Simple majority for Congress in Council with its four nominees winning vacant seats
Bengaluru: The Congress got a simple majority in the Karnataka Legislative Council with the four vacant seats in Council filling officially on Sunday.
The party had nominated Aarathi Krishna, Ramesh Babu, FH Jakkappanavar and Shivakumar K for the seats in the Upper House of the Legislature. The posts were earlier held by UB Venkatesh, Prakash Rathod, KA Thippeswamy and CP Yogeshwar, who was nominated as a member of the BJP but later won the Assembly polls from Channapatna on a Congress ticket.
There had earlier been speculations that Aarathi and Babu would be joined by senior journalist Dinesh Amin Mattu and Dalit leader D G Sagar, however, the Congress, in its nomination, replaced Mattu and Sagar with Jakkappanavar and Shivakumar.
A majority in the Legislature will be crucial for the ruling party to ensure the passage of bills. The Congress faced a setback during the recently concluded monsoon session, when the BJP-JD(S) Opposition voted against the Karnataka Souharda Sahakari (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and defeated the bill.
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Budget allocation to AYUSH Ministry sees 20% rise
New Delhi (PTI): Budget allocation for the AYUSH ministry saw 20 per cent increase, from Rs 3,671.82 crore (revised estimates) in FY 2025-26 to Rs 4,408.93 crore in FY 2026-27.
The government has also announced the setting up of three new All India Institutes of Ayurveda to strengthen research in the field.
Presenting the Union Budget 2026-27, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Ancient Indian Yoga, already respected in several parts of the world, was given a mass global recognition when the Prime Minister took it to the United Nations."
Stating that post-Covid Ayurveda has gained similar global acceptance and recognition, Sitharaman said exporting quality Ayurvedic products could help farmers who grow the herbs and the youth who process them.
To meet the global demand, she proposed setting up of three new All India Institutes of Ayurveda, upgrading AYUSH pharmacies and drug-testing labs for higher standards of certification ecosystem, making available more skilled personnel, and upgrading the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre in Jamnagar to bolster evidence-based research, training and awareness on traditional medicine.
Among the Centrally sponsored schemes, the allocation for the National AYUSH Mission has been increased from Rs 780.96 crore in FY 2025-26 to Rs 1,300 crore in FY 2026-27, registering 66.5 per cent hike.
The allocation for the All India Institute of Ayurveda has been reduced by 12 per cent.
Funding for the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda has also declined from 279.24 crore to 219.05 crore.
