The Congresssaid BJP veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Kishan Advani never did this, but PM Modi by doing so is "demeaning" the high office he holds.
The Railway ministry has been allocated budgetary support of Rs 140367.13 crore in the Union Budget on Tuesday - Rs 20,311 crore more than the revised figures of the previous fiscal. Overall, the national transporter is set to get a capital expenditure (CapEx) push of Rs 2.45 lakh crore in the financial year 2022-23, 14 per cent higher than the budgeted capital expenditure of Rs 2.15 lakh crore for the current financial year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech for 2022-23 said that India will manufacture 400 new, energy-efficient Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a salary hike for the President and Vice President of India while making his Budget speech. Currently, President Ram Nath Kovind gets Rs 1.5 lakh per month while Vice President Venkaiah Naidu gets Rs Rs 1.25 lakh. Jaitley announced that as per the revisions the president and vice president would receive Rs 5 lakh per month and Rs 4 lakh a month respectively. Rediff.com takes a look at the salaries of other world leaders and sees how India stacks up in comparison.
While Rs 37,461.01 crore has been allocated for higher education, Rs 56,386.63 crore has been earmarked for school education.
"I was told by people it was good," Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday remarked over Rahul Gandhi's first speech in the Budget session in which he made a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government on farmers' issue.
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
In an effort to attract investors to the Social Stock Exchange (SSE), the bourses have reached out to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the government with the industry's demand for additional benefits on contributions made towards social enterprises through the platform. SSE is a regulated platform to facilitate organisations working towards social causes to raise funds and have access to higher capital through the bourses. The platform is aimed at becoming a meeting ground for donors and social enterprises.
A barrier-free market -- coupled with removal of controls, licensing system, intermediaries and state-imposed levies on farm commodities -- will benefit both sellers and buyers.
The Sensex closed the day at 28,141, up 486 points, while Nifty50 settled at 8,716, up 155 points.
Sitharaman said Aadhaar card for NRIs with Indian passports will be issued after their arrival in India, without the mandatory 180 days' waiting period.
'On the tax front, most of the Budget proposals are sensible'.
In a bid to check generation of domestic black money, the government will soon issue a notification making quoting of PAN mandatory for all cash transactions beyond Rs 200,000.
Naidu routinely expunges any remark found unsuitable from Rajya Sabha's records after going through the proceedings of the day.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Under the scheme called Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Rs 6,000 will be transferred into bank accounts of farmers holding up to 2 hectares of land in three equal instalments.
"The Union Budget represents the aspirations of 130 crore Indians and lays out the path towards India's development. I invite you all to share your ideas and suggestions for this year's Budget on MyGov," the PM said according to a statement posted on his official website on Thursday.
Most of the extra spending in the Budget is in fact an accounting entry that shifts the cost of an interest subsidy to the agriculture Budget that was previously borne by the finance ministry
'Whatever I did, I did for the farmers and whatever I am doing, I am doing for the country'
The govt hiked defence budget by 7.81 per cent over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
'The finance minister has told the BJP's core voters we are hearing you and we are sensitive to your aspirations.'
With Jaitley preferring continuity over change, good days might take a little longer to arrive, says Shankar Acharya.
The Sensex opend almost unchanged at 9,637 - up two points. The index, thereafter, soon slipped into red and was down around 75-odd points before the acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee started his Interim Budget Speech.
At present, a large number of power distribution utilities (discoms) across the country are state-owned. They are unable to ensure 24-hour 'power for all' as envisaged by the central government because they are cash strapped.
The focus is likely to be on consolidation and improvement of existing rural-centric programmes to ensure their completion ahead of the next general elections in 2019, rather than announcement of new schemes. Sanjeeb Mukherjee and Arup Roychoudhury report.
Beer to be allowed in certain offices in Haryana; other states allow its sale in stores and malls.
Many experts, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, also suggested that industrial groups should not be allowed to do banking business.
'The finance minister and the government have met the immediate challenge. The wine this time is new and also in a new bottle, which, though not full, is less than half empty.'
Parrikar, who is suffering from pancreatic ailment, presented a revenue surplus state budget sitting on his chair in the state assembly, with a tube inserted through his nose.
President Murmu reached the new Parliament building in a six-horse buggy accompanied by the Presidential Bodyguards riding horses.
Legendary athlete P T Usha on Wednesday batted for bringing all competitions under National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and sought more focus on the field of sports medicine and science to help players recover from injuries.
Sunak, 44, was facing the impossible challenge of overcoming voter anger against the incumbent Tories after 14 years in power. The 61-year-old Keir Starmer-led Labour Party, meanwhile, maintained a strong lead over the Tories throughout the six-week campaign.
Measures may include tax slab and rate revisions for individuals, companies.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
What does Arun Jaitley's Union Budget have for India's student population? We explore
MLA Bachchu Kadu had reportedly proposed in the Maharashtra assembly that stray dogs be sent to Assam to control their rising population, as they are consumed by locals in the northeastern state.
As Pranab Mukherjee passes away, we remember the man, the politician, the Rashtrapati.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dig up the perceived past of the DMK rival, now under a new leader in M K Stalin, may not gel with the voters, both old and new. If they are still going to vote for the AIADMK-BJP combine, it will be for entirely different reasons, and despite Modi's poll speeches, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The finance minister said, the MSME is the backbone of the economy. My question is, what have you done for the sector?'
The Budget speech of the FM for many parts sounded like a speech written by a women's liberation activist or a charming gentleman who knows to please women folk with sweet talk.
