Indian freedom fighter and former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru can never be forgotten for his irreplaceable, unforgettable contribution in realizing Poorna Swaraj for the country. As the first prime minister of the country, he steered the independent India in the direction of progress and prosperity.

Interestingly, during his sixteen-year long term as the prime minister, Nehru also got an opportunity to serve as the finance minister for the year 1958-59.

As this year&rsquo;s most anticipated event -- the presentation of union budget -- draws closer, we decided to go back in time and bring out the monotones of nostalgia.

Ahead, WION throws goes back to the year when Jawaharlal Nehru assumed office as the fourth finance minister of the country.

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<h5>In his speech Nehru admitted his budget to be a &ldquo;pedestrian budget statement&rdquo;.</h5>
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&ldquo;According to custom, the Budget statement for the coming year has to be presented today. By an unexpected and unhappy chain of circumstances, the Finance Minister, who would normally have made this statement this afternoon, is no longer with us. This heavy duty has fallen upon me almost at the last moment,&rdquo; Pandit Nehru noted in the opening statement of his maiden budget speech on February 28, 1958.

Nehru had to take up the task of presenting the budget of 1958 as his close associate and former finance minister Tiruvallur Thattai Krishnamachari had to step down.

Krishnamachari left office due to his alleged links in a scam. He was later exonerated, brought back to the government and served as the finance minister in 1963-65.

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<h5>Nehru&rsquo;s budget drew heavily from his predecessor&rsquo;s version with &ldquo;relatively minor changes&quot;.</h5>
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In his speech Nehru admitted his budget to be a &ldquo;pedestrian budget statement&rdquo;. Nehru&rsquo;s budget drew heavily from his predecessor&rsquo;s version with &ldquo;relatively minor changes, or such changes as naturally flow from what we did last year.&rdquo;

Nehru lauded his &ldquo;distinguished predecessor&rdquo; Krishnamachari for presenting the budget that &ldquo;involved substantial additions to taxation.&rdquo;

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<h5>Krishnamachari was the first Indian finance minister to introduce wealth tax and estate duty.</h5>
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&ldquo;Some novel taxes were introduced and an attempt was made to bring about gradually a reorientation of the tax structure of the country,&rdquo; noted Nehru.

Interestingly, Krishnamachari was the first Indian finance minister to introduce wealth tax and estate duty. Nehru welcomed Krishnamachari&rsquo;s move and happily carried them forward in his budget statement with minor tweaks.

&ldquo;Less than ten months ago Parliament approved proposals involving very substantial additions to taxation of a magnitude rarely equalled in peace time. These covered not merely the extension of existing taxes but the levy of new taxes such as the tax on wealth and the tax on expenditure. I do not propose to make any major modification in it but to confine myself to making such improvements as are necessary to make the present pattern of taxation an integrated one, and to plug any loopholes in taxation,&rdquo; shared Pandit Nehru.

However, Nehru did propose minor amendments in the Estate Duty Act. He noted that the total collections from Estate Duty fell short of what expected which was partly due to &ldquo;the practice of making large gifts inter vivos which will, hereafter, be checked by the levy of the Gift Tax,&rdquo; reasoned Nehru.

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<h5>Nehru&#39;s stint as a finance minister was short-lived.</h5>
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&ldquo;In regard to the Wealth Tax, the only change proposed is to exempt a foreign citizen from payment of the tax on his foreign wealth, even though he may be resident or ordinarily resident in India,&rdquo; explained Nehru.

All in all, Nehru&rsquo;s stint as a finance minister was short-lived; a huge part of his budget borrowed from his predecessor studded with minor modifications that fit the demands raised by a rapidly evolving India and its blooming economy.

Nehru was succeeded by Morarji Desai until Krishnamachari assumed office again as the finance minister in 1963.

Reports suggest Krishnamachari&#39;s ousting&nbsp;soon after Nehru&rsquo;s death in 1964.

This year&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/interesting-facts-about-the-union-budget-30984">union budget</a> will be presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley next week. Mr Jaitley will be presenting the budget for the fifth time.

PM Modi has already hinted at a non-populist budget and a rather stricter statement this year.

Some of the key expectations from this year&rsquo;s financial announcement include rationalized GST rates, relief in&nbsp;income tax rates, extension of medical reimbursement value among others. 
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Nehru had to take up the task of presenting the budget of 1958 as his close associate and former finance minister Tiruvallur Thattai Krishnamachari had to step down

Indian freedom fighter and former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru can never be forgotten for his irreplaceable, unforgettable contribution in realizing Poorna Swaraj for the country. As the first prime minister of the country, he steered the independent India in the direction of progress and prosperity. Interestingly, during his sixteen-year long term as the prime minister, Nehru also got an opportunity to serve as the finance minister for the year 1958-59. As this year’s most anticipated event -- the presentation of union budget -- draws closer, we decided to go back in time and bring out the monotones of nostalgia. Ahead, WION throws goes back to the year when Jawaharlal Nehru assumed office as the fourth finance minister of the country. In his speech Nehru admitted his budget to be a “pedestrian budget statement”. × “According to custom, the Budget statement for the coming year has to be presented today. By an unexpected and unhappy chain of circumstances, the Finance Minister, who would normally have made this statement this afternoon, is no longer with us. This heavy duty has fallen upon me almost at the last moment,” Pandit Nehru noted in the opening statement of his maiden budget speech on February 28, 1958. Nehru had to take up the task of presenting the budget of 1958 as his close associate and former finance minister Tiruvallur Thattai Krishnamachari had to step down. Krishnamachari left office due to his alleged links in a scam. He was later exonerated, brought back to the government and served as the finance minister in 1963-65. Nehru’s budget drew heavily from his predecessor’s version with “relatively minor changes". × In his speech Nehru admitted his budget to be a “pedestrian budget statement”. Nehru’s budget drew heavily from his predecessor’s version with “relatively minor changes, or such changes as naturally flow from what we did last year.” Nehru lauded his “distinguished predecessor” Krishnamachari for presenting the budget that “involved substantial additions to taxation.” Krishnamachari was the first Indian finance minister to introduce wealth tax and estate duty. × “Some novel taxes were introduced and an attempt was made to bring about gradually a reorientation of the tax structure of the country,” noted Nehru. Interestingly, Krishnamachari was the first Indian finance minister to introduce wealth tax and estate duty. Nehru welcomed Krishnamachari’s move and happily carried them forward in his budget statement with minor tweaks. “Less than ten months ago Parliament approved proposals involving very substantial additions to taxation of a magnitude rarely equalled in peace time. These covered not merely the extension of existing taxes but the levy of new taxes such as the tax on wealth and the tax on expenditure. I do not propose to make any major modification in it but to confine myself to making such improvements as are necessary to make the present pattern of taxation an integrated one, and to plug any loopholes in taxation,” shared Pandit Nehru. However, Nehru did propose minor amendments in the Estate Duty Act. He noted that the total collections from Estate Duty fell short of what expected which was partly due to “the practice of making large gifts inter vivos which will, hereafter, be checked by the levy of the Gift Tax,” reasoned Nehru. Nehru's stint as a finance minister was short-lived. × “In regard to the Wealth Tax, the only change proposed is to exempt a foreign citizen from payment of the tax on his foreign wealth, even though he may be resident or ordinarily resident in India,” explained Nehru. All in all, Nehru’s stint as a finance minister was short-lived; a huge part of his budget borrowed from his predecessor studded with minor modifications that fit the demands raised by a rapidly evolving India and its blooming economy. Nehru was succeeded by Morarji Desai until Krishnamachari assumed office again as the finance minister in 1963. Reports suggest Krishnamachari's ousting soon after Nehru’s death in 1964. This year’s union budget will be presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley next week. Mr Jaitley will be presenting the budget for the fifth time. PM Modi has already hinted at a non-populist budget and a rather stricter statement this year. Some of the key expectations from this year’s financial announcement include rationalized GST rates, relief in income tax rates, extension of medical reimbursement value among others.

Budget 2018: Revisiting Jawaharlal Nehru's maiden budget speech of 1958

The Finance Minister while addressing the media on the recapitalisation of public sector banks has assured that the&nbsp;banks were &quot;article of faith&quot; and would never fail.

He said that the Department of Financial Services has been undertaking a detailed exercise as to the amount of capital that needs to be infused into public sector banks.&nbsp;

Jaitley said that the main objective of the flow of this capital to the public sector is to keep these banks in good health.

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Department of Financial Services has been undertaking a detailed exercise as to the amount of capital that needs to be infused into public sector banks: FM Jaitley <a href="https://t.co/fuXhrtQyBY">pic.twitter.com/fuXhrtQyBY</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/956107708947603456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The main objective of this flows from the Government&#39;s responsibility to keep public sector banks in good health: FM Jaitley <a href="https://t.co/DYT7BRswom">pic.twitter.com/DYT7BRswom</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/956108002804752384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Referring to the poor condition of the public sector&nbsp;banks, Jaitley said that the government aims to build an institutional mechanism to ensure that they do not experience the same problem that they &quot;inherited&quot;.

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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a>: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses the media in Delhi <a href="https://t.co/LE2L43PX2z">https://t.co/LE2L43PX2z</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/956106955621220352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Jaitly was addressing the media to devise a plan for Rs 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan which the ministry had announced in October 2017.&nbsp;

The plan was introduced to support the struggling public sector banks incurring losses for a long time.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Speaking in the recapitalisation of public sector banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the Department of Financial Services has been undertaking a detailed exercise as to the amount of capital that needs to be infused into public sector banks.

The Finance Minister while addressing the media on the recapitalisation of public sector banks has assured that the banks were "article of faith" and would never fail. He said that the Department of Financial Services has been undertaking a detailed exercise as to the amount of capital that needs to be infused into public sector banks. Jaitley said that the main objective of the flow of this capital to the public sector is to keep these banks in good health. Department of Financial Services has been undertaking a detailed exercise as to the amount of capital that needs to be infused into public sector banks: FM Jaitley pic.twitter.com/fuXhrtQyBY — ANI (@ANI) January 24, 2018 × The main objective of this flows from the Government's responsibility to keep public sector banks in good health: FM Jaitley pic.twitter.com/DYT7BRswom — ANI (@ANI) January 24, 2018 × Referring to the poor condition of the public sector banks, Jaitley said that the government aims to build an institutional mechanism to ensure that they do not experience the same problem that they "inherited". #WATCH: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses the media in Delhi https://t.co/LE2L43PX2z — ANI (@ANI) January 24, 2018 × Jaitly was addressing the media to devise a plan for Rs 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan which the ministry had announced in October 2017. The plan was introduced to support the struggling public sector banks incurring losses for a long time.

Govt to ensure good flow of capital to public sector banks to ensure their good health: Arun Jaitley

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/arun-jaitley-chairs-pre-budget-meeting-in-delhi-29924" target="_blank">Ahead of the Budget Session</a> of Parliament commencing on January 29, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley performed the symbolic &#39;Halwa Ceremony&#39; here on Saturday.

The ceremony, which was performed at North Block in Delhi, marks the inauguration of the formal printing of different documents relating to the <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/my-governments-only-agenda-for-budget-is-development-pm-modi-to-zee-news-30099" target="_blank">Union Budget</a> for 2018-19.

The &#39;halwa ceremony&#39; is observed to maintain the secrecy of the budget preparation process. As part of the ritual, which has continued for long, &#39;halwa&#39; is prepared in a big &#39;kadhai&#39; or wok and served to the entire staff in the ministry.

The significance of this is the commencement of printing of documents related to the budget. It is said that officials from the ministry are required to stay back at the printing press itself until the Budget is presented in Parliament, barring select senior officials.

Apart from Jaitley, those present at the ceremony were Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, MoS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla and others.

