Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced a slew of measures to boost economic growth and address distress in various sectors
'If they add a small paragraph that no purchase will be allowed below the MSP, they have a winner on their hands'
Many farmers in drought hit states are seeking MGNREGA work but the state government's coffers do not have enough fund to pay the salaries of these workers.
While the Delhi government announced that schools will not be allowed to hike fees during the lockdown period and only tuition fee will have to be paid, Maharashtra has said parents can lodge complaints with district education officers if schools demanded fees. The Gujarat government had on Monday announced that private schools will not hike fees for an year. The West Bengal government has appealed to schools to refrain from hiking fees.
Asking Indian Institute of Technology Bombay to adopt a humanitarian approach, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the premier engineering institute to allocate within 48 hours a seat to a young Dalit boy, who missed out, as he could not deposit his fees due to the non-functioning of his credit card.
The government's annual Economic Survey on Friday strongly defended new farm laws, saying they herald a new era of market freedom which can go a long way in improving lives of small and marginal farmers in India. These legislations were designed "primarily" for the benefit of "small and marginal farmers", which constitute around 85 per cent of the total number of farmers and are the biggest sufferer of the "regressive" APMC-regulated market regime, the survey said. The pre-budget document defended the farm laws in the backdrop of long-running farmers' agitation at various borders of the national capital seeking repeal of these legislations expressing concern that they are pro-corporate and could weaken government regulated mandis, also called Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs).
Absence of comprehensive data protection and privacy laws will be barriers in the government's digitalisation drive.
Experts consider Sebi's takeover code in its present form to be on a par with any foreign code governing public mergers and acquisitions.
Presenting the Union Budget for the year 2012-13, the Finance Minister informed the Lower House of Parliament that the enrolments into the other system have already crossed 20 crore (200 million) and the Aadhaar numbers generated upto date has crossed 14 crore (140 million).
The chairman of mortgage giant HDFC Ltd in his annual letter to shareholders, also suggested a one-time restructuring of real estate loans, easing of external commercial borrowing rules and immediate changes in regulations to allow end-to-end execution of housing loans online.
'Dharavi will be completely slum free by 2040'
The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth over Rs 14 crore belonging to the Gitanjali Group and its promoter and jeweller Mehul Choksi, one of the prime accused in the alleged over Rs 13,000 crore PNB loan fraud case. The properties attached, under the anti-money laundering law, include a flat measuring 1,460 sq feet located at O2 Tower in Goregaon area of Mumbai, gold and platinum jewellery, diamond stones, necklaces made of silver and pearls, watches and a Mercedes Benz car, the ED said in a statement. A provisional order for attachment has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the assets worth a total Rs 14.45 crore that are in the name of Gitanjali Group of companies and its director Mehul Choksi, it said.
Jean Dreze, a noted economist who was was a member of Sonia Gandhi led National Advisory Council, was dropped from the list of speakers at the Delhi Economics Conclave organised by the finance ministry and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 76,000 crore policy boost for semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country in an bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production. Announcing the decision of the Cabinet, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw observed that electronics plays an important role in everyday life, and semiconductor chips forms a crucial part of electronics. Outlining the details of the scheme, he said the Rs 76,000 crore programme has been approved for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem.
The Reserve Bank on Monday asked all banks and financial institutions to assess the impact on their balance sheet, asset quality, liquidity, among others, in the wake of the potential threat arising out of the spread of coronavirus disease in India. Several confirmed cases have also been detected in India, which highlight the need of a co-ordinated strategy for handling the emerging situations to protect the resilience of the Indian financial system, RBI said in a notification addressed to banks, urban cooperative banks, NBFCs, payment and small finance banks.
American Ursula Papandrea will continue to lead the sport's governing body as Acting President.
If advance tax revenue fails to meet the expected growth, these PSUs could be asked to pay taxes on past demands raised against them.
The Centre and states are looking to further tighten the GST registration process and legal measures to deal with the rising cases of fake invoicing. A meeting of the law committee of the GST Council has been convened on Wednesday to discuss these issues, finance ministry sources said. The committee, comprising senior central and state tax officers, would also discuss the GST fake invoice frauds, further tightening of the GST registration process and work out other legal measures including necessary law amendment required in the GST Act to curb the menace of fake invoicing, they added. Also the provisions related to deemed registration under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law may be tightened to prevent the misuse of such provisions by fake dealers and the provisions related to suspension of registration may also be streamlined to make the procedure of suspension and cancellation of registration more efficient and faster, so that such fraud operators can be prevented in time from continuing to pass on fake credit down the chain.
