'He needs to see results while he is in office.'
'The robust tax collections give the finance minister a fair amount of headroom for an expansionary fiscal policy.'
In an exclusive conversation with Rediff.com, Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karthik Chidambaram stated that the Union budget presented by his father in Parliament on Thursday was a "gender sensitive" one.
Jairam Ramesh, said Finance Minister Jaswant's Singh's maiden endeavour had failed to address the problem of deceleration of economic growth, which had not risen beyond five per cent during the last five years.
The session started on January 29 and was originally slated to end on April 8 but several members had urged Speaker Om Birla to end the session earlier as they focus on electioneering for the five assemblies.
'With new projects and recently awarded projects kicking in, capital expenditure should only increase going forward.'
Ahead of the 2023-24 Union Budget, the thinking at the top level of the central government is clear: Gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6-6.5 per cent is a comfortable enough target for FY24 and the focus should be on fiscal consolidation to ensure that the sovereign cost of borrowing does not become prohibitively expensive in a high-interest rate environment, according to people in the know. Those aware of deliberations between the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Finance said while the Budget would look to strike a balance between infrastructure investment and welfare schemes, it is unlikely to be populist, though it will be the last full-year Budget before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Incidentally, 6-6.5 per cent GDP growth is what the upcoming 2022-23 Economic Survey is expected to project for FY24.
The government on Saturday announced a host of measures such as setting up of a new Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) with Rs 10,000 crore corpus; and extension of period of incorporation by five years with a view to promote growth of budding entrepreneurs.
Farmers protesting at various sites on the border of Delhi on Monday unequivocally said they are only concerned about their common goal of having the three farm laws repealed, and what has been offered to the agriculture sector in the Union budget did not matter.
'Till the BJP does not understand Kejriwal they cannot win Delhi.'
Modi said the policies of the government will empower the downtrodden and turn them into a "power house" for the development of the country.
