Ponzi or MLM schemes are fraudulent investment operations.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
The organisation established its electoral presence post-Independence in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Assam, with West Bengal being its main stronghold, but eight decades down the line, the party, now limited to just some pockets of the country, has no MP or MLA in its kitty.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the biggest tax reform since Independence.
In an apparent reference to political differences between Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress, Jaitley said there are national causes to stand together, notwithstanding political differences.
It epitomises a significant opportunity lost, just when the state was beginning to shed three decades of leftist inhibitions in favour of economic reform.
The government has sanctioned Rs 95.61 crore to Maoist-affected states, including West Bengal, under the 'Special Assistance Scheme' to carry out speedy development works. The amount has been sanctioned to Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
'You don't win elections on the basis of borrowed players.' 'There is a great crisis of leadership for the BJP in Bengal'
While the likelihood of these states going the Lanka or Greece way may be an alarming assessment, the financial situation of some states such as Punjab and West Bengal is indeed quite weak.
A day after slamming Narendra Modi as "Butcher of Gujarat", the Trinamool Congress on Monday demanded that the Gujarat Chief Minister should apologise publicly or face a defamation case for questioning the sale of Mamata Banerjee's painting.
What some of our leaders were up to in the last couple of days.
The demand for extension of the GST cess regime among others was made by several state finance ministers at a pre-budget consultation called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Besides, many states also demanded raising the share of the Union government in the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). Currently, the central government and state government share in some CSS is 60:40 while in others it is 75:25.
Facing a deepening slowdown, the auto sector is pinning hopes on the GST Council meeting on September 20 for a rate cut from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. However, states including Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, and Punjab are of the view that the slowdown in the auto sector is not because of the GST rate but structural issues in the economy.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart Revanth Reddy visited some inundated areas in their respective territories.
Shah attacked Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons".
Accordingly, West Bengal can borrow Rs 20,362 crore, Maharashtra (Rs 46,182 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 29,108 crore), Karnataka (Rs 27,054 crore), Gujarat (Rs 26,112 crore) and Rajasthan (Rs 16,387 crore).
DFC is the US government's development finance institution. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) in a statement said that the US fund will support the development of deepwater shipping container terminal in the Port of Colombo.
The TMC chief had said that she would never allow the Centre to conduct a similar exercise in West Bengal.
Various indicators make it amply clear that there are grave challenges facing the new government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, reports Indivjal Dhasmana.
'Persisting with the inequalities, indeed seeing them get worse, is no one's prescription for national unity,' notes T N Ninan.
The government is considering to roll back 10 per cent excise duty on branded garments, due to large scale protest by industry bodies in many parts of the country, including West Bengal, which goes to polls next month.
Of the 294 candidates declared with serious criminal cases, 76 were from the TMC, 52 from the BJP, 47 from the CPI-M and 31 from the Congress.
The byelections are of critical importance to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to Bharatiya Janata Party's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
'GST gives a huge relief to small businesses of India and West Bengal.'
With a very severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal likely to trigger surge of tidal waves up to six feet high and a high-speed gale in coastal Orissa, the state government has begun evacuation of people from sea-side villages in six districts.
Copies of the bill, to be moved by Finance Minister Amit Mitra tomorrow for consideration and passage, were circulated among members on the first day of a two-day special session of the Assembly on Monday.
C M Bachhawat, who has served as finance secretary in the Trinamool government earlier, will take over as the industry secretary from Alapan Bandopadhyay. Bachhawat will also be given additional responsibility as executive director of WBIDC.
Ratan Tata, chief of Tata Group, on Friday said the ambitious Rs 100,000 car will be manufactured from three-four places, including West Bengal and Uttaranchal.
Banerjee asked Modi not to allow "an insufferable blow to the federalist polity of the nation" by depriving the states of the GST compensation. "I am deeply anguished by the Goods and Services Tax imbroglio which tantamounts to a betrayal of the trust and moral responsibility of the Government of India towards the states, violating the very premise of federalism."
At the end of March 2016, Uttar Pradesh was the most indebted state, with an outstanding liability of Rs 385,300 crore, followed by Maharashtra at Rs 351,400 crore and West Bengal at Rs 314,700 crore.
Arun Jaitley on Friday said he would defer the move.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, on Friday invited industrialists to set up base in the state, but cautioned against acquiring land forcefully.
Bailout packages for fiscally stressed states are in the works, as the government seeks to garner political backing for the key policy reforms it plans to fast-track after the five state elections. A senior finance ministry official involved in the process said a high-level committee under expenditure secretary Sumit Bose had held consultations to identify measures to help West Bengal, Punjab and Kerala.
7 states account for over 80 per cent of the total direct tax collections by the Union government.
The finance minister will also visit the school in Tamil Nadu where she studied from KG to Class 5.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will not be attending the swearing-in of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as West Bengal Chief Minister in Kolkata on Friday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late on Tuesday night and is understood to have briefed him about his talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
'The market has picked up for commercial vehicles. We are very close to pre-pandemic levels.'
'The pace of disbursement and project recommendation picks up as the tenure of the House draws near and usually all amount is released.'
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