'Increased allocations for MNREGA could have provided the much needed push to rural demand and consumption at a time when recovery continues to remain uneven.'
'The fiscal pressure will be there, but the intent of the government behind this move is to spur demand and growth.'
Pushing for reforms, the Economic Survey on Thursday said inflationary impact of foreign funds flow, a slowdown in the US, an appreciating rupee and sluggish infrastructure sector were major challenges before economy that is projected to slow down to 8.7 per cent in 2007-08.
The IT Investment Region (ITIR) proposed to be developed in Hyderabad in two phases over a period of 25 years, will create an employment potential of 1.5 million, according to state information and communication technology (ICT) minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah.
Ola Electric on Thursday said it will bring its electric scooter to the Indian market in July this year, and is working on setting up a 'Hypercharger Network' to include one lakh charging points across 400 cities. Last year, Ola had announced a Rs 2,400 crore investment for setting up its first electric scooter factory in Tamil Nadu. Upon completion, the factory will create nearly 10,000 jobs and will be the world's largest scooter manufacturing facility that will initially have an annual capacity of 2 million units.
This divisiveness is upsetting social cohesion and can throw the bright young people thronging to Bengaluru with billion dollar ideas in their creative minds off balance, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan says the government should take advantage of the peaks in the Indian equity markets right now and sell stakes in PSUs while prioritising spending to get the economy back on track. The upcoming Budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 should look to provide "relief to the poorer households and small and medium enterprises," he said. And then move on to getting the economy back on track.
'This is happening regardless of the Budget.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh vice president Arvind Kumar Sharma will be reaching out to residents of western UP with public meetings in Noida, Greater Noida and Bulandshahr from Friday.
Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
Given the fiercely competitive political environment, observers naturally associated an element of appeasement with the Shinde government's move, Shyam G Menon points out.
'There will be positive growth, but if you ask me whether we are going to have the original growth rate of 8%, the answer will be, no.'
'With over 50 per cent of medical seats reserved for those who have the ability to pay a fee ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore for a five-year MBBS course and quotas in accordance with affirmative policies in government colleges, the band of seats available for the not-so-rich and non-OBCs is very narrow.'
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'We have to take all preparations because the third wave is likely to start from September-October onward'
The Supreme Court-mandated ban on all mining operations in Goa -- the second in less than a decade -- will disrupt the livelihoods of tens of thousands in the state, points out P K Mukherjee.
In a discussion in Lok Sabha on the COVID pandemic, members called for ban on international flights in view of the outbreak of the Omicron strain and demanded that the government 'accept responsibility' for deaths of lakhs of people during the outbreak.
We have our own problems for sure and they are not trivial, but for now, our economy is in not too bad a shape, our politics is as personality-driven and authoritarian as that of most countries in the world. We must make the best of what we have and not be excessively unhappy looking at the grass on the other side of the septic tank which may not be greener after all!, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
There are two ways: Deliver a rapidly growing economic pie or reform GST and close corporate tax loopholes, suggests T N Ninan.
A reception often reserved for rockstars came the way of mining mogul Anil Agarwal when he started revealing nuggets of his ascent from a scrap-metal dealer to one of India's most prominent self-made industrialists on social media. And now he has been flooded with booking writing proposals and has even been offered money for a biopic. In February this year, Agarwal, 68, started tweeting his journey from Bihar to Mumbai first and then to London to head a globally diversified natural resources company with interests in zinc-lead-silver, iron ore, steel, copper, aluminium, power, oil and gas.
Had Finance Minister Sitharaman thought a little more about the middle class, disadvantaged sections, and the poor who are struggling, it would have been an inclusive Budget that would have made history, notes Ramesh Menon.
Inflation stood at at a high of 8.23 per cent in January. After touching a high of 18.23 per cent in December, food inflation came down to 11.49 per cent in mid-February.
While most experts suggest the government loosen its purse strings and not worry about the fiscal deficit in a pandemic impacted year, it will be a tightrope walk for the government to increase spending without going overboard.
'The idea was to show the simultaneity and coexistence of life in the city.'
"India has given a stern signal to its enemies by conducting surgical and air strikes. This tells us that India is changing and can take the most difficult decisions and isn't reluctant to implement them," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday in his Independence Day address to the nation.
'Log kehte hai desh to humne Modi ko diya hua hai, par pradesh nahi diya hai (we have given Modi the mandate to run the nation, not the state).'
'There is a vision in the Budget, and the vision is to take India from a largely agrarian, rural economy into a fast-track digitalised economy.'
Larsen & Toubro (L&T), India's largest construction and engineering player, has lost as many as 14 large orders in the country because companies that don't possess adequate technical expertise and experience, of late, have won the projects by bidding lower, claimed A M Naik, non-executive chairman of L&T. But the company has made up for the losses by winning projects overseas, where it has acquired a sizeable market share amid tough competition from large global players, he said.
'Government shouldn't be in the business of running airlines, instead it should develop the ecosystem of civil aviation.'
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme worth Rs 10,683 crore for textiles sector with an aim to boost domestic manufacturing and exports. The decision was taken in a meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Cabinet "has approved the PLI scheme for textiles for MMF (man-made fibre) apparel, MMF fabrics and ten segments/ products of technical textiles with a budgetary outlay of Rs 10,683 crore," Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters.
It was one of the toughest times in history to announce a budget, says Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises.
He said COVID-19 can be a catalyst towards the adoption of digital technologies in health and education and drive change in a way that even venture capital funds have not achieved despite pouring billions in investments.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
China has been an aggressor against India along the Himalayan border, a top American diplomat nominated by President Joe Biden as his next envoy to Beijing has told lawmakers, stating that the US must hold the Chinese government accountable for failing to play by the rules.
The employment situation remains dire. Whatever can be done to promote greater low-skill employment should be pursued aggressively, advises former chief economic adviser Shankar Acharya.
Given the costs, you would need to be a high-value target for a government agency to spend this sort of money, points out Devangshu Datta.
Olympic Silver medalist Mirabai Chani's feat is a story of grit, dedication and desire, but it isn't unique. In Manipur, discovers Vaibhav Raghunandan.
It should stop what it is deliberately doing to the NGO sector and let it operate as freely as the rest of the private sector, asserts Aakar Patel.
The new agri-infra fund, the duration of which will be 10 years till 2029, aims to provide medium-to-long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and financial support.
'Looking at how teachers can change lives of students, I asked myself: 'Why don't I become a changemaker and change the lives of underprivileged students?''
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