The annual earnings of a non-executive chairman of a PSB is capped at Rs 10 lakh, inclusive of fees for attending board meetings. This is way below the compensation of the chairman of any private bank, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have announced loan waivers for farmers, while Maharashtra has not despite Opposition pressure. Sanjeeb Mukherjee reports.
The BJP veteran was detained on Monday evening while protesting against the state government's "apathy" towards the farmers of Vidarbha. He was taken to the district police headquarters and later released.
The ED slapped criminal charges of money laundering on the basis of the Mumbai Police FIR that was filed in August this year, which itself was filed on the basis of a similar complaint by the state economic offences wing.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit recently met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar urging him to ban onion export from Maharashtra and re-direct the vegetable to New Delhi to keep the prices steady.
Saying that he had loss a "dear friend" in Bal Thackeray's death, Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday described the Shiv Sena supremo as a "magnanimous" leader who was ready "to pay any political price" for his stand.
Though we have a debt burden of Rs 180,000 crore, the economic condition of the state is stable and healthy. This is due to efficient fiscal management and effective monitoring of expenditure, says the Maharashtra chief minister.
Fadnavis said they also discussed the short- and long-term measures to tackle drought situation.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Saturday got some stick for the "maximum" bomb blasts in the state from Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar who said it reflected poorly on the state administration and aroused suspicions about a "particular community".
It is a difficult problem and will require the Union, state governments and civil society, meaning NGOs, to work together, points out Aakar Patel.
The Maharashtra government has announced a five-level plan to relax the coronavirus-induced restrictions in the state, based on the weekly positivity rate and the occupancy of oxygen beds.
There is a clamour for changing land-use from agriculture to commercial, residential or industrial.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Monday came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after the latter targeted him during poll rallies in Maharashtra.
The concept of 'fairness by rulers' is deeply ingrained in Indians and any weakening of this dents the legitimacy of the ruler, warns military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said that 'Khalistanis' have infiltrated the protest and he will file an affidavit along with the necessary inputs of the intelligence bureau (IB).
Sanjay Sharma, 50 from Nanded, Maharashtra shares his dreams for 2020s.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday began his three-day tour to take stock of four drought-hit states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Centre has transferred around Rs 1,35,000 crore so far under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme with the payment of eighth instalment on Friday and is also procuring higher quantity of paddy and wheat at minimum support price to boost farmers' income.
Because of the reluctance to intervene structurally in the political economy of onion trade, the BJP is paying the price till today and might continue to do so in the forthcoming election to the Delhi assembly.
The police, fire brigade, teams of the National Disaster Response Force and local trekkers were making efforts to pull out all bodies from the accident spot, a senior police official said.
The new governments will have to spend much more than Rs 220 billion in Rajasthan, more than Rs 160 billion in MP, and nearly Rs 30 billion in Chhattisgarh.
'There is no food to eat and water to drink and people are migrating in hordes.' 'Chief Minister Fadnavis must shift his base to Marathwada in such times.' 'If you do not help during a drought, then when will you help?'
From Jammu and Kashmir to Andhra Pradesh, consumers are facing power cuts ranging from 2 hours to 8 hours.
Addressing a press conference, Pawar, a Rajya Sabha member, also bemoaned the conduct of Deputy Chairman Harivansh and the Modi government's decision of "bulldozing" the Opposition in the House.
Private equity (PE) is set to play a bigger role in banks. Of 21 recommendations accepted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) out of 31 made by its Internal Working Group (IWG), its stance on non-promoter holdings in private banks is seen with excitement, though it doesn't refer to PEs explicitly. On non-promoter holdings in these banks, the RBI said this will be capped at 10 per cent of the paid-up voting equity share capital in the case "of natural persons and non-financial institutions and entities"; and "at 15 per cent for all categories of financial institutions, entities, supranational institutions, public sector undertaking, or the government." While this is a modification of the IWG's stance for the non-promoter holding in banks at up to 15 per cent, it does open up a huge window for PEs, all the same. This is because, while the RBI has remained silent on the eligibility of industrial houses for bank licences, fresh high-quality capital in large amounts can only come from PEs.
Low oil prices drove the growth in states' share faster than expected, says Abhishek Waghmare.
The Union Budget on Monday evoked contrasting responses in the political arena with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hailing it as a vision for an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and the Opposition describing it as a 'let down like never before' that was meant to 'deceive' people.
The hunger strike between 8 am and 5 pm is part of the farmers' plan to intensify their agitation from Monday.
Kejriwal's centralised way of governance might work in Delhi, but Punjab will call for delegation, observes Sanjeev Nayyar.
Maharashtra Navirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday condemned the attack on Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and said the Prime Minister and not Pawar should be blamed for price rise.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he would not a utter a word against estranged Bharatiya Janata Party ally Shiv Sena during the campaign for the October 15 Maharashtra polls as a mark of respect to Bal Thackeray.
The numbers, however, appear to be in favour of the ruling dispensation to get these bills passed from Rajya Sabha, while the lower house has already cleared them despite a key NDA member Shiromani Akali Dal vehemently opposing them.
Normally, kharif sowing of vegetable seeds starts during the first week of May across the country. Farmers start preparing their fields to make them suitable for kharif sowing during the second fortnight of April. Now, however, faced with the lockdown, farmers are in a hurry to clear their fields of rabi crop and prepare for kharif planting. With a normal monsoon forecast this year, they are doing all they can to take advantage of pre-monsoon showers.
India will receive normal monsoon this season, country's meteorological department said on Wednesday in its forecast for the Southwest monsoon that covers 75 per cent of the country, and thereby may bring much-needed respite to the economy, which is reeling under the catastrophic effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vikhe Patil, who was leader of opposition in the state assembly, resigned from the Congress recently.
Vidarbha had given as many as 44 seats to the BJP in 2014. The Congress and NCP, plus independents and smaller parties, snatched 19 seats from the BJP, reports Abhishek Waghmare.
These states make India one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
With almost all opposition parties too backing the 'Bharat bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure peace is maintained.
