Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the Union Budget as a "people's budget" that fulfills the dreams of every Indian and said that it is a "force-multiplier" that will boost consumption, investment and growth. He highlighted a host of measures for different sectors, including welfare initiatives for gig workers, tax relief for the middle class, and support for the manufacturing sector.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged all stakeholders to come together and invest in people for skill development, nurturing talent and promoting innovation which are essential for job creation and boosting the economy. Participating in post-Budget webinar on employment, Modi said the government has provided skill training to 3 crore youth since 2014 and decided to upgrade 1,000 ITIs and set up five centres of excellence.
President Droupadi Murmu's address to the nation on the eve of the 79th Independence Day.
While the capital spending is being maintained at 3.1 per cent of the GDP, a little more would have boosted economic growth even further, suggests Rajiv Memani.
'From the time India liberalised in the 1990s, the government has policies are for facilitating the growth of the manufacturing sector.' 'The policies were put in the hope that growth of the manufacturing sector will lead to increased employment,' points out Chidambaran G Iyer, Senior Fellow, Pahle India Foundation.
The most striking features of this Budget was its focus on simplification and improving the ease of doing business in India, asserts Kaku Nakhate.
Ahead of next Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has hinted at a cut in grants from the Centre to states.
'That refresh programme -- because they are big aircraft and we cannot ground them all at the same time -- will last well into 2027.'
'The lack of opportunities here remains the biggest worry.' 'We have seen investment summits, but if you look around, much of it is only on paper and not on the ground.'
The new Left Front government in Kerala was targeting Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) investments and Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) income from the tourism sector this year besides aiming to generate 50,000 employment opportunities.
In the next 25 years, the Mumbai port will need five terminals because the current passenger traffic of 200,000 is expected to climb to 4 million.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
State Tourism Minister Bratya Basu said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had directed the Tourism Department to go ahead with the setting up the board.
Nangiohbok Rymbai, a graduate in economics who works as a daily wage labourer in Shillong, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar what he would like to see in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget.
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 made a contribution of Rs 11.5 billion (USD 182 million) to India's GDP, a survey conducted by top financial auditing firm KPMG on behalf of the BCCI has said.
Stating that Art of Living (of Sri Sri Ravishankar) and Ramdev are doing good work, Gadkari asked them to start ayurvedic spas to give massages and ayurvedic treatment at these islands being opened up.
It was one of the key promises made by the Congress ahead of the 2018 assembly polls, following which the party returned to power in the state after a gap of 15 years.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government will use the unorganised workers database - e-Shram portal - to provide the benefits of various government programmes to the nearly 300 million workers over the next five years, if it is voted to power for the third consecutive term in the upcoming general elections. "We have registered unorganised workers on the e-Shram platform. "We will reach out to the e-Shram registered 'shramik bandhu' and help them avail the benefits of various government programmes that they are eligible for," the manifesto of the party read.
In his address after more than 75,000 people were given appointment letters for various government jobs in the first tranche, Modi acknowledged the challenges facing the economy the world over with many countries hit by a record inflation and unemployment and said India is making every effort to come out of the situation unscathed.
PM Modi, who was addressing the nation in the 18th edition of his Mann Ki Baat programme, said Team India has recently registered two brilliant wins in the World T-20.
West Bengal is home to 43,000 Durga Pujas, and the business around it is a major economic driver.
Independence Day was celebrated across states and Union territories on Thursday, as several chief ministers announced job schemes while some others vowed their support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
The country needs 100 million jobs in the formal sector in the next decade to take advantage of its demographic dividend. Also, it should get into the global supply chain to generate many of those by negotiating trade deals effectively, industry players and experts have said. "We need something like 100 million jobs in the next 10 years, which means that the non-agriculture sector has to generate 14 per cent job growth every year," said Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Airlines, at the Global Economic Policy Summit organised by the CII.
'There was hardly any recruitment after the second wave.' 'Now, there is a huge demand for manpower.'
Indicating that Monday might be his last day in office, Yediyurappa had recently said that based on the instructions that the central leaders will give him on July 25, he will begin "his work" from July 26.
'This is what happens to a party when it gets trapped in the vicious circle of nepotism and dynastic politics'
'The BJP's real weapons are Hindutva, organisation and finance.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday allocated portfolios to the new ministers, keeping 14 departments with himself and giving home affairs to deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and health to other deputy O P Soni.
Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday inaugurated the country's second international airport built by China that will help connect Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha and a major tourist and pilgrimage destination, to Buddhist circuits in South Asia as well as to the rest of the world.
The government on Thursday said it has extended the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to the health sector and 26 other sectors identified by the Kamath Committee. The National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) has issued the operational guidelines for implementation of ECLGS 2.0 scheme, the finance ministry said in a statement. The scheme was announced by the government earlier this month as part of the Rs 2.65 lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 package.
The Congress fielded Channi from two seats -- Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar and Bhadaur in Barnala, a move which showed how much the Congress was banking on him. He lost both, and the party received a drubbing from the AAP.
He had along with three other ministers rebelled against Amarinder Singh while choosing to side with the camp of state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Giving a relief to exporters community, the government on Thursday said it will release Rs 56,027 crore to exporters against pending tax refunds under different incentive schemes for outbound shipments. The amount will be disbursed to more than 45,000 exporters. Briefing the media about the decision, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Rs 56,027 crore, which is being released under various export promotion schemes, is over and above duty remission of Rs 12,454 crore for the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) Scheme and Rs 6,946 crore for Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (RoSCTL) Scheme already announced.
Unlike the first two stimulus packages, this time the focus would be on boosting demand.
