25 FEBRUARY 2015: BJP-PDP marries happily in J&K

Ø  Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will begin his “SAARC Yatra” with a visit to Dhaka on March 2, followed by a visit to Islamabad, where he will resume India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary-level talks cancelled last year. The decision to send Mr. Jaishankar was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he spoke to other SAARC leaders ahead of the World Cup in early February. At the time, he had informed Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that he would be sending the new Foreign Secretary to Pakistan.

Ø  After two months of talks, the BJP and the PDP announced their alliance to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Ø  The Union government used its majority in the Lok Sabha to introduce the controversial Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill to replace two ordinances despite statutory resolutions moved against them.

Ø  The Gujarat government has made a budgetary allocation Rs. 915 crore for the construction of the Statue of Unity dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In the Rs. 1.39-lakh crore budget, with a plan outlay of Rs. 79,295 crore, the State gave a push to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship schemes and pet projects. The budget provides for Rs. 50 crore for a four-lane road joining Vadodara and Ankleshwar with the Statue of Unity. Last year, the NDA government at the Centre gave Rs. 200 for the project in the Union budget. In October 2014, the State government awarded a Rs. 3,000-crore contract to Larsen & Toubro for building the 182-metre statue, touted to be the tallest in the world. The State has allocated Rs. 9,000 crore for the Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada river to build the dam, irrigation canals and three pumping stations. The controversial project received a shot in the arm soon after Mr. Modi took over as Prime Minister. Last June, the Narmada Control Authority gave the green light for increasing the height of the dam from the current 121.92 metres to its limit of 138.68 metres. The budget has made a provision of Rs. 216 crore for work on increasing the height. Several of Mr. Modi’s initiatives, including Smart Cities and Mahatma Gandhi Swachhata Mission, have found an important mention in the first budget of the Anandiben Patel government. A provision of Rs. 1,922 crore has been made for sanitation works in urban and rural areas as part of the Centre’s cleanliness campaign.

Ø  Visiting French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held talks with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar in a bid to break the deadlock over negotiations for 126 Rafale fighter aircraft worth over $20 billion.

Ø  SpiceJet co-founder Ajay Singh has officially become the promoter of the budget airline after the entire share holding of Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways Private Ltd. (58.46 per cent) got transferred to Mr. Singh, following regulatory approvals.