Page 4 - Budget And Infrastructure

Airport operators to conduct 3rd party audit of structural stability: Govt

The government on Monday said all airport operators have been directed to carry out a third party audit of structural stability of airport buildings and associated infrastructure. Besides, they will conduct a thorough evaluation of all civil, electrical and technical aspects of the buildings before the onset of monsoon every year. The directives came in the wake of roof collapse incidents at three airports last month. During heavy rain, forecourt canopy collapsed at Terminal 1D of the Delhi airport on June 28. Also, the kerb area canopy made of tensile fabric, a non-structural element, was damaged at Jabalpur and Rajkot airports on June 27 and 29, respectively. In 2023-24, an amount of Rs 795.72 crore has been spent on Repair and Maintenance (R&M) works at 121 airports of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), as per official data submitted to the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu told the Upper House that the ministry has constituted a ...

Short-term inflation outlook benign, normal monsoon expected: Eco Survey

The short-term inflation outlook for India is benign, and the expectation of a normal monsoon and moderating global prices of key imported items give credence to the projections made by the RBI and IMF, the Economic Survey said on Monday. However, to ensure long-term policy stability, the Survey 2023-24 suggested making focused efforts to increase the production of major oilseeds, expanding the area under pulses, and assess the progress in developing modern storage facilities for specific crops. The Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also suggested linking of price monitoring data for essential food items collected by different departments to help monitor and quantify the build-up of prices at each stage from the farm gate to the final consumer. "The ongoing efforts to construct the producer price index for goods and services may be expedited to have a greater grasp of episodes of cost-push inflation," said the Survey authored by a

Tax cuts to welfare support: Here's what to expect from Modi 3.0 1st Budget

Government is expected to reduce its deficit target slightly from the 5.1 per cent of gross domestic product projected before the elections

NSE, BSE say functioning remains normal; unaffected by Microsoft outage

Country's leading stock exchanges NSE and BSE on Friday said they are not impacted due to the global outage of Microsoft systems amid reports of disruptions in functioning of several airlines, banks, media outlets worldwide. Microsoft users globally, several in India, have reported massive outages in services, with outage tracking website Downdetector showing users flagging disruptions across various services. Meanwhile, the two leading Indian stock exchanges announced that they are not impacted due to Microsoft outage. "NSE (National Stock Exchange) and NCL (NSE Clearing Ltd) are working normal today," NSE's spokesperson said in a statement. Separately, a spokerseron of BSE said that the bourse is "not impacted due to Microsoft issue. Our operations are running normal." Globally, the Microsoft cloud outage led to US airlines cancelling flights, but the tech giant later reportedly said its cloud services outage in the Central US region has been resolved. The glitch is causing use

Brazil to freeze $2.7 bn from budget as govt tries to meet fiscal target

The decision to hold back on spending comes amid market worries about the government's ability to meet its goal of eliminating the primary deficit.

India's economy poised for robust growth ahead of annual Union Budget

The budget is expected to see an increase in spending on infrastructure and welfare programmes such as rural housing

Govt to stick to Feb budget targets despite losing majority, shows poll

While relying on some regional parties to form the government, the BJP has retained most ministers from its second term, signaling continuity in fiscal policy

Budget should focus on citizens' welfare, mfg sector: WB's chief economist

The Modi government needs to focus on welfare of ordinary citizens in the upcoming Budget and earmark more funds for the manufacturing sector to boost small businesses and create more jobs, former World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu said on Tuesday. In an interview with PTI, Basu further said it is critically important for the government to shift some of its attention to ground-level economic welfare. "I hope that, starting with the Union Budget this month, the government will turn its attention to the welfare of ordinary citizens and not just to climbing up the chart of aggregate GDP," he said. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present the Budget for 2024-25 in the Lok Sabha on July 23. "I believe that the rich can afford to pay higher taxes and using this money to incentivize the manufacturing sector can go a long way in boosting demand for labour, helping small businesses and raising the income of ordinary people," the eminent economist suggested. Ba