Central Government

RBI board expected to consider dividend payout to government on Friday

The government has budgeted to receive a total Rs 48,000 cr ($5.8 bn) from the RBI and other financial institutions it holds stakes in

WHO tracking VOI XBB.1.5, six other variants under monitoring: Centre

During a review meeting on the Covid-19 situation, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya virtually interacted with the health ministers of the states and union territories

Govt exploring possibilities of investing in lithium mines abroad

With requirement for lithium rising manifolds, the Central government is exploring the possibilities of investing in mines abroad, especially in Argentina and Australia

Centre to provide financial aid to poor prisoners unable to secure bail

The Central government will provide financial support to states in order to extend relief to those poor prisoners who are unable to avail bail or get released from prison

Judiciary vs govt: The more things change, the more they remain the same

The problem, as many experts have pointed out, lies with the power of judicial review. The judiciary has invested it to mean absolute judicial supremacy, while the govt begs to differ

SC allows Centre's plea seeking Rs 5,000 cr from SEBI-Sahara fund

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a plea by the Centre seeking allocation of Rs 5,000 crore out of Rs 24,000 crore deposited by the Sahara group with market regulator Sebi to repay its depositors. The direction came on an application filed by the Centre in a PIL by a person, named Pinak Pani Mohanty, who sought a direction to pay the amount to the depositors who invested in several chit fund companies and Sahara credit firms. A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said the amount shall be disbursed to depositors duped by the Sahara group of cooperative societies. The entire process will be monitored by former apex court judge Justice R Subhash Reddy, the bench said. The Centre had sought money from the SEBI-Sahara Sahara-Sebi escrow account that was formed after the top court in August 2012 directed two Sahara firms -- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing India Corporation Limited (SHICL) -- to refund investors.

Mamata starts dharna to protest Centre's 'discrimination' against Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday started her two-day sit-in demonstration in Kolkata to protest the BJP-led Union government's alleged discriminatory attitude against the state. Banerjee, accompanied by senior party leaders Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Subrata Bakshi and Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, reached the venue in front of Dr B R Ambedkar's statue on Red Road around noon and started her protest against the Centre's alleged stoppage of funds to the state for MGNREGA and other schemes of the housing and road departments. The sit-in demonstration will continue till Thursday evening. "The Centre has stopped releasing funds for MGNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana (Grameen). Besides, it has also stopped scholarships for OBC students," she said on Tuesday, while launching a project to construct 12,000 km of rural roads. She alleged that the Centre has not released over Rs 7,000 crores pending under MGNREGA despite West Bengal topping the list of states in completing the

Congress' Kharge slams Centre after Rahul Gandhi asked to vacate bungalow

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday slammed the Centre over Rahul Gandhi being asked to vacate his official bungalow, saying that he condemns the government's attitude to "threaten, scare and humiliate" the former party chief. He also said that Gandhi could go and live with his mother Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence or he could himself provide a house by vacating one for the Gandhi scion. "They will do everything to weaken him (Rahul Gandhi). He can go live with his mother or he can come to me, I will vacate one for him. I condemn this attitude of the government to threaten, scare and humiliate," Kharge told reporters before leaving for Parliament. "In democracy, several times we have managed without a house for three-four months. I got this bungalow after six months. People do these things to humiliate others. I condemn this attitude," the Congress president said. Gandhi was on Monday asked to vacate the government bungalow allotted to him by April 22 followi

Central govt IT system to start supporting email in Hindi in 2 years

All IT systems in the central government will start supporting email communications in hindi scripts in the next two years, a senior official said on Monday. While speaking at the Universal Acceptance (UA) Day curtain raiser event, Ministry of Electronics and IT Additional Secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar said that the work has started to make 15 ministry's website UA-compliant and content on them is being made available in hindi. "Resolver to facilitate e-mail communications in local language script will be done over a period of 2 years. Initially it will support Hindi script and later other languages will be added," Kumar said. He said that the Centre is encouraging the state governments to provide content in the local languages. Global internet body ICANN has been supporting Universal Acceptance that aims to address issues around language barriers that check people from connecting to the internet. The internet has been dominated by the English language which prevents several non-Englis

Govt need investments to address lack of feedstock cracker in petrochem

The government on Friday said there is a shortage of feedstock cracker in the petrochemicals sector and more private investments are required in the sector to reduce imports. Addressing an Assocham-organised conclave on speciality chemicals, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Secretary Arun Baroka said with electric vehicles coming up and demand for petrol/diesel set to reduce, automatically there will be more push for petrochemicals in future. "We know that there is a shortage of feedstock and it is estimated that we need one (feedstock)cracker every year till 2040 but that kind of investment is not coming now. There will be a shortfall in terms of the numbers of crackers which are required by the country. When there is a shortage, obviously we will be dependent on imports," he said. An investment of Rs 18 lakh crore is required for increasing feedstock cracker as estimated in a report by Indian Oil Ltd and Engineers India Ltd. However, the government alone cannot make this kind of ...

