'The finance minister has told the BJP's core voters we are hearing you and we are sensitive to your aspirations.'
Education, jobs, health and more: Experts share their wishlist.
'We are completely engaged in fighting poverty; alas, our neighbour Pakistan seems only engaged in fighting us.'
'The middle class you can hurt anytime. For revenues, politics, pleasure, anything,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the fiscal deficit slippage this financial year (2017-18) was largely statistical.
'The execution has been 100 per cent faulty.' 'The scheme is also a stupid one, a real Tuglaq Darbar scheme.' 'This way of attacking black money is the most ineffective one.'
Over lunch, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley breaks down his Budget. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the inflation index would determine the nominal growth figure, and it is better to set modest targets and outperform them.
Following is the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 73rd Independence Day.
The Budget touches a few highs and lows as far as personal finance is concerned, and one needs to be aware of them in order to optimise on one's investment plans.
Consumer durables and electronics companies are putting the final touches to their festive period plans.
In villages in Palghar district -- in Mumbai's backyard -- more than 254 children have died from malnutrition.
Here is a closer look at politicos who have emerged victorious in the electoral contest of five state assemblies.
Changes in threshold not to have a significant revenue impact, say officials
Governments must encourage micro-irrigation, use of natural manure and pesticides in a big way. Farm income can be doubled by reducing cost as much as by increasing MSP, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Seeking to woo Muslims as well as upper castes, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday promised quota in police and other government jobs for minority community, release of "innocent" youths jailed on terror charges and constitution of an upper caste commission in its manifesto brimming with sops.
Born in poverty and subjected to inhuman abuse, Kalpana Saroj overcame all hurdles to emerge a success story.
The industry's reactions to the Budget have been mixed.
In addition to the problem of long queues at automated teller machines, there would be the problem of guiding new cardholders, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, on how to use those cards, some bankers told Business Standard.
With a sole mandate of inflation targeting, RBI wears many hats.
'The cash part is the lower hanging fruit compared to the other sources.' 'To attack the cash part of black money, I can't think of anything else but demonetisation.'
Low consumer demand, a slide in investments and troubles in the banking sector should prompt the government to recalibrate taxes and expenditure. It is also important to ramp up spending on health care and education, says CII president Sumit Mazumder.
'In Rajiv Gandhi's time, out of every Re 1 spent by the government only 15 paisa reached the public.' 'At this moment, I cannot say that the entire Re 1 reaches the common man's pocket, but yes, two-thirds of that money definitely reaches the common man.' 'And the rest of the money will also reach soon.'
Eminent business journalist and author Tamal Bandyopadhyay discussed Budget with rediff.com readers on Tuesday.
'70 per cent of sewage flows untreated into the river along its entire course. Hardwar and Rishikesh remain two of our holiest cities. Then why has the government failed to do anything?' 'If Modi can do with the Ganga what he has done with the Sabarmati, that will be a major achievement.'
Aseem Chhabra looks at the year's best Non-Hindi Indian movies.
'Alas, in this scheme there is nothing to stop the black money flows of the future.' 'On the contrary Modi has sown the seeds of more, through the issue of Rs 2,000 notes.' 'But have you heard one politician decrying this aspect of the scheme?' 'They must be secretly rejoicing that while Modi is taking away their past, he has not shut the door on their future,' says banker S Muralidharan.
'There is no difference between the earlier government and the present government.' 'They are all following the economic policy based on the Chicago School of thought.' 'This school of thought says the government should have very little role in governing the country and the majority of the work should be handed over to the private sector.' 'This has not succeeded in the US.' 'Yet, it is being tried here by people like Arvind Subramaniam, Arvind Panagariya, Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan.'
'Vajpayee was the first prime minister to visit the battlefield at the height of conflict,' recalls Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'We have Hindu values, Hindu customs, Hindu philosophy, Hindu way of looking at all religions as acceptable.' 'These are all great assets of India.'
Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who as Gujarat chief minister was considered close to certain business groups and industrialists, has hardly been seen with any Indian business head.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the states were free to announce farm loan waivers if they had the fiscal space and that there would be no shortfall this year in divestment and non-tax revenues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on range of issues -- from Rafale deal to Ram temple and triple talaq.
Contrary to the bragging that marked its two-year anniversary, the government's timidity on reform is simply astounding.
'Our first great challenge is to create 12 million new jobs each year, to make the demographic dividend an economic dividend.' 'We are nowhere near that,' points out Mohan Guruswamy.
One popular strategy is to hire contract workers.
The Congress has never given India a PM who was a prisoner of his or her own image, said Rahul Gandhi at the party's MPs' meet.
In a marathon address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday underlined India's unity and diversity and the progress of his 15-month-old government's policies.
With the Maharashtra government doling out pieces of the lush green Aarey forest to various utilities, the tribals living in it for generations are feeling increasingly insecure. Hepzi Anthony reports.
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