The ceremony, which was performed at North Block in Delhi, marks the inauguration of the formal printing of different documents relating to the Union Budget for 2018-19

Ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament commencing on January 29, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley performed the symbolic 'Halwa Ceremony' here on Saturday. The ceremony, which was performed at North Block in Delhi, marks the inauguration of the formal printing of different documents relating to the Union Budget for 2018-19. The 'halwa ceremony' is observed to maintain the secrecy of the budget preparation process. As part of the ritual, which has continued for long, 'halwa' is prepared in a big 'kadhai' or wok and served to the entire staff in the ministry. The significance of this is the commencement of printing of documents related to the budget. It is said that officials from the ministry are required to stay back at the printing press itself until the Budget is presented in Parliament, barring select senior officials. Apart from Jaitley, those present at the ceremony were Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, MoS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla and others.

Jaitley performs 'Halwa' ceremony ahead of Budget Session

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the Goods and Service Tax (GST) has stabilised in a very short time that provides an opportunity to widen its base and further rationalise the rates in the future.

Also, he said the GST has brought about an entire change in the indirect tax system in the country.

Jaitley further said the GST has &quot;stabilised in a very short time in India&quot; as compared to various other countries.

&quot;Therefore, it gives us an opportunity in the times to come to increase its base and rationalise the structure as it continues to evolve,&quot; he said at an event to mark the International Customs Day.

At present, the GST has four rates of 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent.

It is to be noted that the GST Council in the November meeting had decided to keep only sin goods and white goods under the 28 per cent tax bracket and moved 178 items from the highest tax bracket to 18 per cent.

Thirteen items were moved from 18 per cent to 12 per cent bracket; 8 items from 12 per cent to 5 per cent; 6 items from 18 per cent to 5 per cent, while 6 other items moved from 5 per cent to zero per cent slab.

Following the reduction on more than 200 items, the GST collections hit lowest in November from Rs 80,808 crore in the previous month.

However, halting two months of decline, the collections gathered momentum in December, rising to Rs 86,703 crore.

Total GST collections in October were over Rs 83,000 crore. In September, the GST mop-up was over Rs 92,150 crore.

He said the GST has brought about an entire change in the indirect tax system in the country

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the Goods and Service Tax (GST) has stabilised in a very short time that provides an opportunity to widen its base and further rationalise the rates in the future. Also, he said the GST has brought about an entire change in the indirect tax system in the country. Jaitley further said the GST has "stabilised in a very short time in India" as compared to various other countries. "Therefore, it gives us an opportunity in the times to come to increase its base and rationalise the structure as it continues to evolve," he said at an event to mark the International Customs Day. At present, the GST has four rates of 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. It is to be noted that the GST Council in the November meeting had decided to keep only sin goods and white goods under the 28 per cent tax bracket and moved 178 items from the highest tax bracket to 18 per cent. Thirteen items were moved from 18 per cent to 12 per cent bracket; 8 items from 12 per cent to 5 per cent; 6 items from 18 per cent to 5 per cent, while 6 other items moved from 5 per cent to zero per cent slab. Following the reduction on more than 200 items, the GST collections hit lowest in November from Rs 80,808 crore in the previous month. However, halting two months of decline, the collections gathered momentum in December, rising to Rs 86,703 crore. Total GST collections in October were over Rs 83,000 crore. In September, the GST mop-up was over Rs 92,150 crore.

Arun Jaitley says GST stabilised in short time, hints at further rejig

The government may look to raise as much as a record Rs 1 trillion rupees ($15.7 billion) from the sale of state assets in the next fiscal year to help meet tough fiscal deficit limits while giving it room to boost spending and woo voters before general elections that must be called by early 2019.

Investment bankers and economists expect the finance minister, Arun Jaitley, to set an ambitious target for the year beginning on April 1 following strong sales in the current fiscal year to the end of March.

The government is on track to raise about Rs 925 billion this fiscal year after state-run ONGC, an upstream oil company, agreed to pay Rs 369 billion rupees to buy just over 51 percent of refiner HPCL.

The deal is set to close this month and would take the government&rsquo;s asset-sales tally beyond the budget goal of Rs 725 billion, marking the first time in eight years that country&nbsp;had exceeded its targets.

The government accelerated asset sales in this current fiscal year after a chaotic rollout of a new national goods and services tax undermined tax collection targets.

As part of a goal to gradually bring down the fiscal deficit, the government has set a target for the current fiscal year of limiting the deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP and to 3 percent for the upcoming year. Analysts say the government is likely to miss this year&#39;s target and may also revise next year&#39;s goal.

Buoyed by this year&#39;s bumper sales and with stock markets at record highs, market participants expect Jaitley to unveil an asset-sale target of between 600 billion rupees and 1.2 trillion rupees when he unveils the fiscal 2018/19 budget on Feb. 1.

&quot;Between this year and next year, I see them doing Rs 2 trillion worth of divestments,&quot; said a senior banker who has worked closely with Department of Investment and Public Asset Management on stake sales.

&quot;We still have two months left in this fiscal year. If the big ones still expected this year do not happen by March, those would add to the proceeds next year - so I&#39;d look for 1 trillion-plus next year,&quot; said the banker, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media about the government&#39;s plans.

The top bureaucrat overseeing the asset sales programme, Neeraj Gupta, declined to be interviewed on the plans for asset sales.

Strong pipeline

Another government official, who also asked not to be identified, said the government may set a divestment target of at least Rs 600 billion to Rs 700 billion in 2018/19.

Citigroup and Deutsche Bank estimated asset-sale proceeds would top Rs 1 trillion, while Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Bank and Morgan Stanley forecast Rs 650 billion to Rs 900 billion.

The government official said the government&#39;s efforts to sell a majority stake in flag-carrier Air India is expected to close in 2018.

Four state-run companies including guided weapon systems maker Bharat Dynamics and engineering consultant Rites Ltd have filed preliminary applications in the past month for initial public offerings that would likely happen in fiscal 2018/2019.

India has also sought advisers to help it sell stakes in nearly 20 companies, including several more IPOs based on proposals for adviser appointments reviewed by Reuters.

The government is planning secondary sales in two of country&#39;s&nbsp;biggest companies, Indian Oil and Coal India, and an IPO in Hindustan Aeronautics. Banking advisers for those deals have been named.

A proposed sale of 10 percent stake in Coal India would be worth 185 billion rupees ($2.9 billion), while a planned 3 percent stake sale in Indian Oil would be worth 57 billion rupees ($897 million), based on their current share prices. The government-owned 78.6 percent of Coal India and 57 percent of Indian Oil at the end December.

The government has said it plans to take three more general insurance companies public after listing two in 2017, and bankers expect at least one of those sales to happen in 2018/19.

More oil sector deals could also be in the offing, bankers said, because Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd have expressed interest in buying stakes in two other state-run oil companies.

A government of India vehicle SUUTI is sitting on stakes in three big private-sector companies worth nearly $8 billion, and has already tapped banks to sell part of these stakes down the road.

The government is on track to raise about Rs 925 billion this fiscal year after state-run ONGC agreed to pay 369 billion rupees to buy just over 51 percent of refiner HPCL.

The government may look to raise as much as a record Rs 1 trillion rupees ($15.7 billion) from the sale of state assets in the next fiscal year to help meet tough fiscal deficit limits while giving it room to boost spending and woo voters before general elections that must be called by early 2019. Investment bankers and economists expect the finance minister, Arun Jaitley, to set an ambitious target for the year beginning on April 1 following strong sales in the current fiscal year to the end of March. The government is on track to raise about Rs 925 billion this fiscal year after state-run ONGC, an upstream oil company, agreed to pay Rs 369 billion rupees to buy just over 51 percent of refiner HPCL. The deal is set to close this month and would take the government’s asset-sales tally beyond the budget goal of Rs 725 billion, marking the first time in eight years that country had exceeded its targets. The government accelerated asset sales in this current fiscal year after a chaotic rollout of a new national goods and services tax undermined tax collection targets. As part of a goal to gradually bring down the fiscal deficit, the government has set a target for the current fiscal year of limiting the deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP and to 3 percent for the upcoming year. Analysts say the government is likely to miss this year's target and may also revise next year's goal. Buoyed by this year's bumper sales and with stock markets at record highs, market participants expect Jaitley to unveil an asset-sale target of between 600 billion rupees and 1.2 trillion rupees when he unveils the fiscal 2018/19 budget on Feb. 1. "Between this year and next year, I see them doing Rs 2 trillion worth of divestments," said a senior banker who has worked closely with Department of Investment and Public Asset Management on stake sales. "We still have two months left in this fiscal year. If the big ones still expected this year do not happen by March, those would add to the proceeds next year - so I'd look for 1 trillion-plus next year," said the banker, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media about the government's plans. The top bureaucrat overseeing the asset sales programme, Neeraj Gupta, declined to be interviewed on the plans for asset sales. Strong pipeline Another government official, who also asked not to be identified, said the government may set a divestment target of at least Rs 600 billion to Rs 700 billion in 2018/19. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank estimated asset-sale proceeds would top Rs 1 trillion, while Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Bank and Morgan Stanley forecast Rs 650 billion to Rs 900 billion. The government official said the government's efforts to sell a majority stake in flag-carrier Air India is expected to close in 2018. Four state-run companies including guided weapon systems maker Bharat Dynamics and engineering consultant Rites Ltd have filed preliminary applications in the past month for initial public offerings that would likely happen in fiscal 2018/2019. India has also sought advisers to help it sell stakes in nearly 20 companies, including several more IPOs based on proposals for adviser appointments reviewed by Reuters. The government is planning secondary sales in two of country's biggest companies, Indian Oil and Coal India, and an IPO in Hindustan Aeronautics. Banking advisers for those deals have been named. A proposed sale of 10 percent stake in Coal India would be worth 185 billion rupees ($2.9 billion), while a planned 3 percent stake sale in Indian Oil would be worth 57 billion rupees ($897 million), based on their current share prices. The government-owned 78.6 percent of Coal India and 57 percent of Indian Oil at the end December. The government has said it plans to take three more general insurance companies public after listing two in 2017, and bankers expect at least one of those sales to happen in 2018/19. More oil sector deals could also be in the offing, bankers said, because Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd have expressed interest in buying stakes in two other state-run oil companies. A government of India vehicle SUUTI is sitting on stakes in three big private-sector companies worth nearly $8 billion, and has already tapped banks to sell part of these stakes down the road.

Government to raise record Rs 1 trillion from sale of state assets in next fiscal year

Rahul Gandhi is back with yet another file of facts and is pushing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for answers on Rafale jet deal.&nbsp;

The Congress president, on Friday, called out Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Twitter and said: &quot;You said the UPA never released prices of Defence purchases? To nail your lie, here are 3 Parliamentary replies by the UPA with full transparency on pricing. Now do ask our Raksha Mantri to tell India how much each RAFALE jet cost.&quot;&nbsp;

With that, he attached screenshots of documents - one dated 9 August 2010 titled &quot;Aircraft Carrier Admiral Gorshkov&quot; and another 4 March 2013 titled &quot;Upgradation of Aircraft&quot; - by the Ministry of Defence.&nbsp;

The documents mention several &lsquo;parliamentary replies&rsquo; on the prices of several defence purchases made during the UPA government.

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Dear Mr Jaitlie, 
 
You said the UPA never released prices of Defence purchases? 
 
To nail your lie, here are 3 Parliamentary replies by the UPA with full transparency on pricing. 
 
