Reservations

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said his government's priority is to work for the common man and it is committed to extending the reservation benefits to the Other Backward Classes, Maratha and Dhangar communities. Speaking on the country's 76th Independence Day after hoisting the national flag at the State secretariat as the Chief Minister for the first time, Mr. Shinde said several parts of the State have witnessed floods due to heavy rainfall. “We started working from day one and our priority is to work for the common man, farmers, the working class,” said Mr. Shinde, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister on June 30 this year. “The government is committed to extending the benefits of reservation to the OBCs, Maratha and Dhangar (shepherd) communities,” he said. The Chief Minister said 15 lakh hectares of land in 28 districts of the State has been affected due to floods. The assistance to the affected people has been doubled, he said. “To find a permanent … [Read more...] about Government committed to provide reservation benefits to OBCs, Marathas, says CM Shinde

An economist known for his bearish tendencies is warning Americans that a recession will be "long" and "severe". Nouriel Roubini, also referred to as "Dr. Doom," said Monday that a recession could bring financial distress "across the board." Despite a strong jobs report, the U.S. economy has left many Americans seeing higher grocery bills despite a dip in July in overall inflation . The Federal Reserve has attempted to curb inflation by raising interest rates, but some experts say the country is heading for, or may already be in , a recession. "We are in a sharp slowdown, we've had two negative quarters of growth in the first half [of 2022]," Roubini, an Iranian American economist who accurately predicted the housing bubble burst in 2008, told Bloomberg on Monday. "The recession is going to be long, protracted, severe, and associated with financial distress across the board." The Federal Reserve most recently hiked interest rates another 75 basis points in late July to … [Read more...] about U.S. recession is going to be “long” and “severe”: Economist

Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) is raising an alarm on the Biden administration selling crude oil from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is at its lowest inventory level in nearly four decades years. Weber, whose district houses roughly 60 percent of the nation’s emergency crude oil stockpile, told host Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday he has found President Joe Biden to be “anything but moderate” when it comes to the critical fossil fuel. “The president has a war on fossil fuels. Don’t let him fool you that he’s going to be moderate,” Weber said, citing Biden revoking the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit, one of the president’s first moves when he took office in January 2021. Listen: “[Biden] has killed permitting,” Weber said. “There’s a lot of these woke corporations that don’t want to lend money now to be investment money for some of these drillings and some of these plants that need to be built, so he has effectively really done a number on fossil fuel … [Read more...] about Weber: Biden’s ‘War on Fossil Fuels’ Is Making America Energy Dependent

Florida GOP Representative Matt Gaetz , who is being investigated by the Justice Department in connection with the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl, has sparked outrage after it emerged he would host a high school event in his state. Gaetz is due to appear Tuesday night at the annual Academy Night at Niceville High School, where students typically learn about how they can attend U.S. service (or military) academies. In a post on his Facebook page , Gaetz said: "The Academy Night is an opportunity for high school students to speak directly with Congressman Gaetz and Service Academy representatives to learn more about the process for gaining admission to the U.S. Service Academies and receiving a Congressional nomination (required for entry). The post added, "All high school students, JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps) groups, parents, principals, and teachers are invited to attend this event to learn more about entry to the U.S. Service Academies." But … [Read more...] about Matt Gaetz sparks outrage over hosting high school event: “Absolutely vile”

After the pandemic-era boom, the housing market is finally showing signs of a slowdown, as demand for homes has started declining following a combination of high home prices and soaring mortgage rates that squeezed many potential buyers out of the market. According to Moody's Analytics' latest proprietary housing, as reported by Fortune , home prices will rise 0 percent next year—a dramatic decrease from the 19.7 percent growth in prices the housing market experienced in the last 12 months. But analysts expect price changes to vary significantly across different regions of the United States. In its analysis of the country's 414 largest housing markets, Moody's predicts home prices will increase in 183 markets next year, while they will drop in 231 others. The biggest year-on-year home price jumps in 2023 will happen in the following five cities, according to Moody's analysts: Albany, Georgia (4.12 percent) New Bern, North Carolina (4.12 percent) Augusta, Georgia … [Read more...] about Five cities where home prices will jump highest in 2023: Analysis

The Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) power distribution companies (DISCOMs) subscribed to the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) scheme introduced by the Central government to reduce their liability to generators in a phased manner over the next 12 months. The total outstanding payments of DISCOMs as of Monday amount to ₹17,060 crore, of which the DISCOMs have paid ₹1,422 crore towards the first instalment on August 6, according to the special chief secretary (energy) K. Vijayanand. Participating as the chief guest in the Independence Day celebrations at Vidyut Soudha here on Monday, Mr. Vijayanand said the above scheme would help the DISCOMs in clearing their debts, and strengthen AP-Genco thereby facilitating reliable power supply. Further, he said that the government entered into an agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to purchase 7,000 MW of power for supplying it to farmers under the free power scheme. The AP-Genco saved ₹118.5 crore in coal purchases and ₹405 crore … [Read more...] about A.P. DISCOMs to clear their dues to generators amounting to ₹17,060 crore in a year: special CS (energy) Vijayanand

The State government has in the past three years resolved several issues that have been plaguing certain sections since Independence, said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. "We believe that the development of the State is achieved when the living standard of every family improves by the day and thrives in future and this is the meaning of independence," he observed. Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy hoisted the national flag as part of the 76th Independence Day celebrations at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation stadium here. He took the guard of honour and later observed the tableaux showcasing the achievements of departments and schemes of the government. Later, addressing the gathering, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said India achieved a lot in the 75 years of independence and Indians placed the country on top of the world in many aspects. With the contribution of farmers who are the backbone of the nation, India has been providing food to many parts of the world, he said. … [Read more...] about Most social issues have been addressed in Andhra Pradesh in the past three years, says CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

The current ruling BJP government and India’s longest-ruling party — Congress — are engaged in shows of patriotism ahead of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ (the platinum jubilee of Independence .) While the Centre has launched the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ movement to instil nationalism and patriotism in Indian youth, Congress has called for the ‘Azadi Ka Gaurav Yatra’ (Independence Pride March) – asserting that it would restore constitutional rule in India if voted to power. With India’s constitutional values being hotly debated, here is a look at major amendments made to the Indian Constitution since Independence. To date, there are 105 amendments made by the Parliament to the original 395 articles of the Constitution. First Amendment Passed under India’s first Prime Minster Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951, the first amendment to the Constitution altered articles 15, 15 (3), 46, 341, 342, 372 and 376, empowering States to ‘make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and … [Read more...] about The changing Constitution since Independence

In India, Parliament is the supreme law-making body. With the exceptions of items reserved unto the people — by the virtue of Fundamental Rights — and items reserved unto the States by the virtue of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, Parliament can make laws on virtually any subject within India’s territory, and, in exceptional cases, extra-territorially. The Preamble lists the objectives of the Constitution to secure for all citizens justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity. Undeterred by India’s deep-seated inequalities and factionalism before and at the time of Independence, the framers of the Constitution undertook a leap of faith and envisioned a liberal, more egalitarian nation-state in the post-colonial world. Building blocks of the Nehruvian years The first government led by Jawaharlal Nehru inherited a copious body of constitutional, substantive, and procedural laws made between the early 1800s to 1947, and a trained bureaucracy to administer them. In his first … [Read more...] about The spectrum of law-making in independent India

America's tech giants are taking a modern-day crash course in India's ancient caste system, with Apple emerging as an early leader in policies to rid Silicon Valley of a rigid hierarchy that's segregated Indians for generations. (Sign up to our Technology newsletter, Today’s Cache, for insights on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, business and policy. Click here to subscribe for free.) Apple, the world's biggest listed company, updated its general employee conduct policy about two years ago to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste, which it added alongside existing categories such as race, religion, gender, age and ancestry. The inclusion of the new category, which hasn't been previously reported, goes beyond U.S. discrimination laws, which do not explicitly ban casteism. The update came after the tech sector - which counts India as its top source of skilled foreign workers - received a wake-up call in June 2020 when California's … [Read more...] about Caste in California: Big Tech giants confront ancient Indian hierarchy