The Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee law allows mandis to remain in the grip of a middlemen cartel, with clear links to politicians who run the governments.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday asked the states ruled by the party to implement in "letter and spirit" the Food Security Scheme which it sees as a game changer in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. She held deliberations with Congress chief ministers on how to implement the food scheme, seeking to provide cheap foodgrain to 82 crore people, for which an ordinance was promulgated last week.
'Mr Vajapyee felt that you could pray to any god or not pray at all, but the country comes first.'
Amid the raging Israel-Hamas war, a group of opposition leaders, including MP Danish Ali and former parliamentarians Mani Shankar Aiyar and K C Tyagi, visited the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi on Monday to express solidarity with Palestinians.
'She delivers on promises, especially on security issues which is a core concern for India.'
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
Nasreen, who served as the director of the Indian Cultural Centre at the high commission of India in Male, Republic of Maldives, from 2019 to 2023, shared insights into the growing influence of China and Pakistan in countering India's soft power.
Brinda Karat was addressing a convention for the right to food and against price rise in New Delhi.
The ED said Das stated that his first statement given to the agency on November 3 last year in which he cited Baghel's name was "true and correct".
In moving scenes at the spot, women were seen wailing, possibly over the loss of a dear one, while a child recalled the tense moments before fleeing to safety.
The Bharatiya Janata Party swept Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on Sunday inflicting a resounding defeat on the Congress to tighten its stranglehold in the Hindi heartland, in a big boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and setting the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
'Marriage brings families together and Hetavi worked hard to fit into ours without causing any kind of disruption,' says Melwyn Coelho.
The government which introduced amendments to the landmark Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha Thursday could not get it passed as opposition stalled proceedings in the House over killing of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan and other issues.
Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi claimed in a social media post that the website of the Ministry of Food Processing shows the CM's wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma's firm Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd has received Rs 10 crore as part of credit credit-linked subsidy.
Ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament, former Congress ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday indicated its support to the UPA's 'game-changer' Food Security Bill even though it has wanted a few changes in it.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati supported Centre's food security scheme but disapproved of its step to bring an ordinance, saying the measure should have been discussed in Parliament and passed with consensus.
'The BJP has started a war-like situation against farmers and the Jat community.'
The much-touted Food Security Bill was taken up in Rajya Sabha, with opposition terming it as a "gimmick" with an eye on elections and accusing government of violating constitutional norms by issuing an ordinance when Parliament session was less than a month away.
If Modi wants to leave a real legacy, breaking India's strategic triangulation would be the real gift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
If left unchecked, the 2024 elections may be infamously remembered as the election of deepfakes. The ECI has a tough task ahead, but, more importantly, it has an opportunity to become a global model for scores of countries going to polls this year, notes Ajay Kumar.
Speaking to reporters in Madrid, he said ''The pressure is to suspend a few more food articles, If rightly or wrongly people perceive that commodities- futures trading is contributing to a speculation-driven rise in prices, then in a democracy you will have to heed that voice''. Left parties in India who supports the government wants to stop trading in cooking oil, sugar and other commodities, saying speculators are driving up prices and fanning inflation.
Dubbing the government's decision to bring an ordinance on food security as an "election gimmick", the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday accused the Congress of running away from a debate on the crucial issue in Parliament.
'An important dimension that shone through was the enormous pride in India, a general belief that as Indians we are starting to count globally and we are at the forefront of the world.'
The alliance would announce a coordination committee, which could be of 11 members from principal opposition parties.
Rescue officials confirmed casualties in the incident, claiming to have already recovered 5 bodies from the heap of debris where the cracker manufacturing unit once stood.
The NDA is looking to reduce fiscal deficit not by chopping social sector spending but by paring it down
The government said on Monday food inflation has started easing and will fall to an acceptable level of 5-6 per cent in due course, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and Left Parties went ahead with a nationwide strike to protest against rising prices.
The Manmohan Singh government's rush to pass the Food Security Bill reflects extreme paucity of logic and action, says Neeta Kolhatkar
Stalin still enjoys a lot of sympathy and empathy as someone wishing well for the state, but not full-throated support as in 2019 and 2021, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
There they were, showing the world that there are still people motivated not by religious structures, not by past glories, not by hatreds deliberately stoked. These were ordinary folks doing something extraordinary purely because they think that effort might shake a nation out of a spiralling miasma of division, mistrust, cynicism, sophistry and violence.
Make vegan, gluten-free kebabs for parties and be surprised by how fast they will vanish.
'They just say we agree to your demands in the meetings, which is lip service. But on the ground they do not implement anything.'
People at a PDS shop in Hemda village in Karnal district were allegedly forced to buy Rs 20 tri-colour flags otherwise they won't get a ration.
The decision preceded long hours of tense negotiations and last minute hiccups from Argentina and Pakistan
As Manipur grapples with protracted ethnic strife, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre and the state government to ensure uninterrupted supply of basic commodities like food and medicines to people facing economic blockade in certain areas of the border state.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
The ninth episode of Koffee with Karan Season 8 sees Bollywood's Singham Ajay Devgn grace the couch along with Director Rohit Shetty.
A day before the Cabinet considers issuing an ordinance to implement government's ambitious National Food Security Bill, Food Minister K V Thomas said all UPA allies, including Nationalist Congress Party, are on board and there was a consensus on issuing an ordinance.
If we as citizens, do not take ownership of public places, public facilities and public conveniences, Swachh Bharat will remain just a hollow slogan, notes Biswajit Dasgupta.
