Heena Sharma Blog

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday an advance interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for cyclone-hit West Bengal. In a video message after reviewing the situation with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district, Modi also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the families of each of those killed during the devastation caused by cyclone Amphan, and Rs 50,000 for the injured. Read More

The Budget session was inaugurated today with the President’s address. The Budget would be presented by Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2020. General Election 2019 saw the opposition try to corner the Narendra Modi government on the issues of a slowing economy, unemployment and rural distress. The voters however reposed their faith in the government and gave it an even bigger mandate. The state of the economy however has continued to be the biggest cause of worry for the government. Not only has unemployment reached record high levels, GDP growth has tanked and India may go by a less than 5 per cent in this fiscal year. The state of the economy is what makes Budget 2020 very important. How important is the Budget for the government politically? What can the government do to mitigate the political risk? Is it the best chance for Modi 2.0 to announce major economic reforms? Read More

The year 2019 was a mix of ups and downs for the electric vehicle (EV) sales in the country. The coming year is expected to be better, with the entry of more electric cars and Chinese entities’ entry, bringing down the average cost. The second phase of the Rs 10,000-crore scheme of the central government, termed Faster Adoption and Manufacturing for Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME II), offers higher incentives to higher powered products. It excludes lead acid battery-powered two-wheelers and mandates that e-scooters should have 80 km per charge and a minimum top speed of 40 kmph, with at least 50 per cent localisation in manufacturing. This has left a large share of two-wheelers out of the incentive, says CRISIL Research. Recently, Union minister Prakash Javadekar told Parliament about 285,000 buyers of electric/hybrid vehicles had been supported by a subsidy of Rs 360 crore under FAME. Sohinder Gill, director-general, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV...

Having notched up a thumping victory in Lok Sabha Elections 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was on Thursday sworn in for a second term in office. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, more than 50 leaders of the BJP and other alliance partners in the NDA were administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Apart from Modi, some of the most prominent names in the new Union Cabinet are those of BJP President Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, D V Sadananda Gowda, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad. A surprise entrant in the list of ministers was former foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The portfolios of the sworn-in ministers are yet to be announced. While many incumbent ministers were among those who took oath, several minsters in the first stint of the Modi government were also left out. The most high-p...

The Narendra Modi led government has faced its biggest state elections defeat ever. How will this impact policy-making in the remaining term of the central government up until 2019? And in the silent tussle for primacy internally within the Sangh Parivar, who are the winners and losers after this result? ALSO READ: Election results LIVE: Congress stumped out of Mizoram, MNF wins 12 seats First, why is this the worst defeat ever? Because in Gujarat, the Congress kept snapping at the BJP’s heels but despite this the BJP was able to form a government with just a 2 per cent increase in its vote share, (49.1 over 47.9 in 2012). Morever, the BJP lost heavily against its Lok Sabha 2014 vote share tally of the massive 59.1 per cent vote share it got in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In other words, a slippery slope. In Karnataka, the seat tally for a united BJP (in the 2013 elections Yeddyurappa formed his own party and contested against the BJP) was up a massive 104 from 40 it got in...