Budget And Economy

Western, southern states dominate in key metrics: Careedge Ratings

States in Western and Southern India "dominate" in the key metrics, an annual survey released by a domestic rating agency said on Tuesday. The agency assessed states on the basis of economic strengths, fiscal situations, financial development, infrastructure, social situations, governance, and environment. "Western and Southern states dominate the top five rankings," Careedge Ratings said. Fiscal, economic and financial development pillars are strong points for Western states, while the Southern states performed well across the economic, financial development, environment, and governance pillars, the study said. Maharashtra has emerged as the best in overall composite rankings, followed by Gujarat and Karnataka in an annual analysis carried out by the rating agency. The state topped in the financial development pillar and performed strongly across the economic, fiscal and social pillars, it added. Gujarat, its neighbour to the north-west, scored on its leading economic rank, ...

Lenders add 25K beneficiaries under Tarun Plus category of Mudra Yojana

Lenders have added about 25,000 beneficiaries under the Tarun Plus category of PM Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in a 4-month short period of FY25 where borrowers were given enhanced loans up to Rs 20 lakh. The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her last July Budget. As per the Budget 2024-25 announcement, loan limit was doubled to Rs 20 lakh for those entrepreneurs who have availed and successfully repaid previous loans under the 'Tarun' category. Following the Budget announcement, the Tarun Plus scheme was notified on October 25, 2024. As many as 24,557 new borrowers took loan under the Tarun Plus category amounting to Rs 3,790 crore in a short period of four months during FY25, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju told media while briefing about achievements of PMMY. He further said that generally Rs 5-6 lakh crore loans are sanctioned under the scheme in a year of late. The PMMY was launched on April 8, 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the goal of

Himachal Pradesh budget FY26 passed: Focus on rural economy, farmers, youth

Addressing government employees, the Chief Minister assured timely payment of Dearness Allowance (DA)

Budget 2025 paves way for stronger workforce, growing economy: PM Modi

PM Modi emphasized that investments have been prioritized equally across infrastructure, industries, people, economy, and innovation

BS Manthan highlights: US protective of its top dog status, it feels beleaguered, says Suman Bery

Business Standard Manthan highlights: Catch all the latest developments from the summit here

Govt extends Chief Economic Adviser Nageswaran's term until March 2027

Nageswaran was appointed to the position in 2022 and has also served as a part-time member of the economic advisory council to the prime minister from 2019 to 2021

UP Budget 2025-26: Infra, welfare remain Yogi's focus; key announcements

UP Budget 2025-26: In line with Yogi government's previous Budgets, this one also focused on infrastructure, education, health, social security, and economic growth

Dissanayake govt unveils first budget, eyes 5% growth for Sri Lanka in 2025

The Sri Lankan economy is expected to grow at 5 per cent in 2025, President Anura Dissanayake said Monday while presenting the budget for this year. This is the first full-year budget presented by the National People's Power (NPP) government, which came to power in November last year. Introducing the budget, Dissanayake said a budget is a "reflection of the government's approach to building the economy and overall policy." He added that this year's budget intends to set a foundation of an economy where "all citizens are active participants, active stakeholders, and active beneficiaries," news portal Adaderana.lk reported. We expect the 2025 economic growth to be around 5 per cent, said Dissanayake, also the island nation's Finance Minister. He asserted that all fiscal measures would be directed towards the commencement of repaying the external debt from 2028. "...Growth in non-debt creating inflows along with robust economic growth and a primary budget surplus of 2.3 per cent of

Rs 3.89 trn Budget for FY26 tabled in Bengal Assembly, DA increased 4%

West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Wednesday presented the state budget for 2025-26, pegged at Rs 3.89 lakh crore, with a significant focus on social welfare, rural growth and infrastructure. The government has unveiled a series of infrastructure and agricultural development projects in its budget, allocating significant funds for rural connectivity, river erosion control, and agrarian support initiatives. In a key announcement, Bhattacharya announced that the state government would increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) by four per cent from April 1, 2025. This would bring the total DA to 18 per cent for the state employees, providing much-needed relief to them, amid rising inflation.

