document.writeln("
Poll
India: 2004 is over…
…and so, with the UPA, here we go…
Cabinet portfolios announced
New Delhi: The Congress-led coalition has announced
the portfolios for its group of ministers sworn-in on
Saturday. The Congress has retained the key portfolios
of Home, Finance, Defence and External Affairs.
The
new cabinet list is as follows:
- Shivraj
Patil: Home
- P
Chidambaram: Finance
- Pranab
Mukherjee: Defence
- Natwar
Singh: External Affairs
- Ghulam
Nabi Azad: Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development
- Jaipal
Reddy: Information and Broadcasting, Culture
- Hans
Raj Bhardwaj: Law
- P
M Sayeed: Power
- Kamal
Nath: Commerce and Industries
- Sharad
Pawar: Food and Agriculture
- Laloo
Prasad Yadav: Railways
- Ram
Vilas Paswan: Chemicals and Fertilizers, Steel
- Arjun
Singh: HRD
- Mani
Shankar Aiyer: Petroleum and Natural Gas,
Panchayati Raj
- Sis
Ram Ola: Labour and Employment
- Priya
Ranjan Dasmunsi: Water Resources
- Shanker
Sinh Vaghela: Textiles
- Chandrashekhar
Rao: Shipping
- Anbumani
Ramadoss: Health
- Shibu
Soren: Coal, Mines and Minerals
- Dayanidhi
Maran: Communication and IT
- Raghuvansh
Prasad: Rural Development
-
T R Baalu: Surface Transport
- A
Raja: Forests and Environment
- Sunil
Dutt: Sports and Youth Affairs
- Mahavir
Prasad: Small Scale, Agro and Rural Industries
- Meira
Kumar: Social Justice and Empowerment
The Ministers of State with independent charge include:
- Praful
Patel: Civil Aviation
- Kapil
Sibal: Science and Technology, Ocean Development
- Sontosh
Mohan Dev: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise
- Jagdish
Tytler: Non-Resident Affairs
- Oscar
Fernandes: Statistics and Programmes
-
Renuka Choudhary: Tourism
- Subodh
Kant Sahay: Food Processing
- Vilas
Muttemwar: Non-Conventional Energy Sources
- Kumari
Selja: Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation
- Premchand
Gupta: Company Affairs
The
other Ministers of State are:
- E
Ahmed: External Affairs
- Suresh
Pachauri: Personnel, Parliamentary Affairs
- B
K Handique: Defence, Parliamentary Affairs
- P
Lakshmi: Health and Family Welfare
- Dasari
Narayan Rao: Coal and Mines
- Shaqeel
Ahmed: Communications and IT
- Rao
Indrajit Singh: External Affairs
- Naranbhai
Rathwa: Railways
- Rehman
Khan: Chemicals and fertilizers
- K
H Muniappa: Road Transport and Highways
- M
V Rajashekharan: Planning
- Kantilal
Bhuria: Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer
Affairs and Public Distribution
- Manik
Rao Gavit: Home Affairs
- Sri
Prakash Jaiswal: Home Affairs
- Prithviraj
Chavan: Prime Ministers Office
- Taslimuddin:
Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
- Suryakanta
Patil: Rural Development, Parliamentary Affairs
- A
A Fatmi: HRD
- A
Narendra: Rural Development
- R
Velu: Railways
- S
S Palanimanikkam: Commerce and Industry
- S
Regupathy: Home Affairs
- K
Venkatapathy: Law and Justice
A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said all unallocated
portfolios will be looked after by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh.
TKA
Nair appointed Principal Secretary to PM
New Delhi: T K A Nair, Chairman of the Public Enterprise
Selection Board, has been appointed Principal Secretary
to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
An
IAS officer, who belongs to the Punjab cadre, Nair retired
in 1997, and was earlier Secretary to the then Prime Minister
I K Gujral. He
was appointed the PESB chairman shortly before the fall
of the Gujral government.
Nair
was also chief secretary to Punjab government.
Cabinet meets: 14th Lok Sabha to meet on June 2
New Delhi: The new Prime Minister presided over
the first Cabinet meeting, which was called to decide
the dates for the new Lok Sabha's first session. The first
session of the 14th Lok Sabha will be held from June 2
to 10. The Rajya Sabha will meet from June 4 and the President
will address a joint session of Parliament on June 7.
