Government

In this episode of Budget Basics, we break down one of the most important, but least understood, budget terms: Primary Deficit. What does it really say about a government’s finances?

In Budget 2026, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman faces an uphill task as interest payments now take up nearly one-fourth of the Union Budget and more than one-third of government revenue.

It is encouraging that the government's dependence on disinvestment receipts in managing its finances has reduced, but the instrument should not be discarded

In Episode 4 of Budget Basics, we decode FRBM, the law that tells the government how much it can spend, borrow, and save. Why it exists, how it shapes the Budget, and why it matters to you.

The B100 and B200 are the latest technology GPUs offered by Nvidia and are built on the cutting edge Blackwell architecture offered by the company

The government will ask departments to demonstrate AI use cases and IndiaAI Mission LLM progress at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, scheduled for February 16-20, sources said

CBIC has floated an EoI to shortlist up to eight bidders for building a Customs Integrated System that unifies ICEGATE, RMS and ICES to cut cargo clearance time

Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi says firms are innovating on dark patterns, prompting daily complaints; he cites NCH refunds and CCPA actions in 2025

The Lok Sabha has passed an insurance reform bill, raising foreign direct investment in the sector to 100%. The government says this will bring capital, competition, and better coverage.

The CCI guidelines said that it would calculate the penalty amount up to 30 per cent of the average relevant turnover based on the nature and gravity of the contravention

An average 50 days of employment per household was provided to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the last five years, Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The flagship rural employment scheme guarantees up to 100 days of wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. In a written reply in the Upper House, Paswan said in 2024-25, average days of employment provided per household under MGNREGS was 50.24. The figures for previous years were similar. In 2023-24, the average number of workdays per household was 52.07, in 2022-23 it was 47.84, in 2021-22 it was 50.07, and in 2020-21 it was 51.54. Altogether, the average number of days of employment per household during the last five years comes to 50.35. In his reply, Paswan also said the responsibility for implementation of the MGNREGS at ground level lies with th

DPIIT released these guidelines as part of a working paper late Monday night, giving stakeholders 30 days to submit their views

The government has launched a nationwide campaign 'Your Money, Your Right' to facilitate the settlement of unclaimed financial assets, and Rs 2,000 crore have been claimed by their rightful owners in October and November this year. The government launched the campaign on October 4 to facilitate the settlement of unclaimed financial assets, including bank deposits, insurance, dividends, shares, mutual funds and pensions, to their legitimate claimants. From October to December 5, 2025, camps have been held in 477 districts with participation of public representatives, district administration, and officials from financial institutions, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. To maximise outreach during the campaign, standard operating procedures (SOPs), frequently asked questions (FAQs), and awareness material in major regional languages, along with short video messages, have been widely disseminated. District-level camps are organised

Toyota's India head says the country should now push flex-fuel vehicles, calling for lower taxes and pricing support as E20 stabilises and higher blends prove impractical for legacy fleets

The Centre has released Rs 37,000 crore under RDSS-38% of sanctioned support-with fund disbursal tied to DISCOMs meeting milestones and state-specific action plans

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday shared that the government has earned nearly Rs 4100 crore in the last five years from the disposal of scrap, including electronic items, from various central government offices as part of its cleanliness campaign. Singh, the union minister of state for personnel, explained that at the end of the special Swachhata (cleanliness) campaign 4.0 last year, nearly Rs 3,300 crore had been earned, to which Rs 788.53 crore was added through this year's special campaign 5.0 lasting from October 2 to October 31 2025. As a result, the total amount earned, so far, is over Rs 4088.53 crore. "Total revenue of Rs 4088.53 crore has been earned through five dedicated annual cleanliness campaigns lasting one month each since 2021, through disposal of scrap, including electronic scrap, from different central government offices as part of the special Swachhata campaign," he said. The minister recalled that during his first Independence Day address, Prime Minister

The four Codes that are part of the Centres's attempts to enact labour reforms have remained stuck, with neither the Centre nor the states moving to notify them yet

The government on Wednesday said the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has agreed to do away with the green clearance for pilot projects for underground coal gasification. The development assumes significance as government targets to gasify 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030. "Any underground coal gasification (UCG) project before it actually takes off means to have a pilot study done. Since it's a new technology or it will be done for the first time in the country, a pilot phase is necessary. "It is part of the framework and for that pilot phase MoEFCC has kind of agreed to not have an EC (environment clearance) for the pilot phase only," Coal Secretary Vikram Dev Dutt told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of the 14th round of commercial coal mine auctions. He further said of the 41 coal blocks that are being put out for sale, 21 are suitable for UCG because generally they are deep seated and are uneconomical to extract. UCG gasifies deep, unmine

The Uttarakhand government will provide free pre-recruitment training to young men and women interested in serving the country as Agniveers in the Army. Officials here said that on the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Sports and Youth Welfare Department has prepared an SOP for this purpose. The training will be provided in all 13 districts of the state. The chief minister recently directed the department to provide training to the state's youth for Agniveer recruitment. It is mandatory to be a native or permanent resident of Uttarakhand or to be studying or serving in an institute in the state to be eligible for the free training. Furthermore, passing the high school examination with at least 45 per cent marks and a minimum of 33 per cent in each subject is mandatory. To receive the training, one must be over 16 years of age. Dhami said that in view of Uttarakhand's glorious military tradition, the government is providing pre-recruitment training to Agniveer

Soybean Processors Association (SOPA) on Thursday urged the commerce ministry to reject any proposal to allow imports of genetically modified soybean meal from the United States, saying the country has sufficient domestic supplies and such a move would hurt farmers. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, the industry body said India currently holds more than adequate stocks of soybean meal to meet entire domestic demand for the marketing year 2025-26 running from October to September. "Permitting GM Soybean Meal imports at this juncture will have devastating consequences for India's agricultural sector," the association said in the letter. The association warned that allowing such imports would severely harm Indian soybean farmers already grappling with prices below the government's minimum support price, and further depress market rates due to oversupply. It also said the move would threaten the viability of India's domestic soybean processing industry and undermine the