Page 112 - Nirmala Sitharaman

Sitharaman to leave for US on Tuesday to attend IMF, World Bank meetings

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will leave for the United States on Tuesday to attend the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, which are likely to deliberate on the current global economic situation. She will also attend the meetings of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, besides having interaction with business leaders and investors. During her 6-day visit to the US from October 11-16, the minister would meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and World Bank President David Malpass separately to discuss the issues of mutual interest. Bilateral meetings with several countries, including Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bhutan, New Zealand, Egypt, Germany, Mauritius, UAE, Iran and the Netherlands are also part of the minister's itinerary. Besides, one-on-one meetings are also scheduled with leaders and heads of OECD, the European Commission and UNDP. "Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will be travelling to

Capital expenditure by CPSEs accelerates to 43% of FY23 target in H1

While CPSEs spent Rs 2.8 trillion in capex in the first half of FY23, they had invested Rs 2.19 trillion during the year-ago period, registering 27.85 growth per cent

Finance Minister's video of buying vegetables evokes mixed reactions

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a video shared by her office, was seen buying vegetables during her day-long visit to Chennai

KCR stopped going to state secretariat on advice of tantriks: FM Sitharaman

Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman hit out at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Saturday, alleging that he stopped going to the state secretariat and did not induct women in his cabinet for a long time on the advice of "tantriks" and numerologists. The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader also claimed that Rao, popularly known as KCR, changed the name of his party on the advice of "tantriks" (occultists). Earlier this week, Rao renamed his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) as part of his national expansion plans ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. "TRS was formed to realise Telangana's sentiment. Rao betrayed Telangana and changed TRS's name to Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on the advice of tantriks," Sitharaman said in a statement. She added that when Telangana was formed, Rao talked about women empowerment, "but for four years, from 2014 to 2018, there was not a single woman minister in the TRS government". Even after the TRS was

CCI needs to be abreast of global best practices on mergers: FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister stressed upon the need for the federal competition watchdog to communicate more

Exporters urge FM Sitharaman to extend GST exemption on export freight

An organisation of exporters wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her to extend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) exemption on export freight that lapsed on September 30. The Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) expressed concern that if the exemption is not extended, it will add to their liquidity challenges amid rising interest rates. Since its introduction in 2018, the government had extended the exemption twice till September this year. "Overseas freight rates had increased by 300350 per cent from preCovid levels. Now, there has been a slight decline in such rates, but these are still 200250 per cent higher than that of the 2019 levels," FIEO President A Sakthivel said. If the exemption is not renewed, exporters will be required to pay GST at 18 per cent on export freight, which will increase the logistical costs for Indian goods in the international market, he said. "Due to the recent increase in interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India, t

FM to attend World Bank-IMF annual meeting, drive investor outreach

May hold bilateral meetings with counterparts of other nations. There could also be a G-20 meeting on the sidelines, with focus on India's upcoming presidency of the multi-nation grouping

Exporters call on FM Sitharaman to extend GST exemption on export freight

If the exemption is not extended, exporters will have to pay GST of 18% on export ocean freight, which will increase the logistical costs for Indian goods in global market

FinMin's special campaign in seven districts to deepen financial inclusion

Campaign will work to achieve saturation in respect of bank accounts, insurance/pension schemes; distribution of loans to FPOs, SHGs for setting up cold-chain infra, KCC penetration, among other thing

CBDT targets resolving about 3,000 taxpayers' grievances by Oct-end

Sources in the tax department attributes it to the difficulties, taxpayers faced due to some glitches in the new portal since its inception in June of last year.

Economy seen as sweet spot world over; inflation at manageable level: FM

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said inflation is at a manageable level. Her comments came a day after RBI hiked interest rate by 50 basis points to tame inflation. "Inflation is at a manageable level," she said here. On Friday, RBI retained its inflation projection for FY23 at 6.7 per cent amid geopolitical concerns triggered by Russia-Ukraine war, and expected inflation to be under control from January. The central bank is mandated to keep retail inflation in a band of 2-6 per cent. Inflation has remained above RBI's upper tolerance level of 6 per cent since January 2022. Last month, inflation touched 7 per cent. Speaking at the annual day function of regulator IBBI, Sitharaman, who is also the corporate affairs minister, said: "We are in an era of robust economic activities".

