Government Policy

Socially and Educationally Backward Class category created for the purpose The Maharashtra Cabinet on Sunday cleared the decision to extend reservation to the Maratha community by creating a new category called Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) on the recommendations of the State Backward Class Commission. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis …

Rs. 2.1 lakh crore stake sale done in the last four years alone, data show The NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accounts for a whopping 58% of all the disinvestment that has taken place since 1991, an analysis by The Hindu of data released by the Department …

In a bid to encourage employers, especially in the private sector, to implement the extended 26-week maternity leave law, the Labour Ministry plans to refund them for seven weeks’ worth of wages for women workers with a wage ceiling up to Rs. 15,000 per month. The Ministry is in the …

The Indian Railways is planning to establish medical colleges to offer postgraduate courses for doctors at 10 of its existing hospitals across India.The official said that the proposal has been cleared by the Railway Board and now, the Railways is in the process of getting permissions from the Medical Council …

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday flagged off a “Startup Yatra”, saying the programme was aimed at turning the State’s educated youth into job providers from jobseekers. He said the State government would provide all possible help to the youth to develop entrepreneurship under the scheme. Source …

‘Letter of Comfort’ given by Paris is good enough, says Attorney-General The Centre admitted in the Supreme Court on Wednesday that there was no sovereign guarantee from the French government on the deal for 36 Rafale jets in case the manufacturer, Dassault Aviation, defaults. Sovereign guarantee is a promise by …

Express concern at delay in tabling audit reports in Parliament Sixty retired bureaucrats have written to the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) over the “deliberate delay” in tabling the audit reports on the Rafale deal and demonetisation in Parliament. They demanded that these be tabled in the Winter Session. The CAG’s …

Centre to reward high-performing States States may soon start receiving extra funding for the Agriculture Ministry’s flagship schemes on the basis of their performance in encouraging agri-business, especially with regard to marketing, land and governance reforms. The Centre expects to roll out a new Ease of Doing Agri-Business Index early …

“The Twitter representatives claimed that there may be anonymous accounts criticising the government’s policies and if identity trails are provided to the police or government agencies then it defeats the purpose of freedom of expression. We told them that if someone is verbally abused on the road, action is taken …

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to change the name of Faizabad district to Ayodhya, a week after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made the announcement on the eve of Diwali. Source :https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/up-cabinet-nod-for-faizabad-name-change/article25489783.ece

Micro-blogging site slow to act on take-down requests: official The Centre has asked microblogging site Twitter to furnish telephone numbers and other identifiable sources that could help track suspicious accounts, as asked for by law enforcement agencies, a senior Home Ministry official said. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Monday …

More than 84 lakh farmers, which is around 15% of the total farmers insured in the first year of the Centre’s ambitious Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in 2016-17, withdrew themselves from the scheme in 2017-18, a reply to an RTI application has revealed. It includes 68.31 lakh farmers from …

General Bipin Rawat says govt. has a clear-cut policy not to allow terrorists to create violence in J&K Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said that the government’s policy in Jammu and Kashmir was that those triggering terrorism in the State should be neutralised, but the Army’s focus was …

‘Matching done on 1:1 basis and Aadhaar number is needed’ The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) told the Delhi High Court on Monday that it was technically not possible to match the fingerprints of an unidentified body with the biometrics of 120 crore people stored in its database. The …

Tells HC that its concern is the security of pilgrims The State government has never interfered in the religious matters and rituals of the Sabarimala temple. But the security of pilgrims visiting the temple is the concern of the government and the police have to ensure that, the State government …

Defence procurement procedure was fully followed, SC told The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved the procurement of the 36 Rafale jets well over a year after the Indo-French Joint Statement to acquire the aircraft “as quickly as possible” was issued, said a government note in the Supreme Court on …

Spit on Pune streets, be prepared to clean it In a bid to keep Pune streets clean, the civic body has started punishing people spitting on roads by making them clean the spit, besides levying a fine on offenders, an official said on Sunday. The decision was taken after authorities …

‘Rechristening Faizabad district as Ayodhya will erase the historical identity of its eponymous city’ The decision to rechristen Faizabad district as Ayodhya has not gone down well with many of its residents, who believe it is an “unnecessary step” taken for “political” reasons and will eventually “erase the identity” of …

Ministers hint that the court cannot have the last word on the issue The government, while showing no firm signs that there is any move on its part to bring in an ordinance or a new law for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, has also maintained that …

The Centre has decided to set up skill development institutes on government land, in partnership with private players, across the country. The Union Cabinet approved the scheme on Wednesday, according to an official statement. The public-private partnership model will be adopted to set up the institutes — to be called …