The
oath-taking and affirmation of the new members of the
Lok Sabha will take place on June 2 and 3 and the Speaker's
election will be held on June 5. The motion of thanks,
discussion and voting on the President's address will
be held on June 8, 9 and 10.
At the Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister was briefed
from the Defence and Home Secretaries about the security
situation in the country. He also had a meeting with the
Finance Secretary and the Expenditure Secretary.
Excuse me…DMK Ministers not to take charge
Chennai: In a late night development, the seven
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Union Ministers have decided
not to assume office. In a statement the DMK chief, M.
Karunanidhi, said that this was because the portfolios
allocated to the party did not match those in the agreement
signed by the DMK and the Congress.
The DMK has indicated that the problem was with the "allocation
of two or three ministries." The changes had not
been communicated to the party leadership. "Until
the mistakes are sorted out, the DMK MPs will not take
charge of any ministerial positions," the statement
said.
The new touch-me-nots…Left defers decision on
Speaker
New Delhi: The Left parties have deferred a decision
on whether or not to accept the Congress' offer to the
CPI (M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee, to take up the post
of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. The Left parties will
meet again on Wednesday.
Back
to News Review index page
Horst
Koehler is new German President
Berlin: Horst Koehler, a former head of the International
Monetary Fund who advocates bolder economic reforms in
Germany, was elected today as the country's ninth post-war
President. Nominated by opposition conservatives, Koehler
defeated Gesine Schwan, a university professor backed
by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Government. Gesine would
have become Germany's first woman head of state, in case
of victory.
Back
to News Review index page
CII
forecasts GDP growth at 6.6-7 per cent
New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII) has forecast that gross domestic product (GDP) will
grow at 6.6-7 per cent during 2004-05. The forecast is
made in its just released 'State of the Economy' report.
The report says that the upswing in industry and services
sectors would continue and accelerate over the next few
quarters, as domestic and external demand continues to
increase. In the services sector, the report expected
a sharp increase in growth as rising incomes in rural
and urban economies allowed greater spending on services
ranging from transport and communications to financial
services.
As regards the agriculture sector growth will be lower
than the double-digit growth recorded last year, but given
that the Indian Meteorological Department has predicted
a normal monsoon this year, a two per cent growth was
highly possible. The report expected the industry to grow
at 7 per cent and services at 9.2 per cent. GDP growth,
is therefore, expected to be in the range of 6.6 to 7.0
per cent, with outcome likely to be at the higher end
of the range, the report added.
Back
to News Review index page
FICCI: Higher growth in core sectors
New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI) survey of core sector industries
foresees higher growth in the first two quarters of 2004-05
(April-September) in the core sectors such as cement,
steel, electric power generation, electrical equipment
and machinery and oil and natural gas.
Further, the survey also pinpoints the basic issues and
problems being currently faced by the individual sectors
such as inverted duty structure, anomalous import tariff,
rising prices of basic raw materials and its inadequate
availability. The other issues facing the sectors include
slow pace of implementation ofor non- implementation sectoral
packages for a number of items, the need to improve the
financial health of the State Electricity Boards (SEBs);
the need for increased investment, higher allocation of
funds and improvement in infrastructure.
Back
to News Review index page
Russian
delegation impressed with Indian tea
Kochi: A Russian delegation has urged tea producers
to step up marketing activities to dispel perceptions
about the quality of Indian tea in its country. According
to the delegation the overall perception about Indian
tea in Russia is that it is of poor quality compared to
tea from other countries such as Sri Lanka.
The
leader of the delegation Gantsev made these remarks at
a meeting with the Tea Traders Association of Cochin.
He said Sri Lankan tea accounted for 50 per cent of the
imports to Russia, followed by Chinese tea with a share
of 25 per cent. Indian tea, which accounted for 80 per
cent during the Soviet era, today has only a 20 per cent
market. Gantsev said the size of the Russian tea market
would range between 115 million kg and 150 million kg
a year.
Back
to News Review index page
