National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and other top officials of the prime minister's office and the security apparatus were present at the meeting.
Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi government that wanted to do so.
He was last month appointed as Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs in place of his batchmate Arvind Mayaram, who was first shifted to Tourism and then to Minority Affairs Ministry.
'Somebody was using somebody to make statements that will stir the stock market and lead to a surge.' 'A sudden surge and a sudden crash is always an ideal situation for people to make illicit gains and then siphoning off the money.'
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
As the debate on revealing names of those who had stashed money abroad was hotting up, a Parliamentary panel grilled finance ministry officials on why the confidentiality clause was put in tax treaties in the first place.
The poll panel said it found Kharge's letter, placed in the public domain in the middle of the ongoing electoral process, 'highly undesirable' and designed to create confusion, misdirection and impediment to the conduct of smooth, free and fair elections.
"I would like to resign as an independent director of the bank with effect from January 27, 2020. Given an entity owned and controlled by me has made an application to the RBI for a universal banking license, I felt it was -- in the interest of propriety and corporate governance -- only appropriate that I stepped down from this role," Bansal said in his resignation letter, which was disclosed by Ujjivan SFB in the regulatory filing.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
The Finance Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to allocate a fund of Rs 50 crore for infrastructure development of the North Eastern states, informed Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Avishek Dalmiya.
The stock exchange BSE has called off the merger of its unit at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City International Financial Services Centre (GIFT IFSC), India International Exchange (India INX), with NSE International Exchange (NSE IX), a similar unit floated by rival National Stock Exchange (NSE), according to sources familiar with the development. BSE and NSE had been in discussions for the merger for over a year, but it has yielded no results, they said.
Sinha said that he was not invited for "any party events, rallies or organizational meetings".
Speaking at the Congress manifesto launch programme, Gandhi said it is a much closer contest than what is propagated by the media, and expressed confidence in winning the polls.
The GST, an indirect tax regime, is to be rolled out from April 2016.
The government also announced that healthcare cover under the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme will be extended to all ASHA and anganwadi workers and helpers.
The Congress leader also lamented the exclusion of current Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge from the committee
Owing to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman being new to her role, a number of crucial announcements in the Budget bore Garg's imprint, especially the decision to borrow in overseas markets, reduce the fiscal deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product, and resort to off-Budget borrowing to meet that target, says Arup Roychoudury.
Interim Budget, the US Federal policy decision and quarterly earnings will be the major drivers for stock markets which may also see some consolidation this week, say analysts. Besides, investors would also focus on the trading activity of foreign investors and global trends for further cues. From the macroeconomic front, the PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) data for the manufacturing sector is scheduled to be announced on Thursday.
Among the Sensex firms, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Nestle, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Maruti and HDFC Bank were the major laggards.
The Lokpal Bill has been referred to the Standing Committee of Parliament on personnel, public grievances, law and justice. In this FAQ, we explain the process of these committees.
No government in the past initiated the process of policy making for its next tenure even before going in for elections. Once the Model Code of Conduct is enforced by the Election Commission, should the government of the day refrain from taking an active interest in policy making for the next five years and let that be the function of the new government?, asks A K Bhattacharya.
Arun Jaitley on Friday said he would defer the move.
In order to reduce government litigations, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the GST Council has fixed a monetary limit for filing appeals by the tax department before the various appellate authorities. It has recommended a monetary limit of Rs 20 lakh for GST Appellate Tribunal, Rs 1 crore for the High Court and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court for filing of appeals by the department before these legal forums, she said after the 53rd GST Council meeting held in New Delhi.
Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday nominated former home minister and Congress member P Chidambaram to the department-related parliamentary standing committee on home affairs.
The Bilawal Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party which won the third largest number of seats in the National Assembly in the elections appears to be split on whether to join a coalition government or sit on Opposition benches.
Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Dehadrai said, "I have given my complaint to the CBI. This is a very serious issue and there are people from Odisha who are financing and supporting those against whom I have filed a complaint (to the CBI). This fight is a bit dangerous but I will not back down."
Former Cricket South Africa president Dr Ali Bacher is not pleased that India, Australia and England are "marginalising" other boards to enjoy complete hegemony.
'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.' 'So, when the Opposition sweepingly says there are no jobs, I'm sorry... I'm not saying it's raining jobs, but there are jobs. The (skill) gap has to be bridged.'
Of the seven members, four are proposed to be government nominees and the rest from RBI.
An angry BCCI has now threatened to withdraw the Indian team from the next year's Champions Trophy in England after being excluded from the ICC's finance committee meeting held a few days ago in Dubai.
After her elevation as defence minister, Sitharaman has become a member of the cabinet committee on security headed by the prime minister.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
Sources said the report of the law panel on simultaneous polls is not yet finalised. They said "some more things are required to be done", indicating that the law panel will be invited again by the high-level committee.
Following are the highlights of the RBI's first monetary policy statement of 2022-23 unveiled by Governor Shaktikanta Das: Policy repo rate unchanged at 4%; marginal standing facility rate & bank rate too remain unchanged at 4.25%. Monetary stance to be accommodative with focus on withdrawal of accommodation to keep inflation within target. GDP growth projection for FY'23 slashed to 7.2% from 7.8%; growth projections based on assumption of crude oil (Indian basket) price at $100 a barrel during FY'23. Inflation forecast hiked to 5.7% for FY'23 from 4.5%.
The Ethics Committee of Rajya Sabha headed by Congress veteran Karan Singh on Monday took cognizance of the issue of Vijay Mallya, who has allegedly defaulted on over Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) bank loans.
Government headhunters Public Enterprise Selection Board selected Srinivasan after interviewing 11 candidates at its office in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Social stock exchange (SSE) saw its first listing on Wednesday, with SGBS Unnati Foundation becoming the first entity to take this route to avail financing. The foundation - engaged in vocational training of youth - raised Rs 1.8 crore from four investors. These include brokerage firm Zerodha and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
The government is considering setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for financing of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) following the reluctance of banks and mutual funds to make available funds for the sector.
Duvvuri Subbarao recounts how his tensions with P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee, then finance ministers, over monetary policy spilled over into other issues in the central bank in this excerpt from Who Moved My Interest Rate?, his memoir of his term as Reserve Bank of India governor.