House economists at the nation's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) have urged the government to budget for nursing the pandemic-ravaged economy and not to focus too much on fiscal consolidation as there is a need for more stabilisation measures to sustain the fledgling recovery. And one of the best way to begin the new fiscal is to complete the share sale of LIC this fiscal. This can go a long way in repairing the overstretched balance sheet which in turn will bring down fiscal deficit to a much lower 6.3 per cent in FY23 as the public coffers will be left with a cash surplus of at least Rs 3 lakh crore to begin the new fiscal, SBI chief economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh said in a pre-Budget note on Wednesday.
Retail depositors are earning negative returns on their bank deposits and hence, there is a need for reviewing taxes on interest earned, economists at the country's largest lender SBI have said. If not for all the depositors, the taxation review should be carried out for at least the deposits made by senior citizens who depend on the interest for their daily needs, the economists led by Soumya Kanti Ghosh said in a note, which pegged the overall retail deposits in the system at Rs 102 lakh crore. At present, banks deduct tax at source at the time of crediting interest income of over Rs 40,000 for all the depositors, while for senior citizens the taxes set-in if the income exceeds Rs 50,000 per year.
It was Australia's lowest total against Bangladesh in the shortest format, and Bangladesh's first victory against the Aussies in five encounters.
Kiwis claim 7th series win of the home summer.
However, South Africa have lot of openers stacked on top (Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen and Reeza Hendricks) with a light middle order which is still a huge concern.
Trent Boult provided the impetus needed for New Zealand with a five-wicket haul as the hosts completed an innings and 52-run victory over Bangladesh on the fourth day of the first Test in Hamilton on Sunday.
The World Health Organisation's technical advisory group will meet on October 26 to consider the Emergency Use Listing (EUL) of Covaxin, a vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech protecting against COVID-19, the global health agency's chief scientist said.
Australia's Dane Bird-Smith won the gold with a Games' record time of 1.19.34 seconds. In a keen contest, he was just four seconds ahead of England's Tom Bosworth. Kenya's Samuel Ireri Gathimba was third in 1.19.51 seconds.
A new sub-lineage BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in countries like India and the World Health Organisation is following this, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Employees of public sector general insurance (PSGI) companies are observing nationwide one-day strike on Wednesday to protest against intended privatisation of state-owned insurers. The Joint Front of Trade Unions in PSGI companies met on Monday and decided to protest against the decision of the government to privatise PSGI companies. The unions have given a call for one-day strike against the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, General Insurance Employees All India Association general secretary K Govindan said. Employees of all four PSGI companies are participating in the day-long strike, he said.
Every 10 per cent rise in crude oil price will shave off around 0.2 percentage point (pp) from India's GDP growth and widen the current account by 0.3 per cent, says Nomura.
All-rounder Soumya Sarkar has been rewarded for his strong domestic performance with a spot in Bangladesh's 15-man World Cup squad.
Corey Anderson smashed 10 sixes in his unbeaten 94 as New Zealand completed a 3-0 sweep of their Twenty20 series against Bangladesh with a 27-run win in the final match at Mount Maunganui on Sunday.
For Bangladesh, who have an abysmal World Cup record with just one of their seven wins since 2007 coming against a Test playing nation (West Indies), the key would be to exploit the conditions in their first ever T20I World Cup clash against England.
Chasing 142 for a win in the dead rubber, Bangladesh never looked comfortable as they lost two wickets in the first over, thanks to brilliant bowling from skipper Southee.
The global health agency also emphasized that it must evaluate a vaccine thoroughly to make sure it is "safe and effective".
Former skipper and pacer Mashrafe Mortaza, who was left out of the 24-man ODI preliminary squad announced on January 4, has not been named in the final squad.
According to highly placed sources, the finance ministry is likely to extend ECLGS and other loan guarantee schemes for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), hospitality and tourism sector, and the health infrastructure beyond March 31, Business Standard has learnt. This is likely to be announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as part of her Budget speech on February 1.
