Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to create history when she presents her seventh straight Budget on Tuesday for the fiscal 2024-25, surpassing the record of former prime minister Morarji Desai. Sitharaman, who will turn 65 next month, was in 2019 appointed as India's first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term.
The orders issued this month have selected ministries ranging from home affairs under Amit Shah to rural development, headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, to move to Building 3 -- currently named CCS-03 -- on Kartavya Path. The scale of the shift will be even larger than when most of Lutyens' Delhi's present crop of government buildings came up in the early 1930s.
The message from Sunday's event will undoubtedly reverberate globally. It's a landmark occasion that will be remembered for generations and will inspire many other states to introduce the story of Rajendra Chola into school curricula, says Tarun Vijay.
Alloting more funds for MNREGA and PM-KISAN could wipe out the entire additional money that the Centre may have for FY25.
'Experts and stakeholders have raised concern over the refund provision in the draft Bill. That was a drafting error, which will be rectified,' a government official said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the government led by Narendra Modi refers entrepreneurs as wealth creators as the profit earned by them through ethical ways help drive development goals. "Wealth creation in India has never been a taboo in India.
She said I treated her like a bachchi. At another moment, she said I had gone to various people and 'bitched' about her. She also threatened to bring the entire matter to the PM's notice. A revealing excerpt from Subhash Chandra Garg's We Also Make Policy: An Insider's Account of How the Finance Ministry Functions.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday asked fintech startups to come out with solutions to deal with the rising incidence of digital arrests, cheating by fly-by-night operators, and other kinds of cyber frauds. Speaking at the Digital Payments Awards 2025 ceremony here, the minister credited fintechs with helping speed up financial inclusion and taking the payment system to even the far-flung areas of the country.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her eighth budget on Saturday.
'BSE has facilitated nearly Rs 35 trillion in capital raising across multiple segments.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is cutting short her official visit to the US and Peru and will depart for India at the earliest, following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Sitharaman arrived in the US on Sunday for a six-day visit, after which she was scheduled to travel to Peru for a five-day trip. The decision comes after 26 people were killed in a terror attack near Kashmir's Pahalgam town on Tuesday.
On Friday, January 31, 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2024-2025 in the Lok Sabha.
She said that earlier governments used to sell dreams to people while the present regime is fulfilling the dreams.
Kant, a retired 1980-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Kerala cadre, was appointed as India's G20 Sherpa in July 2022, months before India assumed the G20 Presidency.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with her team of bureaucrats, delved into the fine print of the 2024-25 Budget documents in a press conference, detailing the government's road map on bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and bold tax measures.
'Self-declaration from the customer in case of no change in KYC information or change only in the address details may be obtained.'
'My protest was in the interest of the nation.' 'I am just doing my duty as a citizen of this country.'
No author in the Malayalam literary canon has influenced and profoundly changed the way normal people interact with each other than the ever-relevant, eclectic yet elusive body of work left behind by MT Vasudevan Nair, notes Arjun Menon.
Re-entry into the list could have far-reaching consequences for Pakistan, including diminished foreign investment, increased borrowing costs, and tighter scrutiny from global financial institutions.
Now that the economy is growing at a higher-than-expected rate, it is time to accelerate the pace of fiscal consolidation, and the Budget could be a good starting point, argues Rajesh Kumar.
Government sources said amendments were being considered to the Atomic Energy Act to allow private sector participation and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act to limit the liability on suppliers of equipment to build atomic energy plants.
India will oppose the World Bank funding to Pakistan next month, arguing that Islamabad has used such funds in the past to procure arms and ammunitions. India previously lobbied against the IMF extending a USD 2.3 billion assistance to Pakistan earlier this month, presenting evidence of Pakistan's misuse of funds for military purposes. India feels that Pakistan has failed to act on terror emanating from its territory and has been diverting funds from multilateral agencies to buy arms and ammunition.
Shah briefed the prime minister on the attack and discussed the measures to be taken in its aftermath.
This is the second Budget of the BJP-led NDA government in its third term in office.
The Rs 1-trillion Research Development and Innovation (RDI) fund, which was announced in the July budget for FY25, of which Rs 20,000 crore has already been allocated, will be operationalised in the next two to three months, a top official said.
The Indian government briefed an all-party meeting on Thursday on the success of "Operation Sindoor", the retaliatory airstrikes against Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. Top government functionaries and opposition leaders met for a second time in a fortnight amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan. The meeting was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by several prominent leaders from various political parties. The government highlighted the strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base Muridke.
As per established tradition, the finance minister met the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan before heading to Parliament.
The best solution would be the one followed in 2018 -- allow cost indexation until March 31, 2024 -- but exit at any time. The second-best alternative would be to allow time until March 31, 2025 for investors to exit their investments under the old indexation regime, points out Harsh Roongta.
After his recent stand-up act that caught everyone's attention, Kunal Kamra now faces trouble from a source he probably didn't expect.
The interim Budget proposals that will be presented on February 1 in the backdrop of the general elections scheduled in April/May 2024 are likely to have a hint of populism, believe analysts, but are unlikely to derail the government from its path of fiscal prudence.
Markets regulator Sebi is actively working with the Ministry of Finance and other financial regulators on setting up a centralised KYC (Know Your Customer) system, chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey has said. The Central KYC is an online database that maintains KYC records of customers in a centralised manner, aiming to streamline compliance across financial institutions.
'Each state is unique, but when it comes to finance, the fundamentals cannot be different.'
Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection rose 12.6 per cent Y-o-Y to an all-time high of about Rs 2.37 lakh crore in April, which the government said shows resilience of the Indian economy and the effectiveness of cooperative federalism. The gross GST mop-up was Rs 2.10 lakh crore in April 2024 -- the second highest collection ever since GST was rolled out on July 1, 2017. The net mop-up was Rs 1.92 lakh crore.
The deficit stood over Rs 8 trillion in the first seven months of the current financial year. Non-tax revenues, comprising transfers from the RBI and dividends of the public sector units, shored up the Centre's revenues.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Union Budget 2025-26 continues efforts to accelerate growth and provide inclusive development.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Karnataka Police from taking any coercive steps against badminton player Lakshya Sen, his family members, and coach over allegations of forging birth certificates.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday proposed to double the limit for Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on interest income for senior citizens to Rs 1 lakh, and also increase the threshold to Rs 6 lakh on rent from the current Rs 2.4 lakh.
The Congress party in India has accused the government of "impropriety" in the sudden termination of KV Subramanian's position as India's executive director at the IMF, alleging it was linked to the Union Bank of India's purchase of two lakh copies of his book. The party also questioned the government's stance on Pakistan's request for a loan from the IMF.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday constituted a 31-member Select Committee of the lower house to examine the Income Tax Bill. To be headed by Bharatiya Janata Party's Baijayant Panda, the panel is mandated to submit its report by the first day of the next session.
One is not sure if Nirmalaji, like many South Indian girls, learnt Bharata Natyam when she was growing up, but she is perhaps the most animated minister when she speaks in the House, even more than a colleague who first became famous as a television actress.
