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 had earlier this week briefed top BJP leadership on the same foreign policy issues.
The government on Saturday said it will be premature to make a judgment on whether corporate lobbyist Niira Radia was a spy or not, until the probe is completed in the matter.
Asserting that India and Pakistan can unite through a common market, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday invited Islamabad to work jointly for developing a trade and economic block, "which could even be a matter of envy for blocks like Europe
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday expressed dismay over the way Lok Sabha had to approve an additional net expenditure of about Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) without any discussion in the din by Opposition over demand for a joint parliamentary committee to probe 2G spectrum allocation.
Amid China's claims over parts of Arunachal Pradesh, India on Sunday said the differences between New Delhi and Beijing over border issues can be resolved through dialogue. "It is true that we have differences with China over the border. But we have agreed to resolve them through dialogue," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the G-20 meeting in Scotland. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao had agreed to maintain peace.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had a brief meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on salient features of the Budget.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, he said he could not announce 'many radical" measures in the Interim Budget presented earlier this week because of constitutional constraints. Fiscal correction and monetary changes should go side by side so that impact on the economy is maximum, he said adding, his ministry was in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India for future course of action.
"Arunachal is an integral part of India," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in New Delhi, a day after Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi claimed that the east Indian state was "Chinese territory".
"The bank strike is expected to be called off today. I am being told that talks are on between the bank associations and worker unions," he said replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads an Empowered Group of Ministers on Special Economic Zones, is likely to consult Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the dispute between finance and commerce ministries over tax exemption for export profits from the zones.
Making it clear that Islamabad's claims of cooperation in Mumbai attacks probe will not suffice, India on Thursday asked Pakistan to implement its words and show in a "transparent" manner that action has been taken against Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other such groups.
The fire, described as 'minor', was due to a short-circuit in the antechamber next to Pranab Mukherjee's room, according to the fire department.
He said the defence ministry has also notified the procedure for selection of tier-1 Indian private industries that will be treated at par with state-run defence firms in terms of the provisions of the Defence Procurement Procedure of 2005.
The meet assumes significance as the Mumbai unit of the I-T department is handling probe into high-value cases of tax evasion including the Indian Premier League case, probe into the investments of Pune-based stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan and tax related cases of the top cricketing body of the country -- Board of Control for Cricket in India.
'Why should they say that their doors are open? Are we beggars? My doors are open for them,' a defiant Mamata said.
Mukherjee is visiting Pakistan to formally invite President Pervez Musharraf to attend the SAARC Summit to be held in India on April 3-4.
Confident of meeting the schedule of introducing the goods and service tax in the beginning of the next fiscal, state finance ministers will meet the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee around mid-June on various issues relating to the new tax system.
In the first objection from within Congress, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said he is not in favour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G spectrum issue as he was accountable to the Lok Sabha and "not to any committee".
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has arrived in New York for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the 2G spectrum issue in the wake of a Finance Ministry note involving P Chidambaram.
Officials in Dhaka have been given details of persons indulging in insurgency and other terrorist activities during a meeting of the Home Secretaries from the two sides.
The revised draft DTC, released earlier this month, has dropped the contentious issues of the first discussion paper.
Even as India's annual inflation rate touched 10.16 per cent in May, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday ruled out the possibility of interest rates rising in the short term. He said he expected inflation to be on the higher side till the middle of July.
"Whenever we will be in a postion to share it with Pakistan, it will be done so," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media-persons in New Delhi when asked when India will respond to Pakistan's questions.
The finance minister also says that India requires an investment of $850 billion to $1 trillion in the next 5-7 years.
The results of the 10 assembly by-elections in West Bengal once again proved that the people wanted the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance and the ruling Left Front was losing popularity, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata on Wednesday.
However, he disappointed big time by not announcing any relief in taxes or change in the tax structure to bring relief to the common man.
Protesting the 'erroneous' stand, Prasenjit Bose, former convenor of the research unit of CPI-M, decided to send his resignation letter to the CPI-M leadership, and was later expelled from the party. We present the letter, where he elaborates his stand, which was first published in Pragati, on July 22.
"Instances of inhuman treatment of Indian prisoners have come to the notice of consular offices of our mission in Islamabad from time to time," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a written reply.
A committee has been formed and the price situation was being reviewed, the finance minister added.
Just 6.4% of branches owned by new private sector banks are in the rural areas
The DMK on Monday put on hold the resignations of its six ministers from the UPA Government in a dramatic new turn, with the party and Congress engaged in hectic negotiations to sort out their seat-sharing problems in Tamil Nadu. Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee telephoned DMK chief M Karunanidhi twice, and urged him not to pull out his ministers from the cabinet during the Budget Session, and sought a day's time to resolve problems.
The meeting, on the sidelines of the Annual Spring session of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, will happen within a couple days of about a dozen US industry associations writing to the US Treasury Secretary to take up the controversial move by India to amend the Income Tax Act with retrospective effect.
The first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks on Thursday saw Leader of the Opposition L K Advani expressing concern over the relief to the victims and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hitting back, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of exploiting the 26/11 terror attacks for political gains
Crossing Rs 49, the Indian currency is moving fast towards the Rs 50-to-a-dollar mark.
The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also observed silence for two minutes in the memory of Mukherjee.
'The government will soon announce new procedures to make it easier and mandatory for all arms agents to register themselves with not only the Defence ministry, but also Reserve Bank.'
In a bid to end the impasse inParliament, the government reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party saying it was ready for a discussion on 2-G spectrum issue and a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe but rejected the demand for a JPC, which failed to cut ice with the main opposition.
In a possible precursor to further rate cuts, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's meeting with public sector bank chiefs on Monday will review their benchmark prime lending rates and interest rates on loans for automobiles, homes, small and medium enterprises and non-banking finance companies.
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