Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
Given that the target was to reach 80.34 million families under PMUY - within three months starting April 1 - the government should have distributed at least 241.02 million cylinders by the end of June. It actually ended up distributing only 119.7 million cylinders.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
5-kg free food grains per person per month would be given to around 80 crore people for the two months.
Asserting that Uttar Pradesh has undergone a complete transformation under his government, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday that there have been no riots since 2017, strict action has been taken against the mafia and the state is in the frontline of implementing welfare schemes, ensuring the ease of doing business and fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a five-year-long reform-based result-linked power distribution scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore, for strengthening system of utilities to improve efficiency. Briefing after the CCEA meet here, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said, "We have done a lot for power distribution reforms. It needs to be strengthened. Today, the Cabinet has approved the new scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore, including Rs 97,000 crore central outlay." He said the funds would be given to power distribution companies (discoms) to strengthen their system.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday expressed concern over vaccine hesitancy in some communities and urged people to spread awareness about the benefits of inoculation to win the battle against coronavirus.
The government on Wednesday cut interest rates on small savings schemes, including NSC and PPF, by up to 1.1 per cent for the first quarter of 2021-22 in line with falling fixed deposit rates of banks. Interest rate on Public Provident Fund (PPF) has been reduced by 0.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent while National Savings Certificate (NSC) will now earn 0.9 per cent less at 5.9 per cent. Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis. The rates of interest on various small savings schemes for the first quarter of the financial year 2021-22 starting from April 1 has been revised, the finance ministry said in a notification.
Evidently, households see a brighter future after the Budget, reveals Mahesh Vyas.
The relaxation would be available only to those beneficiaries who have been credited with the advance for buying the cylinder but have not been able to purchase the refill.
The two states account for 24% of total accounts opened under financial inclusion scheme.
Gadkari said, infrastructure sector including highways, airports, inland waterways, railways, logistic parks, broad gauge and metro, apart from MSMEs can attract large scale foreign investment.
Addressing a G20 Summit session, Modi also presented his '5-I' vision to maximise digital technology for social benefit.
The key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
This is not an election Budget in the sense that I might target the voter in the coming elections. But if you look beyond this round of state elections, and tilt the periscope to graze at the more distant horizon, see how the Narendra Modi government wishes things looking by the summer of 2024, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Swachch Bharat and Jan Dhan grabbed more eyeballs across clusters, regardless of party in power across states.
'Modi is now the biggest messiah of OBCs and Dalits as V P Singh once was.'
With the farmers' protest against the three new laws and in support of legalising the minimum support price (MSP) going strong, state governments have announced a slew of measures in their annual Budgets to placate farmers. The Centre kicked things off in the Union Budget by assuring farmers that the MSP would continue and coming out with a report card to demonstrate its commitment. However, these efforts don't seem to have yielded tangible results. In their respective Budgets, states chose to go a step further by announcing a variety of measures.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India's growth story is being disrupted by forces with a colonial mindset, including in the name of freedom of expression.
The Indian economy requires a Rs 3 lakh crore fiscal stimulus, including cash transfer to households through Jan Dhan accounts to spur economic growth amid the pandemic, industry chamber CII said on Thursday and pitched for appointment of a 'Vaccine Czar' for speedy vaccination coverage. CII president T V Narendran also said the chamber expects GDP to grow at 9.5 per cent in 2021-22 as the strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year will be supported by robust external demand and large-scale coverage of vaccination, allowing resumption of economic activity. He also advocated for appointment of a "Vaccine Czar" for speedy vaccination coverage.
While no specific state-oriented sops were rolled out, a strong thread of political wellness ran through the Budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her fourth Budget in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Sitharaman said the government also proposes Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana to address critical infrastructure gap in fisheries sector.
'Congress leaders don't believe in themselves and in the potential of the party.' 'Unless they have faith in themselves, only then will the public have faith in them.'
From taxation of EPF contributions to new wage code, life won't be the same in FY22.
CAIT has attributed its displeasure to the economic downturn, and indifferent attitude of ministers/officials towards domestic trade.
Ushering in a big wave of reforms by implementing the four labour codes, setting up the national social security fund to cover over 38 crore informal sector workers and improving the ease of doing business will top the agenda of the labour ministry in the New Year. In a major move, the ministry launched the e-Shram portal on August 26, 2021 for creating a national database of over 38 crore informal sector workers. It will help the government to ensure last-mile delivery of benefits of various social security schemes to the informal-sector workers.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut fuel subsidies while slapping additional fuel taxes on unblended transport fuels in the latest Union Budget. The former will hit the rural poor, households that secured a subsidised LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a programme that was partly instrumental in helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the 2019 general elections. The latter will pretty much hurt the entire population after it kicks in from October. That's what it looks like. Or, perhaps, it's not as it appears to be, at least on the subsidy front.
'All imaginary figures are pushed by government bureaucrats.' 'They never showed that the production of wheat was less this time.'
The NPR data can be used for transparent and efficient delivery of social benefits by linking it with various beneficiary oriented government schemes, they said.
Stating that the food subsidy bill is becoming "unmanageably large", the Economic Survey 2021 on Friday suggested the government to increase the selling price of foodgrains provided through ration shops to over 80 crore beneficiaries. Foodgrains via ration shops are supplied at highly subsidised rates of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains through Public Distribution System (PDS) as per the National Food Security Act (NFSA). "While it is difficult to reduce the economic cost of food management in view of rising commitment towards food security, there is a need to consider the revision of central issue price (CIP) to reduce the bulging food subsidy bill," the survey said.
The number of centrally sponsored schemes have increased to 35 in FY22 from 30 in FY21 and central sector schemes have increased to 704 from 685 in the previous year, reports Dilasha Seth.
Faulting previous governments for not taking adequate measures to economically empower women in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government was constantly creating an environment in which women self-help groups can connect villages with prosperity as he released Rs 1,625 crore as capitalisation support fund to over four lakh such groups. In a virtual interaction with the women self-help groups (SHGs) under the "Aatmanirbhar Narishakti se Samvad" (dialogue with self-reliant women) initiative, Modi said in a changing India, opportunities are increasing for women to move forward. The movement of woman SHGs has intensified in the last 6-7 years with over 70 lakh of them working across the country, a figure over three times more than earlier, he said, adding over eight crore women are connected with these groups.
Noting that Goddess Durga was worshipped as a symbol of 'Shakti' (strength), Modi said his government was consistently working for the empowerment of women.
'The fiscal pressure will be there, but the intent of the government behind this move is to spur demand and growth.'
Agri experts are meeting FinMin ministry officials on Monday to give their inputs on the Budget.
Do you have parents who have turned 60? You may want to forward Sarbajeet K Sen's suggestions to them.
BJP general secretary Arun Singh said that during the course of the meet, discussions will be held on farm laws, Aatmanirbhar Bharat and upcoming state polls.
Dividing people in the name of religion, engineering riots and committing atrocities on Dalits is not Hindutva but to unite one human being with another is, he said in a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party while replying to a question at a summit organised by news channel Times Now.
Those who have crossed 50 must show the greatest urgency. They need to achieve a corpus that can sustain them and their spouses for at least 25-30 years after retirement.
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