Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday made a modest increase of 11 per cent in capital expenditure (capex) to Rs 11.11 lakh crore for the next financial year as private investment picks up. The government had hiked capex by 37.5 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore for the current fiscal. Against this, the government expects to spend Rs 9.5 lakh crore in the financial year ending March 2024.
There is an authenticity and sense of purpose about Dry Day which is appealing, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said projects for port connectivity, tourism infrastructure and amenities will be taken up 'on our islands, including Lakshadweep' to address the 'emerging fervour' for domestic tourism in the country.
Structural reforms, pro-people programmes and employment opportunities helped the economy get new vigour, the finance minister said. After contracting by 5.8 per cent in 2020-21, the economy recorded a growth of 9.1 per cent in 2021-22.
Here are the key highlights of the BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' for the 2024 parliamentary polls.
'Let us hope that this Budget delivers.' 'It needs 10 per cent plus real GDP growth in 2021-22, the rebound year,' notes Omkar Goswami.
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the budget to be presented on February 1, 2024 would not have any "spectacular announcement" as it would be a vote on account in run up to the general elections. "It is a matter of truth that February 1, 2024 budget that will be announced will just be a vote on account because we will be in an election mode. "So the budget that the government presents will just be to meet the expenditure of the government till a new government comes to play," she said.
The size of Budget 2024-25 has increased 6.1 per cent to Rs 47.66 lakh crore because of the rise in expenditure and higher allocation for capital expenditure and social sector schemes.
Citing a Tamil daily's reportage, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday alleged that the Tamil Nadu government administered temples have barred puja for Lord Ram on the day of the consecration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, which was dismissed by the state as a false news with ulterior motives.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
The agency had received Rs 946.51 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24, which was later increased to Rs 968.86 crore in the Revised Estimates.
Here is the complete list of ministers in Modi 3.0 and their portfolios:
Over 65 Union ministers are likely to take oath, going by the visual of the meeting Modi held with his likely council of ministers.
The 54-page document tabled in Parliament detailed how the Modi-government pull the economy from being counted among the most fragile-five in the world to being the fasted growing and the most attractive investment destination.
But it is disappointing to note that Sitharaman's third Union Budget continues to promote a few problematic ideas, observes A K Bhattacharya.
'The longevity of the government is a doubt for me because when the going gets tough, there could a be a point in time where there might be pressure, from within the party or from the allies.'
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
24 hours before campaigning ends in Thiruvanathapuram, Archana Masih/Rediff.com discovers Shashi Tharoor and his BJP rival Rajeev Chandrasekhar are busy getting their message across to voters.
In line with India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy, the largest share of aid portfolio has been granted to Bhutan with the allocation of Rs 2,068 crore.
'The policy focus of the government should have been on creating more good quality jobs but that was not their focus.'
Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget has not disappointed but vision and details, particularly for the revival of agriculture, are missing.
The revamped Special Economic Zone (SEZ) law is unlikely to see the light of the day before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, two people aware of the matter said. The commerce department had sought the Union Cabinet's nod to bring amendments to the existing SEZ Act, 2005 late last year. The plan, thereafter, was to introduce the Bill in the winter session of Parliament. Cabinet's approval remains pending.
The unemployment rate for women was last this low around Diwali in 2022. The unemployment rate has dropped for women from 14.9 per cent in December 2023 to 11 per cent in January 2024, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). It was higher in January 2023 at 13.5 per cent.
Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande passed away in New Delhi early on Thursday morning. She was 79. Deshpande, a Rajya Sabha member, had not been keeping well since the past two-three days, and she died in her sleep early today morning, Rajshree, one of her close associates, told PTI."Deshpande had returned from Dhanbad on Tuesday and had some gastric problems. She was suffering from fever from last evening," she said.
The government also announced that healthcare cover under the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme will be extended to all ASHA and anganwadi workers and helpers.
In its election manifesto -- 'Sankalp Patra' -- the Bharatiya Janata Party has vowed to implement the Union Civil Code (UCC), maintain peace in the Northeast, among other key poll promises.
'The prime minister's comment on 'revdi culture' was welcome. But I am disappointed he did not follow up on that.' 'All political parties, including the BJP, have been guilty of this.' 'Now, Modi's guarantees, the Congress's 'nyay' path and both ruling and Opposition parties are vying with each other for freebies in my home state Andhra Pradesh.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain DoPT, Atomic Energy as well as all important policy issues and portfolios not allocated.
Interim Budget, the US Federal policy decision and quarterly earnings will be the major drivers for stock markets which may also see some consolidation this week, say analysts. Besides, investors would also focus on the trading activity of foreign investors and global trends for further cues. From the macroeconomic front, the PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) data for the manufacturing sector is scheduled to be announced on Thursday.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was the first and only women till now to have presented the Union Budget.
'On the final product, there can be an increase of a minimum of 10 per cent in February and March.'
New business premium (NBP) growth of life insurers in March is expected to be weak owing to the high base effect in the year-ago period due to revision in taxation norms for high-value policies, insurers said. In the Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed that insurance policies (excluding unit-linked insurance plans or Ulips) with an aggregate premium exceeding Rs 5 lakh would be taxed. This rule came into effect on April 1, 2023. In March 2023, the NBP of life insurance companies witnessed a strong growth after the tax announcement. Premiums rose by 14.45 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 59,608.83 crore in March 2023 from Rs 52,081.12 crore.
Facing protests from a section of the Rajput community over Union Minister Parshottam Rupala's remarks, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh -- a Rajput-dominated seat -- is hoping that the 'Modi factor' and the development work undertaken by his government will help it retain the Lok Sabha constituency.
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