In an interview with CNN-IBN, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seemed reluctant to embrace Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as her party's choice for the post of the President of India.
The state government was under a mammoth debt of Rs 2 lakh crore.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said the wrong policy and non-functional police of the Left Front government in West Bengal were responsible for the rise of Maoism in the state. "The Left Front government should be blamed for the rise of Maoists in West Bengal. Their wrong policy and non-functional police have allowed the Maoists to enter the state and strengthen their base in Junglemahal," the senior Congress leader told an election rally at Harishchandrapur.
The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will meet on December 31 and discuss, among other things, report of the panel of state ministers on rate rationalisation. This will be a physical meeting, which will also discuss correction in duty inversion in certain goods. The 46th GST Council meeting will be held on December 31 in Delhi, an official said, adding that it will be an extension to the pre-budget meeting with state finance ministers on December 30. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation will submit report to the Council.
party chief whip in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandhopadhay told PTI in Kolkata, "We took a decision that our MPs will abstain from Parliament.We want to send a message to the central government that it should act on state-sponsored terrorism in West Bengal. The Left Front government does not have the moral right to continue."
Ahead of the crucial third phase of assembly polls, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said that West Bengal was the 'worst-governed' state in the country and blamed the CPI-M and its cadres for spreading violence and turning the state into a 'killing field'.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said he was confident that the Congress and Trinamool Congress would contest next year's assembly elections in West Bengal jointly even though the two parties are going to fight separately in coming civic polls.
Which entrepreneur would willingly part with her or his hard-earned money for grasping, self-serving politicians? asks Debashis Basu.
Addressing her first press conference after the election results were declared, she accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of polarising the people on religious lines to garner votes in West Bengal.
"It is a dastardly attack and I can only tell it has strengthened our resolve to fight against this menace...," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, when asked about Monday's attack by the Maoists.
A high-level committee on Thursday recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's maiden visit to the financial capital Mumbai drew an enthusiastic response from India Inc with industry captains queuing up to attend the meeting called by her.
The total balance in 255 million Jan Dhan accounts now stands at Rs 66,637 crore against Rs 45,637 crore on November 9.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, on Saturday joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls.
As the Centre pushes reforms in the power sector, especially for the beleaguered electricity distribution segment, several states, especially those ruled by Opposition parties, are clamouring against it. Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerela have voiced their reservations against the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003. The irony is the states opposing the amendments on the ground of threat of privatisation already have private partnerships in power supply. The proposed Bill was slated to be placed on the floor of Parliament in the Monsoon session. But it still awaits Cabinet approval amid several states complaining that they have been not consulted on the issue.
A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in December 2015. He joined the Congress in 2018.
The contentious issue of value added tax was resolved on Tuesday with the state finance ministers deciding to implement from June 1 the new tax system in place of the sales tax.
It is 10 years since Bandhan Financial Services became the first microfinance institution (MFI) to receive the universal bank licence. A year later, in 2015, it started operations. Bandhan's entry into banking was seen as a vote of confidence by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the country's microfinance sector. Subsequently, the RBI awarded small finance bank licences to nine MFIs.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the Union Budget in Parliament on Monday, announced that it is proposed to add one handloom mega cluster each in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and one powerloom mega cluster in Rajasthan.
As their parties are locked in a fierce battle for Bengal, Tathagata and Saugata Roy, siblings who belong to the BJP and the TMC respectively, answer the same questions put to them about the assembly election.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday came out in support of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who was involved in a face-off with Union minister Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha, and said the 75-year-old leader was 'encircled and heckled pack-wolf style'.
Pawan Ruia has finally done it, a beaming Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, then West Bengal chief minister, had said at the reopening of the 70-year-old Sahagunj factory owned by Dunlop in 2005. But with the Calcutta high court passing a winding-up order in 2013 and the Trinamool Congress-led state government passing a Bill to take over the company in 2016, the once-upon-a-time undisputed leader in the Indian tyre industry looks vastly undone. But that can hardly be a deterrent for Ruia, who has a penchant for making headlines one way or the other.
Mamata offered 1,000-acre land at Goaltore and said anyone be it the Tatas or BMW are most welcome to set up an auto plant in the state
West Bengal and Maharashtra, despite having fewer public sector employees, are likely to face a higher burden of salaries and pensions.
An interview with Amit Mitra, the finance minister of West Bengal.
Initially reluctant to involve the CBI in the investigation on the ground that the central agency had not been able to make any headway into the Nandigram and Netai killings, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later changed her stance, saying that the government was not averse to it.
UP Rs 50 billion, followed by Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal which may need close to Rs 25 billion for the massive task.
On the sidelines of the NITI Aayog governing council meeting, CMs of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala met PM Modi.
Sources said the Telangana chief minister was busy with preparations for the launch of his ambitious Rs 80,000 crore Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project that would end water woes in the state, while in a letter to Modi, the West Bengal chief minister had expressed her inability to attend the Niti Aayog meeting on June 15, saying it is "fruitless" as the body has no financial powers to support state plans.
Banks enjoyed an expansion in Net Interest Margins (or NIMs) as well as in credit demand through the 2022-23 financial year (FY23). The credit expansion was because economic growth continued to recover from the Covid-19 years, and indeed, second half GDP growth surprised on the upside. The NIM expansion was because banks raised lending rates immediately (in many cases automatically due to floaters) as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked policy rates, and only started raising deposit rates late into the fiscal.
Attacking the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal over the issue of development, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said funds worth crores were sent from the Centre to the state but they never reached the people.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha who joined Trinamool Congress on Saturday narrated how West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had offered to go as a hostage in exchange for passengers of Air India's IC 814 that was hijacked by the militants over two decades ago.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday criticised the statements of West Bengal ministers against Ratan Tata, and said Tata's views and opinions about the development of the state would always be welcomed by the people of Bengal.
Announcing the name of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she will be contesting from the Nandigram constituency as announced earlier.
Finance Ministry has rejected the requests of Punjab, Kerala and West Bengal for relief on their mounting debt.
What some of our leaders were up to on Thursday and Thursday.
In January Amit Shah launched the 'Bhag Mamata Bhag' programme in West Bengal. On Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the red carpet for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What changed in two months?
Heeding to demands made by several states, the GST Council on Friday put on hold a decision to hike the tax rate on textiles to 12 per cent and referred to a panel of state ministers to recommend rate by February, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The panel, the highest decision-making body for indirect taxes, met under emergency provisions after states made a request for deferring the tax rate hike on textiles, from the current 5 per cent, to be effective from January 1, 2022. Currently, the tax rate on manmade fibre (MMF) is 18 per cent, MMF yarn 12 per cent, while fabrics are taxed at 5 per cent.
With all states barring Maharashtra and West Bengal agreeing to exchange high cost interest bearing bonds with softer loans, the Centre will start the debt swap very soon.\n\n\n\n
According to the consumer affairs department, these chit funds are operating at a small level.
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