A day after the Central Statistical Organisation projecting a sluggish agricultural growth this fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday the government will take all steps to ensure a four per cent expansion in the farm sector for next 10-20 years. "First charge on our resources is for agriculture, so that it grows at 4 per cent or more for next 10-20 years" Chidambaram said at a National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development function in New Delhi.
The goverment has found serious irregularities in the functioning of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.
'In many parts of the country, the empty nest-and-empty-nest egg story is a painful boom-to-bust saga.' 'Among the old and young, it is hitting pockets hard, in a linked chain of debt-laden banks, corrupt politicians and builder mafias and disastrous government policies,' says Sunil Sethi.
Bank, bankruptcy reforms, Nabard Bill amendment on agenda.
Want the Congress MP to stop the process of transfer of stake, divestment.
The scheme is in the lines of Nabard's self-help group bank linkage programme, which is recognised as one of the largest microfinance programmes in the country.
A large number of rich farmers, who earn more than salaried employees in the cities, get away with paying no tax at all in view of the government's lack of will to consider an agricultural income tax
Observing that the economic recovery was not yet fully entrenched, the RBI Governor said recovery is likely to be gradual.
The Taliban have been known for using violence to force the people to accept their agenda and views, he added.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday passed a bill providing internal reservation of 10.5 per cent for Vanniyars, a most backward community in government jobs and in admission to educational institutions.
The government plans to borrow Rs 4.17 lakh crore (Rs 4.17 trillion) from the market. Last year it had borrowed Rs 4.47 lakh crore (Rs 4.47 trillion).
The government is planning to provide collateral-free loan up to Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers through the Kisan Credit Card scheme.
There is a clamour for changing land-use from agriculture to commercial, residential or industrial.
Since December 2018, monetary policy has been eased substantially by RBI with policy rates being cut by 75 bps and policy outlook being changed to 'accommodative'.
Commercial banks are also expected to be soft on loan repayments and restructure the loans, if not write them off.
Replying to the general discussion on Budget in Lok Sabha, she said the former Congress chief was creating fake narratives but does not have patience to listen to replies on allegations levelled against the government.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday hinted at rolling out 5G telecom services in the second half of 2021 and said policy steps are needed to accelerate the early rollout of ultra-high-speed 5G services that are affordable and available everywhere. Ambani, whose four-year-old telecom venture Jio has captured the No.1 spot offering free voice calling and data at dirt-cheap rates, also pitched for developing hardware manufacturing in India, saying the nation cannot rely on imports in such a critical area. 5G is the 5th generation mobile network that enables connecting virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. India, he said, is today among the best digitally connected nations in the world.
The panel noted that the macro-economic fundamentals of the economy are sound but challenges remain, several of which are structural in nature.
The finance ministry has called a meeting of the State-Level Bankers Committee in New Delhi on Tuesday, which will be attended by officials from scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperatives, Reserve Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Centre as well as states. The meeting will be presided over by financial services department secretary Arun Ramanathan.
While everybody is talking about the vast potential of 5G, the uptake of such services in India depends on operators getting around 100 Mhz 5G spectrum. At the reserve price proposed by Trai, getting this spectrum will cost a telco around Rs 490 billion. Which amount could be difficult for operators to mop up, given the financial stress they are undergoing, says Kiran Rathee.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Centre has transferred around Rs 1,35,000 crore so far under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme with the payment of eighth instalment on Friday and is also procuring higher quantity of paddy and wheat at minimum support price to boost farmers' income.
It was widely expected that this time around, the government would be less likely to initiate fresh reforms and rather loosen its belt a little to give various segments of the economy, especially the multitudes that truly constitute India, something to smile about, says Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
The reforms will help FPOs procure directly from farmers, something that they have been pressing for long.
With economic growth slowing to a six-year low, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath says the government should undertake structural reforms such as bank clean-up and labour reforms to address the slowdown in domestic demand. She rooted for government policies focusing on managing a slowdown in domestic demand, and on boosting productivity growth and supporting employment creation in the medium term.
According to official statistics, half of India's GDP comes from as many as 420 million workers in the unorganised sector including street vendors, rickshaw pullers, construction workers, rag pickers, agricultural workers, among others. This massive workforce remains outside the purview of the formal banking and insurance industries.
That apart, farmers will get loans for post-harvest storage of their produce at a subsidised interest rate of 7 per cent for six months.
The total direct tax collection stands at a little over Rs 9 trillion, giving the taxman just few days to reach the 2018-19 revised target of Rs 12 trillion., reports Shrimi Choudhary.
Setting up dairy cooperatives modelled on Gujarat's 'Operation Flood' could ease agrarian distress and stop suicides by farmers in the region.
Chairing an exclusive roundtable with 42 global CEOs and top executives from across 20 sectors, Modi stressed on continued political stability in India, predictability of policy, and pro-development and pro-growth policies.
India, World Bank ink $375 mn deal to help develop country's first waterway
Women dominate Indian banks's clerical and officer rolls, but few make it to the executive office these days, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The construction sector is now India's second-largest employer after agriculture, the trend coinciding with India's high-growth phase and decline in poverty levels
Women's share of work in these industries is over 50 per cent, yet they are paid much less than their male counterparts.
The AAP, which is the only party to declare its chief ministerial candidate before the polls, is trying hard to make the contest triangular.
From social engineering to bearing the cost of COVID-19 treatment to financial reconstruction of Tamil Nadu's debt the debutant chief minister is emerging as a leader with a difference, says Shjne Jacob
'I would want people to have food on their tables and their wages to rise.' 'Will that happen or not is the question that we need to ask and answer.'
The actual expenditure will only be marginally higher and hence, the multiplier effect will be muted.
The Jat vote is crucial in winning at least 40 assembly seats in Western UP, which has been in the grip of a widespread farmer movement, reports Nitin Kumar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for focus on 'repair and prepare' as the nation emerges out of a devastating pandemic. "Over the past year, we have witnessed a lot of disruption in different sectors. Much of it is still there. Yet, disruption does not have to mean despair," he said at VivaTech Summit. "Instead, we must keep the focus on the twin foundations of repair and prepare," he said referring to the need to augment healthcare infrastructure in the country as well as prop up the economy.
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