The portfolios were cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the exercise had turned out to be tricky for the party state leaders.
Talks between Andhra Pradesh government and striking Non-Gazetted Officers Association, to end the ongoing indefinite strike by government employees, did not bear fruit as the latter vowed to continue agitation against proposed bifurcation of the state.
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly was on Thursday abruptly adjourned till January 3 without even initiating the crucial debate on draft AP Re-organisation Bill-2013 that provides for the creation of a new state of Telangana.
Under the scheme, the government proposes to provide electricity to all households by December 2018, ahead of the earlier target of March, 2019.
'Somewhere in the midst of the three milestones of 1881, 1984 and 1999 are the clues that provide the answer to the troubling corrosion of Karnataka politics: The disappearance of values, the criminalisation of politics, and the complete collapse of ideology,' says Krishna Prasad, former editor-in-chief, Outlook.
Kapoor said the names of the prominent places should be changed after those who worked for the welfare of the country.
Coastal districts of Andhra have been put on alert and control rooms are being set up in Hyderabad and coastal districts to deal with the situation. Mohammed Siddique reports
With the Congress leadership reportedly inching towards a favourable decision on Telangana statehood demand, a party member of Legislative Assembly and several YSR Congress legislators from non-Telangana regions on Thursday said they have "resigned" in support of united Andhra Pradesh.
The IIM-B's 'Karnataka innovation report' has become the basis for the Congress party's election narrative, particularly to distinguish it from the 'Gujarat model of development', reports Archis Mohan.
With many of its plans to break the impasse over the Telangana issue coming unstuck, the Congress is now reportedly toying with the idea of moving a resolution on the statehood demand in the next session of Andhra Pradesh assembly.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh and several Congress leaders are against the formation of a separate state but are supporting the decision in the hope that it would win the party seats in the region. Renu Mittal reports
It would certainly help if in the first five or ten years the new state had a Telangana United Front government which included all political parties and which then would dedicate itself to bringing about fast development for the neglected region, says Gautam Pingle in the final part of a two-part series on the new state.
'People are losing their freedom to eat, speak, write and practise their religion.' 'All that is said in the Constitution has been taken away.' 'Does every Muslim or Christian or Hindu have to say I am a patriot every morning and repeat it in the afternoon and at night?'
U R Ananthamurthy on the importance of keeping alive our regional languages.