An increase in the farmer income support scheme PM Kisan Nidhi, the introduction of a 'robot tax' to fund reskilling of people who lose their jobs to artificial intelligence (AI), and a reduced income-tax (I-T) to bring relief to the middle classes - these are some of the items in the Budget wish list submitted by Sangh Parivar affiliates to Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman. Representatives of the affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), such as the farmer organisation Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS); trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS); Laghu Udyog Bharati, which works for micro and small industries; and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), which works on economic and policy issues, met the FM and other officials over the last couple of weeks as part of the pre-Budget consultations.
Payouts to key management personnel in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are under the banking regulator's scrutiny. Top industry officials said this is a follow-through on the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) circular of April 29, 2022, which asked NBFCs in the "middle" and "upper" layer of its four-tiered scale-based regulatory (SBR) framework to put in place a board-approved compensation policy.
'The Budget needs to focus more on social welfare schemes.'
Few finance ministers announce any taxation measure that could upset the stock market. Ms Sitharaman decided to take that risk, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Companies in the fast moving consumer goods, insurance and entertainment sectors offer the highest number of MICE trips to employees and sales dealers. The trips are offered as incentive to achieve sales target. Under the incentive package employees and dealers are allowed to take their families for the trip making it a much sought after reward.
'In the new coalition government, India's reform agenda may prioritise job creation and factor market reforms.'
As the number of students seeking higher education abroad continues to rise, several countries are implementing new rules. Gaurav Batra, CEO and founder of Infinite Group highlights how these changes will impact Indians who are planning to study abroad.
Amid a slowdown in the automotive industry, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India asked the government to continue providing export incentives to domestic manufacturers, while expressing concern over India's growing number of free trade agreements.
The Softbank-backed company has set a price band of Rs 72 to Rs 76 per share for the maiden share sale and is expected to test the appetite for new-age loss-making companies.
'The Indian private sector knows how to build and run educational organisations, what is needed is a large dose of removal of restrictions.' 'Government restrictions hold back universities in India from launching medical schools,' argue Ajay Shah and Vijay Kelkar.
Which entrepreneur would willingly part with her or his hard-earned money for grasping, self-serving politicians? asks Debashis Basu.
Vistara has expanded its network of agents.
Wipro's new CEO Srinivas Pallia will receive an annual remuneration of up to $6 million (about Rs 50 crore), according to a regulatory filing by the Bengaluru-headquartered IT company. Earlier in April, Wipro announced the appointment of Pallia as its new CEO and MD, following the sudden resignation of Thierry Delaporte. Delaporte's annual salary of over Rs 80 crore at Wipro had made headlines last year.
'India needs many more job creators, both in manufacturing and services, to make it big.' 'For that, the red carpet must be rolled out fully and for all investors without holding back,' suggests Nivedita Mookerji.
Elena Rybakina set up a showdown with 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova for a place in Saturday's final.
Giving out sports quota jobs to youth and junior athletes not a good idea: Tejaswin Shankar
'The scheme excludes tractors, light commercial vehicles, and medium and heavy commercial vehicles.'
'The election results mean that the Opposition can no longer either be ignored or attacked in the way that it has been.' 'For this reason it will be interesting to see how it behaves from here on and whether there is any change in its behaviour,' notes Aakar Patel.
Seek permission to issue tax-free bonds.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
The Centre on Wednesday scrapped the mandatory human safety tests for electric vehicle (EV) batteries required to qualify for incentives under various government schemes. The ministry of heavy industries, in its fresh guidelines, has made compliance with the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH's) prevailing EV battery testing standards the only requirement to get incentives under the Centre's various incentive schemes.
Indian smartphone sales, traditionally dominated by the entry and mid-range segments, are set to change as high-end and super-premium devices capture consumer attention. The premium category is expected to grow by more than 20 per cent in calendar year (CY) 2024 compared to the previous year. While the overall smartphone market is expected to w
'China is struggling to get out of its property bubble.' 'Japan took 35 years to walk out of its equity bubble.' 'Bubbles can be difficult to forecast.'
