A day before the start of the Budget session of Parliament, as many as 18 opposition parties, led by the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Shiv Sena and the Trinamool Congress, decided on Thursday to boycott the President's address to the joint sitting of both Houses in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the new farm laws.
Almost no legislative business was transacted making it the worst session of Parliament ever. Devika Malik lists the options out of the current impasse
According to the ministry's statement, Tomar thanked the BKU (Kisan) leaders for coming out in support of the Farm Acts and said these laws have been welcomed in various states across the country.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
A much stronger focus was required on irrigation and water management. The FM merely acknowledged that it was a problem.
Food Security Act will be fully provided for and subsidy to be 2 per cent of GDP for next two years.
Is she, like the AIADMK's Jayalalithaa with the Vajpayee government in 1998, playing bully to a government that she knows cannot survive without her Parliamentary support? Or is there a greater scheme behind her erratic actions? Discussing the mercurial Mamata Banerjee on the Rediff Chat is Senior Editor Indrani Roy, a long-time watcher of Bengal and Mamata politics.
It is unusual for Congress chief ministers to say no to Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, but some of them have gathered the courage to oppose Gandhi's dream project.
It should be called the food insecurity bill. It is too weak and mean to fight hunger, says Praful Bidwai
Aiming to provide food security to the poor, the government today approved food bill that seeks to give legal entitlement of cheaper food grains to 63.5 per cent of the country's population.
The National Food Security Bill was scuttled by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar who threw the spanner with a dissent note in his capacity as the Union agriculture minister.
The two major changes include: keeping an option open for supplying more than 3 kg of subsidised foodgrains to general households and widening its reach to include lactating women, destitute and aged people and providing nutritious food to children.
This is the highest in the past five years and almost 24 per cent more than last year.
The finance minister has increased the quantum of rural credit, with particular emphasis on short-term crop loans for small farmers and focussed heavily on improving food storage and processing infrastructure as well as supply chain management.
The government on Wednesday sought public comments on the draft National Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide a legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains to 75 per cent of the country's rural population and 50 per cent of urban India.
The government is likely to give a legal right to food to both priority and general categories of the population under the proposed National Food Security Act, as suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC).
The big budget and big boom National Food Security Bill, which will be to UPA II what the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right To Information Act were to UPA I, could not be cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday and has been deferred to be taken up in its next meeting.
After missing several deadlines, only 11 states could introduce the plan
Do the actual numbers bear out the claims made by the government or do they suggest something else? asks A K Bhattacharya.
The foodgrain guarantee is part of the proposed National Food Security Bill.
The proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) may have to be put off to 2012 due to financial constraints, going by a recent Planning Commission document which points out that additional resources of Rs 77,000 crore will be required to implement the programme.
Jayalalithaa termed the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu as a corrupt party, pointing out that the CBI was carrying out raids on the residences and offices of people close to the party's leadership. "The 2G spectrum scam, which has caused a loss of one lakh eighty thousand crores, has been the largest scam in the history of the world .The DMK has always been a corrupt party and this scam has revealed the heights which the DMK leadership can reach in corruption," she said.
On the heels of the government indefinitely stalling commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal, Delhi University vice-chancellor Deepak Pental said transgenic crops is the only answer to achieve food security.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the government would follow an inclusive policy wherein both APL and below poverty line families will get foodgrains at cheaper rates. He added that the annual subsidy burden on the government would come around to Rs 50,000 crore.
It is time he stood up and assured the middle class that they can count on him as one of their own, says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The initiative has been taken so that only the needy can avail the benefits of the governments' scheme.
Food security for all was a poll promise from the ruling Congress party before this year's general elections.
However, two districts -- Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in Punjab -- which did not record a fresh case in the last 28 days, reported new COVID-19 cases on Monday, it added.
A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao directed the state governments to get help from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and legal services authorities to identify sex workers and maintain confidentiality pertaining to the identity of sex workers.
India's foodgrain requirement is expected to rise to around 61.2 million tonnes against the average procurement of last five years at 51.4 million tonnes.
He said the migrants and poor people had great expectations after the prime minister's address to the nation, but sadly...
Wheat will be now be sold to the schemes at Rs 2 per kg, while rice would be given at Rs 3 per kg.
If the WTO talks in Bali fail, it will adversely impact India.
With prices of pulses playing a big role in the rising inflation rates in India, the government may allocate more funds for research in pulses development.
The ordinance on the Food Security Bill is expected to come up for consideration in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, sources said on Monday.
'It may take two years for the economy to return to normal.' 'We should ensure that the vulnerable do not dig into their savings or give up their assets because that will set them back by several years.'
The prime minister is likely to talk about its possible extension.
"There have been discussions on implementing UBI in J&K -- not just as a pilot in some districts, but in the entire state, according to Drabu's proposal in the state's Budget," said an official. "Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is also supportive of the idea. A presentation will now be made at the PMO."
The economists who signed the letter included Jean Drze , Abhijit Banerjee, Ajit Ranade, Jayati Ghosh, Kirit Parikh, Mihir Shah, Rohini Pande, and Vijay Joshi
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