Reiterating Sitharaman's statement that this is a youth power budget, Modi emphasised that the provisions made in the budget will prepare leaders, innovators and creators across different sectors.
When the Union government had launched the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana with much fanfare years ago, they could not have imagined in their wildest nightmares that one day, the welfare scheme will be used by terrorists to carry out their subversive schemes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday charged the Trinamool Congress government with 'playing with national security by protecting infiltrators' for vote-bank politics, and said ending the ruling party's 'maha jungle raj' was vital to restore law and order, development and investor confidence in the state.
In 2025-26, the government allocated Rs 6,81,210 crore for defence budget.
The University Grants Commission's (UGC) new regulations on promoting equity in higher education institutions have sparked protests and legal challenges. This article explains the regulations, the concerns raised, and the government's response.
'The watershed moment was June 22, 2024, when the divisional in-charge of Gadchiroli, Giridhar Tumreti, who was their senior-most commander, along with his wife, came forward to surrender before the then deputy chief minister and home minister Devendra Fadnavis.'
Sex workers in Sonagachi, Asia's largest red-light district, are pleading for relief from stringent voter ID rules that they say are impossible to meet, potentially leading to exclusion from the voters' list.
'MGNREGA was about a guaranteed right to work.' 'The new law does not guarantee employment at all.' 'It removes everything that made MGNREGA a legal guarantee.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while being enumerated for Census 2011 last week, said the data from this massive exercise would be a treasure house of information to help the government plan development work.
Another populist decision of the government was the announcement of an unemployment allowance for the youth: Rs 1,000 per month for two years for graduates and those who have completed class 12 but remain unemployed.
The NPR data can be used for transparent and efficient delivery of social benefits by linking it with various beneficiary oriented government schemes, they said.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen has the highest unutilised amount (Rs 13,111 crore) compared to any other centrally sponsored scheme.
Voters in Bihar's Jehanabad and Ghosi express their hopes for change, particularly regarding job creation and development, in the upcoming government following the state elections.
Opposition members trooped to the well of the House raising slogans against the government from dropping Mahatma Gandhi's name from the rural jobs initiative and tearing copies of the G RAM G Bill and flinging it towards the chair.
'The Maoist leadership spread fear that surrender meant torture or death. Once that false narrative collapsed and our operations proved transparent and credible, the surrender momentum became irreversible.' 'From 42,000 square kilometres, Maoist activity is now confined to barely 500-600 square kilometres -- less than two per cent of Bastar. This is their last remaining base area.'
Maharashtra minister Manikrao Kokate was stripped of his portfolios after being convicted in a 1995 cheating and forgery case. His ministries have been reassigned to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Kokate has been admitted to Lilavati Hospital after complaining of chest pain.
Erroneous payments were made to 77,980 women and 12,431 men, many of whom did not qualify for the scheme's benefits.
President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which aims to replace MGNREGA and guarantee 125 days of wage employment per rural household.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has allocated portfolios of newly created departments among ministers, keeping Civil Aviation with himself, an official notification said.
President Droupadi Murmu addressed the nation on the eve of Republic Day, emphasising India's role in promoting peace, the empowerment of women, and the country's economic growth.
India has managed high government debt-to-GDP, a slowing domestic revenue engine, lower household savings and a more hostile geopolitical environment separately in the past. But together, they threaten to undo the growth narrative on which today's optimism rests, warns Debashis Basu.
In the fourth such instance, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Tuesday walked out of the state assembly without reading his customary address after alleging that the national anthem was insulted, evoking a sharp response from Chief Minister M K Stalin, who dubbed his action as an 'insult' to the House and the people of the state.
'Removing Nitish Kumar prematurely risks unsettling both the alliance balance and parts of the social coalition that delivered this victory.'
Years of repression and disappearances have taught Venezuelans, the hard way, not to voice either their anger or their joy, observes Radha Roy Biswas who spent her formative years in Venezuela.
This comes a day after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which replaces the MGNREGA and has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.
'For the remaining Maoist cadres, they shall soon confront one of two outcomes: Either surrender or face neutralisation.'
Nationalist Congress Party minister Manikrao Kokate has resigned from the Maharashtra Cabinet after a court upheld his conviction and two-year jail term in a 1995 cheating and forgery case. This marks the second NCP minister to resign this year.
'This election was won because of Nitish Kumar's face and his policies.'
A controversy has erupted in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, after a Muslim woman alleged that a doctor at the district hospital refused to treat her on religious grounds. Hospital authorities deny the accusation, and an inquiry is underway. The incident has sparked political reactions and a police investigation into journalists who circulated the video of the allegation.
After recent high-intensity operations in the Bastar region and the neutralisation of several senior Maoist leaders, officials say the insurgency has lost its ability to mount large-scale coordinated attacks.
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
The Ministry of Home Affairs reports a significant reduction in the number of districts most affected by Naxalism, highlighting the government's efforts to combat Left Wing Extremism.
'This outcome is thoroughly unexpected.' 'I travelled extensively across villages, engaged in detailed discussions with residents, and consulted with party workers who had been canvassing from village to village, from one location to another, seeking grassroots feedback.' 'Not a single interlocutor suggested that there would be an NDA wave of this magnitude.'
Jan Suraaj Spokesperson and one of the key architects of the Party, Pavan Verma, levelled serious allegations that funds from the World Bank meant for some other project were diverted for the Bihar Assembly elections by the central government and distributed to women voters in the state.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley more than halved the central government's financial support.
The party is slated to organise yoga events in 403 madrasas of UP on International Yoga Day (June 21).
'These children possess catastrophically low birth weights -- often 1.4 kgs or less. Such extremely low birth weight results in profoundly compromised neo-natal immunity.' 'The escalation to 97 deaths in three months precipitated contemporary attention precisely because this magnitude concentrates the humanitarian emergency, rendering it impossible for the administrative machinery to ignore.'
A string of welfare schemes and promises tests the state's budget, which is already heavily dependent on central support and spends little as capital outlay.
Bandana Preyashi, the bold IAS officer from Bihar who took on dreaded dons, is the court-appointed mentor to 18-year-old Sakshi, who had fled home to follow her IAS dream.
'Nitish Kumar previously held tight control over key ministries, but this concession (giving the home portfolio to the BJP) reflects either his weakened political position or a pragmatic acknowledgment of the BJP's growing dominance.'
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