As the Budget 2008 gets ready to unfold, find out how much you know about the man behind it. Take the Rediff Business Quiz on Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
The finance minister's tax giveaways are what have saved tax-payers from the impact of inflation and higher home loan rates.
'This is a case of nepotism,' alleges Dr Subramanian Swamy.
Rahul Gandhi was stunned on hearing the senior leader's angry outburst, but soon relented and asked Mukul Wasnik to announce Karthi's name from Sivaganga.
The small investors must heed the advice of mutual funds and remain invested.
The gains will provide a much-needed reprieve after the rupee fell for a fifth week and hit an over two-month low last week in trade.
With the fall of Congress, Chidambaram's political graph too started moving southwards.
The RBI stipulated on Thursday that foreign institutional investors would require a mandate from participatory note holders to hedge on their behalf.
The rupee had gained nine paise to close at nearly one- month high of 61.84 against the dollar in yesterday's trade after the government said in the interim Budget that fiscal deficit this financial year will be capped below target.
'If on the back of the resentment against the Modi government, on the very outside chance that the Congress emerges as the single largest party in May 2019, will Rahul Gandhi become prime minister?' 'Or will he do a Sonia and appoint someone else?' asks T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
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Policymakers stepped in late Thursday to calm markets.
Forget about interim Budgets, one cannot easily recall even a full Budget of any government in recent times having rolled out benefits of this order to such a large number of people, says A K Bhattacharya.
GST will make it easier for governments to spend more, says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
Going by the number of changes Mr Jaitley's next Budget is likely to see, he will go down in the history of Budget-making as the finance minister who ushered in the largest number of changes in a single Budget, says A K Bhattacharya.
Our income tax department should bring out monthly bulletin as well as annual reports providing insights into the nature of our direct tax segments, points out R Vaidyanathan.
An analysis of the frequency of various watchwords in the finance minister's Budget speech shows that he was perhaps trying to hold on to his ideas without treading on anybody else's toes, says A K Bhattacharya.
Here's everything you need to know about the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
Even given politicians' penchant for self-promotion, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa takes it to another level altogether, says A Ganesh Nadar. Nothing wrong with it, provided it's not done at the tax-payer's expense.
The obvious temptation for Mr Jaitley would be to achieve a better fiscal deficit figure than what he had promised in July.
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.
'Chidambaram, lots of people argue not without justification, is all about bluff and bluster without any concrete achievement on the ground. His record in the finance ministry fully endorses that view,' argues Virendra Kapoor.
Are we adopting an idea whose time has come and gone? My feeling is, yes, says ex-banker C Joseph Chacko in the fourth article of the series on inflation targeting.
In the 2009 election, P Chindambaram the Sivaganga seat by a narrow margin. Then the Congress was in alliance with the ruling DMK. This time his son Karti is battling the seat with the alliance. India abstention at the UNHRC on an anti-Lanka resolution will further fuel Tamil anger against the Congress party. This leaves the finance minster sulking and his son facing an uphill political debut, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If my understanding is correct, one has to file not less than 37 returns per year for every ordinary business, and that too per state.' 'If you are doing businesses in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, you have to file 37x3 returns every year!' 'The consequence of GST will be chaos, confusion and possibly economic crisis.'
Here's everything you need to know about the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
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