The railways, the country's largest employer, will be hiring 127,000 people in 2018-2019, for which 23.7 million are competing.
'... and without necessarily calling them Economic Surveys.' 'One should stick to the main focus, which is to give people a good perspective on how the economy is doing.'
Clawing the economy back to an 8 per cent growth path will require bringing savings and investment rates closer to 35 per cent on a sustained basis, which were 30.2 and 29.6 per cent, respectively, in FY22, according to a report. As per India Ratings, a large part of investments will have to be in infrastructure, which can help revive private investments by easing supply constraints and offset the weakening of external demand due to global headwinds. Higher investments will have to be accompanied by higher domestic savings to keep the savings-investments gap under check.
The immediate revenue loss could worsen the Centre's fiscal deficit, from the budgeted 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 3.7 per cent of GDP -- a massive 40-basis-point increase. It was stabilised at 3.4 per cent since 2016-17, report Abhishek Waghmare and Dilasha Seth.
The Centre will promote Kisan Drones, chemical-free natural farming, public-private partnerships for the delivery of digital and high-tech services to farmers across the country during the financial year 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. Presenting the Budget 2022-23 in Parliament, Sitharaman said the inclusive development is one of the four priorities of the government moving forward. As part of the inclusive development, the government will promote the use of 'Kisan Drones' for crop assessment, digitisation of land records and spraying of insecticides. The government will also facilitate a fund with blended capital raised under the co-investment model through Nabard to finance agri start-ups and rural enterprises, she said.
'In the long run, I don't foresee major ramifications [about Trudeau's allegations].' 'There's just enough hypocrisy among Western nations for India to douse the outrage.'
'The Centre and state need to take a unified approach and take concerted action before this matter assumes menacing proportions because unemployment, the drug trade and the levels of frustration among the youth make them vulnerable to any maverick who promises something better.'
The World Bank has approved loans totalling $1.75 billion (about Rs 13,834.54 crore) to fund India's PM Ayushman Bharat scheme and private investment to boost the economic growth. Of the total loan, $1 billion will go towards the health sector, while the rest $750 million will be in the form of development policy loan (DPL) to fill the financing gaps through private sector investment in the economy. The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved two complementary loans of $500 million each to support and enhance India's health sector.
'The senior army leadership has no interest in reconciling with Imran Khan, and no interest in seeing him return to power.'
'The consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya has demoralised them.' 'And, now it is reflecting in their individual reactions as they are losing hope to take on the BJP in 2024.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party regime will have to make good on this election slogan to restore state-owned banks to health, says Rajiv Lall.
Could it have been more reformist? Of course, but this is an election year Budget, observes Akash Prakash.
The sector seems set for a rally that may be somewhat temporary.
Proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were disrupted as Opposition members raised slogans demanding a discussion and a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the fraud-allegation-triggered rout.
'In each hartal, enormous amount of public money is wasted. The entire state comes to a standstill. How long can this go on?' 'Every year 3 crore people sit at home not because they support hartals, but because they are forced to do so.' 'This is part of a larger measure to curb democratic rights.'
The company faces fine of up to $18 billion in the US.
The Survey lists some of the challenges that might impede India's progress.
The Adani story has only one angle -- how the stocks were rigged up to ridiculous heights, the Hindenburg report on gross overvaluation, followed by the vertical free fall of Adani stocks, points out Debashis Basu.
Richest Indian Gautam Adani's conglomerate has cited an improved net debt to operating profit ratio and more than halving of loans from public sector banks to allay concerns about it being overleveraged. In a 15-page note in response to CreditSights report calling the group overleveraged, it said companies in the group have consistently de-levered, with the net debt to Ebitda ratio declining to 3.2 times from 7.6 times in the last nine years. "The businesses operate on a simple yet robust and repeatable business model focused on development and origination, operations and management and capital management plan," the note, reviewed by PTI, said.
Strange souls see a research report on an Indian conglomerate as part of a vast conspiracy to Keep India Down. There is only one possible response to this: Grow up. Nobody in the West cares enough about India or Adani to put all the effort into creating a giant conspiracy that links together BBC documentaries and short-sellers, points out Mihir S Sharma.
