India has allocated Rs 1.72 trillion, or 27.67 per cent of the total defence budget to cater to modernisation of the country's arsenal. Modern militaries spend up to 50 to 60 per cent of their total defence budget so that they go into combat with superior weaponry and equipment.
The Centre's fiscal deficit touched 74.5 per cent of the annual target at the end of January 2025, according to the data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Friday.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi's reaction to President Droupadi Murmu's address to the Joint session of the Parliament on Friday stoked a controversy.
The winter session of Parliament usually starts from the last week of November or the first week of December, while the budget session starts from the last week of January and the Union Budget is tabled on February 1.
She has shown shrewdness, sensitivity, and courage. All of these will be needed in ample quantities for the real challenge that will emerge after the elections, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
'Suddenly we had a new comprehension of affairs, which reminded that the luxury of politics floated atop a foundation by economics.' 'Along with this, finance ministers became crucial in molding the perception and reputation of Union Cabinets.' 'Governments couldn't afford a wrong person in that portfolio,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to step up efforts to boost consumption and rural economy while keeping inflation under check when she presents her sixth straight Budget on February 1. Experts said one way to boost consumption is to put more money in the hands of people, and one of the possible ways of doing it is by reducing the tax burden through tinkering with tax slabs or increasing the standard deduction. Another proposal is related to increasing the funds under the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA and higher payout for farmers.
Let there be a rule that if the Budget is not passed and funds cannot be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India, there will be a government shutdown as it happens in the United States, says A K Bhattacharya.
If the Budget makes no big announcements on new schemes, projects, or tax giveaways, the government would face a major political dilemma as it may have to reluctantly consider shunning the practice of unveiling pre-election sops to woo voters, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Lok Sabha could function for only 45 hours this Budget Session against its scheduled 133.6 hours because of daily disruptions and frequent adjournments, a think tank data has shown.
India on Saturday announced plans to amend its nuclear liability law and set up a nuclear energy mission, a move that came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to the United States.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.
"There is enough time, and required mandatory time for the circulation of agenda will be followed", the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.
India has reported 59 cases of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) and two deaths due to co-morbidities between January 6 and 29, according to Union Minister Prataprao Jadhav. The virus primarily affects young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals, leading to respiratory illnesses. The government has taken measures to monitor and control the spread of HMPV cases and create public awareness.
A session of both Houses of Parliament will be held from September 18-22 without Question Hour or private members' business, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha secretariats said on Saturday.
'I had to persuade him. I think he was a sceptic to begin with, but later on he was convinced that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that there was no other way out.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a reply from the Lok Sabha secretary general on Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra's plea challenging her expulsion from the Lower House.
President Murmu reached the new Parliament building in a six-horse buggy accompanied by the Presidential Bodyguards riding horses.
The finance minister's assertion that industry should not expect any spectacular announcements in the 2024 interim Budget suggest that the electoral imperatives of more tax concessions or higher expenditure on welfarist programmes could be far less pronounced than they were before the 2019 interim Budget, expects A K Bhattacharya.
As the row erupted in Parliament, the Congress said the Gandhi family's caste is martyrdom but the BJP-RSS will never understand that.
The entire Budget-making exercise will be advanced by 3-4 weeks so as to complete the legislative part of financial business before April 1, the start of a financial year
Pre-Budget excercise next month should scrupulously avoid adventurism of all types and refrain from making excessively ambitious projections on revenue and expenditure numbers for 2023-24, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present Union Budget 2023-24 in a paperless format just like the previous two years. She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.
From bhikshus of Ashokan 3rd century BC and medieval Sufis to Oxfam, Omidyar and Soros now, non-State actors have any real power only when they work in conjunction with a real State, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
EPS has had its way on most things, alliance-wise. A week earlier, he reiterated that he would not re-admit OPS and Sasikala Natarajan back in the party. It was a message not just to detractors in the AIADMK. It was even more so for the BJP leadership in Delhi. Even more important for the AIADMK was their demand for accepting EPS as the chief ministerial candidate of any alliance that the party would form, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Kerala unit of the Congress instantly gets a headache when Shashi Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory. With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party, notes Shyam G Menon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a two-day working visit to the US from February 12 during which he will meet President Donald Trump, the external affairs ministry announced. The visit will give further impetus and direction to India-US bilateral relationship. Prior to his US visit, Modi will be in France from February 10-12 to co-chair the AI Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron. He will also visit Cadarache, the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor of which India is a partner. During his visit to France from February 10-12, Modi and Macron will also address the India-France CEOs forum. The prime minister and Macron will travel to Marseille where they will inaugurate the Consulate General of India. The leaders will also visit the war cemetery and pay tribute to the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in World War 1. Modi and Macron will visit Cadarache, the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). There has been a very close rapport between Trump and Modi, dating back to the US leader's first term. There is a clear convergence of interests between the two countries in several areas, including trade, investment, technology, defense cooperation, counterterrorism, Indo-Pacific security, and people-to-people relations.
There was no official word on the agenda of the session which will be held days after the G20 Summit in the national capital on September 9 and 10.
After being elected president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1999, Najma Heptulla rang up the then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi from Berlin to convey the news but had to hold the phone line for an hour as a staff told her that 'madam is busy'.
Parliament will now meet on March 8 for the second part of the Budget session.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her fifth Budget that may do a tightrope walk between staying fiscally prudent and meeting general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy.
This is the first Budget in Amrit Kaal, she said.
'The BJP's real weapons are Hindutva, organisation and finance.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will kick start the customary pre-Budget consultation exercise with stakeholders from Wednesday by holding the first such meeting with experts of agriculture and agro-processing industry. She will be seeking inputs from various stakeholders, including industry bodies, farmer organisations and economists for reviving consumption and boosting growth hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The growth this year is expected to be in the double-digit during the current fiscal.
The Union Budget for 2017 is likely to be presented on February 1. An approval for merging the Railway Budget with the General Budget was accorded by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday.
The government and the Opposition on Tuesday agreed on the passage of this year's General Budget and the Finance Bill without any discussion in Parliament in view of the impasse over National Democratic Aliiance's demand for removal of 'tainted' mini
Describing the general Budget as a 'sanjeevani' (new life) to the "moribund economy", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said it converts hopes and aspirations of the people into trust and is in line with his government's endeavour to bring India out of crisis.
The Parliament premises will sport a new look when the 18th Lok Sabha convenes for its maiden session in June as work is underway to integrate the entire complex, comprising four different buildings.
It is the anti-rape law that poses the biggest challenge.
The General Budget will be presented on July 6 and the Railway Budget will be presented on July 3.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances