Latest news, updated at 5:45 pm Union Budget 2012-13  Income tax exemption limit raised to Rs 2 lakh...more Defence budget hiked by more than 17 pc...more Agri credit target increased by Rs 1 lakh cr...more  Service tax rate raised from 10 to 12 pc...more HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BUDGET Budget aimed at giving boost to growth with stability: Pranab...more SP says it will continue to support govt even if TMC quits...more A century of centuries for Tendulkar...more India set 290-run target for Bangladesh...more

Trivedi on his way out
Cong bows to Mamata; core group to decide timing today 
New Delhi, March 15
The Congress has, in principle, agreed to Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s demand for the removal of Rail Minister Dinesh Trivedi but the timing will be decided by the party’s core group, slated to meet here tomorrow.

Rail Minister Dinesh Trivedi talks to mediapersons in New Delhi on Thursday. — AFP

Badal keeps vigilance, Dhindsa gets finance
Chandigarh, March 15
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has allocated portfolios to all his ministers who were sworn in as Cabinet ministers at a grand ceremony at Chappar Chiri yesterday. It took Badal and his son Sukhbir almost a day to do a balancing act, including persuading alliance partners BJP to change the list of portfolios it had supplied to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

‘Tainted’ Raja Bhaiya in Team Akhilesh
Lucknow, March 15
The much-awaited generational change finally took place in Uttar Pradesh today with 38-year-old Akhilesh Yadav being sworn in as its youngest chief minister along with 19 Cabinet and 28 ministers of state, including one woman.


Akhilesh takes oath as UP CM in Lucknow. — PTI