Now do ask our Raksha Mantri to tell India how much each RAFALE jet cost.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DealMeinKuchKalaHai?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DealMeinKuchKalaHai</a> <a href="https://t.co/txb2Cc1BHh">pic.twitter.com/txb2Cc1BHh</a>
&mdash; Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficeOfRG/status/961930076668473344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, defending the government&#39;s decision against making the break-up of the nearly Rs 58,000 crore deal public, said when UPA was in power, then defence ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony had on 15 occasions told Parliament that giving out such details would be against the interest of national security.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/allegations-against-rafale-deal-shameful-disservice-to-armed-forces-nirmala-sitharaman-24474">Allegations against Rafale deal &#39;shameful&#39;, &#39;disservice&#39; to armed forces: Nirmala Sitharaman</a>

He hit back at the Congress over the Rafale deal, accusing it of &quot;seriously compromising&quot; country&#39;s security by seeking details of armaments purchased along with the aircraft.

He also advised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to &quot;learn&quot; from former defense minister Pranab Mukherjee &quot;lessons on national security.&quot;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/pm-modi-tweaked-rafale-deal-to-benefit-one-businessman-rahul-gandhi-24356">Rahul has </a>been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 2016 deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets. &quot;What is the price that the Prime Minister has spent on Rafale,&quot; Gandhi had asked on Tuesday.

Also read:<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/indian-cabinet-approves-purchase-of-36-rafale-fighter-jets-source-6629">&nbsp;Indian cabinet approves purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets: Source</a>

Gandhi, raising the pitch on the Rafale jet deal, has asked for a discussion in parliament under a rule that makes it a must for the government to answer.

The Congress president alleges that there is &quot;something fishy&quot; about the deal to buy 126 fighter jets and that is the reason Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman are <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/your-boss-silencing-you-rahul-gandhi-asks-nirmala-sitharaman-24541">silent on it.</a>

Gandhi, raising the pitch on the Rafale jet deal, has asked for a discussion in parliament under a rule that makes it a must for the government to answer

Rahul Gandhi is back with yet another file of facts and is pushing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for answers on Rafale jet deal. The Congress president, on Friday, called out Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Twitter and said: "You said the UPA never released prices of Defence purchases? To nail your lie, here are 3 Parliamentary replies by the UPA with full transparency on pricing. Now do ask our Raksha Mantri to tell India how much each RAFALE jet cost." With that, he attached screenshots of documents - one dated 9 August 2010 titled "Aircraft Carrier Admiral Gorshkov" and another 4 March 2013 titled "Upgradation of Aircraft" - by the Ministry of Defence. The documents mention several ‘parliamentary replies’ on the prices of several defence purchases made during the UPA government. Dear Mr Jaitlie, You said the UPA never released prices of Defence purchases? To nail your lie, here are 3 Parliamentary replies by the UPA with full transparency on pricing. Now do ask our Raksha Mantri to tell India how much each RAFALE jet cost.#DealMeinKuchKalaHai pic.twitter.com/txb2Cc1BHh — Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 9, 2018 × Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, defending the government's decision against making the break-up of the nearly Rs 58,000 crore deal public, said when UPA was in power, then defence ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony had on 15 occasions told Parliament that giving out such details would be against the interest of national security. Also read: Allegations against Rafale deal 'shameful', 'disservice' to armed forces: Nirmala Sitharaman He hit back at the Congress over the Rafale deal, accusing it of "seriously compromising" country's security by seeking details of armaments purchased along with the aircraft. He also advised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to "learn" from former defense minister Pranab Mukherjee "lessons on national security." Rahul has been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 2016 deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets. "What is the price that the Prime Minister has spent on Rafale," Gandhi had asked on Tuesday. Also read: Indian cabinet approves purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets: Source Gandhi, raising the pitch on the Rafale jet deal, has asked for a discussion in parliament under a rule that makes it a must for the government to answer. The Congress president alleges that there is "something fishy" about the deal to buy 126 fighter jets and that is the reason Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman are silent on it.

Rafale deal: Rahul fires fresh salvo at Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Sitharaman

Ever since the Modi government has come to power in May 2014, there has been a consistent push to improve the country&#39;s infrastructure. Nitin Gadkari as Surface Transport Minister is leading the pack. Gadkari has provided amazing impetus to the highway construction pace. He is a man of action and visionary too.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Apart from highways, Gadkari is trying to create as well as revive national waterways using the network of rivers. If realised, waterways would not only decongest highways but they will also bring down the transportation cost substantially.

&nbsp;

Apart from highways and waterways, there has been a serious initiative by Government of India (GOI) to push aviation in the country.&nbsp; In his budget speech for 2018-19, Jaitley has given a vision of expanding the airport capacity by five times of what it is today.

But it&rsquo;s not only about Budget 2018-19; Modi government has actually been working to take this sector on a different level for the past couple of years at least.

&nbsp;

Last year, GOI has come with UDAN - RCS scheme (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik &ndash; Regional Connectivity Scheme), wherein extraordinary impetus has been given to regional air connectivity. In the proposed scheme, airlines are bound to sell few tickets for Rs. 2500 for a journey spanning less than an hour.&nbsp; The GOI can do so as many unserved but serviceable air-strips and airport of defence services are available in the country.

&nbsp;

Despite being a burgeoning economy and second most populous country in the world, India is still nowhere in civil aviation in comparison to the developed country. In India, there are only around 500 commercial aircrafts in comparison to more than 7000 aircrafts in the USA. As on date, the USA has around seven times air passengers than that of India. China has around 4.5 times.

&nbsp;

The current push to the civil aviation sector by the Modi government is the next steps of reforms in this sector. Things as such started changing during the previous decade when the GOI decided to go for PPP (Public Private Partnership) model after sensing that Airport Authority of India (AAI) alone cannot match the required pace in this domain. Remember how Bangalore people used to struggle at highly congested and cramped old HAL airport; it was a real mess. Or the way passengers used to queue up for luggage screening at Terminal 1B in Delhi. They are now things of the past.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The new swanky airport was commissioned in Bangalore in 2008 under PPP model, which is given a new lease of life to India&rsquo;s IT city. Subsequently, it was the turn of Terminal T3 at Delhi, new airports at Hyderabad and Mumbai, built and commissioned under the PPP model.

&nbsp;

The passenger traffic is growing by leaps and bounds in India. It is worthwhile to mention here that India&rsquo;s domestic traffic has been growing at a rate of 18 per cent per annum over the past three years. In 2017-18, the passenger footfall at Delhi would cross a whopping 60 million and it is one among the 15 busiest airports in the world.

&nbsp;

The government very well realises that a robust infrastructure is imperative for an aspiring world leader like India and aviation is one of the vital constituents of this infrastructure. Already a second greenfield airport in NCR (Delhi), Goa and Navi Mumbai have been nodded by the government, which will be a huge boost to this sector. The second airport at NCR (Jewar) is slated to start operations in 2022.

&nbsp;

Airlines are well aware of the massive growth, which is on the cards in Indian aviation industry, and they are accordingly reciprocating. The total order of new aircrafts booked for all India airlines put together is 900 plus, compare this with total 500 aircrafts that run currently.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

UDAN scheme has already started touching people&rsquo;s life. 16 airports under UDAN have already become operational. For example from Delhi, flights are now available to destinations like Shimla, Bikaner and Bhatinda.

&nbsp;

In this budget, Jaitley has proposed an augmentation of aviation infrastructure under the Nabh-Nirman scheme, which will be spearheaded by the AAI. The GOI has also provisioned Rs. 6600 crore for the sector during 2018-19, which is almost three times the budget during 2017-18. Thus, the sector is bound to get catapulted at a whole new level in days to come.

&nbsp;

The vision of GOI is clear that air connectivity needs to go up by notches and should be affordable to the very common people. It is clearly manifested in Jaitley&#39;s budget speech and commitment made by him for this sector.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

The vision of GOI is clear, air connectivity needs to go up by notches and should be affordable to the very common people.

Ever since the Modi government has come to power in May 2014, there has been a consistent push to improve the country's infrastructure. Nitin Gadkari as Surface Transport Minister is leading the pack. Gadkari has provided amazing impetus to the highway construction pace. He is a man of action and visionary too. Apart from highways, Gadkari is trying to create as well as revive national waterways using the network of rivers. If realised, waterways would not only decongest highways but they will also bring down the transportation cost substantially. Apart from highways and waterways, there has been a serious initiative by Government of India (GOI) to push aviation in the country. In his budget speech for 2018-19, Jaitley has given a vision of expanding the airport capacity by five times of what it is today. But it’s not only about Budget 2018-19; Modi government has actually been working to take this sector on a different level for the past couple of years at least. Last year, GOI has come with UDAN - RCS scheme (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik – Regional Connectivity Scheme), wherein extraordinary impetus has been given to regional air connectivity. In the proposed scheme, airlines are bound to sell few tickets for Rs. 2500 for a journey spanning less than an hour. The GOI can do so as many unserved but serviceable air-strips and airport of defence services are available in the country. Despite being a burgeoning economy and second most populous country in the world, India is still nowhere in civil aviation in comparison to the developed country. In India, there are only around 500 commercial aircrafts in comparison to more than 7000 aircrafts in the USA. As on date, the USA has around seven times air passengers than that of India. China has around 4.5 times. The current push to the civil aviation sector by the Modi government is the next steps of reforms in this sector. Things as such started changing during the previous decade when the GOI decided to go for PPP (Public Private Partnership) model after sensing that Airport Authority of India (AAI) alone cannot match the required pace in this domain. Remember how Bangalore people used to struggle at highly congested and cramped old HAL airport; it was a real mess. Or the way passengers used to queue up for luggage screening at Terminal 1B in Delhi. They are now things of the past. The new swanky airport was commissioned in Bangalore in 2008 under PPP model, which is given a new lease of life to India’s IT city. Subsequently, it was the turn of Terminal T3 at Delhi, new airports at Hyderabad and Mumbai, built and commissioned under the PPP model. The passenger traffic is growing by leaps and bounds in India. It is worthwhile to mention here that India’s domestic traffic has been growing at a rate of 18 per cent per annum over the past three years. In 2017-18, the passenger footfall at Delhi would cross a whopping 60 million and it is one among the 15 busiest airports in the world. The government very well realises that a robust infrastructure is imperative for an aspiring world leader like India and aviation is one of the vital constituents of this infrastructure. Already a second greenfield airport in NCR (Delhi), Goa and Navi Mumbai have been nodded by the government, which will be a huge boost to this sector. The second airport at NCR (Jewar) is slated to start operations in 2022. Airlines are well aware of the massive growth, which is on the cards in Indian aviation industry, and they are accordingly reciprocating. The total order of new aircrafts booked for all India airlines put together is 900 plus, compare this with total 500 aircrafts that run currently. UDAN scheme has already started touching people’s life. 16 airports under UDAN have already become operational. For example from Delhi, flights are now available to destinations like Shimla, Bikaner and Bhatinda. In this budget, Jaitley has proposed an augmentation of aviation infrastructure under the Nabh-Nirman scheme, which will be spearheaded by the AAI. The GOI has also provisioned Rs. 6600 crore for the sector during 2018-19, which is almost three times the budget during 2017-18. Thus, the sector is bound to get catapulted at a whole new level in days to come. The vision of GOI is clear that air connectivity needs to go up by notches and should be affordable to the very common people. It is clearly manifested in Jaitley's budget speech and commitment made by him for this sector. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: To be a world power India needs a world-class civil aviation sector

The ambitious National Health Protection Scheme will be implemented by the end of the year, the Finance Minister told Rajya Sabha earlier today.&nbsp;

The scheme plans to provide Rs 5 lakh annual medical insurance cover to 10 crore poor and needy families in the country. Modi government&#39;s pilot health scheme was announced in the Budget 2018-19.