Health insurance policy-holders will be able to avail a discount on the premium payable if there were no claims made in the previous year, according to the circular released by the regulator.
Gavaskar also urged the BCCI to have a look at the scheduling of the Ranji Trophy, which ran from a little over two months from January 5 to March 14 this year.
The launch coincides with the birthday of Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The exclusive club that dominates the global semiconductor fab scenario is about to get a new member. Taiwan, South Korea, and China control nearly 70 per cent of the global capacity. SEMI, the global industry body for semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing, projects all fabs collectively will churn out 30 million wafers a month this year.
A piece of slightly negative news can cause a serious setback, warns Debashis Basu.
Encouraged by the financial model followed by Cricket Australia and England and Wales Cricket Board, the BCCI is planning to introduce a performance-based incentive for the Indian team for each and every home and away series.
With the prediction of an above normal monsoon in 2024, the government is expecting food prices to come down, the finance ministry's monthly economic report for March has said. The report, released on Thursday, said robust foreign inflows and comfortable trade deficits were expected to keep the rupee within a comfortable range. "Further easing of food prices is on the anvil as IMD (India Meteorological Department) has predicted above-normal rainfall during the monsoon season, which is likely to lead to higher production, assuming good spatial and temporal distribution of the rainfall," the monthly report, released by the Department of Economic Affairs, said.
Micron Technology, a global leader in memory and storage, is considering supplying Made-in-India chips from its Gujarat plant to one of its key global clients, Apple, whose vendors assemble iPhones in the country. Micron is setting up an assembly test marking and packaging (ATMP) plant in Sanand, Gujarat. Currently, Apple vendors import chips for manufacturing iPhones. Sources in the know say the aim is to use part of the production to supply to Micron's clients in India directly.
Corporate India is starting to step up its capital expenditure plans amid government incentives and signs of rising demand, company executives and analysts have indicated. This coincides with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently citing a double-digit growth in private capital expenditure. Healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, along with increasing capacity utilisation and improving business sentiment, are contributing to a favourable environment for sustained growth in private sector investments, the RBI said in its policy last week.
Apart from developers of special economic zones and units operating out of them, the proposal will also affect companies in power, infrastructure, food processing, hotel and hospital sectors, among others.
The new industrial policy, which may come into effect from October this year, may not offer large incentives. The Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have told officials at the last review meeting that the new industrial policy will not offer large incentives.
A day ahead of the interim Budget, India slashed import duty on spare parts, like battery cover, lens and SIM socket, used in mobile phone manufacturing to 10 per cent, from 15 per cent. The duty cut is aimed at boosting local production and exports, as well as reducing prices in local markets. The finance ministry on January 30, notified the cut in duty on all goods for use in manufacture of cellular mobile phones to 10 per cent.
When minister of state for industries Saurabh Patel announced on Monday the new industrial policy in a press conference, there were a flurry of questions pertaining to the incentives given to the Tata's car project, which was relocated from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand near Ahmedabad.
The Budget should use the extra RBI surplus to better effect, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
Finnish phone manufacturer Human Mobile Devices (HMD Global), which acquired the Nokia brand name from Microsoft, is planning to make India a key manufacturing hub for its phone exports. The company only began exporting late last year with the Nokia 105 Classic. What started mainly with feature phones will now extend to smartphones - it announced the global launch of models under the HMD brand for the first time a few days ago and these will be available in India too.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government will use the unorganised workers database - e-Shram portal - to provide the benefits of various government programmes to the nearly 300 million workers over the next five years, if it is voted to power for the third consecutive term in the upcoming general elections. "We have registered unorganised workers on the e-Shram platform. "We will reach out to the e-Shram registered 'shramik bandhu' and help them avail the benefits of various government programmes that they are eligible for," the manifesto of the party read.
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