Adani Power, part of the Adani group, plans to add close to 6 gigawatts (Gw) of new power assets in the next five years, according to an investor presentation by the company. That is clearly meant to ride on India's burgeoning power demand. But there is another side to it: All of this new capacity is expected to be thermal power, or power produced from coal.
The Thirteenth Finance Commission on Monday suggested that activities like housing, construction and railways should be included in the proposed Goods and Services Tax to increase the tax base and enhance collections.
The 14th Finance Commission had recommended that states' share in the divisible tax pool be raised to 42 per cent, from 32 per cent earlier.
The 61-year-old MLA from Islampur seat of Maharashtra was issued the first summons for appearance on May 12 but he had sought deferment for about 10 days citing some personal and official engagements.
Byju's is set to go the way of Housing.com and Zilingo. It is only a matter of time. Indeed, the coup attempted by investors will ensure that, says Debashis Basu.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday allowed the merger of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd and Culver Max Entertainment (earlier known as Sony Pictures Networks India). This order by the Mumbai bench, headed by H V Subba Rao and Madhu Sinha, will pave the way for the creation of a $10-billion media company, the biggest in the country. The tribunal also dismissed all objections regarding the merger.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may have earned plaudits for projecting a decline in the fiscal deficit to 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2010-11, but his targets for revenue deficit reduction are relatively modest and represent a departure from the 13th Finance Commission's recommendations.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said that financial year 2009-10 was ending with clear signs of economic rebound and the growth would rise to about 8.5 per cent in the next fiscal.
For every rupee in the government coffer, 70 paise will come from direct and indirect taxes, while the government will spend 23 paise towards the states' share of taxes and duties.
The report for the period ended March 2009, presented in the assembly by Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi, who holds charge of the finance department, said revenue receipts between 2008-09 increased by Rs 4770.97 crore (Rs 47.7 billion) mainly due to grants-in-aid and share of Union taxes from the Centre.
The panel may include or seek inputs from former RBI Governor Urjit Patel, former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, Sajjid Chinoy of the PM-EAC, Rathin Roy, among others.
The demand for extension of the GST cess regime among others was made by several state finance ministers at a pre-budget consultation called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Besides, many states also demanded raising the share of the Union government in the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). Currently, the central government and state government share in some CSS is 60:40 while in others it is 75:25.
If Tamil Nadu voters preferred the DMK combine, it owed to the Modi-Annamalai combo's ideological battle which often crossed the line of political decency and also challenged 'Tamil pride', argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
There has been criticism of the official statistics ever since MoSPI came out with new methodology to estimate the GDP on the base year of 2011-12 compared to earlier 2004-05.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
The CrPC (Identification) Bill empowers the police to obtain physical and biological samples of convicts and those accused of crimes while the DMC (Amendment) Bill, 2022 seeks to unify the three civic bodies in the national capital.
Nirmala Sitharaman has designed the revenue mix in such a way that while Centre's share in taxes would grow a massive 25 per cent, states' share would grow a dismal 6 per cent.
The BJP is now inventing new angles to keep its campaign relevant -- even if it's old wine in an old bottle, which is what the allegation on 'Katchatheevu' is, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sharif, the three-time former premier, said that there is a need for all the political parties to sit together and form a government to pull Pakistan out of its difficulties.
In a letter to Saxena, the BJP's West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma demanded Maliwal's removal from her position.
'Modigate is snowballing into a huge thing with the electorate. The BJP is in for huge punishment by the electorate.'
Divestment also was not covered. One would have expected divestment to be a major instrument for raising fund for various projects, as was the case in the last 3-4 budgets but we did not see it at all.
Rajya Sabha member Pravin Rashtrapal, who has been re-nominated by the Congress from Gujarat for the biennial elections to the Upper House, on Friday filed his nomination papers in Gandhinagar.
Budget has several small steps which will boost growth
'The first duty of the government is to learn lessons from a bad experience and course correct. It's a pity that the government is making policy without looking at evidence and differentiating between immediate and urgent.'
'An era of fiscal pessimism is setting in, which, if not countered intellectually, is going to have the same effect as export pessimism has had,' notes T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
The government has allowed the Enforcement Directorate to share information about economic offenders with 15 more agencies, including SFIO, CCI and NIA, a move that will expedite nailing of law-breakers. The finance ministry notified changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on November 22. Through the notification, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which deals primarily with cases of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, would be able to share data with a total of 25 agencies, including the 10 specified earlier.
The government on Thursday decided to ask the 13th Finance Commission to map the road for achieving fiscal deficit targets by including off-budget subsidies like oil, food and fertiliser bonds estimated at over Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion) in the Budget.
Over the past six months Rajasthan has introduced some of India's most radical free-market labour, land and welfare reform.
City's alleged breaches stretch from the 2009-10 season to the 2017-18 campaign, the league said on Monday.
If Modi wants to leave a real legacy, breaking India's strategic triangulation would be the real gift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
On the present government's 'Make in India' campaign, C Rangarajan, former chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, says it is important to first ask for whom it is being made.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said there must be a "debate" on the "serious" issue relating to the practice of political parties promising freebies and asked why cannot the Centre call for an all-party meeting on it.
States could then stop complaining about the Centre and fashion their own economic destinies, says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
Indian-American filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who had made a documentary on US President Barack Obama, has been indicted on charges of violating federal campaign finance laws.
Kerala's election discourse operates surreptitiously. Its explicit face focuses on important national and local issues. At the same time, it seeks to secure apt communal equations to ensure votes, notes Shyam G Menon.
'If we want faster growth and want greater flow of credit towards the private sector, it's important to have many more of such large entities.'