Softening the demonetisation blow, the Budget for 2017-18 on Wednesday halved the tax to 5 per cent on incomes up to Rs 500,000 but proposed a new surcharge of 10 per cent on incomes between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore and raised duties on cigarettes and pan masala while stepping up allocations for infrastructure, rural, agriculture and social sectors.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said political parties will be entitled to receive donations by cheque or digital mode from their donors.
The RBI working group's proposal to allow corporate houses to set up banks is a "bombshell" and at this juncture, it is more important to stick to the tried and tested limits on involvement of business houses in the banking sector, according to an article jointly written by former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and ex-Deputy Governor Viral Acharya. They also said that the proposal is "best left on the shelf".
Regulator Sebi on Friday imposed penalties on Reliance Industries Ltd, its chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani as well as two other entities for alleged manipulative trading in the shares of erstwhile Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) back in November 2007. Fines of Rs 25 crore and Rs 15 crore have been imposed on Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Ambani, respectively. Besides, Navi Mumbai SEZ Pvt Ltd has been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 20 crore and Mumbai SEZ Ltd has been directed to pay Rs 10 crore. The case pertains to sale and purchase of RPL shares in the cash and the futures segments in November 2007.
Businesses coming to terms with Ind-AS (Indian Accounting Standards) implementation, GST can do without further uncertainty and costs, say N Sundaresha Subramanian & Sudipto Dey.
The Lakhimpur Kheri violence, in which four farmers were killed, is "absolutely condemnable," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, emphasising that there are issues of such nature happening in other parts of India equally which should be raised "when they happen and not when it suits others" because there is a Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said the central bank will ensure adequate liquidity in the system to ease the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The central bank reduced the reverse repo rate -- the rate at which banks park their fund with the central bank -- by 25 basis points to 3.75 per cent.
Electoral politics is going to be an important part of farmer protests going forward.
But their trajectory and direction have been largely influenced by politics and the political leadership's understanding of how the economy needs to be managed, explains A K Bhattacharya.
While no specific state-oriented sops were rolled out, a strong thread of political wellness ran through the Budget.
This provision is a very smart rule against fraudster and would not affect any genuine business entities or Ease of Doing Business in any manner, said a source.
Aircraft manufacturer Embraer has agreed to pay over $205 million (over Rs 1,371 crore) as settlement with American and Brazalian authorities for resolving corruption charges in India and three other countries.
Fraud-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank on Tuesday invited expression of interest (EoI) from potential investors for investment or equity participation in the bank for its reconstruction. Subsequent to commencement of the normal day-to-day operations, it will be open for the investors to convert the bank into a small finance bank by making an application to the RBI, the lender said.
The 90-day compliance window to declare overseas wealth ends on September 30.
The government has not done its homework or made any attempt to forge a consensus on this matter that affects millions of people in the organised sector, says Harsh Roongta.
The recent protests by employees of Urban Company and the case of a a Zomato delivery executive who died in a road accident point to the severely straitened condition of gig workers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Budget 2021 had promised several measures to help the cause of gig economy workers, but most of them are yet to see the light of day. Even after a year, the country's gig workers continue to be without any social security cover or a minimum wage guarantee. "In Budget 2021, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the government is looking toward including migrant and gig workers for social security benefits," says Srinivas Kotni, managing partner, Lexport, a consulting firm. Parliament had passed the Code on Wages in 2019 and Code on Industrial Relations, Social Security and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions in 2020.
'We are also seeing the birth of new evil, the new face of drug distribution where human interface has reduced; consumers are using the Dark Web to source supplies and using cryptocurrencies as payment mode.'
'Previously, when people used to meet each other, without any hesitation, they used to hug each other or shake hands.' 'But no longer.'
The president said he will be signing a number of executive orders over the next several days of the week.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
'No one cares about fiscal deficit now. Or for that matter, inflation.' 'The focus is on growth and growth alone.' 'RBI needs to break the risk aversion of banks and infuse adrenaline in their veins', says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
