Mizoram has India's second-best health indicators and third-best literacy rate.
Allies, Opposition increase volume of criticism; hope in Kashmir, Assam
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will soon get around to reworking their organisational set-up and administrative priorities to regain lost ground in the wake of the Delhi electoral debacle, but there's third course available to them as well. That is to introduce the presidential form of government, which prime ministers Indira Gandhi and A B Vajpayee flirted with before abandoning it. Will Modi go further than them? N Sathiya Moorthy analyses the scenario.
It expects to garner 5 per cent of its revenues from the Indian market in the next five years with business targeted to grow over 20 per cent during the period.
NDA's energy plan powered UP win, but it's not a winner yet. Centre has claimed to have saved money by targeted coverage but critics say the system is not yet foolproof.
As per the preliminary estimates, the BJP has significantly improved its national vote share from 31.34 per cent in 2014 to a new record high, while there appeared to be only a marginal change in case of the Congress from its 19.5 per cent score of the last elections.
The win in UP is especially significant because UP assembly members carry the maximum value of votes in a Presidential election, given the fact that the state is India's most populous.
Counting of votes in the high-stakes close-to-call Bihar assembly elections, billed as a hot battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will take place on Sunday.
It looked as if the BJP was hoping to use Rajinikanth to press their seat-bargain with the AIADMK. Now with the Rajini bait gone, the question now is not how much the BJP would settle for, but how much the AIADMK would be ready to offer, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Vowing to root out the Bharatiya Janata Party from the states after 'victory' of the grand alliance in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to "stop telling lies" and debunked his diatribe against the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal on migration of jobless youths from the state.
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to expand his cabinet when Parliament breaks for recess during the Budget Session. Archis Mohan reports
A grand welcome was given to Narendra Modi and his aide Amit Shah when they arrived in Ahmedabad after the President appointed him as the prime minister of the country.
The main Opposition party is likely to lose some more of its strength in 2016-17
Rajya Sabha also rejected an opposition sponsored motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House and for making triple talaq a civil offence with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.
'Of equal importance was the AIADMK's precarious assembly membership, what with 11 of its MLAs including deputy chief minister OPS facing court cases for disqualification and by-elections due in another 21. To shore up the party's numbers for anticipated eventuality on the 11-MLAs' front, the AIADMK leadership in general and chief minister EPS in particular, were even more focussed on assembly seats than LS seats, just now,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
He said the poll victory in Assam, the first for the party in the north east, has made it clear that BJP is rapidly receiving "popular acceptance" in all parts of the country which "augurs well" for the democracy.
Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial Narendra Modi on Sunday hit out at the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, saying the three parties indulge in "stage-managed" fights in Uttar Pradesh but come together to grab power at the Centre.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
Allegations of strains on democratic and constitutional institutions across the board, security threats from outside, a greedy Opposition inside, were all a part of the package then as now, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP-led govt will need regional parties' support in Upper House to get legislation cleared. Archis Mohan reports
The BJP is contesting 437 seats this election, the Congress 423.
Of the 9 results declared, 7 has been won by BJP while Janata Dal-United scored victory at two places, Election Commission said.
The finance minister said the government was open to suggestions.
Given the subdued pre-poll voter-behaviour in the state over the past couple of decades and more, and the inability of individual political parties to cobble together an alliance and announce candidates, or both, to launch grassroots-level campaigns early on, close fights with landslide victory is an equal possibility, N Sathiyamoorthy.
This is the first meeting chaired by Gandhi after relinquishing the post of Congress president last year.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Tuesday rejected the Uttar Pradesh government panel report on Saharanpur riots which indicted its MP, saying that since committee members belonged to ruling SP, the result was pre-decided.
How the Congress vice president conducts himself over the next few months will determine whether or not he has understood his serendipitous situation
BJP's overwhelming win in UP shows that 2014 was no fluke, says R Jagannathan.
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
"Talks are the only option," Mehbooba said. "How long can you have a confrontation?"
The decisive election victory for the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance has created a conducive environment for policy actions and should help in economic recovery, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Attacking "glorification" of only "one-family" by the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said that if voted to power the party would review christening of more than "600 schemes" in the name of three generations of Gandhi dynasty.
Lauding the strong showing by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the general elections, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Friday said people of the country have voted for a change in favour of Narendra Modi.
"India's middle class, small traders and farmers are the lifelines of its economic growth. By catering to these ambitions #Budget2019 infuses hopes for millions of dreams."
'He never used the party's cars and always was chauffeured in a private car.' On May 17, a day after his historic victory, Narendra Modi returned triumphantly to his old home at Ashoka Road where he lived as the party general secretary in the late 1990s. A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com meets folks who worked with him in the capital at that time. A rare glimpse of our next prime minister.
RJD president Lalu Prasad will not attend the celebrations due to ill health.
TTV Dhinakaran's call to the Congress to break up with the DMK and tie up with him, is aimed at consolidating the traditional anti-BJP votes. The stronger message is to all anti-BJP constituencies in the state, especially the minorities and traditionally aligned sections of the Dalit community, that he could be trusted to take forward an 'anti-Hindutva' agenda more seriously than anyone else, the DMK included, says N Sathiya Moorthy.