Mr Pawar is likely to continue with his present responsibilities, but he will get one or two ministers of state (MoS) to oversee three crucial departments of agriculture, food and consumer affairs.

The key vacancy in the external affairs ministry, after Shashi Tharoor's exit in April could be filled by MoS in commerce ministry Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's phone call to LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan to greet him on his 64th birthday on Monday has signalled he could find a place in the Cabinet although sources close to Mr Paswan ruled out the possibility. There are also reports that RLD chief Ajit Singh could find a berth in the Cabinet with the Congress looking at expanding its base among the Jats.

With the Opposition gunning for telecom minister A. Raja accusing him of corruption, the PM and the Congress leadership may take a call on his fate in consultation with DMK chief K. Karunanidhi.

A special general meeting of the BCCI is currently on in Mumbai. Its only agenda is suspended IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, the showcause notices and his replies.

According to sources BCCI is likely to file criminal charges against Modi on three counts.

Jyotiraditya joins Chirayu Amin and Arun Jaitley as a member on the panel probing the case of Modi.

Jyotiraditya replaced BCCI president Shashank Manohar on the committee. Manohar had recused himself from the disciplinary committee to hear the case of Modi.

Jyotiraditya is also Union minister of state for commerce and industry. His father, Madhavrao Scindia was president of the BCCI from 1990 to 1993.

"Well, not currently," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters when asked if the government plans to reduce the import duty on tea, which is 100 per cent at present.

Though he did not mention the level of comfort, Scindia said that the country's tea production this year is likely to reach the threshold of a billion kg.

Speaking at a seminar on tea here, he stressed on the need to augment domestic production to compete in world trade, where Kenya and Sri Lanka are emerging as big competitors for India.

India exported a little over 200 million kg of tea last fiscal, recording 10 per cent growth over the previous year in value terms.

Source: Business-standard No plans to bring down import duty on tea: Scindia

The four-member committee held its first meeting on January 28. "The minister indicated at the meeting that there is a need to bring in change in the existing logo and make it a more contemporary one," said Bharat Arya, chief executive officer of JV Gokal & Co and a member of the task force.

Adman Piyush Pandey, who was a tea taster in Kolkata before joining Ogilvy & Mather India in 1982, is expected to help the commerce ministry and Tea Board of India in this exercise.

Sources say that the minister feels the new logo should be indicative of the country as well like the lion logo, the Sri Lankans use for their tea. In case of the neighbouring country ofcourse, the lion occupies its pride of place in the national flag. The Indian national flag in contrast has the more sedate Ashoka Chakra at the centre and the industry isn't quite sure how that can help the tea cause. The Indian tiger can ofcourse be a match for the Sri Lankan lion if push comes to a shove and some light-hearted banter in the course of having brainstorming sessions on the ideal logo, in tea rooms around Kolkata also has it that the peacock can also be made to sip tea, if beauty is to be portrayed quite indicatively !

Source: Economic Times Indian tea to get new look, logo

"Though the Centre was giving Rs 10,000 crore annually to Madhya Pradesh, the state growth rate was just 4.9 per cent and it was lagging behind Bihar on this count," the Minister told reporters here.

The state government should study the reasons behind the "dismal" show on the growth rate front and take corrective measure to improve it, he said.

Scindia said that apart from Rs 10,000 crore, Madhya Pradesh was getting tax and royalty money as well from the Centre.

He reminded that during the tenure of NDA government at the Centre, Madhya Pradesh used to get just Rs 2,000 crore as funds for development.

The government is also implementing a number of schemes during the 11th Plan period, which,  inter-alia, include extending financial assistance for the benefit of coffee growers.  During 2008-09, the coffee production was 2,62,300 metric tonnes. On an average, about 70% of the country's production is exported.

But close to 24 hours later, the verdict is mixed. Some see it as a missed opportunity, others as a cautious step in the right direction.

So how do politicians, economists, corporate and global voices rate the Budget? CNN-IBN got representatives from all those sectors on a panel for a special show Rate the Budget, moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai. The show had the panel rating the Budget on parameters like Excellent, Good, Average and Bad and looking at future impact of it.

