As per their law and Constitution, their international agreements are to be ratified by both houses of Parliament and local authorities.
Perturbed by high inflation despite the Reserve Bank of India's monetary tightening initiatives, India on Monday asked Britain for lessons to rein in price rise.
"It is the job of Parliament to legislate. We (government) had several rounds of discussion with him (Anna Hazare) and his team. We know their viewpoints. About nine rounds of meetings have already been held with them. Thereafter also, through interlocutors some discussions also took place with them," Mukherjee told media persons at his south Kolkata residence.
In an interesting development, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who is very much in the news these days would be travelling by a special plane to Udaipur, Rajsamand and Nathdwara temple in Rajasthan, accompanied by Union Road and Transport Minister C P Joshi for a one-day trip to the state on Saturday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was conspicuous by his absence at a joint group photograph of members of both the Houses on Wednesday to commemorate 60th anniversary of Parliament as he was not informed.
Besides, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry secretary general Amit Mitra, L Suresh, vice president of Film Federation of India, UTV Group chief financial officer Rajeev Waghle, chief financial officer of Reliance Big Films Subhashish Sarkar and Zee Tele films chief executive officer Puneet Goenka, among others, were also part of the delegation.
The headline inflation declined to 9.11 per cent in November against 9.73 per cent in the previous month.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, holding special sittings on Sunday, will focus on the '60 years journey of Indian Parliament' as they celebrate 60th anniversary of its first session.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday held a meeting with senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Yashwant Sinha to discuss these two legislations.
Amid the government's keenness to introduce Lokpal Bill in Parliament before the end of the winter session on December 22, the Union Cabinet on Sunday night had informal discussions on the much-hyped legislation which is expected to be taken up by the Cabinet formally on Monday.
In the wake of the all out attack on Home Minister P Chidambaram by Opposition parties, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party, asking for his resignation and the fact that Parliament had to be adjourned for the second day on the issue of Chidambaram, has led to suspicions that it is being instigated by elements within the ruling party itself.
India's food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay on Thursday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi ahead of the general\nbudget on July 6.
In the first seven months of 2011-12, the Centre's fiscal deficit has crossed 74 per cent of the year's target. Inflation has been over 9 per cent for a year, despite food inflation falling considerably.
India has the capacity and the resilience to overcome economic crisis, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha.
In the backdrop of Dayanidhi Maran's exit from the Union cabinet over the 2G scam issue, senior Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday discussed the current political situation with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi and asserted that the alliance between the two parties would be strengthened.
The Finance Minister said government set targets assuming normal conditions.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the finance ministers of states that the government would focus on\ninfrastructure, agriculture and employment generating sectors to promote growth and protect jobs.
Principal Advisor in the Planning Commission and former Chief Statistician of India Pronab Sen did not share RBI's views.
Rediff.com takes a look at the revamped Cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh:
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said surging food and fuel prices amid weak global economic growth are adversely impacting GDP growth of the country.
A crucial meeting of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the leaders from Telangana once again resulted in no concrete decision being taken on the issue of separate statehood.
Crucial financial sector reforms are again stuck, despite Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's appealing to political parties to help pass the legislations in this regard.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other finance ministry officials have reached the last leg of pre-Budget consultations.
Now, experts say strains on fiscal deficit are coming from the revenue side and the administration should, if anything, step up expenditure to prop up the economy that is slowing down.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Monday demanded that the United Progressive Alliance government convene an all-party meeting over the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in retail before making any statement on it in the Parliament.
According to sources, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday spoke to Opposition leaders about this decision. Details awaited.
In a sudden turn of events, the Centre has decided to put on hold the controversial decision about FDI in retail sector, in an apparent bid to break the Parliament logjam. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose party Trinamool Congress is strongly opposed to the decision, claimed on Saturday that Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to her and told her that the FDI decision has been "suspended".
The hike in prices of petroleum goods led to protests in several parts of the country and many state governments announced the withdrawal of value added tax on petroleum products to lessen the impact of the hike on the common man.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to discuss bilateral and regional issues.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempt to win over ally Trinamool Congress on the government's decision to allow FDI in retail was on Friday rebuffed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who bluntly told him her party cannot back the move.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, said, "In the forward guidance of the second quarter review of the Monetary
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday strongly refuted observations by US think-tanks, the government and industry that India has gone slow on economic reforms and insisted that a series of reforms are in the process, which will lead to the next round of growth.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Washington, DC on Monday to participate in the India-US economic partnership dialogue, during which he is expected to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to the finance minister, India was compliant with most of the internationally accepted standards in banking, securities markets and insurance sector.
GDP growth in 2010-11 stood at 8.5 per cent.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the government will have to find some solution to the feisty issue of opening up of retail sector for FDI.
Ahead of his meeting with Congress members of Parliament to allay their apprehensions on FDI, Mukherjee met Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence for about 10 minutes, party sources said.
Opposition firm on its demand for FDI decision reversal, even as PM asks dissenters to fall in line.
With Parliament paralysed for the fifth day running and no business being transacted, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure to partially rollback the Foreign Direct Investment in retail, which was approved by the Union cabinet last week.
The UIDAI chairman said people have started relaising the benefits of aadhaar numbers and how it could help them in multiple ways -- from opening a bank account to avail the benefits of various social welfare schemes.
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