&quot;I believe that once the work starts, the scheme will be fully implemented by the end of the year,&quot; Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha today.&nbsp;

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had previously noted that it would take another six months for the scheme to be worked out and that the same may not get implemented in this financial year.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated a relatively small sum -- of Rs 2,000 crore -- for the Ayushman Bharat health scheme. The yojna was described and touted as the world&#39;s largest government-funded healthcare programme in Jaitley&#39;s budget speech with an aim to provide medical insurance to around 50 crore poor people.&nbsp;

The Finance Minister later clarified and noted the amount to be an initial outlay and that more funds would be made available to the scheme.&nbsp;

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had previously noted that it would take another six months for the scheme to be worked out

The ambitious National Health Protection Scheme will be implemented by the end of the year, the Finance Minister told Rajya Sabha earlier today. The scheme plans to provide Rs 5 lakh annual medical insurance cover to 10 crore poor and needy families in the country. Modi government's pilot health scheme was announced in the Budget 2018-19. "I believe that once the work starts, the scheme will be fully implemented by the end of the year," Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha today. Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had previously noted that it would take another six months for the scheme to be worked out and that the same may not get implemented in this financial year. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated a relatively small sum -- of Rs 2,000 crore -- for the Ayushman Bharat health scheme. The yojna was described and touted as the world's largest government-funded healthcare programme in Jaitley's budget speech with an aim to provide medical insurance to around 50 crore poor people. The Finance Minister later clarified and noted the amount to be an initial outlay and that more funds would be made available to the scheme.

Government to implement National Health Protection Scheme this year: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday that India would become the world&#39;s fastest-growing economy in two years.&nbsp;

Jaitley, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha, was quoting from IMF data.&nbsp;

Jaitley also answered the question of why his goods and services tax has five slabs, one of the harshest criticisms of the GST:&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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I went to Singapore. There they levy 7% GST on both Mercedes and food. Can this be done in India, a country where a large population lives below the poverty line? How can same tax slab be implemented on a luxurious item &amp; a necessity?: FM Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha <a href="https://t.co/UBBSFNPzZO">pic.twitter.com/UBBSFNPzZO</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/961575641899511810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Jaitley added that &quot;within a matter of months, we have been able to stabilise GST. We reduced rate with increase in revenue.&quot;&nbsp;

Jaitley that &quot;structural reform may pose momentary difficulty initially but in the long run it will prove to be beneficial.&quot;&nbsp;

This is something the government has been saying for a while -- that the &quot;disruptions&quot; of GST and demonetisation will bear fruit in the long run. &nbsp;

Jaitley, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha, was quoting from IMF data

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday that India would become the world's fastest-growing economy in two years. Jaitley, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha, was quoting from IMF data. Jaitley also answered the question of why his goods and services tax has five slabs, one of the harshest criticisms of the GST: I went to Singapore. There they levy 7% GST on both Mercedes and food. Can this be done in India, a country where a large population lives below the poverty line? How can same tax slab be implemented on a luxurious item & a necessity?: FM Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha pic.twitter.com/UBBSFNPzZO — ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2018 × Jaitley added that "within a matter of months, we have been able to stabilise GST. We reduced rate with increase in revenue." Jaitley that "structural reform may pose momentary difficulty initially but in the long run it will prove to be beneficial." This is something the government has been saying for a while -- that the "disruptions" of GST and demonetisation will bear fruit in the long run.

India to become fastest-growing major economy in two years: Jaitley

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/india-to-become-fastest-growing-major-economy-in-two-years-jaitley-32232" target="_blank">India to become fastest-growing major economy in two years: Jaitley</a>

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday that India would become the world&#39;s fastest-growing economy in two years.&nbsp;Jaitley, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha, was quoting from IMF data.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/bangladesh-ex-pm-khaleda-zia-jailed-for-graft-but-likely-to-be-freed-on-bail-pending-appeal-32223" target="_blank">Bangladesh: Ex-PM Khaleda Zia jailed for graft, but likely to be freed on bail pending appeal</a>

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia was&nbsp; <a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/ex-bangladesh-pm-khaleda-zia-sentenced-to-5-years-in-graft-case-32203" target="_blank">jailed for five years for corruption</a>&nbsp;on Thursday as thousands of supporters took to the streets of the capital to protest her innocence.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/spice-jet-flight-suffers-tyre-burst-during-take-off-no-injuries-reported-32234" target="_blank">Spice Jet plane suffers tyre burst during </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/spice-jet-flight-suffers-tyre-burst-during-take-off-no-injuries-reported-32234" target="_blank">take</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/spice-jet-flight-suffers-tyre-burst-during-take-off-no-injuries-reported-32234" target="_blank"> off</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/spice-jet-flight-suffers-tyre-burst-during-take-off-no-injuries-reported-32234" target="_blank">, main Chennai Airport runway closed</a>

The suspected tyre burst was reported during the take-off of the flight. After which the plane was turned back and landed safely at Chennai airport.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/deepika-padukone-and-ranveer-singh-are-set-to-have-a-beach-wedding-this-year-32214" target="_blank">Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh are set to have a beach wedding this year?</a>

They may be tight lip about it, but reports suggest that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone are all set to walk down the aisle this year.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/supreme-court-postpones-ayodhya-dispute-hearing-to-march-14-32208" target="_blank">Supreme Court asks for English translations of documents, postpones Ayodhya dispute hearing to March 14</a>

The Supreme Court postponed Thursday the hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute to March 14.

India to become fastest-growing major economy in two years: Jaitley Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday that India would become the world's fastest-growing economy in two years. Jaitley, who was speaking in the Lok Sabha, was quoting from IMF data. Bangladesh: Ex-PM Khaleda Zia jailed for graft, but likely to be freed on bail pending appeal Former Bangladesh Prime Minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years for corruption on Thursday as thousands of supporters took to the streets of the capital to protest her innocence. Spice Jet plane suffers tyre burst during take off, main Chennai Airport runway closed The suspected tyre burst was reported during the take-off of the flight. After which the plane was turned back and landed safely at Chennai airport. Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh are set to have a beach wedding this year? They may be tight lip about it, but reports suggest that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone are all set to walk down the aisle this year. Supreme Court asks for English translations of documents, postpones Ayodhya dispute hearing to March 14 The Supreme Court postponed Thursday the hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute to March 14.

WION Evening News Brief, February 8, 2018

The leader of Rajya Sabha and Union Minister Arun Jaitley today accused the opposition of trying to &quot;manufacture an issue where none existed&quot; after they boycotted the proceedings claiming that they were not being allowed to speak.

&quot;What opposition parties have done in Rajya Sabha is absolutely unprecedented. The Congress and some other parties have tried to manufacture an issue where none existed,&quot; the senior BJP leader told reporters in the Parliament Complex.

The Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK and other opposition parties had wanted to raise several issues in the Upper House but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow them and adjourned the House till 2 PM. After that the Chairman did not allow them again when the House met, they boycotted it for the rest of the day.

Government sources have claimed that the opposition parties deliberately wanted to disturb proceedings.

Jaitley said the opposition parties could have raised an issue during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the president&#39;s address, which had started in the House yesterday and was continuing, and then during the debate on Union Budget.

There is a huge opportunity in a systematic manner to discuss all political and economic issues this week, he said.

&quot;If repeatedly ruled are to be violated and every day an effort is made to get the House adjourned by disturbances, then it is obvious they don&#39;t want an organised and systematic discussion in the House,&quot; he said.&nbsp;

'If repeatedly ruled are to be violated and every day an effort is made to get the House adjourned by disturbances, then it is obvious they don't want an organised and systematic discussion in the House' he said.

The leader of Rajya Sabha and Union Minister Arun Jaitley today accused the opposition of trying to "manufacture an issue where none existed" after they boycotted the proceedings claiming that they were not being allowed to speak. "What opposition parties have done in Rajya Sabha is absolutely unprecedented. The Congress and some other parties have tried to manufacture an issue where none existed," the senior BJP leader told reporters in the Parliament Complex. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK and other opposition parties had wanted to raise several issues in the Upper House but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow them and adjourned the House till 2 PM. After that the Chairman did not allow them again when the House met, they boycotted it for the rest of the day. Government sources have claimed that the opposition parties deliberately wanted to disturb proceedings. Jaitley said the opposition parties could have raised an issue during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the president's address, which had started in the House yesterday and was continuing, and then during the debate on Union Budget. There is a huge opportunity in a systematic manner to discuss all political and economic issues this week, he said. "If repeatedly ruled are to be violated and every day an effort is made to get the House adjourned by disturbances, then it is obvious they don't want an organised and systematic discussion in the House," he said.

What opposition parties did in Rajya Sabha absolutely unprecedented: Arun Jaitley

The Delhi High Court today allowed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal&#39;s plea calling for two DDCA documents in connection with a defamation suit filed against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Referring to one of Jaitley&#39;s cross-examination sessions on Kejriwal&#39;s behalf, the court said questions put to the Union minister were not relevant to the case and the questioners should have restrained themselves from putting them.

The court said it was not clear in which direction the cross examination was proceeding.

Justice Manmohan also made it clear that the court was allowing Kejriwal&#39;s plea to summon only two documents of February 10, 2003 and April 6, 2003, with which Jaitley can be confronted during his cross-examination.

Jaitley&#39;s cross examination in the suit is going on before a joint registrar who has directed Kejriwal to wind up the cross examination on February 12 itself.

The high court, however, declined Kejriwal&#39;s plea to summon the entire minutes of meetings of the cricket body between 1999 and 2013, when Jaitley was president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

The court said it cannot understand how the minutes of those meetings were relevant to this defamation suit against Kejriwal. Moreover, no grounds were given by the chief minister for summoning the details.

Regarding the documents which have been allowed to be summoned, the court asked Kejriwal to file a proper application in two days.

The high court&#39;s order came on Kejriwal&#39;s appeal challenging the joint registrar&#39;s order dismissing his plea to summon the minutes of meeting of DDCA and the other two documents.

The instant appeal has been moved by the chief minister in the Rs 10 crore defamation case filed by Jaitley against him and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders -- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai -- for accusing the BJP leader of corruption when he was DDCA president.

The high court declined Kejriwal's plea to summon the entire minutes of meetings of the cricket body between 1999 and 2013, when Jaitley was president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association

The Delhi High Court today allowed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea calling for two DDCA documents in connection with a defamation suit filed against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Referring to one of Jaitley's cross-examination sessions on Kejriwal's behalf, the court said questions put to the Union minister were not relevant to the case and the questioners should have restrained themselves from putting them. The court said it was not clear in which direction the cross examination was proceeding. Justice Manmohan also made it clear that the court was allowing Kejriwal's plea to summon only two documents of February 10, 2003 and April 6, 2003, with which Jaitley can be confronted during his cross-examination. Jaitley's cross examination in the suit is going on before a joint registrar who has directed Kejriwal to wind up the cross examination on February 12 itself. The high court, however, declined Kejriwal's plea to summon the entire minutes of meetings of the cricket body between 1999 and 2013, when Jaitley was president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). The court said it cannot understand how the minutes of those meetings were relevant to this defamation suit against Kejriwal. Moreover, no grounds were given by the chief minister for summoning the details. Regarding the documents which have been allowed to be summoned, the court asked Kejriwal to file a proper application in two days. The high court's order came on Kejriwal's appeal challenging the joint registrar's order dismissing his plea to summon the minutes of meeting of DDCA and the other two documents. The instant appeal has been moved by the chief minister in the Rs 10 crore defamation case filed by Jaitley against him and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders -- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai -- for accusing the BJP leader of corruption when he was DDCA president.

