Page 109 - Nirmala Sitharaman

Adoption of new technology necessary for transparent accounting system: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that adoption of new technology is necessary for a transparent accounting system. Transparent accounting is also so essential for sustainable economy and transparency cannot be ensured without trust and ethical accounting practices, she said. Sitharaman, who is also in charge of the corporate affairs ministry, was speaking at the 21st World Congress of Accountants that is being jointly organised by the International Federation of Accountants (IFCA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. "Adoption of new technology is necessary for a transparent accounting system. This is also necessary for sustainable livelihoods of our people and also for sustainable manufacturing and services. "Innovative technologies like Web 3.0, which has already taken over our lives, can bring about a lot of changes in the way we conduct our businesses," she said. The minister also said that technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, ..

FM Nirmala Sitharaman to kick-start pre-Budget meetings from Monday

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will kick-start the customary pre-budget meetings beginning Monday with a special focus on issues concerning climate change and infrastructure. The minister would hold virtual meetings on November 21 in three groups with industry chambers, infrastructure sector and environment experts seeking suggestions for the 2023-24 Budget making from stakeholders. On November 22, Sitharaman would meet agriculture and agro processing industry, representatives from financial sector and capital markets. She will also be meeting the representatives of services sector and trade bodies, besides experts from social sector, including health, education, water and sanitation, on November 24. The pre-budget meetings with the trade union representatives and economists are scheduled for November 28. The participants will give suggestions on the 2023-24 Budget which will be presented in Parliament by the Finance Minister on February 1. Sources said climate change would

FM urges AIIB to scale up investment in renewal energy, smart technologies

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday asked the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to scale up investment in renewal energy and smart technologies and also urged the multilateral agency to set up a regional office in India. AIIB President Jin Liqun called upon the finance minister here and discussed various issues of relevance to the bank. "While appreciating AIIB's growing portfolio in India, FM Smt.@nsitharaman suggested that @AIIB_Official should scale-up #investments and mobilise private finance in India's key priority areas including #RenewableEnergy, #EnergyEfficiency and climate #SmartTechnologies," the finance ministry said in a tweet. India is a founding member of AIIB with the second-highest voting share. India holds 7.74 per cent equity in the multilateral bank, next only to China (29.9 per cent). "As India is the largest client of @AIIB_Official, FM Smt.@nsitharaman reiterated that AIIB should plan to set up a regional presence in India to facilitate .

FM urges independence of CAs to preserve integrity of financial statements

Says statutory filings and audit reports by CAs are public documents that multiple stakeholders rely on; urges adherence to fair and transparent practices

FM Sitharaman exhorts NIIF to leverage India's investment fundamentals

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asked the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to leverage India's attractive investment fundamentals to expand its operations.

Amit Mitra asks FM Sitharaman to urgently call GST Council meeting

Points out that under the regulations governing the all-powerful body, a meeting should be held every quarter

FM Nirmala Sitharaman reviews progress of National Monetisation Pipeline

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday reviewed the progress of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) in a meeting here with top officials from various ministries and NITI Aayog. The finance minister in August last year had announced a Rs 6 lakh crore NMP aimed to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways. "Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman chairs the meeting to review the progress of National Monetisation Pipeline #NMP, in New Delhi, today," the finance ministry said in a tweet. The aggregate asset pipeline under NMP over the four-year period is indicatively valued at Rs 6 lakh crore. The estimated value corresponds to 14 per cent of the proposed outlay for the Centre under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (Rs 43 lakh crore). The meeting was attended by Finance Secretary; CEO @NITIAayog; Secys of DEA; DoR;@DPE_GoI; @tourismgoi; @PetroleumMin; @DoT_India; @MinOfPower; @fooddeptgoi; @MoCA_GoI; @shipmin_india; ..

Budget 2023-24: Centre's capex support for states likely to continue

The scheme, for FY23, consists of Rs 1 trillion, 50-year, interest-free capex loans to states. It is part of the Centre's capex budget of Rs 7.5 trillion

FM should clear the air on 'pre-import' matter

The Customs have started sending show-cause notices (SCN) to several exporters alleging violation of 'pre-import' condition in case of imports without payment of IGST under advance authorisations

Upcoming decade is going to be a 'Techade', says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the coming decade will be a 'Techade', and technology is going to drive us. Delivering the keynote address at YourStory's 13th Edition ' Techsparks' here, she also stressed on frugality and scalability of innovation. ".... technology driven innovators are the ones we need, who are going to look at local solutions which are affordable and have scaling up probabilities," Sitharaman said. She said that unless solutions are cost-effective and scalable, that typical thing about India innovation is not going to be there, and without these features, things cannot be achieved as aspired. Noting that the coming decade is going to be a "techade", and technology is what is going to drive us, the Minister said, "in technology is not just going to be looking at some fundamental things you are going to change, but to do some things using several of those, which are yet not available for many of the parts of the world." Digital ...

India to be one of top three economic powers in next 10-15 years: FM

India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world and is expected to be one of the top three economic powers globally over the next 10-15 years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. Speaking at the US-India Businesses and Investment Opportunities event here, Sitharaman said, the global economic outlook remains challenging and the Indian economy is not insulated from the impact of global economic developments. However, she said, India has carved out its growth trajectory supported by the above-normal south-west monsoon, public investment, strong corporate balance sheets, upbeat consumer and business confidence and receding threat of the Covid pandemic. "India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world. It has recently surpassed the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the world and is expected to be one of the top three economic powers globally over the next 10-15 years," she said. Listing out some of the ...

