UNION BUDGET LACKS VISION: CM
Bengaluru: Terming the Union Budget 2018-19 anti-people and anti-growth, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah - who has presented a record 14 state budgets since 1995, on Thursday said it had no vision or direction.
"The central Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley lacks vision and direction. Its proposals are disappointing, as they have nothing for the farmers, the poor and the common man," said Siddaramaiah in a statement here.
Charging the central government of making empty promises to woo the electorate ahead of the next parliamentary elections in 2019, the Chief Minister said the Budget failed to address the agrarian crisis in the country, especially in the southern state, which faced drought over the last three years.
"There is no relief for farmers in distress due to crop loss or declining prices for their produce in the market. The Budget has no waiver on short-term crop loans raised by farmers from state-run banks," lamented Siddaramaiah.
On the National Health Protection Scheme, the Chief Minister said “The health insurance scheme has been announced without allocating enough funds to help the poor and the deprived bear the cost of treatment in state-run or private hospitals,".
The scheme proposes to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families or about 50 crore beneficiaries without providing coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
"When a similar healthcare scheme, announced in the last year (2017-18) budget, is yet to be implemented, the Ayushman Bharat programme will suffer a similar fate this year," asserted Siddaramaiah.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the Budget had no proposals for addressing the mounting unemployment problem in the country.
"The BJP-led NDA government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to create two crore jobs every year, but no word about it in the Budget.
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Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani to be India's next Chief of Defence Staff
New Delhi (PTI): Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani will be India's new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and his key task is set to be to implement the ambitious theaterisation plan that seeks to ensure tri-services synergy.
He will succeed Gen Anil Chauhan whose tenure will come to an end on May 30.
Gen Chauhan, a former Eastern Army Commander, took charge as the country's senior-most military commander in September 2022, over nine months after the first CDS, General Bipin Rawat, died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu.
The government has appointed Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani (Retd) as the Chief of Defence Staff, who will also function as the secretary of the Department of Military Affairs, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
Lt Gen Subramani is currently serving as the military adviser to the National Security Council Secretariat.
Prior to that, he was the Vice Chief of the Army Staff from July 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025, and was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Central Command from March 2023 till June 2024.
As Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Subramani's primary task will be to implement the theaterisation model to bring in tri-services synergy by rolling out integrated military commands.
The officer is a graduate of the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He was commissioned into the eighth battalion of the Garhwal Rifles on December 14, 1985.
Lt Gen Subramani is an alumnus of Joint Services Command Staff College, Bracknell (UK), and the National Defence College, New Delhi. He holds a Master of Arts degree from King's College London and an MPhil in defence studies from Madras University.
In his illustrious career spanning over 40 years, Lt Gen Subramani has served across a wide spectrum of conflict and terrain profiles and tenanted a host of Command, Staff and Instructional appointments.
He commanded the 16 Garhwal Rifles in Counter-Insurgency operations in Assam as part of Operation Rhino, the 168 Infantry Brigade in Jammu and Kashmir, and the 17 Mountain Division in the Central Sector, all during a challenging operational environment.
He also has the distinction of commanding two Corps, including the Indian Army's premier strike Corps on the Western Front.