Jaitley defamation case against Kejriwal: HC allows Delhi CM to call 2 documents

Finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the much-anticipated Union Budget 2018 on February 1st.&nbsp;&nbsp;

One of the major takeaways from his speech was his high-profile plan to create the &ldquo;world&#39;s largest health insurance programme&rdquo;. The Budget allocated maximum resources towards the agriculture and rural sector in India.&nbsp;

This is also being seen as a test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to maintain fiscal discipline without stifling economic growth ahead of general elections next year.&nbsp;

But, another key pointer in the finance minister&rsquo;s speech was the allocation towards the defence sector.&nbsp;

An outlay of Rs 2.95 lakh crore was set aside for the defence budget for the next fiscal which is an increase of 7.81% over last year&#39;s Rs 2.74 lakh crore.&nbsp;

With the ever-increasing number of ceasefire violations along the LoC, the capital outlay for the three defence services &ndash; Army, Navy &amp; Air Force -&nbsp; for purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware has been pegged at Rs 99,947 crore making the total amount allotted towards defence at of Rs 2,95,511 crore from Rs 2,74,114 crore last year.&nbsp;

However, the Indian Air Force capital budget was 46% lower than its requirements, the Indian Army&rsquo;s was 41% and the Indian Navy&rsquo;s was 32%, reports said.&nbsp;

A measly revision in the defence sector, also considering the present situation with Pakistan and China, is a crushing reminder of the need for developing the military. Also, the defence outlay works out to just about 1.58% of the projected GDP for 2018-19 -&nbsp; the lowest figure since the 1962 war with China.&nbsp;

India is the fifth largest military spender in the world and also the largest importer of arms. About 13% of the world&#39;s total imports between 2012-2016 were by India, a report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute stated.

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India fifth-largest military spender. Source: SIPRI (Twitter)
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A throwback to 1961 - the year before the India-China war reveals India&rsquo;s defence expenditure was Rs 266.72 crores, however, in 1962 &ndash; the year of war - the defence services budget was only increased by Rs 1.7 crore.&nbsp;

The year after the Sino-India war, the then Finance Minister Morarji R Desai decided to allocate a whopping amount of Rs 708.51 crore in defence out of the total revenue expenditure of Rs 1852.40 crores.&nbsp;

Low spending on defence has often been cited as the main reason for India&#39;s lack of defence preparedness, leading to its defeat against China in 1962.&nbsp;

Cut to 1964, the year before Indo-Pakistan war, of the total revenue expenditure of Rs 2,041 crores, an amount of Rs 718 crores was allocated for the defence services.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In 1965, the year of the war, the increase in revenue was Rs 29 crores from 1964 figure, this was the year when the National Defence Remittance Scheme was also introduced.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&quot;Honourable Members will also appreciate that while it has always been our policy to restrict expenditure on defence to the maximum extent possible so as to conserve all possible sources for securing the well-being of our people, we cannot afford to take any chances with the security of the nation, devoted though we are to the cause of peace&quot; the FM Sachindra Chaudhuri was quoted saying in his speech in 1966.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In 1970, the military budget stood at 2.9% of the total GDP which drastically rose to 3.417% in 1971, the year of India-Pakistan war.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In the preceding year, the military budget was 3.4% (a miniscule revision). In 1974 though, the budget drastically dropped to 2.995% of the total GDP.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

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Military expenditure (% of GDP). Source: World Bank (Others)
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See a pattern?&nbsp;&nbsp;

The usual thinking in the government is that only when there is a war the defence budget should be increased. Otherwise, no focus is laid in this sector, it is not given much priority.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Moreover, since the last three years, there has actually been a decline in budget allocation for capital investments against requirements, or &ldquo;projections&rdquo; in the official sense, a factor that could delay procurement and modernization of the armed forces, according to a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee On Defence 2017-18.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&quot;Funds allocated (each year) under the budget estimate have been reduced at the revised estimate stage by the ministry of finance, broadly on the pretext of trend of expenditure at that point of time,&quot; the defence ministry said in its response to questions by the Parliamentary committee.&nbsp;

&quot;Though there has been under-utilisation of capital budget with regards to budget estimate (except in 2016-17), there has been either excess expenditure or more than 99 percent utilisation when compared to final grant,&quot; it said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

This even as India and China were close to a faceoff in Doklam. Moreover, deaths due to terrorist violence increased 30 per cent in Jammu &amp; Kashmir &mdash; from 267 in 2016 to 347 in 2017 (December).&nbsp;&nbsp;

With just a 7.81% increase in the defence budget, the modernisation of the services cannot be supported. It also means that the policy and acquisition decisions which have been taken will not be executed.
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Source: SIPRI (Twitter)
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The major worry for the army during a war would be a shortage of ammunition. The army faces 40% shortage of ammunition &mdash; 61 of 152 types of ammunition was in critical level &mdash; to fight a 10-day long war, according to a CAG report.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&ldquo;Transformation in defence production requires higher allocation. If the government is keen on promoting &lsquo;Make in India&rsquo; in defence production then there has to be a proper infrastructure creation for that and that requires huge money. When you are operating under a low budget then all your mega acquisition plans become severely constrained,&rdquo; said Vikram Mahajan, Director (Defence and Aerospace), US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).
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Source: ChinaPower (Others)
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Experts added that what ultimately needs to be done is to ensure that India&#39;s military can face a high-tech Chinese Army, especially when China&#39;s 2017 defence budget stands at $152 billion (Rs 9.75 lakh crore).&nbsp;&nbsp;

This would naturally call for stricter action towards defence expenditure through the years but historical facts and the timelines have also proven that there has not been enough inclination towards India&rsquo;s defense needs.&nbsp;
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An outlay of Rs 2.95 lakh crore was set aside for the defence budget for the next fiscal which is an increase of 7.81% over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore

Finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the much-anticipated Union Budget 2018 on February 1st. One of the major takeaways from his speech was his high-profile plan to create the “world's largest health insurance programme”. The Budget allocated maximum resources towards the agriculture and rural sector in India. This is also being seen as a test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to maintain fiscal discipline without stifling economic growth ahead of general elections next year. But, another key pointer in the finance minister’s speech was the allocation towards the defence sector. An outlay of Rs 2.95 lakh crore was set aside for the defence budget for the next fiscal which is an increase of 7.81% over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore. With the ever-increasing number of ceasefire violations along the LoC, the capital outlay for the three defence services – Army, Navy & Air Force - for purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware has been pegged at Rs 99,947 crore making the total amount allotted towards defence at of Rs 2,95,511 crore from Rs 2,74,114 crore last year. However, the Indian Air Force capital budget was 46% lower than its requirements, the Indian Army’s was 41% and the Indian Navy’s was 32%, reports said. A measly revision in the defence sector, also considering the present situation with Pakistan and China, is a crushing reminder of the need for developing the military. Also, the defence outlay works out to just about 1.58% of the projected GDP for 2018-19 - the lowest figure since the 1962 war with China. India is the fifth largest military spender in the world and also the largest importer of arms. About 13% of the world's total imports between 2012-2016 were by India, a report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute stated. India fifth-largest military spender. Source: SIPRI (Twitter) × A throwback to 1961 - the year before the India-China war reveals India’s defence expenditure was Rs 266.72 crores, however, in 1962 – the year of war - the defence services budget was only increased by Rs 1.7 crore. The year after the Sino-India war, the then Finance Minister Morarji R Desai decided to allocate a whopping amount of Rs 708.51 crore in defence out of the total revenue expenditure of Rs 1852.40 crores. Low spending on defence has often been cited as the main reason for India's lack of defence preparedness, leading to its defeat against China in 1962. Cut to 1964, the year before Indo-Pakistan war, of the total revenue expenditure of Rs 2,041 crores, an amount of Rs 718 crores was allocated for the defence services. In 1965, the year of the war, the increase in revenue was Rs 29 crores from 1964 figure, this was the year when the National Defence Remittance Scheme was also introduced. "Honourable Members will also appreciate that while it has always been our policy to restrict expenditure on defence to the maximum extent possible so as to conserve all possible sources for securing the well-being of our people, we cannot afford to take any chances with the security of the nation, devoted though we are to the cause of peace" the FM Sachindra Chaudhuri was quoted saying in his speech in 1966. In 1970, the military budget stood at 2.9% of the total GDP which drastically rose to 3.417% in 1971, the year of India-Pakistan war. In the preceding year, the military budget was 3.4% (a miniscule revision). In 1974 though, the budget drastically dropped to 2.995% of the total GDP. Military expenditure (% of GDP). Source: World Bank (Others) × See a pattern? The usual thinking in the government is that only when there is a war the defence budget should be increased. Otherwise, no focus is laid in this sector, it is not given much priority. Moreover, since the last three years, there has actually been a decline in budget allocation for capital investments against requirements, or “projections” in the official sense, a factor that could delay procurement and modernization of the armed forces, according to a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee On Defence 2017-18. "Funds allocated (each year) under the budget estimate have been reduced at the revised estimate stage by the ministry of finance, broadly on the pretext of trend of expenditure at that point of time," the defence ministry said in its response to questions by the Parliamentary committee. "Though there has been under-utilisation of capital budget with regards to budget estimate (except in 2016-17), there has been either excess expenditure or more than 99 percent utilisation when compared to final grant," it said. This even as India and China were close to a faceoff in Doklam. Moreover, deaths due to terrorist violence increased 30 per cent in Jammu & Kashmir — from 267 in 2016 to 347 in 2017 (December). With just a 7.81% increase in the defence budget, the modernisation of the services cannot be supported. It also means that the policy and acquisition decisions which have been taken will not be executed. Source: SIPRI (Twitter) × The major worry for the army during a war would be a shortage of ammunition. The army faces 40% shortage of ammunition — 61 of 152 types of ammunition was in critical level — to fight a 10-day long war, according to a CAG report. “Transformation in defence production requires higher allocation. If the government is keen on promoting ‘Make in India’ in defence production then there has to be a proper infrastructure creation for that and that requires huge money. When you are operating under a low budget then all your mega acquisition plans become severely constrained,” said Vikram Mahajan, Director (Defence and Aerospace), US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). Source: ChinaPower (Others) × Experts added that what ultimately needs to be done is to ensure that India's military can face a high-tech Chinese Army, especially when China's 2017 defence budget stands at $152 billion (Rs 9.75 lakh crore). This would naturally call for stricter action towards defence expenditure through the years but historical facts and the timelines have also proven that there has not been enough inclination towards India’s defense needs.

Jaitley's defence outlay in Union Budget is lowest since India-China 1962 war

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Saturday claimed that air travel in the country was now cheaper than travel by auto-rickshaws on per kilometre basis.&nbsp;

He was speaking at the 27th International Management Conference of the Indore Management Association (IMA).&nbsp;

&quot;In today&#39;s India, the fares of aeroplanes are lower than that of autorickshaws. Some people will say that I&#39;m talking nonsense, but this is true,&quot; Sinha said.&nbsp;

Explaining the mathematics behind his claim, Sinha said, &quot;These days, passengers spend only Rs five per kilometre on air travel from Indore to Delhi. But if you take an autorickshaw in this city, then you need to spend a relatively higher price of Rs eight to ten per kilometre.&quot;&nbsp;

The minister claimed that more people were opting for air travel because the country had the cheapest fares in the world and added that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had remarked that a man wearing slippers is also now flying.&nbsp;

Sinha said that four years ago the number of people travelling by air was 11 crore and was likely to reach 20 crore by the end of the current fiscal.&nbsp;

Sinha said the government wanted to increase the number of people using air travel by five times to 100 crore in the coming years.&nbsp;

He said the country needed to promote innovation in entrepreneurship to provide affordable services to the common man and also to help it overtake large economies such as the United States and China.&nbsp;

He also took a dig at those who criticised the recent statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who in a television interview claimed that people earning Rs 200 a day selling pakodas can be considered employed.&nbsp;

&quot;Media has been talking about &#39;pakoda economics&#39; these days. But what&#39;s wrong in this if we extend help in the entrepreneurship of some &#39;pakodawala&#39; at Hazaribagh so that, one day, he could start a fast food chain like McDonald&#39;s,&quot; he asked.&nbsp;

Calling for the use of electric vehicles in the country, Sinha said if entrepreneurs took the lead, then the country would have passenger drones, helicopter taxis and air- rickshaws powered by electricity, leading to freedom from traffic jams.&nbsp;

The minister claimed that more people were opting for air travel because the country had the cheapest fares in the world

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Saturday claimed that air travel in the country was now cheaper than travel by auto-rickshaws on per kilometre basis. He was speaking at the 27th International Management Conference of the Indore Management Association (IMA). "In today's India, the fares of aeroplanes are lower than that of autorickshaws. Some people will say that I'm talking nonsense, but this is true," Sinha said. Explaining the mathematics behind his claim, Sinha said, "These days, passengers spend only Rs five per kilometre on air travel from Indore to Delhi. But if you take an autorickshaw in this city, then you need to spend a relatively higher price of Rs eight to ten per kilometre." The minister claimed that more people were opting for air travel because the country had the cheapest fares in the world and added that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had remarked that a man wearing slippers is also now flying. Sinha said that four years ago the number of people travelling by air was 11 crore and was likely to reach 20 crore by the end of the current fiscal. Sinha said the government wanted to increase the number of people using air travel by five times to 100 crore in the coming years. He said the country needed to promote innovation in entrepreneurship to provide affordable services to the common man and also to help it overtake large economies such as the United States and China. He also took a dig at those who criticised the recent statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who in a television interview claimed that people earning Rs 200 a day selling pakodas can be considered employed. "Media has been talking about 'pakoda economics' these days. But what's wrong in this if we extend help in the entrepreneurship of some 'pakodawala' at Hazaribagh so that, one day, he could start a fast food chain like McDonald's," he asked. Calling for the use of electric vehicles in the country, Sinha said if entrepreneurs took the lead, then the country would have passenger drones, helicopter taxis and air- rickshaws powered by electricity, leading to freedom from traffic jams.