'The Maoists have weakened considerably in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh after Milind Teltumbde's death.'
Rediff readers share their best pictures of India from their travels.
South Africa's skipper Temba Bavuma was pleased with the way his pacers performed in the demolition of Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup Super 12s match, in Abu Dhabi, on Tuesday.
Bangladesh made a perfect start to their World Cup campaign, posting their highest one-day international score of 330-6 during the 21-run win over South Africa.
Seven Olympic and six Paralympic disciplines were identified for support at a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell.
Indian opener Rohit Sharma surpassed David Warner on Tuesday to become the leading run-getter in the ongoing World Cup after scoring his fourth hundred in the tournament. With his 26th ODI hundred against Bangladesh, Rohit equalled Kumar Sangakkara's record of scoring most tons in a World Cup edition.
South Africa paceman Kagiso Rabada bagged another five-wicket haul to take his Test match tally past 100 as his side wrapped up a comprehensive innings and 254-run victory over Bangladesh in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
As Dinesh Karthik celebrated his 35th birthday on Monday, opening batsman Rohit Sharma remembered the wicketkeeper's heroics with the bat in the Nidahas Trophy T20 tri-series final in Colombo, in 2018. Karthik scored a last-ball six to help India pull off an incredible chase to beat Bangladesh by four wickets and win the Nidahas T20 tri-series title.
In an unprecedented action, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice of contempt to its former judge Markandey Katju for using "intemperate" language and "scandalising" judiciary as he appeared before a bench and had heated exchanges with it.
Reader Soumya Kumar Mitra sent us a photograph of Sourav Ganguly from London.
Poor fielding and lack of judgement while going for the Decision Review System cost India the first T20 International against Bangladesh, stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma said.
Koneru Humpy effortlessly defeated Denise Frick of South Africa while D Harika outplayed compatriot Soumya Swaminathan to move to the second round of the women's World Chess Championship, in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
'The court has awarded me the capital punishment by wrongly holding that the case falls in the category of rarest of rare.'
Journalists and colleagues of slain TV producer Soumya Vishwanathan on Saturday launched a campaign to protest her killing and bring the culprits to book.They will submit petitions before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, demanding justice for Soumya. The journalist was shot dead in the wee hours on September 30 while returning home from work. 'Justice for Soumya', an networking forum has been set up.
Mashrafe Mortaza's side are set to face a baptism of fire as they come up against the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi in their tournament bow at the Oval.
The results reported from the observational studies, on average, show that vaccination had 95 per cent efficacy against severe disease both from the Delta variant and from the Alpha variant, and over 80 per cent efficacy at protecting against any infection from these variants.
Opener Martin Guptill smashed a brisk century before New Zealand huffed and puffed to a thrilling three-wicket win over Bangladesh.
Net job creation in the economy fell by 16.9 lakh in FY21 over the previous fiscal, shows an SBI Research analysis of EPFO payroll data. However, the FY21 numbers are better than the FY20 net job creation, which had declined by 28.9 lakh, further cementing the view that the economy is not creating new employment opportunities. The latest EPFO data shows that net new EPF subscribers stood at 94.5 lakh in FY21, and NPS added 5.82 lakh, taking the cumulative net addition to 100.4 lakh, which is marginally down from 102.3 lakh in FY20.
Amid speculations that Andhra Pradesh students in America were targeted for robbery and murders, came the news of Soumya Tummala Reddy, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, who was shot to death near a lake close to Chicago in September 2008.
Days have passed, yet there are no leads in the murder of Delhi journalist Soumya Vishwanathan.
New Zealand held their nerve under the floodlights to beat Bangladesh by two wickets in a dramatic low-scoring Cricket World Cup match at The Oval on Wednesday.
Justice Katju had criticised the verdict commuting to life the death sentence awarded to Govindachamy for raping 23-year-old sales representative Soumya on February 1, 2011, after she fell out a moving train in Kerala.