The Finance Ministry is considering a proposal to rope in professionals from the private sector for appointment of chairman and CEO-cum-managing director in state-owned financial institutions as it looks for talent from a wider pool of applicants.
With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
An amendment carried out in the over 30-year-old Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988 in July 2018 bars a police officer from conducting 'any enquiry or inquiry or investigation into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant' without 'the previous approval' of the authorities.
There is widening gap between what the government's premier retirement fund makes on its investments and what it offers to employees. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) makes the bulk of its investments in government-related securities. In other words, it lends to central and state governments and related entities. The interest it gets from these instruments is largely what it uses to pay interest to its subscribers.
Amway maintains the action was related to a case in 2011 and it has been cooperating with the investigative agency.
I suggest we build a Vigyan Mandir (Temple of Science) with the ambience of a place of worship, so that it becomes a destination for pilgrims. We should embed on its walls bronze plaques describing each scientist mentioned here along with about a dozen of our ancient mathematicians, recommends Professor Kalyan Singhal, historian of science and technology.
The country's economy will start witnessing a growth of 6.5 to 7 per cent from fiscal 2023 onwards, helped by various reforms undertaken by the government so far and also as COVID-19 vaccination drive progresses, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said. He said the second wave of COVID-19 is unlikely to have a very significant on the economy. The country's economy contracted by 7.3 per cent in fiscal 2020-21. "Together with the reforms and focus on vaccination, I expect growth to start hitting close 6.5 to 7 per cent from FY23 onwards and accelerate from there on," Subramanian said at a virtual event organised by Dun & Bradstreet.
Confident that a cyber attack won't affect you? Think again, says Nandakishore Harikumar.
Air India Chairman Rajiv Bansal has been appointed as the new aviation secretary as part of a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Wednesday. K Rajaraman, additional secretary in the department of economic affairs, has been appointed as secretary, department of telecommunications, a personnel ministry order said.
More than 60 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to tap the market in one year to raise equity funds for supporting their business requirements, a BSE top official said on Wednesday. These companies will get listed on the exchange's SME platform, Ajay Thakur, head of BSE SME and Startup told PTI. Last year, only 16 SMEs had tapped the initial public offering (IPO) route and raised Rs 100 crore.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said they will pose three questions a day to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
Unanimously confirmed by the Senate last week, Panchanathan, 58, from the Arizona State University, replaces White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Dr Kelvin Droegemeier who served as Acting Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Coal Secretary Anil Swarup has been appointed as school education secretary.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth over Rs 757 crore of one of the country's most known multi-level marketing (MLM) and direct-selling companies, Amway India, as part of a money-laundering investigation. The central agency issued a statement on Monday, alleging that the company was perpetrating a "scam" by running a pyramid "fraud" in the guise of direct-selling MLM network. "The entire focus of the company is about propagating how members can become rich by becoming members. There is no focus on the products. "Products are used to masquerade this MLM pyramid fraud as a direct-selling company," the ED alleged.
As a percentage of the aggregate Budget expenditure, it is 12 per cent.
'In states where all shops are allowed to function and pedestrians are allowed to move around, there is no reason to presume that vendors are not allowed to operate. But ambiguity surrounding the operation of street vendors de jure has led the police to harass them de facto,' say Bhuvana Anand, Jayana Bedi and Prashant Narang.
As the FM said, this is a Budget that lays the foundation for the next 25 years, observes Kumar Mangalam Birla.
After years of disappointing growth, the economy and the markets are poised for a breakout, notes Akash Prakash.
Expect a more modest out-turn of around 5 per cent (if not less) because of the longer-term scarring effects of the Covid shock, the sharply slowing growth in the pre-Covid years and some scepticism about the growth-efficacy of some of recent official policy initiatives, explains Shankar Acharya, former chief economic advisor to the government.
Even as India's internet base continues to widen, with the country set to have over 900 internet users by 2025, a parallel rise in cyber threats has become a matter of huge concern. Experts say that the sudden surge in digital adoption left little time to develop a cybersecurity backbone for the country. This has put large amounts of data at risk.
