Following the disruption in the supply of rare earth or permanent magnets after China's notification on April 4, the mines ministry is planning to introduce a Rs 1,500 crore incentive scheme to recycle critical minerals, according to a top official.
The Madras high court on Friday dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the Union government to confer the Bharat Ratna on late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, saying it does not want to interfere in such matters.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider a plea of the Tamil Nadu government against the refusal of Governor RN Ravi to appoint senior DMK leader K Ponmudi as a minister in the state cabinet.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
'The BJP knows only one language, intimidation!'
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, the chief minister also announced a one-man judicial probe, headed by Justice Michael D'Cunha, a retired high court judge of Karnataka, into the tragic incident.
The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned to November 11 the hearing on a plea filed by Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking premature release.
A day after Tamil Nadu law minister S Regupathy wrote to Ravi requesting him that he should 'not delay any further' his sanction to prosecute former AIADMK ministers and clear the 13 Bills pending with him for his assent, the Governor's office reacted.
A new book by former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi claims that former chief election commissioner T N Seshan proposed an immediate halt to the general election process after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991 and even offered to become home minister. Gandhi, who was joint secretary to then president R Venkatraman, writes that Seshan was the one who broke the news of the assassination to the president and arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhawan "super-fast" that night. According to Gandhi's account, Seshan told Venkatraman that he felt the election process needed to be stopped and that he was ready to take on the role of home minister if necessary. However, Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra assured the president that the situation was under control and that there was no need to pause the election process. Seshan's suggestions were ultimately ignored, but he did manage to postpone the second and third phases of polling.
The recent rise in number of deaths of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan naval forces has raised an alarm in New Delhi. Politicians from Tamil Nadu met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to brief him on the recent killings on the Sri Lankan waters, and also gave him a memorandum on the same.
Pro-BJP forces, unable to tolerate Udhayanidhi's stance against oppressive principles, have spread a false narrative, alleging he called for the genocide of people with Sanatan thoughts, Stalin said in a statement and wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also join those targeting the Tamil Nadu minister.
After a photoshoot with the artistes, the CM settled down for tea with the Governor.
Always interesting, DMK politics is going to get even more absorbing in the days to come, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
All India NR Congress leader N Rangasamy was sworn in as the chief minister of Puducherry at a brief ceremony held at the Raj Nivas here on Friday and will lead a coalition government of Bharatiya Janata Party members in his cabinet.
She is the widow of Venkatesa Pannaiyar, an alleged don who was killed in an encounter by police a few years ago in Chennai.
A Supreme Court vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice MM Sundresh noted that the petition was still pending in the high court and asked the ED to approach that court.
Tamil Nadu electricity minister was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), official sources said, making him the first minister in the M K Stalin-led government to face such an action from a central agency.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the premature release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and R P Ravichandran, serving life term in the assassination case of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, noting that the Tamil Nadu government has recommended remission of their sentence.
EPS has had its way on most things, alliance-wise. A week earlier, he reiterated that he would not re-admit OPS and Sasikala Natarajan back in the party. It was a message not just to detractors in the AIADMK. It was even more so for the BJP leadership in Delhi. Even more important for the AIADMK was their demand for accepting EPS as the chief ministerial candidate of any alliance that the party would form, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sources said there was no need 'immediately' to look into legal aspects or consider anything else (such as the possibility of political interests over the dismissal and a counter-strategy to frustrate it), as the dismissal was now on hold.
'Tamil Nadu will never allow the Centre's three-language policy'
The DMK will not stop till Tamil Nadu got exemption from the central qualifying test, Stalin said.
'The governor was a senior IPS officer who should know the Constitution.'
Announcing the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decision, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said a Special Purpose Vehicle would be set up for the project.
P K Mishra, a retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, is currently serving as the principal secretary to the prime minister.
Given the politics behind it all, one possibility is for binding the governor to act according to the decisions of the state government and clarifying his position vis a vis bills and resolutions passed by the state assembly -- or, re-enacted if returned, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Indicating that Tamil Nadu will soon follow Maharashtra in witnessing a regime change, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai has claimed "an Eknath Shinde will emerge in" the state, comments that were dismissed outright by the ruling party.
Udhayanidhi, the 45-year old actor-producer is hailed as the "rising sun" by DMK workers, in obvious reference to the party's Rising Sun symbol.
Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has demanded that Home Minister P Chidambaram should be dropped from the cabinet for his alleged misdeeds in leaking the PAC report, sending wrong data of most-wanted persons to Pakistan, his role in the 2G spectrum scam and for the rise in fuel prices when he was the finance minister.
Facing criticism from the Congress, the government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of its order for premature release of six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Devendra Fadnavis, thrice Maharashtra chief minister, approaches Vasantdada Patil and Sharad Pawar's records.
The minister's reaction came days after Rajinikanth praised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for "managing" senior DMK leaders in the party.
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
While Governor Ravi's speeches have put the local BJP supporters on the defensive in matters of religion and social justice, his add-on 'attack on the constitutional scheme' in the 'Senthil Balaji case', has been condemned squarely by many legal experts and editorial writers across the country, thus adding weight to CM Stalin's position -- at least until the courts come up with their binding views, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In his first response to the issue, Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) has already responded to the matter twice.
In a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday, the Tamil Nadu government decided to pass again a bill in the assembly to ban online gambling and send it to Governor R N Ravi once more for his assent.
R Gandhi and K N Nehru, as ministers for handlooms-textiles and municipal administration respectively, would report to Chief Minister Stalin.
Tamil Nadu, which boasted of as many as nine ministers in the UPA-II government in 2009, did not get any representation in Modi 2.0 government.
'If it is repeated by other governors, then no government will be safe.'
