Page 4 - Central Government

Centre to revamp agricultural education, emphasis to skill development

Sponsored by Agricultural Education Division of the ICAR, the Winter School is aimed at providing an opportunity to update the analytical skills of social science researchers and make them familiar

Fiscal deficit in FY24 may be capped at 5.9%, says Goldman Sachs

The upcoming pre-election Budget will carry forward the trend of the increased capital expenditure seen in recent years

Small, mid CPSEs likely to be on Centre's FY24 disinvestment list

Government officials hinted that efforts were being taken to conclude stake sale of Shipping Corp and BEML by March

5-judge Constitution Bench starts hearing Delhi vs Centre power dispute

State list is like concurrent list for Delhi, observes CJI Chandrachud

Centre gets extension to frame CAA rules for 7th consecutive time

The Rajya Sabha committee has accepted the Centre's request for six more months to frame rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) for the seventh time in a row

Centre, states working together for development of Northeast: NS Tomer

Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that agriculture is the country's fastest growing sector and there will be no constraint of central funding for its development. Referring to the northeast, he said the Centre and the northeast states governments are working together to develop the agriculture sector given its potential for organic farming. Agriculture is the fastest growing sector in the country and the Center is making continuous efforts to make farming profitable. There will be no constraint of central funding for development of agriculture sector, the union minister said inaugurating the newly constructed administrative and academic buildings of Pasighat Agriculture College in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday. The Centre has endeavoured to establish a link between research and farming and provide scientific advice to farmers at the ground level. The setting up of the institute as visualised by Prime Minister Narendra

PM to chair second National Conference of Chief Secretaries in Delhi today

With the aim to boost the partnership between the Centre and the State governments, PM Narendra Modi will chair the second National Conference of Chief Secretaries in Delhi today and tomorrow

PM Modi to chair second National Conference of Chief Secretaries in Delhi

The three-day Conference, from 5-7 January, will focus on achieving rapid and sustained economic growth in partnership with the States

Govt has pipeline of 44 port projects worth Rs 22,900 cr till 2025: Sonowal

Public-private partnership in port infrastructure has been an important source of investment in the sector and the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has a pipeline of 44 projects for total investment of Rs 22,900 crore till 2024-25, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Tuesday. Moreover, the government is working on the guidelines for dealing with stressed public-private partnership (PPP) projects at major ports and has also come up with policies to support the shipbuilding industry in India, Sonowal said. "The Ministry of Port, Shipping and Waterways is working on two fronts to encourage private sector participation... On the project front the ministry has a pipeline of 44 projects for a total investment of Rs 22,900 crore till 2024-25," he told PTI. On the policy front, the ministry is working on the Guidelines for dealing with stressed PPP projects at major ports, Sonowal said. The Ports, Shipping and Waterways minister further said that under the National .

India raises windfall tax on crude oil, diesel and aviation turbine fuel

It raised windfall tax on crude oil to Rs 2,100 ($25.38) per tonne from Rs 1,700 ($20.55), effective Tuesday, the order said

Demonetisation had to be done through legislation: Justice Nagarathna

Justice B V Nagarathna of the Supreme Court, who gave a dissenting verdict on demonetisation on Monday, said the scrapping of the whole series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes had to be done through a legislation and not through a gazette notification as Parliament cannot be left aloof in a matter of such critical importance. Justice Nagarathna, who was the juniormost judge in the Constitution bench also comprising justices S A Nazeer, B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, said the demonetisation of an entire series of notes at the Centre's instance is a far more serious issue that has wider implications on the economy and the citizens of the country. Observing that there was no independent application of mind by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Justice Nagarathna said the entire exercise was carried out in 24 hours. "In my view, the power of the central government being vast has to be exercised through a plenary legislation rather than by an executive act by issuance o

At over Rs 6 trillion, capex on new projects sees 44% jump in Q3

The data also showed a 49.9 per cent year-on-year drop in completed projects, and an 87.5 per cent decline in stalling rates

Serum Institute to provide 20 mn Covishield doses to govt free of cost

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has offered two crore doses of Covishield vaccine to the central government free of cost amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in some countries, official sources said on Wednesday. According to an official source, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Serum Institute, has written to the Health Ministry offering the doses worth Rs 410 crore free of cost. It is learnt that Singh has sought to know from the ministry how the delivery can be made. SII has so far provided more than 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government for the national immunisation programme. Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in some countries, including China and South Korea, the government has sounded an alert and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality. India has stepped its surveillance and genome sequencing of Covid positive samples. With only 27 per cent of the eligible adult population having taken the precaution do

K'taka to ask Centre to restore home for thousands of displaced families

The Karnataka government on Wednesday said it would appeal to the Central government for its approval to rehabilitate thousands of families displaced by a power project in Shivamogga district. "The government is seized of the matter and is in touch with the Central government to resolve the issue," said State Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy in the Assembly. The Minister was replying to BJP MLA from Sagar in Shivamogga, Hartal Halappa. Halappa pointed out that over 7,000 farmers and their families were displaced from 9,000 acres of forest-land by the Sharavathi power project in the early 1960s. These people have been deprived of their land-rights and waiting for a solution. He said the State government cancelled its order of diversion of the forest land following a High Court order. "I appeal to the State government to move the Supreme Court and seek Centre's intervention in the issue, Halappa said. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah backed Halappa over the .

Bengal to write to Centre for more Covid vaccines, testing kits: Official

The West Bengal government on Wednesday decided to write to the Centre to request for more COVID vaccines and testing kits, a senior official said. Along with five lakh doses of nasal vaccines, the state government has decided to request the Union government to send one lakh doses of Covaxin and 15 lakh doses of Covishield, he said. Keeping in mind the warnings of a probable COVID surge, the state government issued guidelines for hospitals and directed them to set up COVID wards in medical establishments where such facilities are unavailable. The decisions were taken during a virtual meeting chaired by Chief secretary H K Dwivedi with the district magistrates and senior officials of the state health department. The official said that hospitals were asked to keep beds ready keeping in mind critical and very critical patients. Meanwhile, nine fresh cases were reported in the state on Wednesday, taking the tally to 21,18,606, a health bulletin said. The toll remained unchanged at 21

5.38 mn public grievances redressed during good governance week: Centre

As many as 53.8 lakh public grievances were redressed during the recently concluded good governance week, the Centre said on Tuesday. The government celebrated the second 'Sushasan Saptah' (good governance week) between December 19 and 25. The Sushasan Saptah witnessed a nationwide campaign for redressal of public grievances and improving service delivery, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry. Prashasan Gaon ki Ore 2022 has witnessed significant progress 53.8 lakh public grievances were redressed, 310 lakh service delivery applications were disposed and 949 innovations in governance were documented. Prashasan Gaon ki Ore (governance towards village) was the theme of the week. On December 23, district-level workshops were held in all 768 districts to deliberate on innovations and vision India@2047. The district-level workshops were chaired by a senior retired IAS officer who had served as district collector in that district. The Parliamentary Standing Commit

Tamil Nadu Congress on path of rejuvenation, gears up for 2024 LS polls

The state Congress party, which is slowly showing signs of a revival, will be highlighting the 'anti-people' activities of the Central government

Free grain under NFSA: States to save on food bill, lose political mileage

Food subsidies are a major portion of subsidies provided by states

Question mark over fate of central govt projects in Congress-ruled Himachal

The gears of state development appear to be grinding to almost a halt over politics that is getting bad, remarked a newly elected Congress legislator

Court orders and govt decisions: A look back at criminal justice in 2022

Sedition, bail law, and criminal law reforms--we look at some of the major announcements for criminal justice in India