Page 34 - Centre

SC orders deferment of oath taking of chairperson designate of DERC

The Supreme Court Tuesday ordered deferment of the oath taking of Justice (retd) Umesh Kumar as the chairperson of the DERC and said it will examine the constitutional validity of a provision of the Centre's recent ordinance governing appointments such as that of the chief of the national capital's electricity regulatory authority. It also took on record the Delhi government's statement about deferring the oath taking ceremony of Justice Kumar, whose appointment has become yet another flashpoint in the turf war between the city's AAP government and the Centre. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha said it wanted to deal with the plea challenging the Centre's notification appointing Justice Kumar as the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairperson in a "non-controversial" manner on July 11 and so the administration of oath to him be deferred. Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner (Delhi government) ..

Centre to double turnover of automobile industry to Rs 15 trillion: Gadkari

The government intends to double the turnover of the automobile industry to Rs 15 lakh crore from Rs 7.5 lakh crore at present, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. Speaking at a public meeting in Rajasthan's Pratapgarh district to highlight achievements of the central government in the last nine years, Gadkari also targeted Congress saying that in the name of removing poverty, Congress leaders eliminated their own poverty. "The turnover of the automobile industry is Rs 7.55 lakh crore, and four and a half crores have got jobs in the sector. This industry gives maximum GST to the government. We have decided that we will make this industry of Rs 15 lakh crore," he said, adding that the industry will generate ten crore jobs. He also said that India has beaten Japan in automobile manufacturing and has come in number 3 position globally after China and the US. Laying emphasis on the importance of education, he said, "Knowledge is a great power,

To end tomato price jumps, India needs more than stop-gap solutions

The government has said that the price rise is temporary and would cool down in 15-30 days

SC issues notice to Centre over provisions of insolvency & bankruptcy code

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a batch of petitions challenging various provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) over claims that they are violative of fundamental rights like the right to equality of those against whom insolvency proceedings have been initiated. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra issued notices to the Centre and others on as many as three petitions and ordered the pleas to be tagged with a pending petition on the issue. One of the petitions, which was taken up for hearing on Monday, was filed by R Shah, through advocate Anne Mathew, challenging the constitutional validity of sections 95(1), 96(1), 97(5), 99(1), 99(2), 99(4), 99(5), 99(6) and 100 of the Code. These provisions deal with the various stages of insolvency proceedings against a defaulting firm or individuals. The Impugned Provisions are inherently violative of the principle of natural justice and strike at the root of th

U'khand CM seeks Rs 1,774 cr from Centre for drinking water project

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday sought a financial assistance of Rs 1,774 crore from the Centre for the Song dam drinking water project. Dhami met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi and requested her that the amount be given to the state under special assistance from the Government of India. The total cost of the proposed project is Rs 2,021 crore. To be built over the Song river, a tributary of the Ganga, the project will make 150 MLD (millions of litres per day) drinking water available to about 10 lakh people of Dehradun and its suburban areas, Dhami said. The chief minister also requested the Union Finance Minister to remove the ceiling imposed on the loan amount of externally-aided projects in view of the special circumstances and limited financial resources of Uttarakhand. After the construction of the project, the dependence on tube wells for drinking water system will almost end, he said. Besides, a lake of about 3.50 km length

Centre's help needed for projects to check sea erosion: Karnataka minister

The Union government should provide assistance to the state in taking up permanent projects to check sea erosion at different places along the 320-km coastal line of Karnataka, state Minister for Fisheries, Ports and Inland Water Transport Mankala S Vaidya has said. Talking to reporters after visiting the Kodi Kanyana fisheries port in Udupi district on Sunday, he said the state government is doing its best by taking temporary measures to prevent sea erosion. However, a permanent should be found by taking up projects in a phased manner with the support of the Union government, Vaidya said. He said the problems being faced by fishermen in Bengre, Kodi Kanyana and Hangarakatte will be solved jointly by the Fisheries and Port departments. The jetty project at Kodi Kanyana will be taken up soon. Former minister Jayaprakash Hegde and leaders of fishermen groups accompanied Vaidya during the visit.

MP High Court requests Centre to reduce women's consent age to 16 from 18

The Gwalior bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has requested the Centre to reduce the consent age of females to 16, observing that the present age of 18 has disturbed the fabric of society as injustice is going on with adolescent boys. The court's request came on June 27 through an order quashing a First Information Report (FIR) against a man who was accused of repeatedly raping a minor girl and impregnating her in 2020. Nowadays, every male or female near the age of 14 years, due to social media awareness and easily accessible internet connectivity, is getting puberty at an early age, the judge said. The court said boys and girls get attracted to each other owing to early puberty, which is ultimately resulting in consensual physical relationships, read the order. 'I request the Government of India to think over the matter for reducing the age of prosecutrix (female complainant) from 18 to 16 years as earlier before (IPC) amendments (were made) so that injustice should be redressed

Union min releases postal cover commemorating 9 yrs of T'gana formation

Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy has unveiled a postal cover on '9 Years of Telangana Statehood' and picture post cards showcasing 'Buddhist Heritage in Telangana Bavapur Kurru' here. Speaking on the occasion, Reddy lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and new initiatives that have helped transform India Post into a Multi Service Agency providing services to the citizens "on value-for-money basis". In an official release on Friday, he said by utilising the services of postal department as last mile connectivity, the central government is planning to make the Department of Post as One Stop Solution for all services of the schemes so that the fruits of welfare programmes reached the citizens in the remotest areas of the country. Praising the postal department, the union minister said it has transformed itself from delivery of articles to rendering various welfare schemes and has become the most crucial part of the Centre and the welfare programmes introduced by it.

