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(( Goyal are its members. notification that gave a clear tion the person who is sworn ) Minister of State in PMO signal of Rajnath Singh’s dimin- in right after the Prime Jitendra Singh and Housing ishing role in decision making, Minister — chairs the Cabinet ( (( ) and Urban Affairs and Civil the Modi Government had and the Political Affairs 0 " Aviation Minister Hardeep restricted him to only two of Committee in the absence of - Puri are special invitees of the the eight key Cabinet commit- the Prime Minister. In the Accommodation Committee. tees. This was seen as a “humil- absence of Rajnath, Shah would 0 " K The Cabinet Committee iation” to Rajnath, whose suc- have presided over the meet- on Economic Affairs will be cessor in the Home Ministry, ings of these committees. - headed by the PM and will Amit Shah, figured in all the Earlier, Rajnath was includ- K have Rajnath, Shah, Gadkari, committees and Finance ed in the Cabinet Committee .( Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Economic Affairs and # " (0 ( Minister DV Sadananda in all but one of them. Cabinet Committee Security ) Gowda, Sitharaman, But late at night the same but was notably missing from #" ( Agriculture Minister Narendra day, the Government added the Cabinet Committee on Singh Tomar, Communication Rajnath to four more Cabinet Political Affairs, which have Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, committees, including all- Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, .. Minister for Food Processing important Political Affairs Sitharaman, Narendra Tomar, Harsimrat Kaur Badal as its Committee as well as invest- Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh ( ( members. ment and growth, employment Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, Amid economic slowdown and skill development, and Prahlad Joshi and allies Ram ly indicates his growing influ- two after Modi. second most powerful person and rising unemployment, the head of Parliamentary Affairs Vilas Paswan, Harsimrat Kaur ence in governance. Shah con- The induction of Shah, in the new order and the scotched by the night. Commerce and Railways PM on Wednesday constituted Committee. Badal and Arvind Sawant as its tinues to hold the post of BJP who is also the BJP president, Thursday morning notifica- Shah had chaired an infor- Minister Piyush Goyal and two new Cabinet committees Rajnath has been included members. president as the party scouts for in the Government had led tion on the restructured mal meeting of several Cabinet Petroleum Minister under his chairmanship to spur in all committees in a designa- All the committees bore his replacement. He has many political observers to Cabinet committees had stoked Ministers, including External Dharmendra Pradhan, besides economic growth, investment tion above Amit Shah. Rajnath the stamp of Shah which clear- emerged the de facto number believe that he would be the the sepculation, only to be Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Sitharaman, on June 4 over and employment. ! "#$ %&'(&) P O !R $ 4' sus even the revised numbers " #" $ presented in February, the he Reserve Bank of India numbers targeted in the inter- T(RBI) on Thursday slashed im Budget are looking truly its benchmark lending rate by daunting. This is especially in * % 25 basis points to a nearly nine- context of the ongoing growth year low of 5.75 per cent pro- slowdown. Sitharaman has a + % viding relief to industry as tall task to present a credible " ' well as EMI payees in home, Budget while sticking to the ( )* auto and other sectors, but the assumed deficit target. % $ " + (( Central bank’s failure to assuage Das seemed to have a rea- #" $ investors concerns regarding sonably benign view on )-%' 0- the NBFC sector triggered a Government finances, under- massive sell-off in the stock playing the recent stress and he wrangling between Sidhu now gets the Power market which suffered biggest instead focused on the consol- TPunjab Chief Minister Capt and New and Renewable !" ( one-day fall in 2019. The idation underway over the past Amarinder Singh and his Energy Sources Ministry. The " " reverse repo rate under stands few years. Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh seniormost Minister Brahm " at 5.50 per cent. He was not unduly con- Sidhu on Thursday, it seems, Mohindra, who was earlier " The third rate cut this year P cerned about PSU borrowings escalated beyond repair with handling Health and Family ( % " brought the interest rates to ! "! saying that borrowings done by the “Captain” divesting the Welfare, has been given the their lowest level in nine years state-owned firms who have former cricketer of the Local Local Government " even as the RBI changed its “Growth impulses have own revenue streams should Bodies Department, and also Department, while the Tourism - $ stance to “accommodative” weakened significantly as not be looked upon as govern- the Tourism and Cultural and Cultural Affairs went to from “neutral”, opening up the reflected in a further widening ment borrowing. Given very Affairs Department. Charanjit Singh Channi, who possibility of another cut in the of the output gap compared to large buffer stocks (3.4 times The action came hours also retains the Technical coming months to infuse some the April 2019 policy,” the RBI the norm), there seems to be after Sidhu’s “rebellious” deci- Education, Industrial Training life into the economy growing cut and switching of its stance mittee to act decisively and act said in the monetary policy less of a concern from an infla- sion to stay away from the and Employment Generation. - ( . at the slowest pace since Modi to “accommodative” from neu- in time (to address the growth statement. tion perspective, in case mon- Cabinet meeting, first after the Capt Amarinder, after " (" % came to power in 2014. tral. RBI Governor Shaktikanta concerns).” The reduction in interest soons turn out to be weaker. 2019 general elections, while announcing the reshuffling of ) ( " The RBI said it has done Das said the shift in the stance In three back-to-back bi- rate will help boost credit While inflation remained holding a simultaneous Press the portfolios, said: “With the # ) % " away with charges on fund meant that an increase in inter- monthly monetary policies this growth, helping arrest the slow- below its medium-term target conference to underscore his Congress Government in the #" transfers through RTGS and est rates is “off the table.” year, the RBI has lowered inter- down in the economy ahead of to give “scope” to the MPC “to achievements as the Local State nearing the mid-term NEFT routes to boost digital He wanted banks to expe- est rates by 75 basis points. new Finance Minister Nirmala accommodate growth concerns Bodies Minister. mark, the exercise would re- (( " $ transactions and asked banks to dite the transmission of the With India’s GDP growth slip- Sitharaman presenting Modi- by supporting efforts to boost The Chief Minister, after energise the team and bring pass on the benefits to cus- current reduction in rates as ping to a five-year low of 5.8 2.0 Government’s first Budget aggregate demand”, the RBI the conclusion of Lok Sabha freshness into the working of PO$P tomers. SBI charges between 1 well as similar ones that hap- per cent in the January-March next month that is widely marginally revised upwards its elections, on Thursday reallo- the major departments.” %$&&' and 5 for transactions through pened in February and April. quarter — the first instance of expected to announce mea- retail inflation forecast for the cated portfolios of all, except The action against Sidhu /" . NEFT and between 5 and 50 “Our decision is driven by growth falling below China’s in sures to generate jobs and first of FY2019-20 to 3-3.1 per four, Ministers, which he said came just about a fortnight after %)0 for RTGS route. growth concerns and inflation last few quarters — the RBI revive the economy. cent (2.9-3 per cent earlier), but would “help further streamline Amarinder squarely blamed “the " ( L M Significantly, all the six concerns in that order,” Das lowered its growth forecast for Some analysts have stated is a shade lower for the second the Government systems and non-performing” Local Bodies /" 33 members of the Monetary told reporters here. “The unan- the economy to 7 per cent from that given the large under- half at 3.4-3.7