Mumbai: Following are the highlights of the first bi-monthly monetary policy announced by the RBI on Thursday:

►Short-term lending rate (repo) reduced by 25 bps to 6 pc;

►This is second back-to-back rate cut;

►RBI maintains Neutral stance on the monetary policy;

►Four out of six MPC members voted in favour of rate cut;

►GDP growth projection lowered to 7.2 pc for 2019-20;

►RBI revises downward retail inflation estimate to 2.4 pc in Q4 FY19.

►MPC notes output gap remains negative and domestic economy facing headwinds;

►Next monetary policy statement on June 6.

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Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday threw a dinner party at a five-star hotel in the city to celebrate the completion of six years as the Congress state president.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his cabinet colleagues and many MLAs attended the dinner party.

As Shivakumar welcomed the CM on his arrival, the latter greeted him with a bouquet and congratulated him for completing six years as the KPCC president.

Shivakumar was appointed as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president on March 11, 2020.

He assumed the charge when the state unit was running into rough weather.

The party had lost the assembly election after five years of Congress rule from 2013 to 2018. In the face of a hung assembly, it formed a coalition government with Janata Dal (Secular), led by its ally’s second-in-command H D Kumaraswamy.

The government lasted only for a year from May 2018 to June 2019. After the fall of the coalition government, BJP led by B S Yediyurappa came to power.

Following the drubbing in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao had resigned as the leader of the Congress Legislative Party and Congress state president respectively.

Displaying his organisational skills, Shivakumar raised the party cadres. The Congress under his leadership defeated the ruling BJP with a thumping majority in 2023 assembly election by winning 134 seats in 224-member House.

Presently, the Congress government has a strength of 140 MLAs, including the support of independents.

The Congress also managed to raise its number from just one seat from Karnataka in 2019 Lok Sabha election to nine MPs in 2024.

There has been a power tussle going on between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. However, the two leaders often put up a united face.