Air travel cheaper than travel by auto-rickshaws: Jayant Sinha

The national <a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/dont-know-about-obamacare-but-modicare-can-definitely-become-successful-jaitley-31525">health protection scheme announced </a>in the Union Budget 2018 on Thursday will be implemented from October 2, reports said.

A Niti Ayog official said the health insurance scheme proposed in the Budget will cost Rs 10,000-12,000 crore.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/stress-in-farm-sector-is-real-jaitley-says-day-after-budget-31551">Also Read: Stress in farm sector is real, Jaitley says day after Budget</a>

The annual<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/live-union-budget-2018-finance-minister-arun-jaitley-presents-budget-in-parliament-31380"> premium will range between</a> Rs 1,000-1,200 per family, the official added.

The national health care policy announced in the Union Budget by finance minister aims to be the &quot;world&#39;s largest publicly-funded healthcare programme&quot;.

The plan is expected to cover around 50 crore people.

The newly unveiled policy offers Rs 5 lakh cover per family annually for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

The finance minister had committed Rs 1,200 crore for the National Health Policy which would be used towards bringing up 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres.

&nbsp;

The plan is expected to cover around 50 crore people.

The national health protection scheme announced in the Union Budget 2018 on Thursday will be implemented from October 2, reports said. A Niti Ayog official said the health insurance scheme proposed in the Budget will cost Rs 10,000-12,000 crore. Also Read: Stress in farm sector is real, Jaitley says day after Budget The annual premium will range between Rs 1,000-1,200 per family, the official added. The national health care policy announced in the Union Budget by finance minister aims to be the "world's largest publicly-funded healthcare programme". The plan is expected to cover around 50 crore people. The newly unveiled policy offers Rs 5 lakh cover per family annually for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. The finance minister had committed Rs 1,200 crore for the National Health Policy which would be used towards bringing up 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres.

Budget 2018: Govt's landmark national health scheme to be implemented from October 2

Finance Minister Aruj Jaitley has described this year&#39;s Union Budget as &ldquo;popular, and not populist&rdquo;.&nbsp;

In an exclusive interview to Zee Business, Jaitley said, &ldquo;This Budget was one of the most challenging ones for me. Among the big challenges I had were: How to maintain the fiscal deficit, GDP had slowed down in the past but has now picked up. So how to maintain that growth momentum? Which areas to prioritise etc.&rdquo;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/budget-2018-govts-landmark-national-health-scheme-to-be-implemented-from-october-2nd-31610">Budget 2018: Govt&#39;s landmark national health scheme to be implemented from October 2</a>

The interview comes days after Jaitley presented the Union Budget where he announced an ambitious project of providing health insurance to nearly 40 crore population of the country. The government, Jaitley said in Parliament, will provide Rs 5 lakh health insurance to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families in &ldquo;world&rsquo;s largest health care programme&rdquo;.

The Ayushman Bharat Programme, which is being dubbed as &ldquo;Modicare&rdquo;, is being compared with Obamacare, the comprehensive health programme launched by former US president Barack Obama.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/india-went-from-fragile-five-economies-to-fastest-growing-five-jaitley-31425">India went from fragile five economies to fastest-growing five, says Jaitley</a>

&ldquo;These 40 crore poor people have nothing for them. If they or any of their family members fall ill, they only have government hospitals to go to. By providing this comprehensive healthcare scheme, the government is empowering the poor,&rdquo; Jaitley said.

He added, &ldquo;This year&rsquo;s Budget was different than previous years. Our purpose was to consolidate the gains we made in previous years. And we wanted to analyse the areas where we were lagging behind.&rdquo;

In the Budget, Jaitley emphasised that his government&rsquo;s focus is on the agricultural sector and for the benefit of farmers, it was announced that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for kharif crops will now be 1.5 times of the input cost. When asked about the roadmap, Jaitley today said that the beneficial effects of the MSP will be known in time to come.

In the Budget, Jaitley emphasised that his government’s focus is on the agricultural sector and for the benefit of farmers

Finance Minister Aruj Jaitley has described this year's Union Budget as “popular, and not populist”. In an exclusive interview to Zee Business, Jaitley said, “This Budget was one of the most challenging ones for me. Among the big challenges I had were: How to maintain the fiscal deficit, GDP had slowed down in the past but has now picked up. So how to maintain that growth momentum? Which areas to prioritise etc.” Also read: Budget 2018: Govt's landmark national health scheme to be implemented from October 2 The interview comes days after Jaitley presented the Union Budget where he announced an ambitious project of providing health insurance to nearly 40 crore population of the country. The government, Jaitley said in Parliament, will provide Rs 5 lakh health insurance to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families in “world’s largest health care programme”. The Ayushman Bharat Programme, which is being dubbed as “Modicare”, is being compared with Obamacare, the comprehensive health programme launched by former US president Barack Obama. Also read: India went from fragile five economies to fastest-growing five, says Jaitley “These 40 crore poor people have nothing for them. If they or any of their family members fall ill, they only have government hospitals to go to. By providing this comprehensive healthcare scheme, the government is empowering the poor,” Jaitley said. He added, “This year’s Budget was different than previous years. Our purpose was to consolidate the gains we made in previous years. And we wanted to analyse the areas where we were lagging behind.” In the Budget, Jaitley emphasised that his government’s focus is on the agricultural sector and for the benefit of farmers, it was announced that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for kharif crops will now be 1.5 times of the input cost. When asked about the roadmap, Jaitley today said that the beneficial effects of the MSP will be known in time to come.

This year's budget is 'popular, and not populist':  Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday&nbsp;said that the decision to hike customs duty on mobile phones and other luxury items was taken in national interest.

Speaking to Zee Business, Jaitley said, &ldquo;There are many goods that we make in India. And I don&rsquo;t see any point in not promoting home-made goods. A few years ago, there were a handful of countries which manufactured mobile phones. Today, that number has grown substantially. And many of them are home-grown. But people buy or import phones from abroad, and this is hurting the domestic market. So, our government took this decision of increasing customs duty to promote Make in India.&rdquo;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/this-years-budget-is-popular-and-not-populist-arun-jaitley-31679">This year&#39;s budget is &#39;popular, and not populist&#39;: Arun Jaitley&nbsp;</a>

It&rsquo;s not right to keep importing goods and not promote our own companies, Jaitley said.

While presenting the Budget on Thursday, Jaitley had announced a hike in customs duty on mobile phones to 20 per cent from 15 per cent in a bid to boost local value addition in domestic electronics manufacturing.

Jaitley said he was making a &ldquo;calibrated departure&rdquo; from the usual practice of reduction in customs duties. He said this is being done in view of the &ldquo;substantial potential&rdquo; for domestic value addition in sectors like food processing, electronics, auto components and footwear. The move will lead to the creation of more jobs in the country, Jaitley added.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/budget-2018-govts-landmark-national-health-scheme-to-be-implemented-from-october-2nd-31610">Govt&#39;s landmark national health scheme to be implemented from October 2</a>

Commenting on the decision, Indian Cellular Association (ICA) National President Pankaj Mohindroo said that this will be the &ldquo;last nail in the coffin&rdquo; of imports.

&ldquo;We are reaching a situation where imports would be nearly impossible,&rdquo; Mohindroo added.

He said since the bulk of mobile phones are manufactured domestically, there will be no impact on their prices. The exception will be a few brands, that are still making phones overseas.

Customs duty on smartwatches and wearables has been doubled to 20%, while specified parts and accessories of mobile phones have seen a duty hike to 15 per cent&nbsp;from the current range of 7.5-10 per cent.

While presenting the Budget on Thursday, Jaitley had announced a hike in customs duty on mobile phones to 20 per cent from 15 per cent

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that the decision to hike customs duty on mobile phones and other luxury items was taken in national interest. Speaking to Zee Business, Jaitley said, “There are many goods that we make in India. And I don’t see any point in not promoting home-made goods. A few years ago, there were a handful of countries which manufactured mobile phones. Today, that number has grown substantially. And many of them are home-grown. But people buy or import phones from abroad, and this is hurting the domestic market. So, our government took this decision of increasing customs duty to promote Make in India.” Also read: This year's budget is 'popular, and not populist': Arun Jaitley It’s not right to keep importing goods and not promote our own companies, Jaitley said. While presenting the Budget on Thursday, Jaitley had announced a hike in customs duty on mobile phones to 20 per cent from 15 per cent in a bid to boost local value addition in domestic electronics manufacturing. Jaitley said he was making a “calibrated departure” from the usual practice of reduction in customs duties. He said this is being done in view of the “substantial potential” for domestic value addition in sectors like food processing, electronics, auto components and footwear. The move will lead to the creation of more jobs in the country, Jaitley added. Also read: Govt's landmark national health scheme to be implemented from October 2 Commenting on the decision, Indian Cellular Association (ICA) National President Pankaj Mohindroo said that this will be the “last nail in the coffin” of imports. “We are reaching a situation where imports would be nearly impossible,” Mohindroo added. He said since the bulk of mobile phones are manufactured domestically, there will be no impact on their prices. The exception will be a few brands, that are still making phones overseas. Customs duty on smartwatches and wearables has been doubled to 20%, while specified parts and accessories of mobile phones have seen a duty hike to 15 per cent from the current range of 7.5-10 per cent.

Budget 2018: Customs duty hike will give impetus to 'Make in India', says Arun Jaitley

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/this-years-budget-is-popular-and-not-populist-arun-jaitley-31679">This year&#39;s budget is &#39;popular, and not populist&#39;: Arun Jaitley</a>

In an exclusive interview to Zee Business, Jaitley said, &ldquo;This Budget was one of the most challenging ones for me. Among the big challenges I had were: How to maintain the fiscal deficit, GDP had slowed down in the past but has now picked up. So how to maintain that growth momentum? Which areas to prioritise etc.&rdquo;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/shootings-reported-in-italian-city-of-macerata-reports-31675">Suspect arrested after gun attack on foreigners in Italy: Police</a>

A man who opened fire on passersby in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday has been arrested, according to police.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/sports/u-19-final-manjot-kalras-ton-takes-india-to-historic-fourth-world-cup-title-31660">U-19 final: Manjot Kalra&#39;s ton takes India to historic fourth World Cup title</a>

Manjot Kalra announced his arrival in world cricket on Saturday with a high-quality hundred in the final of the ICC U-19 World Cup against Australia.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/15-police-encounters-in-up-in-2-days-24-criminals-arrested-31657">UP: 15 encounters in 2 days, police arrest 24 criminals</a>

A gangster was killed and nearly two dozen criminals were arrested by police in 15 encounters in different districts of Uttar Pradesh during the past two days, a police spokesperson said here today.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/usair-force-chief-flies-made-in-india-aircrafttejas-in-jodhpur-31670">US Air Force chief flies India&#39;s Tejas</a>

The chief of US Air Force General David L. Goldfein flew the Indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas, on Saturday at the IAF station in Jodhpur.

