The prime minister also raised the Rafale jet deal and the law against triple talaq, accusing the Congress of trying to block them.
'Are all roads in India privatised? Are governments not playing a role in airports or ports? If they (private players) want to set up lines for a specific requirement, I see no reason to object. It will expand the opportunity and passengers will also benefit.'
If Modi's truly a reformer and a believer in minimum government, he would bury the Vodafone ghosts now. He would also then go to Bihar, campaigning on his politically controversial reforms. Both will need him to dip deep into his accumulated political capital and risk it, suggests Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress hit back saying the PM could not mislead the people by 'lying' as he had been 'exposed'.
These dedicated COVID-19 facilities will have a capacity of 1,06,719 isolation beds and 12,024 ICU beds reserved for such patients in the country.
'Both India and Japan can find themselves in a win-win situation if they draw some lessons from each other's strengths,' says Dr Rajaram Panda.
From offering free food to passengers to re-arranging train timings Railways Minister Piyush Goyal announced a slew of measures to make the Railways more efficient
'The only good thing that has come out of our current situation is that it has brought communities closer.' NRIs describe the impact coronavirus is having on their lives.
'If the government does not take any action soon, 21 cities of India will become like Cape Town, with no water.' 'Four cities -- Delhi, Gurgaon, Meerut and Faridabad -- will suffer the worst.'
Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday came out with its manifesto for the December 4 Delhi polls, promising to enact Jan Lokpal Bill in 15 days if voted to power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered a clean-up of all central government offices. Mahesh Vijapurkar laments the pervading culture of shabbiness in government offices around the country.
He recalled that democracy-lovers had fought a big battle against the Emergency.
Praising villagers where he went to lay the foundation of a toilet for naming it as Izzatghar, Modi said, "I liked this word so much".
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'Dementia is going to be a huge challenge for hospitals, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, health workers and family members.'
Taking advantage of the indifference of passengers, the Indian Railways routinely indulges in several unfair trade practices, says S Pushpavanam.
The government has set up a control room to coordinate the cleaning process across the state and the civic bodies have been entrusted with the task of managing the work, official sources said on Thursday.
The PM alleged that a 'PC' (percentage commission) culture has become the state government's identity.
'How do we ensure that the unlocking, which is desperately needed for earning income and livelihood, will not create ugly spikes in the infection rates?' 'And if it does, what then?'asks Omkar Goswami.
'Everybody should be given rations. Nobody should be excluded.' 'Without an income, the present ration quota is not enough.' They should increase it so that one person can eat adequately for a month.'
'At its peak, COVID-19 in Korea felt like half-disaster, half-disaster movie.'
Indian students, who are living and studying away from home, tell us how they are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and what they discovered on their journey back home.
Modi also reminded Congress of the Emergency, saying it's a blot on the democracy that will never fade.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday asked young minds to come out with a fool-proof method to prevent ticketless travel in trains.
The graphics claimed that the Congress was the "top job creator" in the country.
A first-of-its-kind travel show explores the special bond a father and daughter share.
'The conception of Make-in-India, Skill India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Beti Bachao, Beti Padao and so on show a visionary breadth of mind, and Modi is almost the first political leader in India to put them into effect with single-minded zeal,' notes B S Raghavan, the former civil servant.
Fear has gripped the residents of Worli Koliwada in central Mumbai after it was found that 11 of their neighbours have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus.
'No matter how many government schemes there are for the poor, the system works more for the privileged, less for the little guy,' notes T N Ninan.
'If you look at this Budget, except for the Rs 2 increase in petrol and diesel, there is no positive or negative impact from the Budget for the common man.'
'How you live serves as a much better track record than your timeline,' says Mitali Saran.
'Those who thought they are above law and above courts of the country are now approaching courts praying bail; some people have already gone inside (jail) which is their rightful place.'
'There is just one silver lining: The fatality rate has gone down.'
South African Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius was sent to prison for six years on Wednesday for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, the latest twist in a trial that has gripped the world.
'He has a gift none of his eight predecessors, from Manmohan Singh to Rajiv Gandhi, had: Being able to speak directly and convincingly to a large enough section of Indians who will take his word for gospel,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Congress party's strategy is two fold -- to disturb and delay.'
'Will Modi succeed with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan? He will not, because cultural change does not come purely from legislation and never overnight. It comes internally and this is something Gandhi understood,' says Aakar Patel.
Also, as many as 74 per cent Indians have slept holding their smartphones while 41 per cent have used their devices in the washroom, a seven-country survey of over 7,000 people about cell phone habits has found.
Apparently resorting to a pacifier after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena agitation on toll collection, the state government on Thursday assured party chief Raj Thackeray that it would draft a new policy on the issue before the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections comes into force.
