Why Congress cannot afford speculation of Robert Vadra's political debut

Election News:

Just months ahead of the general elections, the Gandhi family faces a nagging dilemma: pressure from Robert Vadra to enter active politics.

Vadra’s desire to enter politics is hardly a secret. The Gandhi family’s palpable resistance to it is also evident. Vadra is a soft target and his political entry will only delight the BJP.

After Vadra hinted that he could contest in the election, posters have cropped up in his hometown of Moradabad, welcoming him as a Lok Sabha candidate. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, reacting to his speculated entry, said “Vadra could be important for the Congress but, we would not like to glorify him by reacting to it.”

After Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed as the Congress party’s general secretary, it was only a matter of time before Robert Vadra followed. I asked Vadra if he planned to contest the general elections from Moradabad. Vadra said, “All in time. I will start working on it. But no hurry, as I have to earn it and people need to feel I can make a change.”

This means two things: clearly Vadra is extremely keen to enter politics but he is still hedging his bets by not saying that he will be the Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate from Moradabad.

Even the fevered speculation set off by Vadra’s hints is music to the BJP’s ears. Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign hinged around the promise to jail the “damaadji” (son-in-law) for various cases of alleged corruption in land deals.


 Vadra, a controversial businessman, is facing several probes by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering. Soon after Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into active politics, Vadra was summoned, along with his septuagenarian mother, by the ED...Read More

As India's quality of schooling plummets, here's how Budget 2019 can help

Interim Budget 2019:

India stepped up its spending on school education by 9.35% from 2014-15 (Rs 45,722.41 crore) to 2018-19 (Rs 50,000 crore). But education’s share in the total union budget fell from 2.55% to 2.05% in this period, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of budgetary data.

On February 1, 2019, when the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) presents its last budget before general elections, it will have to address a critical issue in India’s school education: Its quality compares poorly with many south Asian and BRICS nations even though India spends a higher percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education.In rural India, almost half of grade V students cannot read a grade II text and more than 70% them cannot do division, said the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018. These numbers indicate a fall in standards over the last 10 years.

Why schooling needs special attention this budget

The school education system in India is facing a shortage of trained teachers and a lack of proper infrastructure. Here are some factors that need to be addressed in the budget:
92,275 government schools at both elementary and secondary level have only one teacher to teach all the subjects, Satya Pal Singh, minister of state for human resource development told the Lok Sabha on January 1, 2019.


 1 in every 4 schools in rural India does not have an electricity connection, as per ASER and almost the same number lacks a library. A computer is available only in 21.3% of rural schools.250.53 million children in India are in the age group of 6-15 in 2017, as per government data, and in need of a good education.

Interim Budget 2019 must focus on skilled labour to tackle unemployment

Intrim Budget 2019:

Budgetary allocation to the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) has witnessed a 237% increase over the last four years, from Rs 1,007 crore (actual expenditure) in 2015-16 to Rs 3,400 crore (budget estimate) in 2018-19, according to ministry data.

The 2018-19 allocation, however, represents a “drastic cut” by the ministry of finance against the Rs 7,696.54 crore requested by the MSDE, due to underutilisation of funds allocated to the MSDE in previous years, revealed a parliamentary committee report in March 2018. The committee warned that the budget cut would “adversely affect various schemes” implemented by the ministry tasked with skilling India’s youth.

In November 2018, the government’s aim to skill 10 million youth under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY, or Prime Minister’s Skill Development programme) by 2020 was found to be 64% short of meeting the target. Just over 3.6 million people had been enrolled in PMKVY by November 30, 2018, government data showed. Among these, 3.39 million had received training and 2.6 million had received certification after training--66% and 74% short of the target, respectively.

There is a direct link between India’s underskilled workforce and high unemployment rates. Unemployment has been a key challenge for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above in India was 3.4% in 2013-14, which saw a further increase to 3.7% in 2015-16, according to a government reply to the Lok Sabha on July 23, 2018, which did not provide data on numbers of unemployed.The unemployment rate rose to a four year high (3.9%) in 2016-17, Business Standard reported on January 11, 2019, citing the labour bureau’s sixth annual employment-unemployment survey...Read More

PM Modi launches big-ticket projects in TN, Kerala; takes a dig at Congress

Election News:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on slammed the Congress-led UDF for implicating former Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case, saying they did so “as some party leaders wanted to settle political scores”.

“A few years ago, a hard working and patriotic Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case just because a few UDF leaders wanted to settle political scores,” Modi, who was in Tamil Nadu and Kerala to announce a series of projects on Sunday, said in Thrissur.