Budget Session highlights: Govt using 99% borrowings for capex, which is 4.3% of GDP, says FM

Parliament Budget Session: Catch all the Parliament updates here

Railways' capex meets targets, likely to remain at the same level

Despite not getting any additional outlay in the Budget 2025, Railways officials are not worried since their spending numbers sit well with Budget Estimates (BE) for FY25

Rupee depreciation may slow if inflation remains in control: CEA Nageswaran

Nageswaran attributed the rupee's current weakness to the prolonged strength of the US dollar, rather than any structural issues with India's economy

Domestic demand to boost growth post income tax cuts in Budget 2025: S&P

S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday said the Budget for 2025-26 will boost India's growth over the next few years via domestic demand through income tax cuts and the country will achieve the targeted 4.4 per cent fiscal deficit despite hiking I-T rebate. S&P said India's union Budget is in line with its expectation of gradual fiscal consolidation and that undergirds the positive outlook on India's sovereign ratings BBB-'. The deficit targets are also consistent with S&P's projections. "We believe India will hit its deficit targets despite revenue loss from lifting the threshold for minimum taxable income and slower economic growth. Support will stem from continued large dividends from the central bank and potential capital underspending," S&P said in a statement. The fiscal 2026 budget will boost growth over the next few years via domestic demand through tax cuts for households, it added. "We anticipate consumer spending and public investments will maintain real GDP growth ..

Markets Today: GIFT Nifty; Trump tariffs; Nikkei; Mfg PMI; Budget 2025; RBI

At 6:50 AM, GIFT Nifty futures were trading 173 points lower at 23,382, indicating a potential gap-down start for the markets

Shivraj hails 'Atmanirbhar Budget', highlights farmer benefit schemes

'On one side, there is provision for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and on other there are provisions to provide farmers with low cost fertiliser, urea, DAP', Agriculture minister added

Almost all of govt borrowing going for asset creation: FM Sitharaman

Sitharaman spoke on issues ranging from the theme of the Budget to income tax relief and challenging geopolitical environment

Budget 2025: Some FPIs may dash for the exit before 12.5% tax lands

Experts foresee a case to liquidate investments ahead of tax hike

Budget 2025 LIVE: FM bets on tax cuts to spur growth; Oppn calls it 'election package for Bihar'

Union budget 2025-26 Live Updates: Modi govt has made some big announcements including changes in the new tax regime with taxpayers not having to pay any income tax on earnings up to Rs 12 lpa

Customs duty cuts in certain areas to benefit American exports: GTRI

The customs duty reduction announced in the Budget on products such as motorcycles and synthetic flavouring essences would benefit American exports, economic think tank GTRI said on Sunday. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said that despite the repeated criticism of India as the biggest tariff abuser and tariff king by the Trump-administration, the country's Budget has introduced significant tariff reductions on multiple products, many of which benefit the US exports. "With key tariff cuts on technology, automobiles, industrial inputs, and waste imports, India appears to be taking steps toward facilitating trade even as the global trade environment remains tense. Whether these reductions will alter Washington's view of India's trade practices or become a point of contention in the US election cycle remains to be seen," it added. Among the key tariff reductions, India lowered the duty on fish hydrolysate for the manufacturing of aquatic feed from 15 per cent to 5 per cent,

Increased medical seats to help reduce students moving abroad: Experts

The government's announcement in the Union Budget to create 10,000 additional seats in medical colleges next year has been welcomed by education experts and stakeholders, saying the move will reduce the outflow of medical students to other countries. Infrastructure expansion at the five new IITs to accommodate 6,500 more students, 10,000 new medical seats and an allocation of Rs 500 crore to set up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education, are among the big announcements for the education sector in the 2025-26 budget. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Saturday that the government plans to add 75,000 seats in medical colleges in the next five years. The India Edtech Consortium (IEC) said increasing seats in medical colleges was urgently needed to meet the requirements of the healthcare sector as well as to reduce student outflow to other countries. Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder, PhysicsWallah (PW) and Chairman, Indian Edtech Consortium ..