Ayushman Bharat aims at providing a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and is aimed at benefitting more than 10 crore poor families across the country.
A digital economy can only work with uninterrupted electricity supply. So, states now face the unpleasant task of telling their citizens that electricity rates need to be hiked. Subhomoy Bhattacharjee reports.
'Everybody says 5G and communication is important.' 'Everybody says automation, robotics, human computing interfaces -- people and machines working together -- is the future.' 'Everybody agrees that cybersecurity is something that is here to stay.' 'Everybody agrees that synthetic biology is important.' 'Instead of outlining thinking about industries for tomorrow and the future, let the evolutionary pathway be built in a way that it promotes robust, creative, thinking.'
While everybody is talking about the vast potential of 5G, the uptake of such services in India depends on operators getting around 100 Mhz 5G spectrum. At the reserve price proposed by Trai, getting this spectrum will cost a telco around Rs 490 billion. Which amount could be difficult for operators to mop up, given the financial stress they are undergoing, says Kiran Rathee.
The forthcoming Budget, the last full one before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is expected to contain a number of sops and feel-good announcements, especially regarding social sector schemes.
Bandhan financial Services will raise funds via internal accruals.
Indian economy about to take-off
Is it just the glamour?
Anshu Gupta, the founder of Goonj, has transformed the culture of giving in the country. He has for 15 years now, worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots, by making discarded materials a resource for the poor. His weapon, he says, is 'cloth as a tool of social change.'
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday addressed the first joint sitting of Parliament as mandatorily required under the Constitution after the general elections. The address is the political, economic and foreign policy road map of the Narendra Modi government and covers virtually all crucial areas.
Modi said the biggest challenge would be to ensure that the disease does not spread to villages across the country after relaxations provided by the government.
As of now, 12 million Indians join the workforce every year.
'One thing is sure: After this Budget, no Ambani-Adani tag will be attached to the government.'
'The main reason people go to other countries is unemployment in Punjab'
The contentious Land bill passed the Lok Sabha test after the government carried out nine amendments.
The IMF chief listed three key policy areas for women's empowerment as the education, getting a job and having a family.
'Wild animals lived in their natural environment.' 'So, viruses could not be communicated.' 'Then came mass production and mass quartering of animals -- whether it be poultry, pigs and cattle -- which gave rise to bird flu, SARS and the mad cow disease.' 'Vast amounts of animal produce are also being flown from one part of the world to another, which has helped to spread the virus.' 'All these changes have led to a new and deadly mutation of the virus that has immobliised human beings.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party regime will have to make good on this election slogan to restore state-owned banks to health, says Rajiv Lall.
'The problems the rest of the world is struggling with -- the future of work, expectations from government and business in a world without jobs -- will be solved in India, by young Indians, before anyone else,' says Mihir S Sharma.
The manifesto was unveiled by Jayalalithaa at a public rally, in a departure from usual practice of release at party headquarters in Chennai.
'James Crabtree ignores the emergence of a nexus between business and politics going back to the 1920s and talks of it as a new child of 21st century India,' says Shivanand Kanavi.
India Inc is encouraged by a determined Budget.
'Success will require political skill, not just economic expertise'
India only has 3.5 million workers undergoing skills courses a year, compared with 90 million in China
India wants peace with Pakistan but there can be no compromise with its own territorial integrity, President Pranab Mukherjee has said, while asserting that state-sponsored terrorism from across the border cannot be accepted.
'When you forgive a farmer's loans there is this ideological economists lobby which says: 'That's socialism. And that's bad'.' 'But to forgive the loans of big people, so that they will be interested to invest further is capitalism and is good.'
Combining affordable IT with native Indian ingenuity and entrepreneurship F C Kohli believed would enable Indian small businesses match anyone and thrive.
Budget planners for now have been told to prepare with the assumption that GST will apply from April 1.
The challenge is to convince productive sectors that a lower general rate would benefit all and remove the prevalent system of favours targeted towards narrow industry and service sector groups.
'Maharashtra has 34,000 active cases, of which 24,000 are asymptomatic, and hence need no medicines but are under quarantine.' '9,500 cases are showing mild to severe symptoms.' 'While 1,200 are seriously ill, only 200 of them are on ventilator support.' 'Let those claiming that the situation in the state has gone out of control, look at these numbers objectively before damaging the state's reputation for political gains.'
This Budget signals a shift from a hand-out to a hand-up economy.
India must change approach and have better access to networks to fulfil its digitisation dream.
Excise duty on most products has been capped at 12.5 per cent
A picture has been created that present government is anti-farmer, which is absolutely wrong, says BJP MP Bhupender Yadav.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday gave away Gandhi Peace Prize 2014 to ISRO in recognition of its services in transforming India through the use of space technology.
Economy to grow by 7.2-7.5 per cent in second half of current fiscal, says FM.
'The UPA was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. The NDA is the gang that can't stop shooting. They (the Modi government) are shooting at anybody, everybody, all directions, shooting themselves in the foot.'
India's new policy commission has received a makeover and a dream team has been formed to head the Think Tank, NITI Aayog.
Against all odds, the young and determined Varun Sharma has taken up the responsibility to bring electricity, education and empowerment to a remote tribal village in Odisha, says Manu A B.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal unveiled the party's manifesto for the youth. The party, which is aiming to capture power in the state, will come out with separate manifestos for different sections of society.