This year's budget is 'popular, and not populist': Arun Jaitley In an exclusive interview to Zee Business, Jaitley said, “This Budget was one of the most challenging ones for me. Among the big challenges I had were: How to maintain the fiscal deficit, GDP had slowed down in the past but has now picked up. So how to maintain that growth momentum? Which areas to prioritise etc.” Suspect arrested after gun attack on foreigners in Italy: Police A man who opened fire on passersby in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday has been arrested, according to police. U-19 final: Manjot Kalra's ton takes India to historic fourth World Cup title Manjot Kalra announced his arrival in world cricket on Saturday with a high-quality hundred in the final of the ICC U-19 World Cup against Australia. UP: 15 encounters in 2 days, police arrest 24 criminals A gangster was killed and nearly two dozen criminals were arrested by police in 15 encounters in different districts of Uttar Pradesh during the past two days, a police spokesperson said here today. US Air Force chief flies India's Tejas The chief of US Air Force General David L. Goldfein flew the Indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas, on Saturday at the IAF station in Jodhpur.

WION Evening News Brief, February 3, 2018

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/key-highlights-from-union-budget-2018-31455"> Union Budget 2018</a> on Thursday. The budget 2018-19 focussed primarily on the rural and agricultural economy and promised a brighter future for the healthcare sector.&nbsp;

Jaitley announced that the customs duty on <a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/union-budget-2018-electronic-items-like-television-sets-mobile-phone-to-get-expensive-31469">mobile phones</a> will be increased to 20% from the previous 15% with a view to encourage &quot;Make in India&quot; and increase job vacancy.&nbsp;

Jaitley also said that customs duty for certain TV parts will also be increased to 15% which were previously in the 7.5%-10% tax slabs.&nbsp;

Commenting on the decision, Indian Cellular Association (ICA) National President Pankaj Mohindroo told PTI that this will be the &quot;last nail in the coffin&quot; of imports.&nbsp;

&quot;We are reaching a situation where imports would be nearly impossible,&quot; Mohindroo added. He said since bulk of mobile phones are manufactured domestically, there will be no impact on their prices. The exception will be a few brands, that are still making phones overseas.&quot;

&quot;There will be no increase in mobile phone prices since 81%&nbsp;of the volume and 84.5%&nbsp;of value is manufactured in India and we will cross 90% in both terms in 2018,&quot; he said.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/budget-2018-finance-minister-arun-jaitley-announces-no-change-in-personal-income-tax-slabs-31449">Budget 2018: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announces &#39;no change&#39; in personal income tax slabs</a>

Toys, sports goods, Video game consoles will also attract a customs duty of 20%, up from 10%.&nbsp;

Ishmeet Singh, Country Manager - India, Mattel Inc. said, &ldquo;As per the Budget 2018, there has been a substantial increase in customs duty to 20% for the category of Toys and Sports Goods. This combined with the other policy changes that have been implemented over the last 6 months, viz. higher rates of taxes under GST rates and stricter import regulations, will result in an overall increase in the price of toys by more than 20%. While the government of India has recognized the importance of promoting the critical role of play in the overall development of a child, these policy changes might prove to be detrimental to this vision.&rdquo;

Further, customs duty on crude edible vegetable oils like groundnut oil, safflower seed oil hiked from 12.5% to 30%; on refined edible vegetable oil from 20% to 35%.&nbsp;

Customs duty on imitation jewellery hiked from 15% to 20%; doubled on all watches to 20%.&nbsp;

There will also be an increase in customs duty on sunglasses, cigarette lighter, bus and truck tyres, select furniture. However, import of solar tempered glass for the manufacture of solar cells has been exempted from customs duty.&nbsp;

Also read:<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/as-expected-budget-2018-friendly-to-farmers-big-on-health-stocks-fall-31454">&nbsp;As expected, Budget 2018 friendly to farmers, big on health; stocks fall</a>

Here&#39;s what Twitterati had to say:&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
*Custom Duty on Smartphones increases* 
 
Leaves all the work, start searching for the 3 best smartphones currently available and order. 
 
The worst announcement ever ???????????????? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Budget2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budget2018</a>
&mdash; arpita gupta (@sweet15arpita) <a href="https://twitter.com/sweet15arpita/status/958963417544577024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TVs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TVs</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/smartphones?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#smartphones</a> to get expensive. Customs duty to rise from 15 - 20 percent. That <a href="https://twitter.com/Apple?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Apple</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iPhoneXPlus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#iPhoneXPlus</a> will cost you another kidney this year end. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakeInIndia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakeInIndia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Budget2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budget2018</a>
&mdash; Tech2 (@tech2eets) <a href="https://twitter.com/tech2eets/status/958963992902488064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Prices of imported mobile phones to rise on custom duty hike to 20%; boost to Make in India. 
 
You can do that without bringing your bullshit political rhetoric named &quot;make in india&quot;.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Budget2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budget2018</a>
&mdash; H. (@Miister_H) <a href="https://twitter.com/Miister_H/status/959032444975423489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/budget2018">Full Coverage of Budget 2018</a>

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018 on Thursday. The budget 2018-19 focussed primarily on the rural and agricultural economy and promised a brighter future for the healthcare sector.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018 on Thursday. The budget 2018-19 focussed primarily on the rural and agricultural economy and promised a brighter future for the healthcare sector. Jaitley announced that the customs duty on mobile phones will be increased to 20% from the previous 15% with a view to encourage "Make in India" and increase job vacancy. Jaitley also said that customs duty for certain TV parts will also be increased to 15% which were previously in the 7.5%-10% tax slabs. Commenting on the decision, Indian Cellular Association (ICA) National President Pankaj Mohindroo told PTI that this will be the "last nail in the coffin" of imports. "We are reaching a situation where imports would be nearly impossible," Mohindroo added. He said since bulk of mobile phones are manufactured domestically, there will be no impact on their prices. The exception will be a few brands, that are still making phones overseas." "There will be no increase in mobile phone prices since 81% of the volume and 84.5% of value is manufactured in India and we will cross 90% in both terms in 2018," he said. Also read: Budget 2018: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announces 'no change' in personal income tax slabs Toys, sports goods, Video game consoles will also attract a customs duty of 20%, up from 10%. Ishmeet Singh, Country Manager - India, Mattel Inc. said, “As per the Budget 2018, there has been a substantial increase in customs duty to 20% for the category of Toys and Sports Goods. This combined with the other policy changes that have been implemented over the last 6 months, viz. higher rates of taxes under GST rates and stricter import regulations, will result in an overall increase in the price of toys by more than 20%. While the government of India has recognized the importance of promoting the critical role of play in the overall development of a child, these policy changes might prove to be detrimental to this vision.” Further, customs duty on crude edible vegetable oils like groundnut oil, safflower seed oil hiked from 12.5% to 30%; on refined edible vegetable oil from 20% to 35%. Customs duty on imitation jewellery hiked from 15% to 20%; doubled on all watches to 20%. There will also be an increase in customs duty on sunglasses, cigarette lighter, bus and truck tyres, select furniture. However, import of solar tempered glass for the manufacture of solar cells has been exempted from customs duty. Also read: As expected, Budget 2018 friendly to farmers, big on health; stocks fall Here's what Twitterati had to say: *Custom Duty on Smartphones increases* Leaves all the work, start searching for the 3 best smartphones currently available and order. The worst announcement ever ???????????????? #Budget2018 — arpita gupta (@sweet15arpita) February 1, 2018 × #TVs and #smartphones to get expensive. Customs duty to rise from 15 - 20 percent. That @Apple #iPhoneXPlus will cost you another kidney this year end. #MakeInIndia #Budget2018 — Tech2 (@tech2eets) February 1, 2018 × Prices of imported mobile phones to rise on custom duty hike to 20%; boost to Make in India. You can do that without bringing your bullshit political rhetoric named "make in india".#Budget2018 — H. (@Miister_H) February 1, 2018 × Full Coverage of Budget 2018

Budget 2018: Increase in customs duty 'last nail in the coffin', says ICA president Mohindroo

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, NDA&#39;s big ally, called for an &quot;emergency party meeting&quot; with the leaders on Friday after criticising the <a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/key-highlights-from-union-budget-2018-31455">Union Budget 2018</a> which was presented on Thursday by finance minister Arun Jaitley.&nbsp;

The meeting was called in order to discuss the &quot;future course of action after the budget allocation for Andhra Pradesh&quot;, the party said, adding that it would continue to &quot;fight&quot;&nbsp;for the state&#39;s due.&nbsp;

Also read:<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/india-on-course-to-grow-at-8-jaitley-31428">&nbsp;Budget 2018: India on course to grow at 8%, says Jaitley</a>

Minister of state for science and technology,&nbsp;YS Chowdhary noted that the people of Andhra Pradesh were dissatisfied with the budget.

&quot;People and the party are disappointed with the Union Budget. Many state issues like Railway zone, Polavaram project funding, funding for capital Amaravati and other pending issues of Andhra Pradesh were not addressed in the budget,&quot; he said.

While talking about the long-pending infrastructure projects the minister informed that no progress had been made in the last four years.&nbsp;

&quot;The Polavaram project was linked to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), but there was no smooth flow of funds. The budget should have included it,&quot; he said.

&quot;Metro for Andhra Pradesh in Vizag and Vijayawada was promised, but there is no mention about it in the budget, except for things like renovation of platforms and construction of foot-over-bridges,&quot; he said.

We are in an alliance and will fight for our share, Chowdhary said, adding that the party leaders will put &quot;pressure on the Centre until 2019 elections&quot;.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/live-union-budget-2018-finance-minister-arun-jaitley-presents-budget-in-parliament-31380">Budget 2018: Govt is focusing on rural and agricultural economy, says Arun Jaitley</a>

TDP organising&nbsp;secretary GSRK Prasad said, &quot;It is a failure budget from the finance minister. The AP CM had already represented earlier the requirements for the state.&quot;

The TDP leader further said that the &quot;promises&quot;&nbsp;that were made are yet to be delivered.

&quot;As of the bifurcation promises and the reorganisation funding is also not allocated till now. Whatever may be the consequences we are continuing the alliance with BJP both at the centre and the state,&quot; said GSRK Prasad.

