Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new job creation scheme by giving subsidy to those establishments that make new hires. The subsidy would be to cover for retirement fund contributions by employees as well as employers for two years, she said. Employees contribution (12 per cent of wages) and employer's contribution (12 per cent of wages) totalling 24 per cent of wages would be given to establishments for two years, she said. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, every Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)-registered establishment taking new employees would get this subsidy.
'If a Brahmin child by birth is poor then he must get reservation benefits rather than an OBC child who is rich and born in a rich family.'
The push given to rooftop solar installation in the Interim Budget ties in with its high rate of adoption in Tier-II and -III cities of India. If original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automobile industry, government, and the solar sector are to be believed, in cities of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Kerala, 45-50 per cent of electric-vehicle (EV) users are employing rooftop power to charge their vehicles. This is compared to the national average of 25 per cent, say industry sources.
In what could come as a piece of good news, hunger in India - as measured by the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has come down from 16.6 per cent of the population in the 2020-2022 to 13.7 per cent in 2021-23, the latest report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2024) showed. This means that around 39.3 million people have come out of undernourishment between the two periods, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said on Tuesday.
Led by Ola Electric, which registered an industry record of 53,186 vehicles in March, electric two-wheeler (e2W) penetration hit a record at 8.91 per cent - the highest ever for a month (based on Vahan data).
Instead of working to reduce the subsidy bill, various political elements seem to be pushing for even higher subsidies.
The company has the largest car park in EVs in India, estimated to be around 170,000 units. As a pilot, it has already started work with used online car marketplace Spinny.
The WTO has fixed an external reference price (ERP) for rice at Rs 3.52 per kg
'The BJP claims they have eight lakh cadres in the Kashmir Valley so why can't they contest elections from Kashmir?'
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.
Food subsidy bill rises 20% in April-January
The government spends nearly 4.2 per cent of the gross domestic product in subsidising various commodities and services.
The finance minister clarified that indexation benefits offered until April 1, 2001 would be protected. This means older properties, including legacy assets, would benefit.
The ministry of finance is likely to assume crude oil price to remain within $85 per barrel while estimating subsidies for the Interim Budget 2024-25 (FY25), to be presented on February 1. Brent crude prices moved up on Thursday, ending at $78.9 per barrel. Crude oil and cooking gas prices, which move in tandem, impact fertiliser and cooking gas subsidies, constituting 53 per cent of the government's total subsidies.
Government gives 3 months, starting June, for the 20 districts to be covered under its direct benefits transfer scheme.
Officials said the oil marketing companies had provided data to the Income Tax department.
Moody's Ratings on Tuesday said India's growing water shortage can disrupt farm and industry sectors and is detrimental to the credit health of the sovereign as rising food inflation and decline in income may spark social unrest. It said decreases in water supply can disrupt agricultural production and industrial operations, resulting in inflation in food prices and hence can be detrimental to credit health of sectors that heavily consume water, such as coal power generators and steel-makers.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned India against too many populist subsidies
"We are working on a (subsidy) mechanism, as it's very difficult to implement dual pricing of diesel," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said
The calculation is based on annual usage of eight cylinders per household.
The government has taken a slew of steps to boost the sales of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers under its Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024, which includes allowing manufacturers to upload claims twice a month and gives them a 120-day window to submit it. The Rs 500-crore scheme -- which had replaced the flagship Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme-- comes to an end on July 31st.
'India's top companies currently lack the organisational wherewithal to hire and train 2 million interns annually, given their current scale of operations and existing employee base.'
Ola Electric share price strategy: The meteoric rise of Ola Electric share price has left analysts and investors bewildered. Yet, they suggest investors hold on to the stock as it remains a pure "momentum" play. Since its listing on August 9, the stock has surged 92 per cent (till August 19) over its issue price of Rs 76, taking its market capitalisation to a little over Rs 63,000 crore.
The FinMin will pay Rs 5,324 crore (Rs 53.24 billion) for Jan-March.
In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
The proposed exemption in customs duty on import of lithium, cobalt and other rare minerals in the Union Budget 2024-25 is likely to lower the battery production cost and help in making electric vehicles more affordable for the buyers, auto industry leaders said on Tuesday.
Chidambaram had expressed unhappiness over the manner in which the two major contributors to the subsidy bill, petroleum and fertilisers, were handled prior to his appointment.
"To enable students from economically weaker sections to access higher education, it is proposed to introduce a scheme to provide them full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium," he said. However, only those students whose family income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh per annum will be eligible under the scheme. These students will avail the benefit for a moratorium period which is one year from completion of the course or six months from joining a job.
A task force set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) for transforming India into an "electronic and semiconductor products" nation is on the verge of finalising its report, which is likely to recommend an allocation of Rs 44,000 crore between 2024 and 2030 to support homegrown companies in their quest to develop products and build global brands. The task force's recommendations include significant incentives: Rs 15,000 crore dedicated to electronic products (systems), Rs 11,000 crore for semiconductor products, and Rs 18,000 crore for various other incentives such as talent development, common infrastructure, logistics, and technology & IP (intellectual property) acquisition, a member of the panel revealed.
Against the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) projection of 7.1 per cent, India's first quarter (Q1) 2024-25 (FY25) gross domestic product (GDP) growth came in at 6.7 per cent. This is in line with market expectations and significantly lower than the 7.8 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2023-24 (FY24) and 8.2 per cent in Q1FY24. The quarter witnessed decreased government consumption and investment spending due to the parliamentary election.
The government on Thursday categorically told the Parliament it had no plans discontinue subsidies to the farm sector.
The land transfer or subleasing would allow the Patanjali Group to set up the food processing facility and entitle it to other incentives under the central policy guidelines.
The Economic Survey on Thursday prescribed reforms in the subsidy regime in oil, food and fertiliser sectors and asked the government to review the possibility of direct cash transfer to the targeted people.
The new system will entail a periodic revision in the price of subsidised LPG cylinders so that the subsidy remains fixed.
The reservation would include a 10 per cent horizontal quota for Agniveers in the posts of constable, mining guard, forest guard, jail warden, and special police officers.
The Unique Identifiaction Authority of India is expediting creation of platforms for implementing the model, likely to include coverage of the Public Distribution System and other areas of subsidy, and also government's social sector schemes.
FM indicates adherence to fiscal road map, benign tax rates, correction in inverted duty structure
