India grows faster than China, but doubts linger
Latest Gross Domestic Product data released on Friday pegged India as the world’s fastest growing economy, achieving 7.3% growth in 2014-15, with finance minister Arun Jaitley declaring it was “absolutely clear the economy is in recovery mode”. However, the cheer was dampened by a sharp downward revision for the previous quarter and doubts over the new method used to measure economic activity. Data indicated that the Indian economy grew 7.5% year-on-year for the quarter ending March, beating China’s 7% growth in the same period. But the Central Statistics Office revised growth down from 7.5% to 6.6% for the quarter ending December. Economists across the board have questioned the new methodology used to calculate the country’s GDP, arguing that it fails to explain gaps in the GDP data amid dismal corporate earnings, weak industrial activity and an elusive recovery in bank credit.
Congress government in war of words over derecognition of IIT students’ group
Union Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi were at the forefront of a heated political debate on Friday over the move to decrecognise a students’ group at IIT-Madras for criticising the Prime Minister. Gandhi’s office tweeted on Friday that it would fight any “attempts to crush dissent and debate”. Members of the Congress’ student wing protested outside the Irani’s residence in New Delhi. In response, Irani told Gandhi to fight his own battles, with a warning that she would be returning to Amethi – the Congress leader’s parliamentary constituency – soon. Her ministry distanced itself from the decision to ban the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, stating that it was solely the IIT management’s prerogative and that it had merely forwarded an anonymous complaint about the group's activities.
SC prevents AAP govt from taking advantage of Delhi HC order
Neither the Centre nor the Delhi government got total relief from the courts amid their tussle over the right to appoint senior bureaucrats to key posts. The Supreme Court refused to stay the Delhi high court’s May 25 order, which termed as “suspect” the Union home ministry’s recent notifications curtailing the powers of the Delhi government. However, the high court on Friday did not stay the Centre’s notifications. The top court said the high court’s observations on May 25 were “only tentative in nature”. It also suggested that the matter be transferred to the Supreme Court's jurisdiction so that finality could be achieved in the matter.
Radioactive leak scare at Delhi airport
Reports of a radioactive leak caused a scare at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Friday morning. However, it eventually turned out to be a false alarm. A “leak” was detected in the cargo area from a medical consignment that had arrived on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. An official said that a cargo handler noticed a “sticky substance” oozing out of a packet, causing his eyes to water. Emergency services were pressed into action. Cargo operations were disrupted for a few hours, but passenger services remained unaffected. After a probe involving atomic energy experts, airport authorities declared that the leaked substance was not radioactive. Three passengers opted to get medically checked for radioactive exposure but were deemed healthy.
No specific timeframe for rollout of one rank-one pension, says Parrikar
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said he could not provide a timeframe for the rollout of the one rank-one pension scheme for the armed forces, citing pending administrative steps. Parrikar’s comments came a day after he stated that all the formalities for the scheme had been completed. On Friday, the defence minister said that the previous government had “not understood” the scheme properly, adding that there were many fine details and aspects that needed to be considered before its implementation. A 1971 Indo-Pakistan war veteran had earlier boycotted a gallantry award function attended by Parrikar to protest the government’s failure to implement the scheme.
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Latest Gross Domestic Product data released on Friday pegged India as the world’s fastest growing economy, achieving 7.3% growth in 2014-15, with finance minister Arun Jaitley declaring it was “absolutely clear the economy is in recovery mode”. However, the cheer was dampened by a sharp downward revision for the previous quarter and doubts over the new method used to measure economic activity. Data indicated that the Indian economy grew 7.5% year-on-year for the quarter ending March, beating China’s 7% growth in the same period. But the Central Statistics Office revised growth down from 7.5% to 6.6% for the quarter ending December. Economists across the board have questioned the new methodology used to calculate the country’s GDP, arguing that it fails to explain gaps in the GDP data amid dismal corporate earnings, weak industrial activity and an elusive recovery in bank credit.
Congress government in war of words over derecognition of IIT students’ group
Union Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi were at the forefront of a heated political debate on Friday over the move to decrecognise a students’ group at IIT-Madras for criticising the Prime Minister. Gandhi’s office tweeted on Friday that it would fight any “attempts to crush dissent and debate”. Members of the Congress’ student wing protested outside the Irani’s residence in New Delhi. In response, Irani told Gandhi to fight his own battles, with a warning that she would be returning to Amethi – the Congress leader’s parliamentary constituency – soon. Her ministry distanced itself from the decision to ban the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, stating that it was solely the IIT management’s prerogative and that it had merely forwarded an anonymous complaint about the group's activities.
SC prevents AAP govt from taking advantage of Delhi HC order
Neither the Centre nor the Delhi government got total relief from the courts amid their tussle over the right to appoint senior bureaucrats to key posts. The Supreme Court refused to stay the Delhi high court’s May 25 order, which termed as “suspect” the Union home ministry’s recent notifications curtailing the powers of the Delhi government. However, the high court on Friday did not stay the Centre’s notifications. The top court said the high court’s observations on May 25 were “only tentative in nature”. It also suggested that the matter be transferred to the Supreme Court's jurisdiction so that finality could be achieved in the matter.
Radioactive leak scare at Delhi airport
Reports of a radioactive leak caused a scare at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Friday morning. However, it eventually turned out to be a false alarm. A “leak” was detected in the cargo area from a medical consignment that had arrived on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. An official said that a cargo handler noticed a “sticky substance” oozing out of a packet, causing his eyes to water. Emergency services were pressed into action. Cargo operations were disrupted for a few hours, but passenger services remained unaffected. After a probe involving atomic energy experts, airport authorities declared that the leaked substance was not radioactive. Three passengers opted to get medically checked for radioactive exposure but were deemed healthy.
No specific timeframe for rollout of one rank-one pension, says Parrikar
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said he could not provide a timeframe for the rollout of the one rank-one pension scheme for the armed forces, citing pending administrative steps. Parrikar’s comments came a day after he stated that all the formalities for the scheme had been completed. On Friday, the defence minister said that the previous government had “not understood” the scheme properly, adding that there were many fine details and aspects that needed to be considered before its implementation. A 1971 Indo-Pakistan war veteran had earlier boycotted a gallantry award function attended by Parrikar to protest the government’s failure to implement the scheme.