Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday took charge as the Congress' first non-Gandhi president in 24 years, citing Rahul Gandhi's slogan 'daro mat' to energise workers and declaring that the party will demolish the government's 'system of lies, treachery and hatred'.
'Of the 9.5 million unemployed who stopped looking for jobs, nearly seven million were young.' 'Is it possible that the young decided to continue with studies rather than look for jobs?' asks Mahesh Vyas.
Though the wily TRS supremo, credited with achieving the separate state of Telangana, stopped short of saying he was about to declare dissolution of the assembly, none doubted its imminence.
Anybody who's plugged in to the modern, globalised world will understand why, says Kanika Datta.
Over 80% of graduate engineers passing out of universities in India are unemployable. With digitisation going mainstream, this skill deficit can be redressed through world-class training material, points out Ankit Shyamsukha, CEO, ICA Edu Skill.
Asserting that Uttar Pradesh has undergone a complete transformation under his government, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday that there have been no riots since 2017, strict action has been taken against the mafia and the state is in the frontline of implementing welfare schemes, ensuring the ease of doing business and fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shah said he is confident that BJP will return to power in four states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur -- and make impressive gains in Punjab.
Following the Budget being announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, leaders across the political spectrum provided their views.
Striking a rare show of bonhomie, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday shared the stage with veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Punjab's 117 assembly seats are going to be a keenly-watched contest with the Congress, the AAP, the SAD-BSP alliance, and the BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) battling to form the government in the state, with a probable entry of farmers' front in the form of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha.
Haryana's chief minister enjoys Narendra Modi's support and protection and will be in office unless the state sees a massive administrative botch-up.
With time on his side, that Hardik Patel will one day occupy the top spot in Gujarat is a no-brainer. But the BJP doesn't like rabble-rousers.
By simply being educated and acquiring a degree, you cannot earn money; you need to be skeducated. Skeducation is skill based education. Unfortunately they don't teach you this in the colleges. You got to do it yourself, advises management guru Virender Kapoor.
The Congress president offered prayers at the Churva Hanuman Mandir on the Lucknow-Rae Bareli road hours after landing in the state capital where enthusiastic party workers greeted him with garlands.
'I clearly recall how you immediately directed your administration to identify and allocate land, water, and other clearances in the shortest time possible.' 'That was the fastest decision-making process I have ever witnessed.'
'Under-employment continues to be a very big problem.' 'What we see today is many youth who would have accepted any kind of job are not willing to accept any job.' 'They are ready to wait for a better job, one that justifies their educational qualification. 'This is one of the reasons why unemployment has risen.'
Monalisa Mondol, a law student from Tripura, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar what she would like to see in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget.
We used to hear of the Modi-Shah pair as the hyphenated top of the BJP leadership. Lately, the hyphen has disappeared and it is only Modi at the top. Yogi Adityanath gets honourable mentions, but he is still a good distance away from being anointed a worthy successor, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday faced some tough questions from Kashmiri youth who asked him whether he felt no pain when security forces fired on peaceful protestors and told him that unemployment was the major reason for unrest in the state.
The Congress has decided to hold its public rally against inflation in Jaipur on December 12 after the Delhi Police denied it permission to host the rally in the national capital.
A report by the Azim Premji University showed that during the pandemic 270 million Indians were pushed into poverty. Meaning that they were not poor according to the government poverty line before, but have become now. Aakar Patel mulls on the state of the nation as the Modi government enters its eighth year.
"We are here to welcome Modi ji for giving us new employment under pakoda yojana. We want to sell pakodas at Modi's rally, so that he knows how great it is to sell pakodas for the educated youth," a woman protester said.
While the Congress was a unifying force, the Left front was divisive, he said adding "wherever we go, we unify everybody. We are a unifying force. Wherever we go we identify everybody and unite them and make them strong".
Wishing him, President Droupadi Murmu said the work for nation-building under his incomparable hardwork, dedication and creativity continue to advance.
He said the government would provide meal at Rs 10 to common citizens and build a super-speciality hospital in every district of the state.
He also said the governments of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BSP and the SP that have ruled Uttar Pradesh in the last 32 years, when Congress was not in power, failed to live up to the expectations of the people and the Congress was set for a comeback in the state.
On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia along in the polls, he said, "I dont have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour".
In Haridwar, where he performed 'Ganga Aarti' at the famous Har Ki Pauri Ghat, Gandhi said, "We will give you a chief minister who comes to you, listens to your problems and runs the government accordingly."
Gandhi said it was his responsibility to tell the truth and it is for the people to listen or not to listen.
The Congress won 77 seats or 42% of seats in the 2017 polls. How then can Gujarat be called a BJP bastion, asks Sanjeev Nayyar.
The jobless armies of youthful India are getting angrier and desperate, warns Shekhar Gupta.
There are reasons to doubt Gadkari's words.
Reiterating his 'suit-boot ki sarkar' jibe, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a feku (a brag).
Paes, having proved his mettle in tennis courts, now sought to champion the cause of common people as 'I have always wanted to serve the country in one way or the other'.
How soon can India reach a point when there is no hidden underemployment and all who want work can find it at a fair wage and decent work conditions, asks Nitin Desai.
Taking a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party for demanding an apology for his "rape in India" remark, Gandhi said, "My name is Rahul Gandhi, not Rahul Savarkar. I will never apologise for speaking truth and nor will any Congressman do so. It is Narendra Modi and his assistant Amit Shah who has to apologise to the country for destroying India's economy."
'What is most distressing is that the revival of the economy, creation of more employment, and reducing poverty are not on the agenda of the government at all.' 'We are an economy on the verge of a demographic disaster.'
The Union home minister also asserted that the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls will lay the foundation for the BJP's victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party faces an uphill task of repeating its performance of the last assembly election of winning 53 out of 58 constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on February 10.
