Pranay Bhatia offers insights on some key issues from Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on his maiden visit as minister to Washington, DC, addresses two think thanks, leaves American Establishment impressed, reports Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the state-run Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the planning body, indicated that it expected to award the contract before December, which would pave the way to kick start construction in the same month.
Percy Mistry says things at market regulator Sebi are also in bad shape.
The CFO will formulate the accounting policy of the bank, maintain the internal accounts and report financial results, and carry out corporate strategy functions like PF policies.
The Centre will contain its fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent of GDP as it expects to mop up Rs 13,500 crore (Rs 135 billion) from the ongoing public offering of government equity in six companies, a senior finance ministry official said on Monday.
Smart cities must be very well equipped with technology and security systems alike.
'Agri reforms need to go beyond the limited concerns of these three laws in improving agriculture productivity in cereal and crop diversification and production patterns.'
Two years ago, the number was 4,000, according to Indian businessmen.
The statutory body, which will be named the National Treasury Management Agency, will act as a debt manager handling the borrowings for the centre and states. Despite being a statutory body, NTMA would be under 'general superintendence and control of the government' and its head would be directly accountable to the finance ministry. The objective of the agency is to meet the borrowing needs of the government at lower cost, and function within an 'acceptable level of risk'.
Apart from 40 modules of Harvard, SBI has internally developed 500 e-modules for employees.
The government and MMRDA are keen to develop the 22-km link, which will connect Sewri on the island city to Nhava Seva in Navi Mumbai, on an engineering, procurement and construction basis and not on the build-operate transfer model, considering past experience.
'This prime minister thinks he knows everything.' 'He has to consult, he has to talk and he has to mobilise the best people, but having seen him function, I have no expectations from him.'
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, as well as Britain's Asia-focused Standard Chartered said they would try to support London's financial sector
The declaration also names Pak-based terror groups like LeT and JeM.
Rajan's exit will neither affect the RBI's de facto independence nor its working.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said it should be mandatory for those filing public interest litigations against the government on development projects to declare their source of funds, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned the judiciary against being influenced by "five-star activists".
Amid demands for special category status by Bihar, the Centre on Wednesday set up an expert committee to evolve a composite index to measure backwardness of states.
'Terrorism continues to be the overwhelming threat to security and stability in the SCO region and therefore Dr Jaishankar strongly pitched for 'collective action',' observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, came together on Thursday to raise the issue of stalled projects plaguing India Inc and implored the Maharashtra government and the Centre to make Mumbai, India's financial capital, an easier place for business and investments. "Several projects are stuck for many years in Mumbai and we would like to know how the government intends to improve the financing and execution of projects, including those relating to infrastructure and education which have been in limbo for long and are affecting the growth of the city," Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Seated on the same table was his brother, apart from Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry and State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya. Jaitley was addressing the Mumbai Next MMR Transformation conclave, organised by the Maharashtra government and Mumbai First here, through video conference. In his reply, Jaitley said the government was exploring several options of infrastructure financing in India and that a number of international bodies were ready to fund infrastructure development projects. He added the government was keenly considering these funding sources. While praising Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for honesty, Jaitley also had a word of advice. Apart from being honest, the government had to be decisive, he said. On his part, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani told the chief minister about his experience of decisions being delayed due to an indecisive bureaucracy and the need to protect officials who wanted to take quick decisions. "Through the past many years, we have faced a number of obstacles in decision-making," he said, adding he was speaking as someone who had lived and invested in Mumbai. Fadnavis responded by saying he would bring about a transparent process to ring-fence officials. Both the Ambani brothers have announced a number of infrastructure projects in and around Mumbai, including a world-class convention centre in Bandra Kurla Complex by RIL, but very few have actually fructified. RIL's special economic zone project failed to take off due to land acquisition problems in Raigarh, while a second SEZ near Mumbai is stuck due to lack of clarity in SEZ norms. The first phase of the Mumbai Metro, set up by Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure, was marred by cost overruns and run-ins with the government over fares. Subsequently, the company withdrew from the second and larger phase, citing inordinate delay. Anil Ambani also withdrew from Mumbai's sea link project on the same grounds. The brothers had also bid for a trans-harbour sea link between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai under the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government, but their bid was rejected. Reliance Infrastructure is also the power supplier to more than half of this city. Participating in the conclave, some of India Inc's leading bankers said making Mumbai a financial hub would take at least a decade. SBI's Bhattacharya said the Indian currency should be made fully convertible and facilities should be created for it. "However, for this, the economy needs to look up and that will happen only in the next 7-10 years, not immediately," she added. Sunil Kaushal, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered, India, pitched for strong infrastructure to support development. "We will take a long time to develop into a global financial centre. We need to solve transport bottlenecks in Mumbai and have lifestyle facilities for people working in and around these areas," he said.
'The idea is to have a separate and independent consultation on non-personal data, and decide the contours of how it should be regulated, whether as guidelines, rules, or a separate policy,' said a senior official at MeitY.
The Centre and state governments bonded and then fell apart during the longest lockdown walk.
What will a split in the AIADMK mean for Tamil Nadu?
Inter-ministerial programmes have run into obstacles as rules written by bureaucrats hamper rather than promote investments.
'What we are actually missing in India is a platform wherein the government engages with cybersecurity experts, gets them employed and then utilises their capability to deter such attacks.'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked the prime minister not to make new promises to Bihar but "show moral courage" and ensure implementation of all the promises made till date.
The Union government will gain close to Rs 1.6 lakh crore in additional revenues this fiscal from a record hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel that has pushed the total incidence of taxation on auto fuels to 70 per cent of the price. Late on Tuesday evening, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13 a litre to mop up gains arising from international oil prices falling to a two-decade low.
'ISRO facilities are very expensive and any damage caused by these start-ups can create havoc to our space programme.'
The current Chairman UK Sinha's term comes to an end in February next year.
Mauritius is biggest route for investment into India.
The 15-member committee has also recommended the imposition of a goods and service tax on financial services, and creation of a currency spot market and rupee-settled exchange traded currency derivatives market.
Some measures announced in Indradhanush -- a 7-point Modi plan to revamp State-owned banks but not completed -- may be taken up again.
Noted economist Arvind Subramanian is favoured as the choice for the government's Chief Economic Advisor (CEA).
"At present, there are two main rate slabs under which sa majority of goods are covered -- five per cent and 12.5 per cent -- which will now increase to three (five per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per cent).Will this result in multiple litigations is anybody's guess."
GST reform has been hanging fire since 2006-07.
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The policy will be announced shortly, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said on Monday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Bihar became the first non-NDA state and overall second after the BJP-ruled Assam to pass GST bill.
Naxals are possibly receiving foreign funds but the chunk of their money comes from extortion of corporate houses and 'levy' imposed by them on mining, the government said on Wednesday.
