When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tables her Budget on February 1, the numbers could be something to cheer.
'Investors should consider small and midcaps only if they can handle volatility and have a longer investment horizon.'
The amount constitutes 45 per cent of the railways' total wage bill.
The public sector behemoth is looking at forming joint ventures with states.
India's decrepit state-run train services stand to receive at least a 25 per cent boost in investment to over $9 billion.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Rail Budget caters to all sections of the society and showcases a vision to reorganise and rejuvenate the national transporter
The idea is to get the budget passed by Parliament along with Appropriations Bill and the Finance Bill by the end of March as this would ensure implementation of the Budget proposals from April 1.
The Lower House of Parliament took up the Demands for Grants and Appropriation Bills after two adjournments as the ruling and Opposition MPs engaged in a matching duet over demands for an apology by Rahul Gandhi and the Adani issue.
'Like every Budget, this time, too, there is chatter around tinkering with the long-term capital gains tax.' 'Investors may not want to jump into the markets until there is clarity on this front.'
Suresh Prabhu has announced a slew of measures to improve servcies in trains and railway stations
The upcoming Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is set to use toilets of the Indian Railways
Anticipating healthier economic growth, the Railways has targeted a record Rs 1.6 lakh crore in revenue for the next financial year, while no increase has been proposed in passenger fares and freight rates.
There was a plan to increase the Railways' revenue by augmenting carrying capacity. This target has, however, become the source of a bitter battle between two ministries - the railways and steel - and provoked serious arguments over the "Make in India" programme.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice in the post-lunch period on Thursday as a war of words broke out between the treasury and opposition benches, triggered by Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi's spat with the Bharatiya Janata Party's Ravneet Singh Bittu.
'The most important expenditure in the Budget that indicates employment generation is infrastructure.'
Nirmala Sitharaman's messaging was clear when she presented a well-balanced Budget with an eye on state elections in nine states followed by a general election next year, observes Ramesh Menon.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to present Union Budget on February 28.
The finance minister will also visit the school in Tamil Nadu where she studied from KG to Class 5.
According to state officials, the project envisages lifting of 17.40 thousand million cubic feet of water from river Thunga to Bhadra reservoir and 29.90 TMC from Bhadra reservoir.
Experts caution that the rally in these stocks may fizzle out soon, as the overall market sentiment still remains weak.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee presented the Railway Budget on Friday. In her third Railway Budget speech, Banerjee said atleast one doctor will be available on long distance trains.
The Modi government's flagship initiative 'Make in India' launched 10 years ago has helped the country boost exports, push investments and promote manufacturing. Under the initiative, launched on September 25, 2014, a series of measures have been taken by the government to boost local manufacturing. These initiatives include the rollout of production linked incentive (PLI) schemes for 14 sectors, easing foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, reducing compliance burden to improve business climate, all approvals through single window, and rolling out of the national logistics policy.
.jpg)
The introduction of fuel adjustment component in passenger fares will merely add Rs 450 crore.
'Kavach', which literally means armour, is being promoted by the railways as the world's cheapest automatic train collision protection system.
The 1.4% decline projected for 2025 is driven by a 5.6% (72,000) dip in the strength of railway employees to 1.2 million by next year.
The Indian Railways will borrow Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) from the market through its dedicated financing arm IRFC in the 2012-13 fiscal, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said on Wednesday.
In 2019-20, the capital expenditure of Indian Railways (IR) increased 60 per cent over 2016-17. The draft National Railways plan envisages a further increase in IR's capital expenditure, but an analysis by Business Standard shows that IR has come to depend more on borrowings and budgetary support. In 2016-17, while 11 per cent of its capital expenditure (capex) was funded by internal sources, in 2019-20 the ratio dropped to less than 1 per cent. A 2015 Committee on Restructuring Railways had flagged that over-reliance on borrowings could exacerbate the financial situation of Railways.
Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal on Friday urged the Centre to provide more fiscal powers to the states as well as increase the shareable proportion of the GST collections. Besides, he asked the central government to expedite approval for the semi-high-speed railway line or the Silverline project from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod. The project is mired in controversies.
Besides advancing the presentation of the Budget to perhaps the first week of January, , there are four new initiatives that could be rolled out from the next Budget, says A K Bhattacharya.
"Call it a craze, fever or national interest but HSR is our window to the outside world."
A look into Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's Duronto trains.
'Retail investors, who had not seen such a massive correction in the SMID universe since COVID-19, are witnessing something like this for the first time. Panic profit booking may continue.'
With Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget presentation lasting for about one hour 31 minutes on Tuesday, the finance minister's budget speech this year became the shortest ever since 2019.
LHB coaches are safer. Two high-level railway safety commissions came down heavily on ICF coaches, recommending their replacement by LHB, says Bibek Debroy.
The Railway Minister has announced that there is an urgency to attract FDI in Railway projects.
Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday assumed charge as the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister for the second consecutive term and is slated to soon present the final Budget for FY '25 that is going to set the tone for the Modi 3.0 government's priorities and direction for Viksit Bharat. Upon her reaching the North Block office, Sitharaman was greeted by Finance Secretary T V Somanathan and other top officials. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary was also present. Chaudhary assumed charge on Tuesday evening.
During a five-hour meeting with his entire Council of Ministers, Modi specifically asked for faster and better communication of the government's decisions.
Hit by Covid waves and slowdown, the Indian Railways has still not been able to return to its pre-pandemic passenger traffic, data by ministry of Railways has revealed. In February, the national transporter received 413 million ticket bookings - 43 per cent higher than the previous year, but only 61 per cent of the 675 million in February 2020. According to the statistics, that was the last time the Railways saw more than 500 million bookings in a single month.
A united opposition is set to corner the NDA government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case to railway safety.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances