Karnataka Assembly pays tributes to Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Wednesday paid tributes to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was killed in a plane crash in Pune.
Pawar(66) and four others were killed after an aircraft carrying them crashed while landing near Baramati in Pune district on Wednesday morning.
In the House, Speaker U T Khader, informing about Pawar's death, paid tributes to the departed leader.
Recalling Pawar's long political journey and that he was a six time Deputy CM of Maharashtra, the Speaker said, "he was the voice of poor, downtrodden, farmers. He was a straightforward politician, a prominent personality from the cooperative field, and was known as Ajit Dada among his followers."
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil remembering Pawar's leadership qualities said, he used to meet every person who had come to meet him every day.
He also appreciated Pawar's growth in politics from the cooperative sector, and said he had worked with the NCP leader, when he was Congress' Maharashtra in charge. "Ajit Pawar was strong on his decisions."
Leader of Opposition R Ashoka, JD(S) floor leader Suresh Babu, Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar among others spoke remembering Pawar's leadership and work for Maharashtra state.
Pawar was traveling to Baramati from Mumbai to address public meetings as part of the campaign for the February 5 zilla parishad elections in Maharashtra, when his flight crashed.
According to Flight Radar, the flight took off from Mumbai at 8.10 am and it disappeared from radar around 8.45 am.
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RBI keeps policy rate unchanged amid inflationary pressure
Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged amid hopes of a global recovery on the back of ceasefire in the six-week-long US/Israel-Iran conflict.
The policy decision comes as a month and a-half-long West Asia conflict has disrupted energy supplies, shot up crude oil prices and created fiscal and inflationary pressures for import-dependent nations like India.
This is the first monetary policy review after the government announced a fresh inflation target for the RBI last month. The government has asked the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five years ending March 2031.
Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
The rate cut pause comes on the back of the consumer price index (CPI) based headline retail inflation that moved closer to the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent at 3.21 per cent in February.
Additionally, the rupee has depreciated by over 4 per cent since the war, which has consequences for pushing up import inflation.
However, the rupee has appreciated by 50 paise to 92.56 against US dollar following announcement of the ceasefire by the US and Iran.
Based on the recommendation of the MPC, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 25 bps each in February, April, and December 2025 and 50 basis points in June amidst easing retail inflation.
India's retail inflation dropped to a historic low of 0.25 per cent in October 2025, marking the lowest level since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series was introduced.
However, the rupee declined to historic low and crossed 95 against a dollar last month making imports costlier, raising fears of rise in inflation. Rupee touched a record low of 95.21 on March 30, 2026.
