With challenges such as raising the legal age of marriage for women, combating malnutrition among women and children, and addressing women's safety issues, the new ministers face a formidable agenda.
We the people are left in the wind, waiting on the whims of an unengaged president and an oligarch with a nearly bottomless wallet, observes Sree Sreenivasan.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will not be restored even if Congress stalwart and late PM Indira Gandhi comes down from heaven.
Zeeshan Siddiqui lashed out at the Congress over its treatment of minorities and accused it of being 'communal'.
'The BJP will not win a single seat in Punjab.'
AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal filed his nomination for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections from the New Delhi constituency on Wednesday, declaring net assets totaling Rs 1.73 crore. According to Kejriwal's affidavit submitted to the Election Commission (EC), his assets include Rs 2.96 lakh in bank savings and Rs 50,000 in cash. His immovable assets are worth Rs 1.7 crore. The affidavit also revealed that Kejriwal owns no house or car. Kejriwal's wife, Sunita, has total assets worth Rs 2.5 crore, including a house in Gurugram and a small car. The couple's combined net assets are worth Rs 4.23 crore. Senior AAP leader and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain also filed his nomination, from the Shakur Basti assembly constituency, declaring a net worth of Rs 4.4 crore.
The Reserve Bank of India has rejected three applications, including that of West End Housing Finance, for setting up small finance banks. These applications were found not suitable for granting of in-principle approval to set up small finance banks, it said in a statement on Tuesday. RBI had received about a dozen applications to set up banks under the guidelines for 'on tap' Licensing of Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks (SFBs).
The Election Commission has said it will allow suspected fake voters to cast their ballots in the Palakkad assembly by-poll, but will take action against them later. The CPI(M), Congress, and BJP have accused each other of enrolling fake voters. The by-poll is scheduled for November 20.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra is heavily banking upon a six to 10 per cent shift in voters -- mostly women -- in its favour to return to power with anywhere between 160 and 170 assembly seats, say four MLAs belonging to Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
The BJP had registered a one-sided victory on all the 17 SC-reserved seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But in 2019, out of these 17 seats, it lost Nagina and Lalganj seats to the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
Instead of harvesting the wrath against the BJP and using it to their advantage by opting for a collective form of leadership, the Congress decided once again to bestow their trust in the Hooda family who were given a free hand in the distribution of tickets. This turned out to be the biggest blunder and this faulty selection was the single over riding factor in the Congress defeat, explains Rashme Sehgal.
Soren, who is scheduled to join the Bharatiya Janata Party on August 30, also resigned as an MLA of the state assembly and a minister in the Jharkhand Cabinet.
India on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its high commissioner and other 'targeted' officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa's allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations.
'Even last time, when I defeated Shatrughan Sinha, I did not take his name.'
The BJP coined a new word for AAP, 'Aapda (crisis)', which Modi repeated constantly during the election campaign to show how Delhi residents's lives had become miserable under AAP's 11-year rule.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday mocked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray for "handing over the remote control" of the party to the Congress as he took poll battle to Mumbai with less than a week left for voting in Maharashtra.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
If Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil drops a hint of supporting or opposing a particular coalition on the eve of polling on November 20, things may change overnight.
'I want to break the notion that models can't act.'
The Israeli Parliament enacted a law prohibiting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the primary UN organisation assisting Palestinians, from operating within the country, CNN reported.
Lok Sabha on Monday turned into a battleground for the Delhi assembly polls with Bharatiya Janata Party member Ramvir Singh Bidhuri launching an all-out attack on the Aam Aadmi Party government, alleging that they 'looted' the national capital and turned it into 'hell'.
It is 10 years since Bandhan Financial Services became the first microfinance institution (MFI) to receive the universal bank licence. A year later, in 2015, it started operations. Bandhan's entry into banking was seen as a vote of confidence by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the country's microfinance sector. Subsequently, the RBI awarded small finance bank licences to nine MFIs.
Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th RBI governor at a time when headline retail inflation has shot up to 6.2%.
Capital market regulator Sebi on Tuesday rejected the competing open offer made by the US-based entity Danny Gaekwad Developments & Investments for acquisition of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) as it did not meet necessary regulations.
Azad said Akhilesh does not want Dalits in this alliance, he just wants Dalit vote bank.
'Money power was deployed like an army in a war.' 'None of the MVA parties had that kind of money.'
Delhi's third woman Chief Minister Atishi, who replaced Arvind Kejriwal after his resignation in September last year, filed her nomination on Tuesday for the upcoming Assembly polls, declaring a net worth of Rs 76.93 lakh, with no car or house in her name. According to Atishi's affidavit submitted to the Election Commission (EC), her movable assets include Rs 30,000 cash in hand, gold jewellery worth Rs 1 lakh and approximately Rs 75 lakh held in bank accounts as fixed deposits and savings. The affidavit also revealed that Atishi does not own any immovable property.
Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist denied that the West Bengal government had anything to do with controversial Bangladeshi writer Talima Nasreen moving from her temporary residence in Kolkata to Jaipur.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
'When honest, wealthy people come forward to serve India, people should feel proud and welcome them.'
'The RBI's MPC will maintain the current policy rates (6.50%) at the policy meeting, given ongoing inflationary pressures.'
Amardeep Singh, 22, a resident of Brampton, Surrey, and Abbotsford areas of Canada, has been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Rekha Gupta had the support of the RSS, which actively participated in the Delhi assembly poll campaign to help the BJP win.
BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde sought to draw a parallel between Karnataka's handling of Neha Hiremath's killing to the way West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allegedly shielded the Sandeshkhali case accused Shajahan Sheikh.
'Whenever the hike in voting percentage is more, the NDA gains more, and when the hike is negligible, the NDA falls.' 'I have established this in UP, Haryana and Jharkhand.'
Dr Nagesh Kumar, one of the three new MPC members, wanted the MPC to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%.
'The tide started to turn against the BJD when V K Pandian toured the districts gathering people's grievances last year.'
He also targeted the Congress government in Rajasthan, saying that had it set up a special court in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case, which happened in Udaipur last year, the accused would have been hanged by now.
From putting up a decent performance in the last Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh winning 10 seats stitching an alliance with arch rival Samajwadi Party, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank in the current general elections, dealing a severe blow to its reputation of representing the voice of Dalits in the state.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances