New Delhi: Detailing economic growth during the UPA regime, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday the slowdown in 2012 was "temporary" and a longer term view would show that India has notched up an average "8 per cent growth" in the past nine years.
The prime minister, presenting the ruling United Progressive Alliance-II's report card, said the economic situation was "turning around" and economic growth rate in 2013-14 could exceed 6 per cent. This, he sid, would set the stage to achieve the 12th Plan target of 8 per cent for the next five years.
He said the goal of 8 per cent growth "will be difficult, but it is not impossible. We have done it before, and if we receive a mandate in 2014, we will certainly achieve it again".
He said the slowdown of 2012 was largely due to the global phenomenon, including of the eurozone GDP declining....
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02:44 AM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The UPA government listed ushering the process of digitisation of the cable sector as one of its leading achievements in its report card that was presented to the people on Wednesday. The government said it had implemented digitisation in the Phase I cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata along with 38 cities which come under the second phase. It said that by choosing digital cable, the country would...
01:04 AM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The record loading of 1010 million tonnes freight and slight improvement of punctuality and safety have been listed as major achievements of the Railway Ministry during the year by the UPA government. Besides ongoing rail expansion, execution of Dedicated Freight Corridor work and introduction of bio-toilets have also found mention in the UPA's Report to the People for the year 2012-13. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released the UPA...
12:45 AM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Free press and active civil society put pressure on the government for early and decisive action in addressing weaknesses in governance and sometimes it leads to "hasty judgement", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday night. "We are the world's largest democracy with a very free Press and an increasingly active civil society movement. These are our strengths," Singh said. "But they do put pressure for early and...
11:24 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the UPA's report card as a "non-report card" that hid all the scams and revealed only what was convenient to the ruling dispensation. The Opposition party also lashed out at the UPA for "blaming it for its own failures". "The UPA's report card is a non report card. It hides all the scams and reveals only the convenient. More importantly, Congress is...
11:17 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was the cynosure of all eyes at the UPA anniversary function in 2012, was conspicuous by his absence on Wednesday. Instead, the pride of place was taken by Bahujan Samaj Party's Satish Chandra Mishra and Brajesh Pathak who did not attend the presentation of the 'Report to the People' but came in time for dinner. No leader or MP from Samajwadi...
10:32 PM, May 22, 2013
The Opposition launched a scathing attack on the government which completed its nine years in power on Wednesday. ...
10:29 PM, May 22, 2013
As UPA-II presents its 'Report to the People', Bhupendra Chaubey asks a team of experts what is the road ahead for the government. ...
09:41 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: Seeking to dispel the perception of gloom amidst scams and controversies, the UPA on Wednesday painted a rosy picture of its government's performance during the last nine years. In the 'Report to the People', released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the fourth anniversary of the UPA-II, the government maintained that allegations of impropriety were being investigated and that the guilty would be...
09:23 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: A day before CAG Vinod Rai demits office, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Monday accused him of "fiction writing" on some figures of alleged corruption, saying that the country's top auditor had done the greatest disservice to the nation by tossing "mystical numbers". Tewari, who delivered a keynote address after launch of an opinion poll conducted with samples across India at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in...
05:38 AM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: Delhi BJP on Friday took to streets to protest against scarcity of water in various parts of the city during summer and blamed poor water management by Congress government for the situation. BJP activists led by Delhi unit chief Vijay Goel held a demonstration near ITO with police using water cannons and lathicharge to disperse them. "The crisis is so acute and the common people are in such...
01:33 AM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: The BJP has alleged that the CBI coalgate report was tampered with on the directions of the Principal Secretary in the PMO Pulok Chatterjee. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley made this allegation while speaking to Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate. Below is an excerpt of the interview: Karan Thapar: Do you believe that Mr Shatrughan Singh attended the CBI meeting of his own volition...
08:06 AM, May 12, 2013
Cairo: The retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resumed on Saturday, with prosecutors requesting to present new evidence from a fact-finding commission's report that claims the ex-leader had full knowledge of the extent of the violence used against protesters. The new evidence could weigh heavily in the case, which saw one of the Middle East's most powerful autocrats and his longtime interior minister in charge of police tried and...
07:40 AM, May 12, 2013
New Delhi: CAG report commands respect and cannot be brushed aside but it cannot be the final word on an issue, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while noting that the auditor's findings cannot be gospel truth as it is subject to scrutiny by Parliament. A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said that CAG's report is always subject to parliamentary debates and it is possible that Public...
10:40 PM, May 09, 2013
Thursday: Pakistan on Thursday shared the autopsy reports on two Indian prisoners - Sarabjit Singh and Chamel Singh. While the autopsy report on Chamel Singh did not define the cause of his death, the report on Sarabjit listed his cause of death as head injury caused by blunt weapon. Chamel had died in a Lahore jail under mysterious circumstances. His autopsy was conducted only two months after his death. The...
08:10 PM, May 09, 2013
New Delhi: Facing the ire of Supreme Court in its coal block allocation scam probe, CBI on Wednesday assured the apex court that there will be a "thorough and qualitative" investigation and follow its directions in letter and spirit. "CBI assures Supreme Court of thorough and qualitative investigation into Coalgate. It will follow directions of Supreme Court in letter and spirit," the premier probe agency said in a statement. The...
07:50 PM, May 08, 2013
New Delhi: In terms of use of modern technology, talented people and tolerance, Delhi is the most creative state in the country, says a study. According to the Creative Index Report 2013, Chandigarh, Punjab, Kerala, Goa, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry and Maharashtra round out the top nine. Haryana and Manipur are tied for the tenth position, it said. "Delhi takes the top spot as the most creative state...
06:20 PM, May 06, 2013
New Delhi: The troubles are mounting for the UPA as the Opposition turns up the heat on two of its ministers, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, demanding that they be sacked over the coal blocks allocation scam probe case and the Railway Board bribery case respectively. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj threatened that Parliament will be allowed to function until the two...
04:40 PM, May 06, 2013
Amritsar: Doctors at the Amritsar Government Medical College who conducted the second autopsy on Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh revealed that his vital organs - stomach, heart, kidneys and gall bladder - were missing in his body. "The following viscera was not present in the body of Sarabjit Singh, namely, stomach, gall bladder, heart and kidneys," the doctors told mediapersons, adding that the other viscera present in the body had been...
04:59 PM, May 03, 2013
Mumbai: Inflation is likely to be range-bound and stay around the current levels in this financial year as supply-side issues, along with recent price adjustments in fuel prices, will offset the recent gains, RBI said on Thursday. "Headline inflation in 2013-14 is expected to remain range-bound around the current levels," RBI said in its annual Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments report. It added: "While sluggish global growth may dampen global inflation...
12:59 AM, May 03, 2013
