath, demolishing all that came in their way with equal fury except the shrine.
Sheila Dikshit answers the question everyone is asking: 'What after the Commonwealth Games'?
Analysts are enthused by BPCL's upstream foray and have re-rated the stock in the past couple of years.
India's petrol and diesel sales fell by about 17 per cent in May from a month ago as restrictions clamped to curb the world's worst outbreak of coronavirus infections stifled demand. Sales of petrol -- used in cars and motorcycles -- fell to 1.79 million tonne in May, the lowest in a year, according to the preliminary data of state-owned fuel retailers. While the consumption was almost 13 per cent higher than demand in May 2020, it was 28 per cent lower than pre-COVID levels of 2.49 million tonne.
'Nobody expected the slowdown to go for these many days. Unfortunately, it is an unbelievably bad slow down.'
The only fuel that showed growth was LPG as the government dole of free cooking gas cylinders to poor households fired up consumption by 21 per cent during April 1 to 15.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday attributed the drubbing the Congress-led UPA has received in polls mainly to the "communication deficit" on part of outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and also to issues like hike in prices of fuel and LPG cylinders by the ruling dispensation.
International air travel of passengers has been permitted in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission. Further opening-up will take place in a calibrated manner.
Low oil prices drove the growth in states' share faster than expected, says Abhishek Waghmare.
'I am here to look after people's needs.' 'I am not bothered about who is a Maoist or who is not.'
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on e-commerce major Amazon for selling pressure cookers that did not meet quality standards. The CCPA also directed Amazon to notify the consumers of all these 2,265 pressure cookers sold through its platform, recall the products and reimburse the prices to buyers, the Department of Consumer Affairs said in a statement.
"Those who won in the recount are now asking the Election Commission why Modi is going to Gujarat," he said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the government over the rising price of domestic cooking gas, diesel and petrol, and alleged that an amount of Rs 23 lakh crore has been earned by increasing prices of these commodities in the last seven years.
Experts contend that this setback, even if temporary, could put the company at a disadvantage to its competitors in acquiring new customers.
Modi said there was a time when families would celebrate getting gas connections as if they have got home a Mercedes.
The outcome in UP is far more significant than in the other states going to the polls next year. An unlikely setback in UP can cramp the Modi government, virtually making it a lame-duck two years ahead of the 2024 parliamentary poll, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Petrol price on Friday crossed the Rs 100- per-litre mark in Chennai as well as in some places in Punjab and Kerala after fuel prices were hiked yet again. Petrol is priced at over Rs 99 a litre in Delhi and Kolkata -- the only metro cities which haven't seen the Rs 100 mark yet. Petrol price was hiked by 35 paise per litre on Friday but there was no change in diesel rates, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
The connections will be released on completion of Know Your Customer formalities and de-duplication of the applicants across all the three Oil Companies to ensure that multiple connections are not released.
The government appointed panel will look at the difficulties consumers faced in receiving the subsidy after buying gas cylinders at market rates.
Having failed to align cooking gas prices with the market and limit the number of subsidised cylinders to consumers, the government is now trying to curb the misuse of multiple connections in households.
The government has raised the security deposit paid by consumers for new LPG connection to Rs 850 per cylinder following higher prices paid by the distributors in procuring cylinders.
'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
If only you had thought ahead, you would have stocked snacks and biscuits, bread and cake, and vegetables suited for Amma or pondatti to make your favourite bajji and pakoda, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
With the flood threat continuing to loom large over the valley, the Army has started the evacuation process in Srinagar as the city experienced fresh rainfall on Tuesday.
Prices of food items like cereals, pulses, and edible oils rose or remained steady in May, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report said, indicating there could be another higher inflation print. However, it observed that the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) surprise move to increase interest rates bodes well for its credibility. The RBI's monthly State of the Economy report, released on Tuesday, citing high frequency food price data from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for the period May 1-12, said the increase in the prices of cereals was primarily because of the surge in wheat prices.
More than half of the total subsidy provisioning, amounting to 54 per cent, is going towards food subsidy, which is estimated at Rs 184,220 crore for 2019-20 - a 7.5 per cent increase over the revised estimates for 2018-19.
The government does not seem inclined, at least in the petroleum sector, to effect sudden and steep upward price revisions to tame its huge subsidy burden and rein in fiscal deficit.
One person was killed and at least nine others were injured when a three-storey residential building collapsed following an explosion in a cooking gas cylinder in Moti Nagar in Delhi on Wednesday morning.
Criticising BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for advocating the Gujarat model of development, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi dismissed it, saying the same formula could not be applied to all states in the country.
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