A panel has recommended that the RBI should bring down CPI inflation to 4 per cent.
For the modernisation of the armed forces, the Finance Minister allocated an additional Rs 5,000 crore.
'Part A of the Budget was like it was written by somebody from the 21st century and Part B was written by somebody from the 19th century.'
The decision to scrap the plan for landless workers and focus only on small and marginal farmers was made as there was no proper method to find out who qualify as landless labourers.
In his interim budget on February 17, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the fiscal deficit would not cross 4.6 per cent of GDP, revising an earlier target of 4.8 per cent.
'That Modi and the BJP can continue to treat the rising and expanding middle class this way shows that they have gamed its mind quite perfectly,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
India Inc believes that given the current economic slowdown, it could not have been any better
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned former Indian cricket team captain and Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin for over nine hours in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association, official sources said.
In the run-up to the Union Budget, expected to be presented on July 10, this paints a grim picture for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The government is planning to introduce legislative changes to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) regulations, with a focus on easing the pathway for inflows from a foreign portfolio investor to transition seamlessly into foreign direct investments (FDI) once the FPI surpasses the 10 per cent ownership threshold in a company. This move stems from multiple requests by foreign investors seeking to streamline the reporting requirements that arise when their stakes in Indian firms cross the 10 per cent mark.
As the extended Winter Session of Parliament entered its third and last week on Monday, the Telangana issue continued to disrupt Rajya Sabha leading to its adjournment for the day.
The government seems to have come to the rescue of potential car buyers.
The price reduction by Nissan is in the range of 4 to 6 per cent.
Replying to the debate on the Finance Bill in Lok Sabha, the minister said he did not propose any change in the tax rate but only provided few rebates which will boost spending and help the economy.
Modi, however, welcomed the announcement of 'one rank-one pension' for defence forces.
In the 2012-13, car sales in India fell 6.69 per cent, which was the first decline in a decade.
He's the first finance minister to present Budgets on either side of an election and the first to do so after a quarter-century gap.
The government would take a number of steps to energise and deepen the country's corporate bond as well as currency derivatives market.
The global rating agency has, however, cautioned that India's fiscal position remains 'weak'.
Foreign institutional investors added $20.10 billion in equities while they pulled out $7.97 billion from the debt market, resulting in total net flows of $12.13 billion.
The issue of alleged tax evasion by Indians through banks and other entities in offshore locations, specially Switzerland, has been matter of a political debate in India.
The government on Monday allocated an increased sum of Rs 3073 crore for the Sports Ministry in the Union budget for fiscal 2009-10, and also proposed to sanction Rs 3472 crore for next year's Commonwealth Games. The budget for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has been increased by Rs 1480 crore than what was proposed in the interim budget presented before the Lok Sabha elections.
They may be on the same side of political power, but that did not stop Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and her predecessor Lalu Prasad from taking pot-shots at each other during the presentation of Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha.
He said the total capital requirement for state-run banks is Rs 455 billion ($7.6 billion) in 2014/15 fiscal year, much lower than the Rs 113 billion provided for recapitalisation in the interim budget in February.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday announced a slew of measures for improving the services of Indian Railways.
The term of the Deputy Chairman and Members of the Commission is coterminous with that of the Prime Minister and all of them have resigned following the change of government last month after the general elections.
As the adjournment of Parliament for an indefinite period with the Rajya Sabha also adjourning sine die kickstarts the final countdown for the general elections, Modi said the last five years were a period of "reform, perform and transform" with the country moving towards "big changes" at a fast pace.
The five-time prime minister was re-appointed to the job on May 12 following the political circus precipitated by the unprecedented economic crisis in the island's history.
Price reduction by auto buyers leads to only a marginal rise in enquiry level.
Families with tax-paying members, government employees, professionals, among those who have been exempted from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
The new government may enhance the Plan expenditure for 2014-15 by around Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) in the Budget next month, which would be about 2 per cent higher than what was provided in the previous fiscal budget.
'My protest was in the interest of the nation.' 'I am just doing my duty as a citizen of this country.'
Pranab Mukherjee proposed the enhancement of the overall plan budget for higher education by Rs 2,000 crore over the Interim Budget estimates. He further announced the allocation of Rs 2,113 crore for IITs and NITs, which includes a provision of Rs 450 crore for new IITs and NITs. The finance minister also proposed to allocate Rs 827 crore for opening one central university in each uncovered state.
The Budget has increased the allocation for the Commonwealth Games from Rs 3,472 crore (Rs 34.72 billion) from Rs 2,112 crore (Rs 21.12 billion).
The Centre's fiscal deficit for the first two months (April-May) of the current fiscal has increased to Rs 90,758 crore, which is 27.3 per cent of the Interim Budget estimate, according to the Controller General of Accounts data released on Tuesday. The Budget estimate for the fiscal deficit in the year 2009-10 is Rs 3,32,835 crore.
Though not a blockbuster budget it does not undermine the fact that key issues were addressed and the finance minister certainly did not under-deliver, says Vatsal Srivastava.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
The Budget estimate of fiscal deficit for the next financial year has been underestimated by nearly 0.9 percentage point of Gross Domestic Product, or about Rs 51,000 crore. This is because the estimates for revenue collections in the Interim Budget for 2009-10 do not reflect the full impact of the duty concessions announced by the government since December 2008. The Budget estimate for fiscal deficit in 2009-10 put it at 5.5 per cent of GDP.
The government expects the expenses on tours of ministers and former Prime Ministers in the current fiscal to be Rs 3 lakh less than the total budget allocation, but still this would be more than Rs 160 crore (Rs 1.6 billion).
