Page 69 - Nirmala Sitharaman

INDIA bloc leaders to meet on Fri to discuss strategy during budget session

Leaders of several parties of the INDIA opposition bloc would meet here on Friday morning to chalk out their joint strategy during the budget session of Parliament. Sources on Thursday said the leaders would meet in the chamber of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge at 10.30 am on Friday and discuss their joint strategy. Various parties of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have been coordinating their floor strategy during Parliament sessions and have moved unitedly to corner the BJP-led Centre on various issues.

Interim Budget: Railways get 3 new corridors; 40,000 bogies to be upgraded

Proposals will lead to safety and higher travel speed for passengers, says Finance Minister

Interim Budget: Govt remains steady in its course and its objectives

Another critical point that is not really addressed in the Interim Budget of the finance minister is the fact that private investment is not moving up broadly and fast enough

Interim Budget: Equip youth for nation's progress, says FM Sitharaman

When it comes to youth, skilling has been a major focus area. The Skill India Mission has trained 14 million youth, upskilled and reskilled 5.4 million youth, shared FM Sitharaman

Decadal perspective of Modi govt: Support for education and health

A large proportion of Indians still pay money from their own pockets for medical expenditure with limited insurance coverage

Interim Budget: Govt earmarks Rs 1 trn corpus for R&D in sunrise sectors

"For our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era," Sitharaman said

Governance, development, performance key themes for Budget 2024-25: FM

We're not just aligning with fiscal consolidation path but bettering it: FM

Budget: Defence allocation at Rs 6.21 trillion, but stays below 2% of GDP

As a percentage of government expenditure, the budget allocated to defence is 13 per cent, continuing a multi-year trend of falling allocations

Budget at a glance: Here're the key numbers from interim Budget 2024

FM Sitharaman emphasised India's growing popularity as a global tourist destination as well as its booming domestic segment, spanning from business to spiritual tourism

Interim Budget: Share of capex allocation jumps to 30-year high in FY25

The headline figure of Rs 11.1 trn is 11.1% higher than FY24, says Finance Minister

Interim Budget: Improved fiscal resilience amid modest tax buoyancy

The Interim Budget had assumed nominal GDP growth of 10.5 per cent of GDP, but First Advance Estimates placed it at 8.9 per cent

Budget 2024: Sitharaman bats for developing iconic tourist destinations

The finance minister announced that long-term interest-free loans will be provided to states for financing the development of iconic tourist centres

Bond yields soften 8 bps after lower-than-expected fiscal deficit target

Fiscal deficit target lower than expected; room for RBI to cut rate

Interim Budget: Rama's radiance in FM Sitharaman's six yards of optimism

The Opposition made only half-hearted efforts to interrupt the speech and did not appear to notice that in the Budget speech, the Prime Minister was quoted five times

Interim Budget: Rs 2,502 cr allocated to law ministry, Rs 385 cr to EC

The Election Commission has been granted Rs 385.67 crore for conducting elections this fiscal, according to documents provided after the presentation of the interim budget on Thursday. Lok Sabha elections are due this summer and could be announced sometime in March. The Law Ministry ministry has been provided Rs 2,502.30 crore this fiscal and Rs 34.84 crore in 2024-25 for procurement of electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the poll panel. The sum is meant for providing funds to the Election Commission for procurement of Ballot Units, Control Units and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) Units by the Election Commission and ancillary expenditure on EVMs and destruction of obsolete EVMs. One control unit, at least one ballot unit and one VVPAT unit make up for one EVM. An expert committee oversees the destruction of old EVMs. An EVM has an average shelf life of 15 years. The poll authority has also been provided Rs 306.06 crore for elections under budget 2024-25. The legis

Budget 2024: Allocation for Auto PLI rises over seven-fold to Rs 3,500 cr

The government on Thursday announced an over seven-fold increase in allocation for the automotive industry's production-linked incentive scheme for 2024-25 to Rs 3,500 crore, the interim budget documents showed. According to the Expenditure Budget, a sum of Rs 3,500 crore has been earmarked towards the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for automobiles and auto components in the financial year beginning March, up from a revised estimate of Rs 483.77 crore in the current fiscal. Additionally, the budget for the PLI scheme for advanced chemistry cell and battery storage has been hiked from Rs 12 crore to Rs 250 crore in 2024-25. The Ministry of Heavy Industries recently extended the tenure of the PLI scheme for automobile and auto components by one year, with incentives now applicable for five consecutive financial years starting 2023-24. The Union Cabinet had approved the PLI-Auto scheme on September 15, 2021 with a budgetary outlay of Rs 25,938 crore for a period of 5 years .

India to sustain exports growth, Budget provides strong foundation: Goyal

India has sustained its export growth notwithstanding the global challenges emerging due to issues like the Israel-Hamas war and the Budget has laid out a strong foundation to push the economic growth, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. The minister said that certainly, the country is facing "very severe" challenges due to these conflicts. "But despite these challenges, India continues to be a bright spot in terms of economy, economic growth, and we continue to broadly sustained our exports...I think, the Indian story is a story of resilience, and strength," Goyal told PTI in a post-budget interaction. In her budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that geopolitically, global affairs are becoming more complex and challenging due to wars and conflicts. Globalization is being redefined with reshoring and friend-shoring, disruption and fragmentation of supply chains, and competition for critical minerals and technologies. A new world order

Viksit Bharat: Centre to provide Rs 75,000 cr interest-free loan to states

The Union government will provide Rs 75,000 crore as interest-free loan for 50 years to support reforms by states for realising the vision of 'Viksit Bharat'. The government has set a vision to make India a developed nation by 2047. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the proposal in this regard in her Budget speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Many growth and development enabling reforms are needed in states for realizing the vision of 'Viksit Bharat', she said. "A provision of seventy-five thousand crore rupees as fifty-year interest-free loan is proposed this year to support those milestone-linked reforms by the state governments," the minister said. According to the Budget documents, total resources being transferred to the states, including the devolution of states' share, grants/loans and releases under centrally sponsored schemes in 2024-25 (Budget Estimates), stand at Rs 22,22,264 crore. This is an increase of Rs 4,13,848 crore over actuals of fiscal year ...

Interim Budget: Allocation for tribal ministry up by 70% at Rs 13,000 cr

The government has allocated Rs 13,000 crore to the Tribal Affairs Ministry in the interim Budget 2024-25, a massive increase of 70 per cent from the allotment in the previous financial year. The tribal ministry was allocated Rs 7,605 crore in the financial year 2023-24. The Centre has earmarked Rs 6,399 crore for the construction of Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in 2024-25, a 150 per cent increase over Rs 2,471.81 crore allocated for this purpose in 2023-24. The objective of EMRS is to provide quality middle and high-level education to tribal students in remote areas, enabling them to access reservation in high and professional educational courses and jobs in government, public, and private sectors, as well as having access to the best opportunities in education at par with the non-ST population. The allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana has been increased from Rs 300 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. Under the scheme, funds are provided to states or UTs havi

Budget 2024: Govt will encourage vaccination for cervical cancer, says FM

As per 2022 estimates, every year, approximately 125,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and over 75 thousand die from the disease