House economists at the nation's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) have urged the government to budget for nursing the pandemic-ravaged economy and not to focus too much on fiscal consolidation as there is a need for more stabilisation measures to sustain the fledgling recovery. And one of the best way to begin the new fiscal is to complete the share sale of LIC this fiscal. This can go a long way in repairing the overstretched balance sheet which in turn will bring down fiscal deficit to a much lower 6.3 per cent in FY23 as the public coffers will be left with a cash surplus of at least Rs 3 lakh crore to begin the new fiscal, SBI chief economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh said in a pre-Budget note on Wednesday.
India's work participation rate is lower than Pakistan and Bangladesh. Are Indians lazy? No, there are no jobs, asserts Aakar Patel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea of cooperative federalism is expected to be on display in the 2015-16 Budget.
Market linking of petrol and diesel prices has helped the industry.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday assured that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will not be implemented in Assam if the party is voted to power in the state in the coming assembly poll.
The notion that the BJP gained its increased tally by wiping out the Left parties and the Congress is completely misleading. Equally misleading is the belief that the TMC held its ground in all its existing seats. A little more than a fifth of the seats Mamata Banerjee's party had won in 2016 was lost to the BJP this time.
Dismissing the contention that the decline in inflation was on account of the steps taken by the NDA government, Chidambaram said he wanted to know, 'what measures were taken by the government that contributed to decline in inflation rates.'
Officials cited the example of the Sixth Pay Commission.
In big bang reforms, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a relief package for the telecom sector that includes a four-year moratorium on payment of statutory dues by telecom companies as well as allowing 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route. Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said nine structural reforms for the telecom sector were approved. The definition of AGR, which had been a major reason for the stress in the sector, has been rationalised by excluding non-telecom revenue of telecom companies.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her fourth Budget in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
'Should you give a man fish, or teach him how to fish?' 'Lurking hidden in the new bout of welfarism seems to be an admission that the State can't deliver for the poor anything other than cash,' notes T N Ninan.
Referring to how unified Washington Allies have been in isolating President Putin, Biden stated, "...The Quad is, with the possible exception of India being somewhat shaky on some of this, but Japan has been extremely strong -- so has Australia -- in terms of dealing with Putin's aggression."
With the world's worst pandemic outbreak scarring nascent economic recovery, the government may at the beginning of the unlock phase announce another stimulus package for the most hit sectors such as small business and self-employed, Bernstein said. The brokerage in a note said its macro index suggests a deterioration in economic activity during April/May. "Energy consumption has moderated, with power down over 4 per cent and oil consumption down over 16 per cent in May so far (all 2-year CAGR). "E-waybills are down 16 per cent, suggesting the impact of scale down in factory production for some product categories, owing to the shut down in retail outlets.
When we look at the pension expenditure of the states, so far, there has been no gain from the NPS reform. Pension expenses as a share of total state revenue expenditure rose from 4% in 1991-1992 to 10% at the time of the NPS reform, and have risen further to about 12%, observes Ajay Shah.
The Trump administration has announced new restrictions on H-1B non-immigrant visa programme which it said is aimed at protecting American workers, restoring integrity and to better guarantee that H-1B petitions are approved only for qualified beneficiaries and petitioners, a move which is likely to affect thousands of Indian IT professionals.
'We told the government that we won't dance to their tunes this time.'
In its third video uploaded on YouTube, RIL said the Cabinet had decided on June 27, 2013, to revise natural gas prices for public and private producers from April 1 and notified the decision on January 10, about two months before the schedule for general elections was announced on March 5.
The government has to focus on real solutions, not make a mockery of the crisis through 'vaccine festivals',' asserts T N Ninan.
Only Rs 3,000 cr has been disbursed. Over 80% of these transfers were for cooking gas subsidy.
'The road ahead for the government's fiscal management will be full of many new challenges,' warns A K Bhattacharya.
The total rainfall till now is not only deficient, but is also erratic in terms of both geographical spread and timings.
"It is a matter of pride for us that India's vaccination programme has been science-born, science-driven and science-based," Modi said.
Modi Sarkar will not stand on ceremonies even if that means stepping on the Constitution, says Udit Misra.
'Milking poorly performing or easily marketable assets is the way to deliver more money for key programmes,' says T N Ninan.
"If such blurring gains traction, democracy would be in peril," a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani said in its 83-page judgement while deliberating with the case and imposition of anti-terror law against Kalita.
'The finance minister said, the MSME is the backbone of the economy. My question is, what have you done for the sector?'
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
The finance minister has emphasised on the quick disbursal of additional loans to MSMEs, to simplify process, formats and documentation.
The Congress on Saturday rubbished media reports that it is going to use the Food Security ordinance as a trump card in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, saying the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre has come up with various schemes in the social sector and for the nation's welfare during its nine-year rule.
'Farmers love cows but find it uneconomical to afford fodder expenses'
Moody's Investors Service on Monday said it has assigned a first-time B3 corporate family rating (CFR) to ANI Technologies, which operates ride hailing service Ola. Moody's CFRs are opinions of a corporate family's ability to honour all of its financial obligations. It has also assigned a B3 rating to the company's proposed senior secured term loan.
Budget planners for now have been told to prepare with the assumption that GST will apply from April 1.
The MSME sector, which is employment-intensive, accounts for 45 per cent of the country's manufacturing, 40 per cent of exports and nearly 8 per cent of gross domestic product.
It is clear Modi wants to establish a direct hotline with the bureaucracy, bypassing the ministers, just like in Gujarat where the bureaucracy ran the show and the babus were given a free hand to take decisions.
'The Modi regime is not willing to use its huge political capital for taking any economic policy measure that it fears might undermine that political strength, says A K Bhattacharya.
Nandigram today is a conglomeration of model villages fenced by its greenery.
Even as India gears up for election results on May 16, a group of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have taken up an informal initiative to see how a 'Modi ministry' will look like, in case the party forms the government at the Centre.
SBI data shows the per-capita payouts for scheme have shot up this year.
The Budget has stuck to annual increases in agri credit targets.
Various alleged administrative and financial irregularities worth crores have been pointed out in execution of development works in worst Naxal-hit Bastar district of Chhattisgarh by state Accountant General.
