The Budget may see new rural schemes and stepping up of funding towards existing programmes like MNREGA, rural housing, irrigation projects and crop insurance.
Except for Anant Patel, the rest 16 MLAs of Congress were present in the House on Monday.
Budget-makers in North Block are looking to maintain this fiscal status quo, in spite of tax revenues nowhere close to where the government wants and in spite of possible higher expenditure commitments.
The Centre plans to create a special window for strategically important investors such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds that wish to invest over Rs 3,000 crore through a single transaction.
Mitra also said currency demonetisation has led to closure of small industries and left hundreds jobless across the country
Ahead of the Parliament session, the government will hold a meeting with leaders of all parties on Sunday to brief them and hear their views, amid an intense buzz on whether it will have some surprise item up its sleeve during the five-day sitting.
Reaching out to the youth of the Kashmir Valley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spelled out initiatives for peace and development, and assured they will not inherit the problems faced by their parents and grandparents.
For the first time in the history of Budget-making in India, a single Budget will touch 65 crore Indians, says Shailesh Haribhakti.
The finance minister defended the change in the tax rates.
When a strong executive decides it wants something, even something that is dangerous and unconstitutional, there is little resistance from within to stop it, notes Aakar Patel.
PM Narendra Modi and Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur heaped praise on Neeraj Chopra on winning the World Championship gold on Sunday.
Terming infrastructure as the "backbone" of any nation's development, Goyal while presenting the interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha said India aspires to be a USD 10 trillion economy in the next eight years, and on the anvil is next generation infrastructure of roads, railways, seaports, airports, urban transport, gas and electric transmission and inland waterways.
The Congress feels there was no articulation of a bold vision of a statement of intent in the Budget, no articulation of a direction in which the economy has to go, and it lacks imagination. Renu Mittal reports.
FM should avoid proposals such as to tax financial transactions and fringe benefits
A faltering economy may have led to a re-think on economic strategy. And Mr Modi might think he is politically strong enough to take some risks. But there could be a minefield ahead, observes T N Ninan.