On the panel were Editor of Economic Policy, Network 18 Vivian Fernandes; Board Member, ICRIER, Shankar Acharya; MP, Biju Janata Dal Jay Panda; Head of CPI(M) Economic Cell Prasenjit Bose; BJP Spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy; Union Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology, Jyotiraditya Scindia; London-based economist Lord Meghnad Desai and FICCI President Harsh Pati Singhania.

Following are the ratings and reasons from the panel:

Click On This link To Watch Full Video Debate:-

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/96531/07_2009/rate_budget1b/budget-verdict-hope-for-best-prepare-for-worst.html

Click On "Full Story" To Read "panelists discuss the merits and demerits of Union Budget"...

On assuming the charge, Scindia discussed about the present foreign trade, Special Economic Zones, issues relating to the World Trade Organisation and industrial scenario, with the Commerce Secretary, G.K. Pillai and Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ajai Shankar.

While interacting with the media persons, Scindia stated that the main thrust area is manufacturing sector and he will look into the same for pushing manufacturing growth in the coming months.

He also explained about the present scenario of the Special Economic Zones.

He added that the "mix of youth and experience" in the new council of ministers would help the government perform better than its previous term.

"Look at the ministers. A lot of new energy and innovative thinking is there," said Scindia.

Regarding Rahul Gandhi's decision not to join the cabinet, he said: "We must respect his decision. His decision to work for strengthening the party at the ground level is very important."

Barely four months after dropping its proposal to force TV channels to show only “authorized” feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Draft rules released this month empower a designated Central government officer to block public access to any information on the Net for wideranging reasons of security and national interest.

One glaring infirmity in the draft rules prepared by the department of information technology is that they make no stipulation for a prior hearing to the affected website. This is despite the fact that the web host who does not comply with the direction to remove the offending information is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to seven years.

Times View: The desire to curb the media’s freedom seems to run deep in the government. How else do you explain that while the draft rules give sweeping powers to officials, no attention has been paid to a basic thing like a hearing first? Babus tend to be quick in dubbing things as anti-national or compromising national security. Why should their ‘‘request’’ always be heeded? Also, what will these babus do if the web host is located outside India? Will the domestic media, therefore, bear the brunt of this potential abuse of power? The government should think this through before it finalises the draft rules.

Website gag: IT Act amendments not final Government had made an abortive attempt to gag TV channels through a draft notification amending the cable television network rules, but the sweeping power to control the content on websites is being fleshed out in the rules drafted under the recent amendments to the information technology (IT) Act.

Though it was passed by Parliament in December and the Presidential assent to it came in February, the IT amendment Act 2008 will not come into effect till the various rules drafted under its provisions, including the one on blocking public access to websites, are finalized.

Under the draft rules framed under section 69A of the IT amendment Act, every state or Central government department will be empowered to decide whether a certain news item, article, blog or advertisement relating to its jurisdiction is safe to remain on the Net.

Once somebody sends a “complaint” against any information displayed on the Net, the department concerned will take a call on whether the matter in question affects any of the six concerns mentioned in section 69A: interest of sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order or incitement to commit any cognizable offence relating to the other five reasons.

If it is satisfied about the need to pull the challenged information out of the public domain, the department concerned will send a “request” in the prescribed form to the “designated officer” at the Centre chosen by the secretary of the IT department. An interministerial committee headed by the designated officer will recommend whether the request to censor the web site should be accepted or not.

If the IT secretary approves the committee’s recommendation to take action, the designated officer will direct the intermediary or web host to block the offending information within the stipulated time. In the event of non-compliance, the designated officer can initiate criminal proceedings under section 69A, which imposes a maximum sentence of seven years on the web host.

The only remedy provided by the draft rules to media organizations is that a review committee will meet every two months to check whether the directions to block information have been issued in accordance with the IT Act.

Source:Times Of India Website Gag: IT Act Amendments Not Final, Govt Arming Itself To Censor News Websites

• Caught In The Web; Draft Rules Stir A Hornet's Nest: From Business-Standard