Sitharaman, Yellen urge bilateral cooperation amid geopolitical uncertainty

Visiting US official speaks about 'shared goals' on climate change, debt burden of developing countries

India looks to strengthen ties with US with greater vigour: FM Sitharaman

India and the US will look forward to strengthening bilateral ties with greater vigour, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Friday. Addressing the media jointly with US Treasury Secretary Jannet Yellen at the start of the Ninth Indo-US Financial Partnership, Sitharaman said that bilateral talks will impart greater vigour to the long-standing relationship with the US. India, Sitharaman said, "Deeply values its relationship with the United States as a trusted partner. We share a traditionally strong bilateral relationship underpinned with shared values, convergence of interests on wide ranging issues and vibrant people-to-people contact." The substantial and multi-faceted cooperation through the economic and Financial Partnership Forum remains a key cornerstone of the bilateral engagements, the finance minister added. "Our meeting will lend greater vigour to our economic relationship, strengthen business-to-business links, and facilitate coordinated policy stance to addr

India-US EFP: Treasury Secy Janet Yellen visiting India to bolster ties

Yellen's visit is aimed at bolstering US-India economic ties

Money in NPS belongs to people, can't go back to state govts as per law: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the money in the National Pension Scheme (NPS) belongs to individual contributors and as per law, state governments cannot get it back. Responding to queries on restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS), Sitharaman clarified at a press conference that Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh governments that are asking the Centre to return the money, cannot get it back as per law. Chief Ministers of these two states have asked the Centre to return the people's money under NPS for restarting OPS in their states. Both the Congress-ruled states have notified the reintroduction of OPS for government employees and have said the Centre cannot hold back employees' money. The Congress has also promised to restart OPS for government employees in Himachal Pradesh and this has become a major poll issue in this assembly election as there are 1.75 lakh government employees in the state. Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls on November 12. "As per law, th

Budget 2023-24: Sitharaman's meetings with stakeholders to begin on Nov 21

Seven meetings will take place between November 21 and 24, while the pre-budget interaction with state Finance Ministers is expected to take place in December in Madurai

FM called 1991 reforms half-baked, master chef Gadkari baked it fully: Cong

The Congress on Wednesday took a swipe at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her remarks a few weeks ago calling the 1991 reforms "half-baked", and said "master chef" Nitin Gadkari" has baked it fully and well by paying fulsome tributes to former prime minister Manmohan Singh. Union Minister Gadkari had on Tuesday said the country is indebted to former prime minister Singh for the economic reforms of 1991 started by him as the finance minister. Speaking in September at an event, Sitharaman had said that the 1991 economic reforms undertaken by the then Congress government were "aadhe-adhure reforms" (half-baked reforms), where the economy was not opened in the right way but as per the strictures imposed by the IMF. Taking a dig at Sitharaman, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "On 16th September, Madam Finance Minister had belittled 1991 reforms by terming it 'half-baked'. Yesterday, the MasterChef Gadkari has baked it fully and well by payin

Recession, climate change, Ukraine war: Kant lists challenges before G20

The former Niti Aayog chief executive said that climate change was another big crisis that the world faced, impacting larger nations, as well as threatening to submerge smaller island nations

12 PSBs report 50% jump in combined Q2 net profit at Rs 25,685 crore: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government's efforts to reduce bad loans are yielding result with 12 public sector banks reporting a 50 per cent jump in combined net profit at Rs 25,685 crore in the second quarter ended September. In the first half of FY23, the cumulative net profit of all public sector banks (PSBs) increased by 32 per cent to Rs 40,991 crore. During the second quarter, the SBI reported the highest-ever profit of Rs 13,265 crore. On year-on-year basis, this was 74 per cent higher than the same quarter a year ago. "The continuous efforts of our govt for reducing the NPAs and further strengthening the health of PSBs are now showing tangible results. All 12 PSBs declared net profit of Rs 25,685 cr in Q2FY23 & total Rs 40,991 cr in H1FY23, up by 50% & 31.6%, respectively (y-o-y)," Sitharaman said in a tweet. She further said Canara Bank reports an 89 per cent jump in profit to Rs 2,525 crore as compared to second quarter of the previous ...

FM hints at possibility of Centre restorating of state status to J&K

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday hinted at the possibility of the Centre considering restoring state status to Jammu and Kashmir. She dropped the hint while talking about the distribution of funds to the states by the Centre as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. Delivering a lecture on Centre-State relations here, Sitharaman said Prime Minister Narendra Modi without any hesitation had accepted the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission in 2014-15 that 42 per cent of all taxes-- an increase from 32 per cent till then-- should be given to the states. "That Finance Commission said now you raise it to 42 per cent...which means that Centre will have a lesser amount in its hand. Prime Minister Modi, without a second thought about it, fully accepted the Finance Commission and that is why today states get 42 per cent of the amount--now reduced by 41 per cent because Jammu and Kashmir is no longer a state. "It will soon become may be sometime...,