The Election Commission on Tuesday appointed special observers for administrative, security and expenditure monitoring purposes in several states to ensure a level playing field during the upcoming elections.
The Lokpal Bill is set to be put on the fast-track with the Parliamentary panel on Law taking it for examination from Friday by hearing views of Aruna Roy and Jaiprakash Narayan who have presented their own drafts.
Governments need to proactively plan for attracting and retaining the next generation of talent for its civil services, an official report has said.
Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, who is now administering Delhi after President's rule was imposed, on Tuesday made it clear that none of the decisions and initiatives taken by the Aam Aadmi Party government will be scrapped, including the 50 per cent subsidy on power tariff.
Citing lack of staff as a key reason for the under-performance of Information Commissions, the Central Information Commission has written to the government asking it to provide more staff and resources in order to fulfill the requirements of implementing the RTI Act satisfactorily.
The hapless voters fervently hope that they get to make a more equal choice in the next election and political discourse in the country becomes positive and more enlightened. One wonders if the masses would become more politically aware to discern good intent and performance from gimmickry, notes Biswajit Dasgupta.
'Like any other person who may not occupy public office has a right to not disclose his health problems to the public'
With a view to improving services to the tax payers, the Prime Minister's Office has directed the Income Tax department to adopt the benchmark World Bank governance model in its offices.
'One Sandeshkhali won't turn around women's perception of Mamata Banerjee in this state'
The government on Friday said as many as 1,120 cases pertinent to corruption and economic offences are pending probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Why banks are going hammer and tongs behind defaulters.
The Centre on Tuesday said the governments of Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have failed to contain Naxalism despite all possible support extended to them to fight the menace.
Armed with sticks, they set ablaze thatched structures near a fishing yard in Belmajur area of Sandeshkhali, venting their fury against the elusive TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his brother Siraj. The torched structure, it was revealed, belonged to Siraj.
There were total 23,507 complaints registered by common rail users against the Railways in 2006-07, which is seven per cent more than the previous year.
Assessment reports will be shared with all employees
While suggesting reorganisation of the CBI, Natchiappan said, "We recommend the implementation of the constitutional provision for institutionalising and reorganising the CBI as Central Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation and the Constitution already has a provision for it." But till the time a law is enacted for reconstituting or creating a federal crime agency, there should be a mechanism to hand over investigation of terror attack cases to CBI, in case it is needed.
The apex body also wants to bring in systemic reforms, especially to redress grievances of the small taxpayers such as - increased automation of the processes, e-filing, centralised processing of the tax returns and other bulk operations.
'My mother feels it will be tough and emotional for her to enter an assembly which has essentially been reduced to a municipality now.' 'My opinion is that even if it is a municipality one cannot cede that space to the BJP.'
The Union finance ministry will meet CEOs of public sector banks to discuss issues related to cybersecurity in the wake of the Rs 820 crore (Rs 8.2 billion) fraud that hit Kolkata-based UCO Bank last month.
The privileges enjoyed by MPs and MLAs are "tethered intrinsically" to the functioning of the legislature collectively, the Supreme Court said on Monday while holding that lawmakers taking bribe to vote or make a speech in the house are not immune from prosecution.
Rebel Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Rajinder Rana on Saturday claimed that nine more party legislators 'feeling suffocated' due to Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's style of functioning are in touch with him as he called the chief minister 'liar number one'.
He even used foul language against the MLA and told her to leave the office, Singh alleged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged bureaucrats to make national interest the sole basis of their every decision, saying the country has put its faith in them and they must uphold that trust.
Amid allegations by opposition parties that the government was misusing probe agencies to target its leaders, the Election Commission on Tuesday asserted that while it remains committed to protecting level playing field and campaign entitlement of parties and candidates, it has not found it correct to take any step that could overlap or overrun the legal judicial process.
Observing that the petitioner was "making a mockery of the system", the court said, "Rs 50,000 costs on you. We will pass the order."
"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 (20 of 2023), the central government hereby appoints the 1st day of October, 2023, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force," according to a notification issued by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
'Subjecting each such creative content to scrutiny will impose burdens on the OTT platforms and impact user experience.'
The recent Supreme Court judgement debarring employees from resorting to strike is under government review, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
The Bill allows stopping of transmission and intercepting messages in case of public emergency, in the interest of the public, to prevent incitement for committing offence.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
The Manipur high court has directed the state government to operationalise mobile towers, on a trial basis, in all those district headquarters which have not been affected by ethnic strife.
He advised banks to facilitate appropriate credit expansion.
The government on Monday banned nine Meitei extremist groups and their associate organisations, which mostly operate in Manipur, for their anti-national activities, and launching fatal attacks on security forces.
The BJP alleged that the police action was meant to "please" the government.
'It is necessary to have a person at the top who can make strict decisions without hesitation. Modiji has done that.'
The government said on Wednesday that electronic-governance was fast emerging as a vital tool in achieving good governance and that a plan needs to be readied to implement the same in various ministries and departments.
The government on Thursday tabled the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in the Lok Sabha with an aim to protect the privacy of Indian citizens, while proposing a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect digital data of individuals.
The state government said these bills had been pending with the governor for as long as about two years and his action "subverted" the functioning of the state legislature, rendering its very existence "ineffective and otiose".
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has come out with a communiqu announcing distribution of portfolios of the ministers sworn-in on Monday in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers:
Indian Administrative Service officers working under the central government cannot be suspended without the nod of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a move aimed at allowing bureaucrats to take decisions without any fear of political backlash.
