Karan Thapar discusses the future of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), called a caged parrot by the Supreme Court of India, with a panel of experts. ...
09:55 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: The government on Friday formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) to deal with the issues raised by the Supreme Court on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its recent hearing on the agency's affidavit on the coal scam probe. The SC had indicted the government for its interference in the agency's functioning and asked it to come up with an affidavit on steps to make the CBI...
05:52 PM, May 10, 2013
Sources said that in the final draft, the word 'sexual assault' has been replaced by 'rape', thus making the anti-rape bill women-centric. The age of consent for sex has been reduced from 18 to 16. ...
11:59 PM, Mar 13, 2013
The Group of Ministers (GoM) that met on Wednesday to thrash out differences over the anti-rape bill has finalised the changes to it, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said. The Cabinet will take up the draft on Thursday. ...
08:06 PM, Mar 13, 2013
After differences in the Cabinet, the government's proposed anti-rape legislation has finally made some headway. A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram is likely to finalise the anti-rape Bill for Cabinet approval on Wednesday. The government is likely to stick to the gender specific word 'rape' not sexual assault, sources said. ...
07:50 AM, Mar 13, 2013
The Cabinet once again failed to approve the draft of the proposed anti-rape Bill on Tuesday. There are differences in the Cabinet over provisions like reducing the age of consent from 18 to 16 years. A group of ministers will not consider the draft and look into the points of differences and come back to the Cabinet by Wednesday. ...
08:30 PM, Mar 12, 2013
The Cabinet is likely to stick to gender specific term 'rape' in the proposed anti-rape Bill, which sources said would be brought in Parliament on March 20. Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that the Bill would be finalised by the Group of Ministers on Wednesday and the Cabinet would consider it on Thursday. ...
07:46 PM, Mar 12, 2013
An Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom on January 3 deliberated upon several issues regarding spectrum auction due this fiscal, but did not reach a final decision and would meet again on January 7. "EGoM deliberated on 1800/900 MHz spectrum but it could not discuss CDMA (800 MHz). Auction does not seem possible by January 18 but will take place during this fiscal," a top source said. ...
03:22 PM, Jan 03, 2013
The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss modalities about the spectrum sale due this fiscal. The EGoM, headed by Finance P Chidambaram, will discuss the auction plan prepared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) after Cabinet approved the sale of unsold GSM spectrum in 1800 Mhz band and in the premium 900 Mhz spectrum band. ...
10:15 AM, Jan 03, 2013
New Delhi: Controversial Land Acquisition Bill has been cleared by the Group of Ministers on Tuesday. The Land Bill is likely to be moved in the Winter Session of Parliament, the report said. "We succeeded in bringing some understanding on issues on which there were different views," said GoM chairman Sharad Pawar. The consensus was reached in the third meeting of GoM. ...
06:13 PM, Oct 16, 2012
New Delhi: An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Monday decided to refund licence fee of companies whose telecom licences were cancelled earlier this year but had no criminal charge against them. The EGoM, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, also decided to recommend to the Cabinet a one-time fee on existing telecom operators for spectrum they hold beyond 4.4 MHz. The Supreme Court in February had cancelled 122 licences...
08:50 AM, Oct 09, 2012
New Delhi: The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Land Acquisition Bill on Monday remained divided over the issue of retrospective acquisitions and the consent required from land owners with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar saying two-three meetings are required to finalise the bill. During the last meeting too, the same issues had divided the members of the GoM headed by Pawar. "No final view on retrospective clause could happen. We have...
03:06 PM, Oct 08, 2012
New Delhi: A ministers panel, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, on Thursday finalised the pharma pricing policy under which 348 essential drugs will come under price control of the government. The Group of Ministers (GoM) will be sending their recommendations to the Cabinet within a week for approval to bring drugs in National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), that have a total sales of around Rs 29,000 crore, which...
10:41 AM, Sep 28, 2012
New Delhi: A Group of Ministers, headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, would take up on Wednesday the issue of compensation to be paid by US aircraft maker Boeing to Air India for a four-year delay in the delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes, official sources said on Tuesday. According to sources, the GoM will look at the terms of compensation and the amount to be paid by Boeing, as...
07:54 PM, Jul 24, 2012
New Delhi: Ahead of the scheduled meeting of EGoM on telecom on Friday, GSM industry body COAI wrote to the panel's head, Home Minister P Chidambaram, that the new model being considered to fix spectrum base price will lead to hike in tariffs. "By changing the payment model to lower upfront charges, higher revenue share...will not address the fundamental issue that the price is unsustainable and will significantly increase cost...
12:03 PM, Jul 20, 2012
New Delhi: A high powered ministerial panel on Thursday discussed modalities of auction of telecom spectrum but some issues, including the price for sale of airwaves, could not be finalised. The reconstituted Empowered Group of Ministers under Home Minister P Chidambaram deliberated on auction of spectrum for nearly three hours but could not reach finality on the minimum or base price for auction of spectrum. While it appears that the...
09:03 PM, Jul 12, 2012
New Delhi: A ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday approved starting the process to auction spectrum which would be freed in the wake of Supreme Court cancelling 122 licenses. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) gave the approval to the process for selecting an auctioneer who will conduct the fresh round of bidding for spectrum as mandated by the apex court. "The EGoM has approved the...
09:05 PM, May 01, 2012
New Delhi: The ban on cotton exports is likely to be lifted on Saturday, according to sources. The Group of Ministers (GoM) meet to review the ban on cotton exports remained inconclusive on Friday. As a result of this the ban stays till any decision is taken in more meetings to be held. The meeting came after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the...
08:58 PM, Mar 09, 2012
New Delhi: The Group of Ministers (GoM) meet to review the ban on cotton exports remained inconclusive on Friday. As a result of this the ban stays till any decision is taken in more meetings to be held in the coming days. The meeting came after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the ban. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Commerce Ministry's decision...
07:24 PM, Mar 09, 2012
New Delhi: A Group of Ministers (GoM) met on Friday to review the controversial decision of banning cotton exports. The meeting came after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the ban. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Commerce Ministry's decision to ban cotton exports to be reviewed. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma defended the decision saying textile mills were carrying their lowest ever stocks...
05:46 PM, Mar 09, 2012
