Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time. In one...
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Uttar Pradesh plans scheduled caste status for 17 OBC sub-castes by Pankaj Shah
The Samajwadi Party government is gearing up to include 17 OBC sub-castes into the scheduled castes. A high-level committee headed by Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Jawed Usmani has sought details from the department of social welfare before issuing a notification in this regard. The circular from the UP chief secretary on March 28, too, speaks of the government's priorities, including the inclusion of 17 OBC sub-castes within the SC category. If the...
More »Kafkaesque ordeal?-TK Rajalakshmi
The arrest of Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi in connection with the bomb attack on an Israeli embassy car raises many questions. AN uneasy silence fills the streets of B.K. Dutt Colony near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Named after the revolutionary freedom fighter Batukeshwar Dutt, who, along with Bhagat Singh, threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929, the nondescript colony has been...
More »Mayawati's wealth jumps 25 pct to Rs 111 crore in 2 years
-The Financial Express BSP supremo Mayawati may have lost the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh but the defeated chief minister's wealth as declared has jumped to Rs 111 crore, a 25 per cent increase in the last two years. And 56-year-old Mayawati's assets made public today has doubled in the five years since she became chief minister in 2007 on the back of a thumping BSP victory. During public meetings, she often...
More »Oil firms’ losses on fuel sales may spike next fiscal-Utpal Bhaskar
Government-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) may witness a 52% jump in losses on account of selling fuel below cost at state-mandated prices to Rs.2 trillion in the next financial year, said R.S. Butola, chairman, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer. Such an increase will impact the financials of government-owned OMCs such as IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), which currently register...
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