MEA remains among least funded Central Ministries, notes Parl panel

A Parl panel has noted that despite its challenging mandate in making India into a leading influential entity among the nations of the world, MEA remains one among least funded Central ministries

After LG's concerns, Centre asks Kejriwal govt to resubmit Delhi budget

The Home Ministry sources dismissed the allegations, adding that the MHA has instead sought clarification from the Delhi govt as its budget allocation was focussed on advertisement rather than infra

CM Kejriwal levelling allegations on Centre, PM to hide own mistakes: BJP

The BJP in Delhi slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, accusing him of creating a row over the city government's budget for "cheap publicity" and to hide his own mistakes. Addressing a press conference here, working president of the Delhi BJP Virendra Sachdeva said Kejriwal was levelling allegations on the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to divert attention from the corruption charges faced by the city government. "The Kejriwal government sat on the clarifications sought by the Ministry of Home Affairs for three days and then blamed the Centre for stopping the budget," Sachdeva said. Kejriwal on Monday alleged that the Centre had stopped the budget presentation of his government. The Delhi budget, which was to be tabled in the assembly on Tuesday, requires prior approval from the Centre. The chief minister has also written a letter to Prime Minister Modi, saying it was the first time in 75 years that the budget of a state has been stopped.

Home Ministry starts process of eviction and sale of enemy properties

The Union Home Ministry has started the process for eviction and sale of enemy properties, the immovable assets left behind by people who have taken citizenship of Pakistan and China. There are a total of 12,611 establishments called enemy property, roughly estimated to be worth over Rs 1 lakh crore, in the country. The enemy properties are vested with the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI), an authority created under the Enemy Property Act. According to a Home ministry notification, the guidelines for disposal of the enemy properties have been changed under which the process for eviction of enemy properties now shall be initiated with the help of the District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner concerned before the sale of properties. In case of the enemy properties valued below Rs 1 crore, the custodian shall offer for purchase to the occupant first and if offer of purchase is refused by the occupant, then the enemy property shall be disposed of in accordance with the ...

Centre stalling Parliament to avoid Adani questions: Chattisgarh CM Bhagel

On the BJP demanding an apology from the Congress MP over his remarks in London, Baghel said this was the first time that a ruling party was creating a ruckus in Parliament

Akhilesh slams Centre for misusing central agencies, to meet Mamata today

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for misusing central agencies to "harass leaders and public representatives of opposition parties", who pose a threat to the saffron camp. Yadav, who is in the city to chair his party's two-day national executive, is scheduled to meet West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday evening. "The ED, CBI, and Income Tax are political weapons of the BJP. Here in Bengal, the instances are less. In Uttar Pradesh, several of our (SP) leaders, including MLAs, are in jail in false and fabricated cases," he told reporters after reaching Kolkata airport. "The BJP sends the ED and CBI to harass those opposition parties which threaten it," he said. Samajwadi Party is holding its two-day national executive in Kolkata from March 18 to discuss policies and strategies for the assembly election in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh later this year and the Lok Sabha poll in 2024,

Joshimath crisis handled well with Centre's cooperation: Uttarakhand CM

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday said land subsidence in Joshimath was a challenge for the government but it was efficiently tackled with active cooperation from the Centre. He also said the state government's budget 2023-24 is based on the BJP's vision document for 2022 assembly polls and will pave the way for building a strong and prosperous Uttarakhand. Joshimath was a challenge but we got active cooperation from the Centre. The prime minister personally monitored the situation taking regular updates. We have made a provision of Rs 1,000 crore for Joshimath in the budget," Dhami said addressing the assembly during the budget session. He said a study of the carrying capacity of Joshimath and similar other places, which are not founded on solid rocks, will be conducted. Taking a dig at the opposition for calling the budget "hopeless" he said, "You have to have hope in your heart to see hope in anything." "We have recorded an increase of 10 per cent in p

Centre announces 10% reservation for ex-Agniveers in BSF recruitment

For this, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has amended the Border Security Force, General Duty Cadre (Non-Gazetted) Recruitment Rules, 2015, which has come into effect from Thursday

Mamata Banerjee urges Centre to allow poppy cultivation in West Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged the Centre to allow poppy cultivation in the state, insisting that delicacies prepared with its seeds are integral to the Bengali cuisine. Banerjee said 'posto' or poppy seeds are costly as it is cultivated only in a few states. "Bengalis love posto'. Why should it be cultivated in only four states? Why not in West Bengal, despite it being on our menu every day?" she said. "Why will we have to purchase posto' from other states at high prices? Why will West Bengal not get permission for its cultivation? I will ask members of the opposition to write to the Centre on it," the CM said on Thursday. The state has been trying to get permission for cultivation of the highly-regulated crop. "We have said that the state will cultivate it in agriculture farms. If we can grow poppy here, we will get them at Rs 100 (per kg), instead of Rs 1,000. At times, we have to take decisions unanimously. Not all poppies are drugs," she claimed. Banerj

Behead me, but can't do anything to increase dearness allowance: Mamata

She explained the difference in the salary structures of the Central and state governments and claimed that the TMC government is already giving its employees DA of 105 per cent