We cannot afford to lose sheen of insolvency law, says FM Sitharaman

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said insolvency law cannot lose its "sheen". Sitharaman, who is in charge of finance and corporate affairs ministries, was speaking at a function in the national capital to mark the sixth annual day of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). Speaking about the Code over the last six years and the way forward, she also said that "we cannot have stress signals go unnoticed". IBBI is a key institution in the implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), which provides for a market-linked and time-bound resolution of distressed firms. The code came into force in 2016. National Company Law Tribunal President Chief Justice (Retd) Ramalingam Sudhakar and Competition Commission of India (CCI) Chairperson Ashok Kumar Gupta, among others, were present. As many as 1,934 corporate debtors have been rescued through the Code till June this year. These include 517 through resolution plans, 774 through appeal or review or ..

Inflation, external pressure priority over growth: Finance ministry

The MPC also cut its FY23 GDP growth forecast to 7 per cent from 7.2 per cent, with Governor Shaktikanta Das acknowledging that there were downside risks to economic growth

Six months on, crypto tax leading to siphoning of India's wealth: Experts

The crypto industry is largely unregulated in India, and the central government, along with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), have repeatedly refused to make cryptocurrencies legal

Invest in India story, MSME sector must be promoted: Goyal to industry

Goyal's comments come after Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, recently asked India Inc what is stopping them from investing

Learning of Sanskrit is 'discouraged' in TN, regrets Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regretted on Thursday that learning of Sanskrit is discouraged in Tamil Nadu. She said in her early schooling and going till college, learning Sanskrit was not easy at all because of the "political environment in which we lived." "And it's not as if I lived in a foreign country. I lived in Tamil Nadu. Sanskrit was discouraged and I think even today they discourage," Sitharaman said. In spite of that, she said her parents insisted and she found a good teacher and privately learnt Sanskrit "somewhat". "Learning Sanskrit or learning Hindi was not encouraged at all (in Tamil Nadu)..," the Minister said. Sitharaman was speaking at a function organised by 'Karnataka Samskrit University', on the occasion of Pre-graduate Convocation and 'Sanskrit week celebration'. She said she is very proud to know that Karnataka as a State is encouraging learning of Sanskrit. The Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka said she was very impressed to know that more t

Innovation to be key in making India developed nation by 2047: Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said innovation is going to be key factor in making India a developed nation by 2047, as she highlighted the immense potential of digitalisation in achieving this. She also said that if the same momentum that was seen through COVID-19 and immediately after that continues, and if all countrymen put their efforts together, building India as a developed economy by 2047 should not be difficult. "Innovation is going to be the key for many things that we can do between now and 2047. It is because of the innovation, the solutions which we have for very many of the festering problems of this economy, we can achieve that desired developed economy status," Sitharaman said. Also highlighting the emphasis that is being laid on further digitalisation, whether into medical services, education and Software as a service (SaaS), she said there is immense potential to take it up further. The Finance Minister was addressing the 105th Annual Gene

Chandigarh international airport renamed after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh

The international airport here was on Wednesday renamed Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement in this regard. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was the chief guest at an event at the airport, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deciding to rename the airport after the iconic freedom fighter. Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Haryana Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister V K Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij and Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher were also present at the event. During his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio broadcast on Sunday, PM Modi had announced that the airport would be renamed after Bhagat Singh as a tribute to the freedom fighter. The 115th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter is being celebrated on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, Union Finance Minister Sitharaman said she felt honoured to be pre

Steady trend: PSUs hit 34% of capex target in April-August, shows data

The centre through government departments and PSUs has been lifting the economy through capital spending as investments from private sector lag.

Enhance coverage of scheduled castes in all schemes: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The FM was chairing the performance review of PSBs on credit and other welfare schemes for scheduled castes