"If the tax holiday is withdrawn, STPIs will lose the level-playing field vis-a-vis special economic zones. We have recommended that the government either withdraw the tax holiday to SEZs or continue the incentive to IT companies," an official with knowledge of the deliberations told Business Standard. STPIs enjoy direct tax exemption under sections 10A and 10B of the Income-Tax Act, 1961. The benefits are scheduled to expire on March 31, 2009.
The project is aimed at meeting the manpower requirements of India's rapidly growing economy, which currently faces a huge skill deficit at all levels of the job chain. The mission, which is expected to start functioning in four to five months from now, will be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who will head an "apex committee" with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia as the vice-chairman.
The latest to take up the matter and join issue with the ministry is none other than Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who sent a message from Kolkata to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, asking him not to allow a proposal to serve biscuits and pre-packaged food to pre-school children. Sen also asked the PM to prevent the move to replace cooked food with packaged food as part of the mid-day meal scheme in elementary schools.
While the economy has been averaging an annual growth rate of around 8.7 per cent for the last five years, the unorganised manufacturing sector is slowing down.
Some large companies said the measure would broaden and deepen the equity cult in the country, but feel that a blanket 25 per cent minimum public shareholding norm should not be applied indiscriminately to all companies. The ministry had floated the paper on February 1 and asked for public comments by the month-end. The minimum public shareholding limit now is 10 per cent.
The prime minister of India is over 75 and the man driving the nation's Metro revolution, E Sreedharan, is 75. It seems the world is destined to be eternally young.
Even as the debate over off-Budget liabilities continues, former finance ministry bureaucrats and leading economists say it's time the government went beyond the targets in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.
Many financial sector reforms suggested by the Percy Mistry Committee may not figure in Budget 2008-09.
The Reserve Bank of India has told parliamentarians that it is concerned over the stock market exposure of various non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) promoted by leading banks in the country.
Sadly, in India, wages for artisans never take into account their specialised skills.
"This is the result of tighter fiscal discipline imposed by the fiscal responsibility framework ... and an optimistic revenue outlook driven by the buoyancy in revenue collections during the last three years of the 10th Plan," the 11th Plan document points out.
Weights of the fuel group are set to rise in the revised Wholesale Price Index.
The committee on financial inclusion, headed by C Rangarajan, the chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has recommended that the profits transferred to their reserves by such banks should be exempted from tax till the banks achieve the standard capital adequacy ratio (CAR).
Days after he died on January 6, Sethi's legacy is being questioned by the very NGO which is today known for taking the Jaipur foot to the masses. The invention won the doctor a Magsaysay award, which in turn has given him enemies.
The protests are meant to highlight the plight of the hundreds of sharecroppers of Singur besides the 12,000 landowners whose land was acquired by the Bengal government for the Tata factory which is to make the small car.
Passports or satellite images are two documents among options for tribals to produce as proof to avail of any entitlements under the ST and Traditional Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2007.
The finance ministry is expected to announce the abolition of tax deducted at source (TDS) on corporate bonds in Budget 2008-09, official sources told Business Standard.
The International Monetary Fund says India will clock growth of 8.4 per cent in the coming year.
Clean development mechanism (CDM) should be used to make the prices affordable for the poor.
These are the Zipp money centres which are being introduced for the first time in the country by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), a forum formed in 1997 and which has inclusive banking interventions as one of its key projects. The money centres have already brought banking to the doorstep in many villages and far-flung areas in one district in Uganda where CBC started the project.
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