How much do you know about the finance minister?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with students on a cruise ship on the Brahmaputra River during a 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' programme on the second day of his Assam visit.
Sri Lanka's new Finance Minister Ali Sabry on Tuesday resigned, a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him after sacking his brother Basil Rajapaksa amidst the island nation's worst economic crisis.
Total pending Customs arrears, including amounts under litigation, court stays and cases where the appeal period has not expired, stood at about Rs 1.36 trillion at the end of December 2024.
After the last Budget's announcement of a major tax relief for those earning an annual salary of less than Rs 12 lakh, there is not much that individuals can look forward to in the forthcoming Budget, points out A K Bhattacharya.
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.
Customs regimes can lead to labyrinthine legal disputes. Budget 2026 must recognise that an excessively defensive Customs posture can itself become a trade barrier, point out Mukesh Butani and Shankey Agrawal.
A public exchange of open letters between Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Shashi Tharoor reveals a significant rift over foreign policy, particularly concerning Israel and the Sabarimala temple issue.
The ruling is expected to have wide-ranging consequences for global trade, businesses, consumers, inflation trends and household finances across the country.
Officials said the government is keen to conform to the convention of the Union Budget for 2026-2027 being presented on February 1 despite it falling on a Sunday in 2026.
In a region increasingly shaped by competition and coercion, such collaboration strengthens security without confrontation, builds capacity without dependency and promotes order without domination, points out Dr Kumar.
With the Iran war escalating sharply and crisis deepening in the global energy market, India on Monday unveiled a coordinated plan to support exporters and shippers caught in the fallout.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Tarique Rahman is Bangladesh's first male prime minister in more than three decades, ending an era of female leadership that began in 1991.
Nearly 96 per cent of new applicants will benefit from this simplified approval route.
Finance Minister expects rate cut by RBI.
A Haryana government employee has been arrested in connection with the Rs 590 crore IDFC First Bank fraud case, which involved state government accounts and led to the recovery of nearly Rs 556 crore within 24 hours.
Need to classify clinics as industries.
In 2025-26, the government allocated Rs 6,81,210 crore for defence budget.
Ambareesh Baliga's quick take on the markets after the increase in STT on futures and options trading...
'If you go by the capital expenditure, this is a good defence budget. But we will have to see if the government can keep defence spending at 2 per cent or higher in 2027-2028.'
In the seven intervening years since his "dream" Budget of 1997, the only thing that doesn't seem to have changed about him is his name.
With inflation comfortably below the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) 4 per cent median target and likely to undershoot its 3.7 per cent projection for 2025-26 (FY26), there is room for the monetary policy easing cycle to be sustained, the Finance Ministry said on Monday. The comments, featured in the ministry's Monthly Economic Review for June 2025, assume significance ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) scheduled to begin from August 5.
Sensitive issues remain. Water sharing of the Ganga and Teesta rivers. Treatment of minorities, particularly Hindus. Border management. Trade imbalances. Connectivity projects.What happens next will shape not just bilateral ties, but the balance of South Asia itself, points out Ramesh Menon.
Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty surged in early trading session on Tuesday after India and the US agreed to a trade deal under which Washington will bring down the reciprocal tariff on Indian goods to 18 per cent from current 25 per cent.
'Each state is unique, but when it comes to finance, the fundamentals cannot be different.'
Stock market is gearing up for an eventful week ahead where key triggers such as quarterly earnings from corporates, the US Fed interest rate decision and the upcoming Union Budget for 2026-27 would grab the limelight, analysts said.
The government's Budget announcements providing tax holiday for data centres, setting up of city economic regions (CERs) and funding to improve infrastructure in Tier-II and -III cities may give an indirect boost to India's realty sector, said industry executives.
Sustaining 8 per cent-plus growth rates is necessary if we are to reach high-income status by 2047, points out Amitabh Kant.
Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended 2.5 per cent higher on Tuesday after India and the US agreed to a trade deal under which Washington will bring down the reciprocal tariff on Indian goods to 18 per cent.
Ajit Pawar, who was the finance and planning minister, would have tabled his budget for 2026-27 next month when the state legislature's budget session begins in Mumbai on February 23.
State debt is rising because revenues are disappointingly weak. Ten states have debt ratios exceeding 30 per cent. In 2023-2024, states were borrowing simply to meet day-to-day expenses, points out Debashis Basu.
The GST Council at its next meeting may consider a reduction in taxes on air and water purifiers as air quality across the country worsens and access to safe drinking water remains uneven.
India has managed high government debt-to-GDP, a slowing domestic revenue engine, lower household savings and a more hostile geopolitical environment separately in the past. But together, they threaten to undo the growth narrative on which today's optimism rests, warns Debashis Basu.
If the FM can levy education cess to meet the cost of education, then why not defense cess for defense cost, health cess, food cess, and so on. What are the tax collections meant for, asks Kanu H Doshi, partner of Kanu Doshi Associates, chartered accountants, Mumbai.
Restoring weighted tax deductions and adopting a petty patents regime can foster firm-level innovative activity critical for competitiveness, points out Nagesh Kumar.
To digitise Customs processes, the Union finance ministry is planning to integrate the Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE), Risk Management System (RMS), and Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange System (ICES) into a single unified national Customs platform, according to government sources.
India Inc on Sunday hailed the Union Budget 2026-27 as a 'structural shift' in the country's technology landscape, noting that the government is moving beyond fragmented pilots to build foundational layers where AI serves as a 'horizontal enabler' for the entire economy.
Israel and the United States had a plan. Iran punched back. And now the Gulf is reeling, the world is beginning to feel the pain and, as on date, no one in Washington or Tel Aviv appears willing to admit that the punch has landed, notes Prem Panicker, continuing his must-read blog on the war in the Middle East.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief over the death of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar in a plane crash, declaring a government holiday and state mourning. Other state leaders also mourned Pawar's passing, highlighting his contributions to Maharashtra's development and politics.
