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.
Various indicators make it amply clear that there are grave challenges facing the new government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, reports Indivjal Dhasmana.
Budget has several small steps which will boost growth
Over the past six months Rajasthan has introduced some of India's most radical free-market labour, land and welfare reform.
In a relief to industry, the government has accepted a parliamentary panel's recommendation on allowing cartels to opt for the settlement scheme under the Competition Amendment Bill, according to official sources. The proposed Bill seeks to introduce a clause for settlement and commitment that offers any enterprise against which an inquiry has been initiated to file an application for settlement. The Parliamentary Committee on Finance had suggested including cartels in the scope for settlement "as a pragmatic recourse to the whole process".
Banks do extensive investigation before declaring an account fraud; they owe it to us as they deal with our money. Why would they try to fix an innocent borrower? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the validity of two central laws and the corresponding rules that provide for a maximum tenure of five years for the directors of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday said the problem with electoral bonds scheme is that it provides for "selective anonymity" and "selective confidentiality" as the details are available with the State Bank of India (SBI) and can also be accessed by the law enforcement agencies.
The Adani group has exited the financial services business by selling its entire 90 per cent stake in Adani Capital and Adani Housing to private equity (PE) firm Bain Capital for Rs 1,440 crore. The total valuation of the Adani financial services business stands at Rs 1,600 crore. Gaurav Gupta, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Adani firms will hold the rest of the stake.
The 61-year-old MLA from Islampur seat of Maharashtra has been asked to depose before the federal agency in Mumbai on Friday, they said. Patil, a former minister of home and finance, is also the Maharashtra president of the NCP and is a seven-term legislator.
The investor education and protection fund authority (IEPFA) has reached out to top hundred companies to reduce the documentation required for individuals trying to claim their shares, according to a senior government official. Recently, the Supreme Court-appointed expert panel on the Adani-Hindenburg case had raised issues such as capacity constraints faced by IEPFA in clearing these claims which are over Rs 5,000 crore. "Our immediate priority is to ensure that claims of those investors whose application was approved a year ago but the transfer has not gone through yet are settled first.
'If the current mood in North Block, headquarters of the finance ministry, is anything to go by, the government will now keep a closer watch on all kinds of schemes and projects undertaken by different central ministries. 'The next six months will determine which central schemes will have to be wound up and which ones will survive the axe,' says A K Bhattacharya.
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.
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.
JioMeet, which has already got the endorsement of top government officials and politicians, saw a huge surge in its ranking on Google Play, based on its downloads.
The BJP needs to win maximum number of seats from northeast to strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that development of the region continues.
By any economic theory or doctrine, this is no Budget that supports economic recovery, whether through supporting aggregate demand, or through expansionary stimulus, declares Rathin Roy.
In a significant development, India is believed to have placed a funding request of around $55 million in its first call with the Pandemic Fund of the World Bank, sources said. The fund has been set up to finance critical investments in a bid to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. It was created in the aftermath of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
For Yoginder, it is a release from pain. But for us, his friends, it is the loss of a warm and generous life companion, says Nitin Desai of his 50-year association with the eminent economist who passed into the ages on December 6, 2022.
'There is a misconception that the Centre gives money for the development of Delhi'
The government has made several region-wise and sector-wise allocations in its annual plan and budget proposals.
'After the creation of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh has been left as an agrarian state.' 'Therefore, the special category status to this residual state was imminent and necessary for its development,' YSR Congress MP V Vijayasai Reddy explained in the Rajya Sabha.
The PM-CARES fund, which has been set up to provide relief during the coronavirus pandemic, has contributed over Rs 2,200 crore for the first phase of vaccination drive, which is looking to inoculate frontline healthcare workers, the Expenditure Secretary said on Tuesday.
All GST anti-profiteering complaints would be dealt with by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) from December 1 as the extended tenure of National Anti-profiteering Authority ends this month, an official said on Tuesday. A notification in this regard is expected to be issued by the finance ministry later this month, the official added. The National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) was set up in November 2017 under Section 171A of Goods and Services Tax (GST) law to check unfair profiteering activities by registered suppliers.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government has begun an exercise to assess the impact of the pandemic on the economy and likely contraction in GDP, even as she did not rule out the possibility of another stimulus to boost growth.
'Politics is a game of public perception and my father felt that by his long disappearances, Rahul Gandhi was losing the battle of perception.'
The ED carried out searches against two former auditor firms of IL&FS -- BSR and Associates and Deloitte Haskins and Sells -- on Wednesday in connection with its money-laundering probe into alleged financial irregularities at the infrastructure development and finance company, official sources said. The premises linked to the two auditors in Mumbai were searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added. The action came a week after the Supreme Court set aside a Bombay High Court verdict that quashed an SFIO probe against the two companies, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services, paving the way for action against them under the Companies Act and allowing the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take forward its enquiry against them.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said the country is at the doorstep of economic revival on the back of accommodative monetary and fiscal policies being pursued by the central bank and the government.
The unidentified youths shot Nijjar, a designated terrorist, inside the premises of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib, of which he was the head, at Surrey at 8:27 pm (local time) on Sunday, they said.
Concerned over rising incidence of mis-selling, the finance ministry has directed heads of public sector banks to put in place strong mechanisms to avoid unethical practices for selling insurance policies to customers. The Department of Financial Services has received complaints that fraudulent and unethical practices are adopted by banks and life insurance companies for procuring policies from the bank customers, a letter addressed to chairpersons and managing directors of public sector banks said. There have been instances where life insurance policies were sold to customers aged above 75 years in Tier II-III cities.
The panel, to be headed by Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Shymala Gopinath, will review the structure of the National Small Savings Fund and give recommendations on making schemes more flexible and market-linked.
The government should speed up the disinvestment process to generate funds for meeting the new needs such as environment protection, 13th Finance Commission chairman Vijay Kelkar said.
The top court drew parallel between driving and technology and said if one doesn't know how to handle technology then he or she can't be a judge and questioned the approach of some of the high courts.
CM Stalin has a procedural problem. Nominating new ministers would entail his having to seek formal permission from governor R N Ravi. Stalin does not want to interact with the person of this governor, as far as possible, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