During his visit to the two states, the Prime Minister inaugurated an integrated refinery expansion complex of Bharat Petroleum Corporation at the Kochi Refinery and unveiled a foundation plaque for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai.

Speaking at the Kochi refinery, Modi said the NDA government had taken “decisive steps” to bring down crude oil import by 10 per cent and save precious foreign exchange for the country.


 Eleven oil PSUs have adopted the modern ‘lignocellulosic’ route for establishing twelve 2G ethnol plants in 11 states. “To cut down on import of crude oil, government has taken decisive steps towards reducing imports by 10 per cent and saving precious foreign exchange,” Modi said, adding that six MoUs have been signed in this direction...Read M0re

Priyanka takes up Congress role in UP after over a decade behind the scenes

Election News:

With the general elections less than 90 days away, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday appointed his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, which constitutes roughly 40 Lok Sabha seats, including their family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency.

Priyanka, who turned 47 earlier this month, has been an important, behind-the-scenes figure in the party’s decision-making processes for over a decade, but Wednesday’s announcement marks her official political debut. With UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi having already indicated her desire to retire from electoral politics, the move could pave the way for Priyanka’s entry into the electoral arena and she could contest from Rae Bareli, the seat currently represented by her mother, party sources said.

Her appointment, however, opened the Congress to renewed attacks from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over “dynastic politics” and "lack of inner-democracy". BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Congress had admitted to Rahul Gandhi having “failed” in providing leadership.


 The Congress's allies, including Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, welcomed the news, though. Congress strategists believe Priyanka's charisma would help the party perform better in key states of UP and Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls. The appointment has ramifications, at least in UP, not just for the principal rival BJP, but also the frenemies Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP)...Read More

Piyush Goyal back as interim Finance Minister, to present interim Budget

Intrim Budget 2019:

With eight days to go before the Narendra Modi government presents its interim Budget on February 1, the Prime Minister on Wednesday entrusted Railway Minister Piyush Goyal with ministerial portfolios of finance and corporate affairs till Arun Jaitley comes back from the US.

Jaitley underwent a surgery in the US on Tuesday. With doctors having advised him two weeks’ rest, Goyal is set to present the interim Budget — the final Budget of the Modi-led government’s current tenure, which comes less than 90 days before the Lok Sabha polls and could contain key announcements.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, issued at 8.55 pm, the President, as advised by the PM, directed that during the period of Jaitley's indisposition, the finance and corporate affairs portfolios, held by him, be temporarily assigned to Goyal. It said Goyal would continue to hold his existing portfolios: Railways and coal.


 The communique stated that Jaitley “be designated as minister without portfolio during the period of his indisposition or till such time he is able to resume his work as minister of finance and minister of corporate affairs.”...Read More

Ahead of polls, Google promises a new search for political advertisements

Google signage is seen at Google headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S.,

Technology News:

As the country braces for the general elections this year, technology giant Google on it is bringing more openness to election advertising online and is enabling voters to get the election-related information they need.

To bring more transparency to the online election ads, Google is introducing an India-specific ‘Political Advertising Transparency Report’ and searchable ‘Political Ads Library.’

Through these initiatives, which will go live in March this year, the company is looking at providing comprehensive information about who is purchasing election ads on Google platforms and how much money is being spent. This year, over 850 million Indians are expected to cast their votes to elect the country’s next government.


 “We’re thinking hard about elections and how we continue to support democratic processes in India and around the world,” said Chetan Krishnaswamy, director, public policy, Google India, adding, “We are bringing more transparency to election advertising online, and surfacing relevant information to help people better navigate the electoral process...Read More

With jobs at stake, Jet Airways is casting a shadow on 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Companies News:

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode to power five years ago on his business friendly credentials and the promise of generating millions of jobs. Now an airline is on the verge of collapse, bringing Modi’s image under attack just months before national elections.

Struggling in a competitive market where basic air fares can get as low as 2 cents, Jet Airways India Ltd., the country’s second-biggest airline, has piled on $1.1 billion in debt and failed to pay loans and salaries. With about 23,000 jobs at stake, pressure is building on Modi for a rescue package as a collapse would mean bad optics in his re-election bid in a poll due by May.


 While Modi is not to blame for the unraveling of Jet Airways -- the airline was brought to its knees because of high fuel prices and intense competition -- his policies to make air travel affordable to more and more Indians didn’t help it either. The fate of the teetering carrier is now part of the opposition’s narrative that businesses are ailing, with the $2.6 trillion economy losing jobs on Modi’s watch...Read More