Gupta, 56, was a Rajya Sabha member and was minister for steel in the United Progressive Alliance government.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had promised an expansive ministerial reshuffle, but Tuesday's exercise gave an impression that either the United Progressive Alliance is paralysed or unwilling to go for a fundamental reform.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday described the Cabinet reshuffle as a "damp squib" and insisted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to reassure the nation and dispel the "gloom shadowing the United Progressive Alliance government". "The prime minister's much acclaimed and awaited reshuffle has proven to be a damp squib. It is a futile exercise which inspires none and in no way dispels the gloom shadowing the embattled UPA government," said BJP.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday ruled out the possibility of joining the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
Welcoming the government's decision to back the United States sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at United Nations Human Rights Council, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Monday said his party had even decided to pull out its ministers from the United Progressive Alliance and extend issue based support to it in the event of its demand not being met.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said the decision to join the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre in the changed political scenario would be taken by Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Spending has been increased again, but there's still no effort in the Budget to improve outcomes.
The United Progressive Alliance II faced "red lines" that are not obvious unlike UPA-I but the government learnt to adjust and get the allies on board, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday.
The labour ministry had started quarterly surveys on employment after the global financial crisis hit the Indian economy in September 2008.
The Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam is all set to withdraw its five Union ministers from the United Progressive Alliance-2 by the weekend to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. The step is expected to be taken to put UPA-2 on notice if India voted in favour of Sri Lanka in Geneva where the United Nations Human Rights Council is currently in session.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is wanting for the Telangana Bill to be referred to the Standing Committee of Home Affairs before it is introduced in the Lok Sabha. It also plans to write to the Speaker if the House Meira Kumar on the issue.
Vicky Nanjappa analyses the options before the United Progressive Alliance to save its government in Andhra Pradesh and amicably resolve the Telangana statehood demand
The methods being used by the government to window-dress the fiscal deficit will fool no one, least of all foreign investors or bodies like the IMF, warns Sonali Ranade
Trinamool Congress will not remain in the United Progressive Alliance government if prices of petro products are hiked again, party chief Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday.
Asserting that Trinamool will not rock the United Progressive Alliance boat, party leader and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi went into damage control mode on Thursday after his remarks that the country may head for a mid-term poll and the Union government was lame duck created a flutter in political circles.
Uma Bharti, who recently made a comeback to Bharatiya Janata Party, on Tuesday said the United Progressive Alliance government was deliberately 'discrediting' Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev for channelising growing discontent among common people against the UPA government.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday strongly refuted observations by US think-tanks, the government and industry that India has gone slow on economic reforms and insisted that a series of reforms are in the process, which will lead to the next round of growth.
Even though Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel will move this proposal only on Thursday in the Cabinet meeting, the government is already going ahead with the proposal regardless of the response from other concerned ministries like finance, environment and forests, and tourism and the planning commission.
The substantially increased economic dualism may exert lasting negative influences which could include a reduced potential for economic growth; the persistence of a very weak employment and poverty situation; rising social and political discord; and heightened vulnerability to geopolitical challenges, cautions Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
Ministers in UPA-II had undertaken over 460 official foreign trips in the first 18 months of its tenure and spent more than 1,800 days abroad.
Accusing the United Progressive Alliance government of betraying the people over Telangana statehood demand, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Tuesday asked the Centre to move a bill for formation of the state in the winter session of parliament and said his party would support it.
The Communist Party of India on Thursday said it favoured a Dalit woman as the next President of India, but did not spell out any name for the top Constitutional post.
The reshuffle in the Cabinet of Ministers in the United Progressive Alliance II threw up a few surprises on Wednesday.
In a huge embarrassment to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, the United Progressive Alliance has lost the Khadakwasla assembly seat which had witnessed a by-election on October 13.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said it will hold peaceful protests across the country against the crackdown on Baba Ramdev's agitation and meet President Pratibha Patil to demand convening of a special session of Parliament to discuss the issue.
Bodos, the largest tribe ethnic to Assam, on Saturday hold a massive rally at North Assam tea town Dekiajuli reviving their long-standing demand for a separate Bodoland state and warned that in case the United Progressive Alliance government gave consent to Telangana statehood, Bodoland must also be created.
Declaring that the United Progressive Alliance government had lost the moral authority to continue, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Singh said the only way the opposition could compel the government to quit was for the National Democratic Alliance MPs to resign en masse.
Not satisfied with the Rs 2 per litre cut in petrol prices, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said it will launch a 'jail-bharo' agitation on June 22 against the Rs 7.50 a litre petrol price hike, saying the ad-hoc policies of the United Progressive Alliance government had played havoc with the nation's energy security.
Hailing the Supreme Court verdict in 2G case, L K Advani on Wednesday wondered if former telecom minister A Raja could be the sole "villain" and said no one can beat the United Progressive Alliance government, which is "actually run" by Sonia Gandhi, in its "stinking record" in scams.
The crisis is visible across sectors -- even services, normally the engine of growth, clocking near double-digit figures even if agriculture and industry are anaemic, grew at only 7.9 per cent.
Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani on Monday said that the United Progressive Alliance government was in an unenviable mess 'of the Congress' own making'.
'Second-generation neoliberal policies, coupled with multiple failures on the food front, could do to the UPA what India Shining did to the NDA in 2004,' says Praful Bidwai.
Krishna said that these two leaders 'have taken the country to great heights and this is not an exaggeration'.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley has slammed the United Progressive Alliance government for sending Income Tax notices to two NGOs associated with team Anna member Kiran Bedi saying it was intolerant to criticism.
Admitting there is a development deficit in areas affected by Left-wing extremism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said his government is determined to address the deficit, while maintaining that the menace remains a "major problem."
The statistics (compiled till May), presented and analysed by the Performance Review Committee of the ministry last week, show that states run by UPA governments have not made much advance in implementing its signature rural development schemes.
It is Andhra Pradesh and not Uttar Pradesh which is the real litmus test for Rahul Gandhi's political leadership, says Shashi Shekhar.
Top sources in the government told Business Standard the Congress managers wanted the rise in prices to be a collective decision of the United Progressive Alliance and also make sure allies could not wriggle out of the exercise to take harsh economic decisions.
Ratcheting up pressure on the United Progressive Alliance government on Telangana issue, a senior Congress leader on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in attacking Home Minister P Chidambaram for not delivering on the statehood "promise" even as the 'rail roko' agitation disrupted normal life in the region for the second day.
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