Centre asks states to promote organic farming, stop urea diversion

Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday urged states to promote organic farming for preservation of soil health and make efforts to reduce use of chemical fertilisers. The minister also asked states to take up effective steps to curtail diversion of urea meant for agriculture and farmers, to other sectors, according to an official statement. Mandaviya said this while virtually interacting with agriculture ministers of states and Union Territories on the recent decisions made by the Cabinet regarding fertiliser sector. On June 28, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a new scheme, PM-PRANAM to incentivise states to promote alternative fertilisers and reduce the use of chemical fertilisers and also decided to continue the current urea subsidy scheme for three years ending March 2025, with an outlay of Rs 3.68 lakh crore. That apart, CCEA approved an outlay of Rs 1,451 crore subsidy to promote organic manure, taking the total package t

CERT-In cyber security norms bar use of Anydesk, Teamviewer by govt dept

Cyber security watchdog CERTin has barred the use of remote desktop softwares like Anydesk and Teamviewer in the government department under new security guidelines released on Friday. The guidelines prescribe government departments use virtual private networks (VPN) for accessing network resources from remote locations and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for VPN accounts. "Ensure to block access to any remote desktop applications, such as Anydesk, Teamviewer, Ammyy admin etc," Guidelines on Information Security Practices for Government Entities said. CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team ) said the purpose of these guidelines is to establish a prioritised baseline for cyber security measures and controls within government organisations and their associated organisations. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in an official statement said the government has taken several initiatives to ensure an open, safe and trusted and accountable digi

Govt extends relaxations for central ministries on capital expenditure

In order to push capital expenditure by central ministries, the Finance Ministry on Friday extended the relaxed norms on capex in excess of Rs 500 crore to the second quarter of this fiscal. As per the office memorandum dated April 25, 2023, the finance ministry had removed all restrictions and conditions on capital expenditure by ministries, under the centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) and grants-in-aid for the creation of capital assets for the first quarter of the current financial year. It has been decided to continue relaxation for the second quarter of the current financial year, the finance ministry said on Friday. "For subsequent quarters, a separate advisory will be issued before the commencement of the quarter. It further reiterated that the relaxation will be subject to strict adherence to the Single Nodal Agency (SNA) and Central Nodal Agency (CNA) guidelines issued by the Department of Expenditure," it said. Usually, ministries and departments are allowed to spend 25 pe

Centre re-appoints Tushar Mehta as Solicitor General for three years

Senior advocate Tushar Mehta was re-appointed as the Solicitor General of India on Friday for a term of three years. Mehta was appointed as Solicitor General on October 10, 2018 and since then he had been granted extension twice. According to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, besides Mehta, six Additional Solicitors General for the Supreme Court were also re-appointed for a period of three years. Six ASGs who were re-appointed for the top court are Vikramjit Banerjee, K M Nataraj, Balbir Singh, S V Raju, N Venkataraman and Aishwarya Bhati. The names of Additional Solicitors General Madhavi Goradia Divan and Sanjay Jain, whose tenure came to end on Friday, did not feature in the list of re-appointed law officers. Additional Solicitor General Jayant K Sud, whose tenure came to end on Thursday, also did not feature in the list. Additional Solicitors General Chetan Sharma for Delhi High Court, Satya Pal Jain for Punjab and Haryana High Court, Devang Girish

Govt to construct Rs 4,500-cr National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal

National Maritime Heritage Complex is expected to boost tourism in the region and contribute to economic development, the ministry said

Consumer affairs dept asks online platforms to not use 'dark patterns'

The Consumer Affairs dept advised online platform to not engage in 'unfair trade practices' by incorporating dark patterns in their online interface to manipulate consumer choice

Karnataka High Court rejects Twitter plea against govt blocking orders

'You are not a farmer but a billon-dollar company': Karnataka High Court tells platform for not complying with centre's orders

Centre unlikely to launch PLI schemes for new sectors this year: Report

The proposed changes to the PLI schemes will allow new players to benefit from the incentives, sources said

Centre prohibits import of cigarette lighters priced less than Rs 20

The government on Thursday prohibited imports of cigarette lighters if the price per unit is less than Rs 20, with a view to discourage inbound shipments of the product. "The import policy of cigarette lighters...is revised from 'free' to 'prohibited'. However, import shall be free if CIF value is Rs 20 or above per lighter," the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) said in a notification. CIF value (cost, insurance, and freight) is a trade term used in international commerce to determine the total value of goods being imported. The prohibition has been imposed on pocket lighters, gas fuelled, non-refillable or refillable. Imports of pocket lighters, gas fuelled, non-refillable stood at USD 0.66 million in 2022-23. It was USD 0.13 million in April this fiscal. Similarly, the inbound shipments of pocket lighters, gas fuelled, and refillable, stood at USD 8.87 million in 2022-23 against USD 7 million in 2021-22. It was USD 0.96 million in April of this fiscal. These are impo

Aadhaar-based face authentication crosses all time high of 10.6 mn in May

The number of face authentication transactions is on an upward trajectory, and the monthly numbers clocked in May is an increase of 38 per cent

Tax hike on international transactions to come into effect from Oct 1

No change in rate of TCS for all purposes under LRS and for overseas travel tour packages, regardless of mode of payment, for amounts up to Rs 7 lakh per individual per annum

India eyes cap on state transmission charges on green power purchase

Industrial and commercial consumers across the country have complained about various transmission charges levied by states on power purchase leading to higher costs