In a major decision ahead of the Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls next year, the Maharashtra government on Thursday approved the implementation of recommendations of the  7th Pay Commission from January 1, a move that will benefit more than 20 lakh employees and pensioners.
The approval to the pay hike of government employees, which will cost the state exchequer Rs 38,655 crore, was given by the Cabinet at its meeting here and comes just months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The state will face Assembly polls in the second half of 2019.

With this decision, the Group D employees will get a hike of around Rs 4,000- Rs 5,000, Group C will get Rs 5,000- Rs 8,000 more, while Group B and Group A officers will get an increase between Rs 9,000-Rs 14,000 per month. Finance Mungantiwar, speaking to reporters at Mantralaya (secretariat), said the Cabinet had approved the 7th Pay Commission’s implementation from January 1, 2019, with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

The New Year-eve bonanza will also bring cheers to more than 360 retired government employees who are over 100 years of age. He said retired employees in the age of 80-85 years would get a hike of 10 per cent in their monthly pension, 15 per cent for those in 85-90 age bracket, 20 per cent for 90-95 years and 50 per cent hike for those who are 100 and above.

For the first time since 2013, business delegations from Pakistan will be attending the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit scheduled to be held this time from January 18-20, 2019, the organisers confirmed. According to records reviewed by The Indian Express, at least seven delegations from different regions of Pakistan are expected to take part, making it the largest contingent ever from the country at the summit.

They are among the 52 delegations representing commerce and trade bodies from various countries who have confirmed their participation for the Global Conclave of International Chambers, which is one of the events at the summit.

In 2013, a 22-member delegation from Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry had arrived for the summit and attended a pre-event buyer-seller meet on January 9-10. However, with bilateral tensions rising following the killing of two Indian soldiers in a ceasefire violation at the Mendhar sector of J&K’s Poonch on January 8, the delegation left without attending the main summit on January 12-13.

At the time, the state government cited visa clearances as a reason for the early departure and said that most members had visas only for Ahmedabad while the main event was held in Gandhinagar. Since then, two summits have gone by without any representation from Pakistan.

President Ramnath Kovind will visit Mumbai today to launch 'Sadbhaav Utsav'. He will participate in the Wellness festival organised on the occasion of 100 year anniversary of the Yoga Institute. The programme will be organised at Bandra Kurla Complex's MMRDA ground.

Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and Yoga Institute Director Dr Hansaji Jaidev will be present at the event.  'Sadbhaav Utsav' is a two-day event concluding tomorrow. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Dr. Lotay Tshering in New Delhi today. Dr Tshering arrived in New Delhi yesterday on a three-day visit to India. His visit takes place during the Golden Jubilee year of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries. 

The visiting dignitary will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and Power Minister R K Singh are scheduled to call on the visiting dignitary.

Amidst exchange of barbs between the treasury benches and the Opposition, the Lok Sabha passed the amended Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, which criminalises Triple Talaq, attracting up to three years’ imprisonment for the husband.

The bill, which seeks to replace an ordinance promulgated in September, was passed after an over four-hour discussion that saw some heated exchanges between the Opposition and BJP leaders, with both sides accusing each other of engaging in vote bank politics. The debate saw the lawmakers broach the topics of gender equality and women’s rights interspersed with issues like modification of religious practices.

In Assam, the third Dwijing Festival has begun today on the bank of Aye river  at Chirang district.  Around 15 lakh tourists are expected to participate in the festival.  Assam PHE minister Rihon Daimary inaugurated the festival in presence of several dignitaries. 

Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal to attend the event on 29th of December.  Adventure sports, food mart, cultural events, traditional games are being organized  in the 12 day long event. Participants from Thailand, Bhutan and Bangladesh are also taken part in the festival.

Dronacharya awardee CA Kuttappa has taken over as India's chief boxing coach at the ongoing national camp from which star pugilist Vikas Krishan (75kg) was left out following his professional plunge. The 39-year-old Kuttappa, credited with shaping some of the country's most successful boxers such as Vijender Singh, M Suranjoy Singh and Shiva Thapa among others, took over from veteran coach SR Singh at the beginning of the camp which started December 10. Singh has now retired.

"It's such a huge responsibility but I am trying to do my best. I have a few plans and hopefully, I will be able to execute them," Kuttappa, who was an assistant coach, told PTI.

The Army man said his elevation was high-performance director Santiago Nieva's idea.

"He asked me if I was interested. I sought some time because I needed to think it over. I am not most senior is terms of age and that was playing on my mind. I told this to Santiago and he told me I shouldn't be bothered about it," the former National Games gold-medallist from Karnataka said. 

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday issued orders for the creation of a separate high court for Andhra Pradesh which will start functioning from 1 January 2019 from Amravati.

After the creation of Telangana, the high court of the two states was functioning from Hyderabad.

With the creation of the new high court, the country will have 25 high courts.

According to the notification issued by the Law Ministry, Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, who is at present the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand high court, will head the new high court.

It will have 15 other judges besides the chief justice.

NITI Aayog will today release the Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts Programme. CEO, Amitabh Kant will release the ranking which will measure the incremental progress made by districts between 1st June and 31st October this year. 

The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across various performance indicators like Health and Nutrition, Education, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure among others. 

The rankings are based on the data that is publicly available through the Champions of Change Dashboard, which includes data entered on a real-time basis at the district level. For the first time, the rankings will also factor in inputs from household survey conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners, namely, TATA Trusts and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The Aspirational District Programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January this year with the aim to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas. The first Delta ranking for the Aspirational Districts was released in June this year.

The Election Commission has banned all kinds of tobacco in polling booths during next year's general elections, in a bid to effectively implement tobacco control laws in the country.

The Commission has asked all states and Union Territories to issue instructions to district electoral officers-cum-district magistrates to ensure prohibition of not just smoking, but also the use of chewable tobacco in all polling booths.

The Commission's guidelines said all the polling booths in country to be declared tobacco free and not just smoke free and hence use of bidi, cigarette, gutkha, chewable tobacco are prohibited in all polling booth. As per the guidelines, each polling booth will have a banner put up, saying the same.

The presiding officer of each polling booth will be nominated as nodal officer for ensuring tobacco-free status at their booths. All district tobacco control cells will supervise and monitor this campaign to sensitise people on ill effects of tobacco.