Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the mass consumption items such as pulses, wheat, rice, flour, and curd will not attract the 5 per cent goods and services tax (GST) when sold loose, and not pre-packed or pre-labelled. The clarification came amid protests and widespread criticism by Opposition Members of Parliament over foisting GST on daily-use essentials and subsequent price rise. The all-powerful GST Council, chaired by the Union minister, had last month decided to impose GST on some mass consumption items to simplify the rate structure, which came into effect on Monday.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Friday slammed Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for presenting a 'lacklustre, populist budget with an eye on forthcoming elections in West Bengal'.
The mandate will help further the development agenda in these states, with good governance and policy reforms taking centrestage
Even before the real 3G mobile services takes off, competition at the trial level is hotting up with Reliance Communications applying for the radio waves for testing of interface for both GSM and CDMA based services.
Holders Punjab play Services on June 5 in first round-robin match of the quarter-final league in the Santosh Trophy National Football Championship in Srinagar. The semi-finals will be on June 12 and 13 and the final on June 15.
Gorkhaland supporters torched a police outpost, a toytrain station and clashed with the police at two places.
Militant labour policies compounded a poor security environment for capital in West Bengal and encouraged the business community to relocate. constraining the private sector's right to hire freely could well be the coup de grace. As with Calcutta/Kolkata, it will probably take a decade for Gurgaon/Gurugram to feel the difference, says Kanika Datta.
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.
Worldspace Incorporated, one of the world's leaders in satellite-based digital radio service, would invest $150 million in the next two years in India.
The MEA said at Lumbini, the prime minister will visit the sacred Mayadevi temple to offer prayers.
There was no casualty or damage to property, Superintendent of Police Niti Sekhar said.
Reliance Jio is close to finalising its contract with telecom gear maker Ericsson to roll out its 5G network in Mumbai and Maharashtra and Kolkata and West Bengal in the first phase of its launch in October. And it is going with Nokia for the lucrative Delhi circle, and Chennai, which includes Tamil Nadu, say sources aware of the development. This is the first time that Jio is opting for multiple vendors.
In December, some 400 youngsters aged 15 to 18 years boarded a train for the Tata Jagriti Yatra (TJY), a 9,000-km, 16-state journey of 18 days from December 24, 2010 to January 11, 2011, starting from Mumbai travelling through Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad, Orissa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, to Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat and back.
In Bihar, where a bandh had been called, a railway station and a police vehicle were torched, an ambulance attacked and security personnel injured in stone-pelting incidents on the fourth consecutive day of the agitation, while protesters vandalised Ludhiana railway station in Punjab and blocked roads and rail tracks in West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
Gecis, formerly GE Capital International Services, would open its fifth centre at Salt Lake electronics complex in Kolkata for which the West Bengal government would allot a three-acre plot.
The Board of approval in the commerce ministry took these decisions along with approving two fresh proposals of Shyam Steel Industries and Limitless Properties in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, respectively. The BoA also ratified extension of time to 23 developers, including Satyam Computer Services, for implementing tax-free enclaves in the wake of economic slowdown.
Sources at the bank told Business Standard that talks were on with 2-3 vendors and the final decision is expected in the next 2-3 weeks.
Earlier in the day, state home minister Anil Deshmukh, also of the NCP, said that it was "extremely ill-advised" to reopen airports in red zone amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Even as the BSNL's call charges between metros and circles have been reduced for basic-to-basic, cell and unified access operators with inter-service area connectivity, the PSU has realigned pulse durations for various category calls within and outsi
Climate change has hampered the ability of the forecasting agencies to accurately predict severe events and weather bureaus across the world are focusing on augmenting the observational network density and the weather prediction modelling to improve predictability, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra has said.
Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi had on Saturday paid a visit to the violence-hit areas of Asansol and Raniganj.
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar, tremors of which shook the northeast, several parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and even Delhi and NCR on Wednesday.
Other than Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal, call centres would come up in Assam, Manipur, Tripura.
The Empowered Committee of state finance ministers is meeting under the chairmanship of West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta to work out agreements on various aspects of the GST.
With the fresh fatalities, the total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood and landslides across the state has gone up to 42.
The heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railways will resume the toy train services from December from Siliguri.
As Rose Valley resurfaces, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Pal's arrests marks the end of the bonhomie between the TMC and BJP.
At the helm of India's most enterprising ministry, Mamata Banerjee promises the best service from the Indian Railways.
Former Nepalese foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey observed that the current situation is not encouraging for India-Nepal ties, saying the "present leaders" created irritants in the relationship in the past.
Bharti Televentures Ltd on Wednesday announced the second phase of expansion with the launch of its broadband and fixed services from Noida in Uttar Pradesh, under which it will offer broadband services at Rs 500 a month for 256 kbps.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved public private partnership mode for the rollout of BharatNet project for broadband services in villages in 16 states with viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Prasad said the decision to involve private players was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on August 15, 2020 that around 6 lakh villages in the country will be connected with broadband in 1,000 days. "The Cabinet has in-principle approved implementation of BharatNet in 16 states in a public private partnership model with total expense of Rs 29,430 crore.
Severe cyclonic storm Michaung crossed south Andhra Pradesh coast close to Bapatla district between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm on Tuesday with maximum gales of up to 90-100 km per hour speed, said an Amaravati Meteorological Centre official.
While some states have proposed to dilute the hefty penalty provisions in the Act, there are those like West Bengal which have refused to implement right away.
The personnel ministry has decided to amend existing service rules to ensure the availability of a sufficient number of IAS officers for central deputation, officials said on Tuesday.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions, has organised protests in different states on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the farmers' movement against three central farm laws.
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