Nirmala Sitharaman cancels meeting with corporate affairs ministry officials, yet again
Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has left the officials of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs high and dry. The minister is yet to take charge of her office in the ministry in New Delhi’s Shastri Bhawan, despite being assigned the portfolio nearly a month back on 31 May.
On Monday evening, she was scheduled to take charge officially and interact with senior ministry officials. All senior officials were in attendance, including MCA secretary Injeti Srinivas, National Financial Reporting Authority chairman Rangachari Sridharan, Serious Fraud Investigation Office director Amardeep Singh Bhatia and officials from the Competition Commission of India. However, Sitharaman did not turn up and the programme and the meetings were cancelled.
Ministry officials said this was not the first time the minister cancelled her engagement with the senior officials, adding that there have been at least two such instances in the past 26 days.
Sitharaman took over as the country’s first finance minister on 31 May by assuming charge in North Block. Within a few days of taking over, she went to Japan to attend the G-20 meet. Upon her return on 10 June, preparations started for the presentation of the Union Budget due on 5 July. Sitharaman has since been holding meetings with industry representatives on budget expectations. However, with printing of the budget documents commencing from 22 June, Sitharaman only has the task of finalising her budget speech.
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S. Jaishankar adds to Gujarat dominance in Modi govt
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, a former diplomat who has only recently made his foray into politics, filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat Tuesday. With his election seen as a foregone conclusion, the overwhelming domination of the ‘Gujarat factor’ in the topmost echelons of the Modi government is only set to increase.
Of the top five — the prime minister, home minister, external affairs minister, defence minister and finance minister — three are either from or elected from Gujarat. While Prime Minister Modi (MP from Varanasi) is a Gujarat native, Home Minister Amit Shah belongs to the state and also won the election from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat.
The message from Urmila Matondkar’s social media profile
Actor Urmila Matondkar joined the Congress right before the Lok Sabha elections and unsuccessfully contested from the Mumbai North seat. However, even as she lost the election, she has been trying to send a clear message that her association with the Congress and politics was not just a summer fling.
Like all politicians, Matondkar now ensures that she keeps a note of important historical events and political birthdays and sends out messages on social media, such as birthday wishes for Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, a post on Yoga Day, another on the death anniversary of Jijabai, Chhatrapati Shivaji’s mother, and so on. Matondkar even celebrated Rahul Gandhi’s birthday on 19 June, cutting a cake with schoolchildren and senior citizens in Mumbai. On another occasion, she sent out a video message to party workers to stay together during tough times for the bright future of the country and move forward with the Congress principles of democracy and development.
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Finance ministry’s Twitter handle wants to engage public about budget history
At a time when the Ministry of Finance has been quarantined to prepare for the upcoming Union Budget, the ministry’s Twitter handle, @FinMinIndia, has been abuzz with activity. In a first, the ministry’s Twitter handle has been running a daily quiz to make the general public aware about the history of India’s finance budgets, how they have evolved over the years and what factors go into making a budget for all. The quizzing began on 18 June and will continue till 3 July. From Tuesday onward, the ministry began posting trivia on the Economic Survey. It is set to run questions on the budget on alternate days.
The upcoming budget is set to be Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first one. The Modi government is facing a daunting challenge of boosting the country’s slowing GDP even as it has a massive task to generate jobs. The Economic Survey of 2018-19 will be released on 4 July, followed by the budget on 5 July.
(Contributors: Remya Nair, Ruhi Tewari, Manasi Phadke and Nayanima Basu)