Shinde announced that his government is committed to providing reservation to the Maratha community.
Railways must pull back its share of freight traffic.
'Inter-ministerial coordination, information on the proposed PSUs, and due diligence are taking longer than expected to conclude the process.'
Rajya Sabha will sit for late hours in last week of the first half of the budget session from Monday to clear the pending legislative and other businesses.
Increase in taxes on luxury cars will not have any effect on the demand
Jaitley, who was the finance minister before a medical procedure led to the charge being temporarily taken away from him, missed presenting the sixth and final Budget of the Narendra Modi government before the general elections. In his absence, the charge of the ministry was given to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.
The change in leadership at the railway ministry comes at a time when the national transporter is grappling with low passenger earnings even as it is trying to increase freight loading and open up its doors to private investment. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took charge from Piyush Goyal who got the railway portfolio in 2017 after Prime Minister Narendra Modii dropped Suresh Prabhu from the Union Cabinet. Completing freight corridors, negotiating land for the bullet train, and speeding up monetisation plans would be some of the major focus areas for Vaishnaw.
Disclosing details of his assets, he said the reports about the rise in his wealth had been done without checking facts.
Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan has proclaimed his determination to set Tamil Nadu's fiscal house in order in five years, and Friday will show how he plans to go about it when he rises to present the Stalin government's maiden budget, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The dividends for the economy from such a rapid rise in capital expenditure would be huge, observes A K Bhattacharya.
The government expects to realise Rs 35,100 crore from the partial sale of Bharatnet fibre assets and around 13,500 mobile towers owned by state-run telecom firms as part of its national monetisation pipeline released on Monday. Government think tank Niti Aayog has valued over 2.86 lakh kilometre of optical fibre assets laid by BBNL and BSNL under rural broadband project Bharatnet at Rs 26,300 crore, according to the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) document. According to the document, BSNL's 13,567 mobile tower assets and MTNL's 1,350 towers have been valued at Rs 8,800 crore.
'While GST and demonetisation are likely to cause disruption for longer than the market currently expects, they can have meaningful positive impact over the medium-term.'
RailTel Corporation of India, Indigo Paints, Home First Finance Company, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, and Suryoday Small Finance Bank are among the companies looking to tap the market.
India was among the top-five economies with the largest general government capital stock level, said, in 2015, an International Monetary Fund report called "Making Public Investment More Efficient". The report fuelled a debate on countries sitting on piles of cash that could be used better. India was believed to have public assets worth $4.5 trillion. The report urged countries to start asset recycling. Six years after the report, Australia's success in asset recycling has turned India into a believer; despite doing averagely in its previous efforts on roads, railways or meeting its divestment targets.
It is unclear if he would be renamed the finance minister soon after his return.
'It is unlikely that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) might increase their India allocation, given the overweight status for most FPIs.' 'Given the commentary from the Republican Party, an anti-imports approach means money will not flow out of the US.'
States' spending doesn't improve the public image of the police, so where is the money going?
Stocks to watch: ACC, Ambuja Cements, India Cements, Shree Cement, Ultra Tech Cement.
The Trinamool Congress MP said he is unable to bear various incidents that are happening in West Bengal.
Just 5 departments account for about 88 per cent of the Union government's civilian employees. A leaner bureaucracy will help Modi keep his promise of maximum governance with minimum government, says A K Bhattacharya.
Assessing the shape of the Indian economy just a couple of days ahead of the Union Budget for 2016-17, Saugata Bhatacharya, senior vice president and chief economist, Axis Bank, speaks about his budget wishlist and suggests measures that can help finance minister Arun Jaitley achieve the targeted fiscal deficit of 3.5 per cent of India's gross domestic product.
'Rhetoric and chest-thumping are running high on India's recent growth record.'
'But will the giant waves developing elsewhere allow us to sail smoothly into fair winds?' asks Debashis Basu.
The prime minister also asked senior ministers to hand-hold the new incumbents, sources said after the meeting.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could be staring at troubled times ahead as the Saradha scam trail seemingly leads up to her doorstep.
The announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget speech on February 29.
Whilst substantive public allocations have been made in the infrastructure sector, this strategy is plateauing due to the fiscal deficit constraint, capacity limitation of statal implementing agencies, the declining ability of PSUs, and the precarious situation of the Railways' operating ratio. It is, thus, high time to get the policy compass to point at rejuvenating private sector investments in infrastructure, says Vinayak Chatterjee.
It emphasised that agricultural infrastructure needs considerable investments and hence Section 80IA benefits must be extended to all such investments like IT infrastructure, computers, VSAT, solar panels, water harvesting facilities, storage etc.
A joint forum of central trade unions has given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29 to protest against the government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people.
The cross-Line of Control surgical strikes, policy towards Pakistan, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, besides One Rank, One Pension and the plight of farmers were also among issues that were raised at the meeting with parties demanding discussion on them.
Thirty-five Union ministers on Friday huddled in a strategy meeting for an image make-over for the government on a day when Congress began its foot march against the land bill from the symbolical Bhatta Parsaul village.
'The bullet train project is a complete sham'
The meeting is a prelude to the framing of a public private partnership policy for the railways.
The challenge is to convince productive sectors that a lower general rate would benefit all and remove the prevalent system of favours targeted towards narrow industry and service sector groups.
Arun Jaitley had a tough fiscal hill to climb.
Presenting the Rail Budget for 2010-11 in Parliament on Wednesday, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said that there will be no increase in the passenger fares of any class or category of trains.
The department of investment and public asset management is racing against time to launch the LIC IPO, which could become the largest-ever listing on the Indian bourses. This would lead to some delay in the strategic divestment of IDBI Bank.
The BEST workers' union went on strike to press for their demands, including timely payment of salaries.
Dinesh Trivedi takes a dig at Mamata over cartoon row
Jaitley is now a minister without portfolio in the Narendra Modi government.
Traders blame demonetisation for subdued demand in retail segment
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances