That apart, farmers will get loans for post-harvest storage of their produce at a subsidised interest rate of 7 per cent for six months.
Treason charge carries death sentence as the maximum penalty while sedition is punishable up to life term.
With his swearing-in, the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post has ended.
Biden is best qualified to address the root cause of the polarisation in American politics before it turns into terminal malignancy, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'You look with hope at a politician who comes along and promises to change all that: 10 million new jobs every year, no need to touch someone's feet to get an introduction to an employer. And fix the corrupt guys who have made the system what it is.' 'But five years later, the reality has changed little or not at all,' says T N Ninan.
Anandiben insists her daughter was not involved in any land allocation scandal.
'We are passing through a very historical moment. The UP election next year and the Lok Sabha election of 2019 will decide the course of India.' 'Maybe the unlettered will save India again because they have inherited a different India and a different idea of India,' says eminent social scientist Achyut Yagnik.
The contemporary problem with the BJP in Tamil Nadu is that it has been trying hard to package the DMK especially as anti-god and anti-Hinduism, and seeking it to link to Periyar and M Karunanidhi, and by extension to Stalin, the latter's son and successor to the party mantle. Their hope was to consolidate the perceived 'pro-god, pro-religion votes', which they saw returning to the fold post-MGR, post-Jayalalithaa. But no such substantial vote-bank existed even in Periyar's time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It is very interesting that the RSS is sending sadhus to Una.' 'They will again talk about Hindu unity to woo the Dalits.'
Protests rocked parts of Kashmir Valley including Srinagar on Saturday where Pakistan and Islamic State flags were yet again displayed by masked youths after Eid prayers.
The move comes amid speculation over possibility of an alliance between the Congress and the AAP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
With water supply to Delhi under threat amid the ongoing Jat agitation for reservation, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday appealed to the Centre with 'folded hands' to immediately intervene and resume water supply from Munak Canal in Haryana.
BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jail also appealed to the Jats who have been protesting in Haryana to call off their agitation, which has badly hit life in the region, and return to their homes as their demands have been met.
'The Bihar verdict has shown that the people of Bihar don't desire to go back to the mandir-masjid rhetoric.' 'Jobs, wages and development are the aspiration of the people of Bihar and we hope the next government will keep that in mind.'
The results are expected to have a bearing on the 2019 parliamentary polls.
'The government says it will file a review petition against the Supreme Court, but there is no conviction here.' 'It is doing this purely because it is worried.' 'It comes from the same sentiment as asking BJP MPs to spend two nights in a Dalit village,' says Aakar Patel.
Amid tight security, the funeral of a 32-year-old man from Patel community, who allegedly died in custody after being caught by police during the quota violence, was held in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Protests erupted in Kashmir Valley against Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
Haryana remained on the boil on as the Jat stir unleashed fresh incidents of violence and arson even as the Army had to use choppers to reach parts of blocked Rohtak.
'...incarcerated in jails, ruining their entire families.' 'You would see that Dalits who displayed so much agitation over the Bhima-Koregaon issue are effectively silenced by the arrests of their activists by the police.' 'What can be a more pitiable state than this for a people who had just seen a ray of hope after darkness of millennia?'
Fuelling further the bitter quota debate in Bihar polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused his rivals Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad of having come together in July 2005 to demand a review of the policy to provide for religion-based reservation.
Gujarat government on Saturday denied permission to Hardik Patel's "reverse Dandi march" over the Patel quota issue, less than a fortnight after violence erupted during his stir claiming 10 lives, but the defiant leader vowed to carry out the protest programme on Sunday.
In a blow to the Gujarat government, the high court on Wednesday quashed an ordinance issued by it to pave way to delay local bodies polls.
Firebrand quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel was on Monday arrested twice, first on the charge of insulting the national flag and the second time on the charge of sedition.
Sporadic incidents of arson were on Monday reported as life in violence-torn Haryana limped back to normal with curfew being lifted gradually and Jat protesters starting to lift blockades after the Bharatiya Janata Party announced setting up of a committee to examine the quota demand of the community.
Current events in Haryana have set the state back 20 years. But this is just the beginning. Let's play a game. Let's try figuring out how much further the state can slide.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday said that those seen at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow in Varanasi were "mere spectators" brought in from other states and districts in Uttar Pradesh where voting had already taken place.
From son of soil to Hindutva and from the BJP to Hardik Patel, the Shiv Sena has changed its stand time to time to reinvent itself.
'The BJP will be wiped out in rural Gujarat.' 'In urban areas, its tally may come down from 55 of the 60 urban seats it won in 2012 to 35 to 40 seats this time.'
The army had to had to aim at the crowd when jawans claimed to have been fired upon from the other side.
The MHA asked all state governments to set up a committee for examining requirements of central armed police forces by keeping in view the internal security, intelligence inputs and availability of central forces in nearby locations.
Principal opposition Congress too staged a walk out saying its members should have been the first ones to speak but were being denied a chance.
'Haven't you heard of the magical EVM machines? They can negate all our votes.' 'There is no hope. Modi is India's Putin.'
Loan waivers will never be enough. Reforming the agricultural marketing system is essential to addressing the concerns of farmers in a sustainable manner, says Nitin Desai.
'Only the smoke is coming out now. Let us prevent the lava from coming out by taking proper measures.' 'I have told every leader that you cannot have a stable government without winning the confidence of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the most backward castes.' 'Leaders feel that by giving a sop here and there and by symbolic actions, they can win votes. That's all they want. Votes.'
BJP president Amit Shah accused the Congress of adopting "double standards", saying on one hand Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is on "election tour of temples (mandir ka chunavi daura) in Gujarat, while on the other his party wants the hearing on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute to be deferred.
'The Kopardi rape/murder was the immediate cause of the unrest.' 'However, there is a feeling of isolation and anger that has been simmering within the Maratha community.' 'The protests gave Marathas a sense of belonging.' 'They felt they have a stake in the protests and the issues being raised.' 'As for the future, let us see what happens.' 'All I can say is it will not stop here.'
The Supreme Court on Monday sought a status report from Haryana government on the plea of Delhi government seeking resumption of water supply to the national capital.
Rajan, who has also served as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said he had no idea what statistics are pointing at currently and "a revamp" was needed "to really figure out what India's true growth rate is".
Anna Hazare, who shook the then United Progressive Alliance government three years ago with his anti-corruption crusade, was back in New Delhi on Monday on a two-day dharna protesting against the land ordinance promulgated by the Modi government, accusing it of being pro-corporate.
