From EC's Budget diktat to Trump pulling out of TPP: 5 key developments

In other news, FRBM panel's recommendation constrains govt's spending space

Business Standard brings you the key developments from across the country and the world.

EC bars govt from announcing schemes for poll-bound states in Budget

The Election Commission (EC) on Monday night gave its nod to the Centre to present the Union Budget on February 1 ahead of the Assembly polls, but said no schemes related to these poll-bound states can be announced. Further, the EC said that the finance minister's speech should not refer to the government's achievements in these states. It also reminded the government of a 2009 advisory which said vote-on-account instead of a full-fledged Budget is presented ahead of elections according to convention.

FRBM panel recommends fiscal deficit target of three percent of GDP

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) committee, which submitted its report to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday, is said to have recommended a fiscal deficit target of closer to three per cent of gross domestic product than to the 3.5 per cent as speculated earlier, providing only a small wiggle room to the government to boost spending. 

Fiscal deficit touched 4.3 per cent of GDP in 2015-16

The Centre's fiscal deficit touched 4.3 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015-16 against the Budget and revised estimates of 3.9 per cent for that year. The information was contained in a report by the Economic Research Department of the State Bank of India (SBI).

Ex-IDBI Bank chairman among 8 arrested in Mallya loan default case

A former chairman and three former officials of IDBI Bank, along with four former executives of Kingfisher Airlines, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday in connection with a Vijay Mallya loan default case. Those arrested include the then chairman of IDBI Bank, Yogesh Aggarwal, and former chief financial officer of now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines A Raghunathan, CBI sources said. They said three more former executives of the airlines and three more former officials of IDBI Bank were also taken into custody.

Trump pulls US out of TPP; says NAFTA up for renegotiation

President Donald Trump abruptly ended the decades-old US tilt toward free trade by signing an executive order to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) accord with 11 other nations. Trump also promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “Great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump said on Monday after signing the order.