Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
Three laws passed in Parliament could boost central revenues, reshape GST cess flows, shift MGNREGA costs to states and create new budget headroom ahead of the 2026-2027 Union Budget, points out A K Bhattacharya.
The proposal has been discussed by Sebi's Committee on Rationalisation of Financial Resources, which favours setting up such a fund.
If the concerns over risking political capital are overcome, the long-term gains for the Indian economy will be immense, asserts A K Bhattacharya.
The capital markets regulator has incurred litigation expenditure in the range of Rs 4-5 crore (Rs 40-50 million) in each of the past three financial years, while such expenses could be even higher in the current fiscal ending this month.
The regulator budget is projected to have deficit of Rs 76.6 cr; fee hike will help turn this into a surplus of Rs 105.7 crore.
The defence minister said that the expenditure has been highest in 2017-18. In the same manner, it was second highest in 2016-17 and third highest in 2015-16. The fourth highest defence expenditure since 2004-05 was in 2014-15.
Only nine of the airline's 370 daily flights were making profits.
In fact, no other recent Union Budget has held so much significance for the Indian economy as the one to be presented in about six weeks from now, notes A K Bhattacharya.
But it is disappointing to note that Sitharaman's third Union Budget continues to promote a few problematic ideas, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Budget is likely to focus on infrastructure creation in the N-E
FinMin plans tougher targets for bad loans, Casa and others in performance-linked pay for senior management.
The NITI Aayog's views are in contrast to the National Health Policy.
Will private firms really boost Make in India in the defence sector? Ajai Shukla seeks answers.
'The Reserve Bank's independence has remained a work in progress, an enduring challenge that the nation has been grappling with on an ongoing basis,' says RBI Deputy Governor Dr Viral Acharya.
Taxpayer satisfaction is a part of the matrix of key performance indicators of the administration.
Indian economy about to take-off
Contentious issues such as the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, abrogation of Art 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir and enactment of Uniform Civil Code have been included in the Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto with the party making promises on them.
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