In Amman, Biden will meet with King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
India plans to phase in cash transfers of food and kerosene subsidies from September, saving 10-15 per cent of the $21 billion in annual outlays on the benefits by eliminating fraud, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.
Critics have slammed a bloated subsidy that has been proposed for the food security bill, but officials in the government strongly believe that the resultant additional burden will not be above Rs 27,000 crore to meet the commitments under the proposed legislation.
'It has been an ongoing process, talking to the relevant ministries about eliminating leakages and curbing non-core expenditure in various schemes.'
A slew of Bills that will have a significant effect on India's financial landscape are likely to come up in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The business model is going through a reality check; expansion plans on hold and manpower rationalisation is on the cards. Checking expenditure is critical now as advertising is already on a downswing, though CEOs insist that the real impact will be felt in the next quarter. On condition of anonymity, an advertising sales executive admits to a 15 to 20 per cent decline in news channel advertising.
The government is likely to extend fiscal incentives for production of toys, bicycles and leather and footwear in the forthcoming budget as it looks to expand production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to cover more high-employment potential sectors, sources said. The government has already rolled out the scheme with an outlay of about Rs 2 lakh crore for as many as 14 sectors, including automobiles and auto components, white goods, pharma, textiles, food products, high efficiency solar PV modules, advance chemistry cell and speciality steel. The scheme aims to make domestic manufacturing globally competitive and create global champions in manufacturing, and it is yielding solid results, sources said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party swept Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on Sunday inflicting a resounding defeat on the Congress to tighten its stranglehold in the Hindi heartland, in a big boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and setting the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Per capita income in the state has consistently been below the national average for at least 24 years. However, it has narrowed the gap with the all-India level in recent years.
Nationalist Congress Party Supremo and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has dismissed the possibility of early general elections in view of government issuing food security ordinance, saying the "question does not arise unless and until the food reaches the people".
Dismissing the talk about early elections, the Congress said the food security measure is a game changer that will provide right to cheap food grains to 82 crore people.
'Why is the RSS trying to destroy the indigenous culture of Assam and its language?' 'If these migrants settle in Assam, they will overwhelm the 47 per cent of people who speak Assamese.'
While the Delhi and Haryana governments have declared that they are all set to roll-out the food security programme on August 20 -- Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary -- there is confusion among the chief ministers about the implementation of the ordinance which gives the right to people to receive adequate quantity of food grains at affordable prices. Anita Katyal reports.
Setting a tough condition before the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it will not allow the passage of any bill in Parliament till Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar resign or are sacked. The opposition party also made it clear that it will not allow the passage of either the National Food Security Bill or the Land Acquisition Bill.
'To summarise, PM Modi's failures in the last nine years can be categorised under 'durniti' (bad policies), 'anyay' (injustice) and - perhaps most importantly - 'badniyat' (ill intention)'
A Republican-backed measure to fund Trump's border wall failed in a 50-47 vote while Democratic measure that omitted the wall fell short in a 52-44 vote.
Except for Westlife Foodworld (Westlife), a weak 2022-23 (FY23) January-March (fourth quarter, or Q4) quarter performance and a muted near-term outlook led to a downward revision of earnings estimates for quick-service restaurant (QSR) players. Brokerages have slashed estimates by as much as 10 per cent for 2023-24 (FY24) and 2024-25 (FY25). The downward revisions have weighed on the performance of listed players, who have underperformed the market with low single-digit returns over the past month.
Citing an opinion poll that says 80 per cent of people surveyed favoured the right to say no to government decision on genetically modified food, an NGO on Friday sought withdrawal of the proposed "flawed" bill aimed at setting up of a biotechnology regulatory authority.
The Archies is an evergreen thought passed on from generation to generation. But Sukanya Verma wishes it had some of the comic's tee-hee humour and hyuk hyuk too.
Subsidy bill on food, petroleum and fertilisers is estimated at Rs 1,79,554 crore.
Indian charitable trusts, including Tata Trusts and top corporate donors, are stumped by a new tax law proposed in the Budget, which reduces tax breaks for the donor organisations. The Finance Bill proposes that if a charitable organisation donates to another charity, then only 85 per cent of the donation will be considered as application of income for the donor organisation. Trust officials say this is a major setback for the donor organisations, including corporate foundations and intermediary organisations, which work with various implementing agencies at the grassroots level.
This is a formidable task which the Centre may find hard to shoulder without substantial involvement of the states.
The government's subsidy bill on food, fertiliser and petroleum, among others, will fall by about Rs 18,000 crore (Rs 180 billion) at Rs 1,11,275 crore (Rs 1112.75 billion) this fiscal, mainly due to sharp reduction in the urea dole outs.
The Congress has ruled India for 54 of the last 67 years; that it took the party over six decades to come up with bills that provide citizens their basic needs is a shame, not a moment of triumph, says Amberish K Diwanji.
The government's food subsidy bill may touch Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) this fiscal if it pays a bonus to paddy farmers over the current purchase price of Rs 950-980 a quintal to increase rice procurement.
Shreekant Sambrani remembers P R S 'Biki' Oberoi, personal friend and hospitality icon, who passed into the ages this week.
'We cannot leave our entire unorganised sector to the vagaries of market forces.'
The Congress will conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh after winning the assembly polls and establish a university in the name of Sant Ravidas, said party president Mallikarjun Kharge, accusing the regime at the Centre of wishing to change the Constitution.
Notably, India has been calling for dialogue and diplomacy since the war began between Russia and Ukraine.
The government on Friday asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to suggest ways to curb its rising subsidy bill on food, fertiliser and petroleum products without hurting the targetted population.
Despite the incessant disruptions and bitter clashes between political parties witnessed in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, lawmakers from across the political spectrum will display rare unanimity in the coming days to pass two bills aimed at protecting their interests.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned India against too many populist subsidies
The opposition in Lok Sabha on Monday tore into the controversial Land Acquisition Bill
Dr Shreekant Sambrani pays tribute to M S Swaminathan, renowned agricultural scientist and a lifelong crusader against hunger who passed away in Chennai recently.
An all party-meeting to discuss legislative business in Parliament's monsoon session on Thursday saw a fierce debate on the issue of Telangana with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding that a bill be brought on it in this session and some other parties fearing repercussions of the decision in other states.
The old Parliament building will now be known as 'Samvidhan Sadan', Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Tuesday as the functioning of Parliament shifted to its new building in New Delhi.
The growth in world trade is expected to slow down to one per cent in 2023, due to global uncertainties, according to a WTO forecast. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has also projected a growth of 3.5 per cent in global trade this year, as against the April estimate of 3 per cent. World trade is expected to lose momentum in the second half of 2022 and remain subdued in 2023, as multiple shocks weigh on the global economy, the multi-lateral body has said in a statement.
There will be a lot to repair and rejuvenate -- if that opportunity even presents itself, warns Rathin Roy.
This is not a train for the regular commuter, evident from the number of large sized bags in the overhead bin, observes IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
To prevent exploitation of women, especially those in rural and tribal areas, the government has prohibited foreigners from commissioning surrogacy in the country and has drafted this comprehensive legislation.
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