Naidu will hold a meeting in Amaravati on Sunday to discuss the course of action.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government had presented the Union Budget for 2018-19 on Thursday.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/budget2018">Full Coverage of Budget 2018</a>

The meeting was called in order to discuss the future course of action after the budget allocation for Andhra Pradesh adding that the party would continue to fight for the state's due

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, NDA's big ally, called for an "emergency party meeting" with the leaders on Friday after criticising the Union Budget 2018 which was presented on Thursday by finance minister Arun Jaitley. The meeting was called in order to discuss the "future course of action after the budget allocation for Andhra Pradesh", the party said, adding that it would continue to "fight" for the state's due. Also read: Budget 2018: India on course to grow at 8%, says Jaitley Minister of state for science and technology, YS Chowdhary noted that the people of Andhra Pradesh were dissatisfied with the budget. "People and the party are disappointed with the Union Budget. Many state issues like Railway zone, Polavaram project funding, funding for capital Amaravati and other pending issues of Andhra Pradesh were not addressed in the budget," he said. While talking about the long-pending infrastructure projects the minister informed that no progress had been made in the last four years. "The Polavaram project was linked to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), but there was no smooth flow of funds. The budget should have included it," he said. "Metro for Andhra Pradesh in Vizag and Vijayawada was promised, but there is no mention about it in the budget, except for things like renovation of platforms and construction of foot-over-bridges," he said. We are in an alliance and will fight for our share, Chowdhary said, adding that the party leaders will put "pressure on the Centre until 2019 elections". Also read: Budget 2018: Govt is focusing on rural and agricultural economy, says Arun Jaitley TDP organising secretary GSRK Prasad said, "It is a failure budget from the finance minister. The AP CM had already represented earlier the requirements for the state." The TDP leader further said that the "promises" that were made are yet to be delivered. "As of the bifurcation promises and the reorganisation funding is also not allocated till now. Whatever may be the consequences we are continuing the alliance with BJP both at the centre and the state," said GSRK Prasad. Naidu will hold a meeting in Amaravati on Sunday to discuss the course of action. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government had presented the Union Budget for 2018-19 on Thursday. Full Coverage of Budget 2018

BJP's NDA ally TDP calls for emergency meeting over 'disappointment' with Budget

Different people look at the budget differently. Politicians give their views based on their party&rsquo;s stand and market participants try to discuss it based on the industry they belong to. This causes a lot of information overload for the common man.&nbsp;

Therefore, here are the five aspects of the budget 2018 which could have an impact on your finances in this year:

Corporate Tax Rate

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday proposed to cut the corporate income tax rate to 25 per cent for companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, meeting a key demand of the corporate world that has been seeking lower tax payouts to enable greater investment and jobs creation.

&ldquo;This will benefit 99 percent of the companies that file taxes&rdquo;, Jaitley said, &ldquo;adding that mini, micro, small and medium enterprises will gain the most&rdquo;.

How it affects you: If you are running an enterprise or planning to start one, then it would be a great news for you because now you will pay 25% instead of 30%.

A lot of things will turn costlier, and few will become cheaper

Finance Minister has reduced the basic excise duty on the Petrol and Diesel by Rs 2 and abolished the additional excise duty of Rs 6, however, he introduced a new road cess of Rs 8 per litre, which means prices of petrol and diesel will remain unchanged.&nbsp;

In this budget, they have also increased the customs duty on the imported cars, bikes, mobile phones, TVs, perfumes, watches and wearables, thus, making all these items expensive to buy. Cigarettes, too, will become costlier.

But tiles, cashew nuts, solar-tempered glass and solar cells will become cheaper.

How it affects you: If you had been planning on buying some electronic item or some accessories to gift to your loved ones, then it would be wiser to buy a product which is &lsquo;Made in India&rsquo;.&nbsp;

LTCG

This move again surprised most of the analyst, including me, as we were expecting either a change of the definition of &quot;Long Term&quot; to 2 or 3 years or else securities transaction tax (STT) to be abolished if LTCG is introduced again.

However, Jaitley introduced the LTCG of 10 percent if the gains exceed Rs 100,000 without allowing the benefit of indexation. He also said that &ldquo;All the gains till the 31st January 2018 will be grandfathered and short-term capital gains remain unchanged at 15 percent&rdquo;.

How it affects you: If you are an investor, you now have to stipulate the LTCG before calculating your returns on the investment. This means, until Jan 2018, if you had kept a stock for a time period longer than one year then there was no tax payable on it.

However, from now onwards whatever gain you have over the 1 lakh for the financial year 2018-2019 you have to pay 10% LTCG on it.

In long run, it can also impediment the entry of new investors, as now their returns would also need to adjust the 10% LTCG before calculating their final returns.

Standard Deduction &amp; Education Cess

Budget 2018 proposes to provide a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 from salary income to employees but also proposes to take away transport allowance, medical reimbursement and other allowances.&nbsp;

Considering the above factors, the net income exempted from tax after setting off the gain and loss is Rs 5800 only.&nbsp;

Moreover, it would also depend upon your tax bracket. The saving in tax would be Rs 290 for those currently paying 5% tax on this income; Rs 1160 for those paying 20% tax on this income; and Rs 1740 for those paying 30% tax on this income.&nbsp;

However, these savings would be nullified in most cases, except in the case of income up to Rs 5 lakh, due to increase in the cess payable from current 3% to 4% on the rest of the income tax payable by the individual. Therefore, individuals with income above Rs 5 lakh would end up shelling out more tax after taking into account the standard deduction, the removal of the allowances and the increase in cess.&nbsp;

However, it would be a big relief for pension people as they were not given the exemptions like the salaried employees.

How it affects you: The impact would be neutral in most cases if you are a salaried employee because while you are not going to get any relief if you earn above 5 lakhs, however, the &lsquo;increase in tax amount&rsquo; is not steep after all. However, it&rsquo;s good news for you if you are a pensioner, as now you will benefit from higher deduction against health insurance premium.

Cryptocurrency

Arun Jaitley clearly stated in the budget speech that this government doesn&rsquo;t consider Bitcoin a legal tender and it will discourage its use. However, he mentioned that the government will look at the utilisation of the blockchain technology.

Therefore, we would suggest staying away from investing in cryptocurrency else invest only with the money which you are ready to lose.

How it affects you: The announcement can have negative impacts as it will become difficult to trade in cryptocurrency, thus, bringing down the prices of them and your investment if you have invested in the same.

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Here are the five aspects of the budget 2018 which could have an impact on your finances in this year

Different people look at the budget differently. Politicians give their views based on their party’s stand and market participants try to discuss it based on the industry they belong to. This causes a lot of information overload for the common man. Therefore, here are the five aspects of the budget 2018 which could have an impact on your finances in this year: Corporate Tax Rate Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday proposed to cut the corporate income tax rate to 25 per cent for companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, meeting a key demand of the corporate world that has been seeking lower tax payouts to enable greater investment and jobs creation. “This will benefit 99 percent of the companies that file taxes”, Jaitley said, “adding that mini, micro, small and medium enterprises will gain the most”. How it affects you: If you are running an enterprise or planning to start one, then it would be a great news for you because now you will pay 25% instead of 30%. A lot of things will turn costlier, and few will become cheaper Finance Minister has reduced the basic excise duty on the Petrol and Diesel by Rs 2 and abolished the additional excise duty of Rs 6, however, he introduced a new road cess of Rs 8 per litre, which means prices of petrol and diesel will remain unchanged. In this budget, they have also increased the customs duty on the imported cars, bikes, mobile phones, TVs, perfumes, watches and wearables, thus, making all these items expensive to buy. Cigarettes, too, will become costlier. But tiles, cashew nuts, solar-tempered glass and solar cells will become cheaper. How it affects you: If you had been planning on buying some electronic item or some accessories to gift to your loved ones, then it would be wiser to buy a product which is ‘Made in India’. LTCG This move again surprised most of the analyst, including me, as we were expecting either a change of the definition of "Long Term" to 2 or 3 years or else securities transaction tax (STT) to be abolished if LTCG is introduced again. However, Jaitley introduced the LTCG of 10 percent if the gains exceed Rs 100,000 without allowing the benefit of indexation. He also said that “All the gains till the 31st January 2018 will be grandfathered and short-term capital gains remain unchanged at 15 percent”. How it affects you: If you are an investor, you now have to stipulate the LTCG before calculating your returns on the investment. This means, until Jan 2018, if you had kept a stock for a time period longer than one year then there was no tax payable on it. However, from now onwards whatever gain you have over the 1 lakh for the financial year 2018-2019 you have to pay 10% LTCG on it. In long run, it can also impediment the entry of new investors, as now their returns would also need to adjust the 10% LTCG before calculating their final returns. Standard Deduction & Education Cess Budget 2018 proposes to provide a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 from salary income to employees but also proposes to take away transport allowance, medical reimbursement and other allowances. Considering the above factors, the net income exempted from tax after setting off the gain and loss is Rs 5800 only. Moreover, it would also depend upon your tax bracket. The saving in tax would be Rs 290 for those currently paying 5% tax on this income; Rs 1160 for those paying 20% tax on this income; and Rs 1740 for those paying 30% tax on this income. However, these savings would be nullified in most cases, except in the case of income up to Rs 5 lakh, due to increase in the cess payable from current 3% to 4% on the rest of the income tax payable by the individual. Therefore, individuals with income above Rs 5 lakh would end up shelling out more tax after taking into account the standard deduction, the removal of the allowances and the increase in cess. However, it would be a big relief for pension people as they were not given the exemptions like the salaried employees. How it affects you: The impact would be neutral in most cases if you are a salaried employee because while you are not going to get any relief if you earn above 5 lakhs, however, the ‘increase in tax amount’ is not steep after all. However, it’s good news for you if you are a pensioner, as now you will benefit from higher deduction against health insurance premium. Cryptocurrency Arun Jaitley clearly stated in the budget speech that this government doesn’t consider Bitcoin a legal tender and it will discourage its use. However, he mentioned that the government will look at the utilisation of the blockchain technology. Therefore, we would suggest staying away from investing in cryptocurrency else invest only with the money which you are ready to lose. How it affects you: The announcement can have negative impacts as it will become difficult to trade in cryptocurrency, thus, bringing down the prices of them and your investment if you have invested in the same. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: How does the Union Budget affect YOU?

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) budget for 2018-19 is Rs 55,000 crores, the same as that of the past year in money terms. The initial budget of Rs 48,000 crores for 2017-18 was supplemented with Rs 7,000 crores in January 2018. Also, given the trend of rising pending liabilities at the end of every year, a sizable part of the 2018-19 budget will be utilised for clearing previous years&rsquo; payments. Even the 2017-18 budget was grossly inadequate to implement NREGA as per the provisions of the Act. The inadequate budget for NREGA, and also for other rural development programmes, undermines the employment guarantee act in the following ways:&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Long and unpredictable delays in wage payments: The Ministry of Rural Development releases MGNREGA funds only after states meet its requirements, such as submission of various documents and compliance with its instructions. Such checks and balances are required, but withholding of funds due to lapses by state governments unfairly penalises NREGA workers.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

In the ongoing financial year, the Ministry withheld the processing of Fund Transfer Orders for states till the time they did not meet its requirements for fund release. As a result, workers of many states remained unpaid for weeks, even months in case of Bihar and Jharkhand.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Non-payment of compensation: Workers are not compensated for the delays in wage payments after the Fund Transfer Order is signed by the second signatory. As per the calculations made by independent researchers, compensation calculated by the NREGA Management Information System (MIS) for a sample of wage payments in 2016-17 was only 43% of the full compensation due to workers. This proportion fell to 14% for a sample of wage payments in the first quarter of 2017-18.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

A damning report of the Ministry of Finance accepts that workers are compensated only partially. It also notes that compensating workers for the full extent of wage delays &ldquo;would vastly increase the expenditure&rdquo;!&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Low scale of work: To manage the inadequate funds for MGNREGA, government officials informally instruct their juniours to ration the scale of work. Also, the long delays in wage payments discourage workers to seek MGNREGA employment. Since 2012-13, the average number of days of work received by households (those who were able to get any work) has not exceeded 49. If the total rural population is taken into consideration, the annual scale of employment averages only 10 &ndash; 15 days per household.&nbsp; &nbsp;

&nbsp;

Non-payment of minimum wages: Real NREGA wage rates have stagnated for several years now. In fact, currently, the NREGA wage rates of 17 states are less than the corresponding minimum wages. The government has ignored the recommendations of successive committees to reconcile between MGNREGA wage rates and state minimum wages. It has also not implemented the suggestion of indexing MGNREGA wage rates to the price level by using Consumer Price Index-Rural Labourers. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

Prioritising schemes for other programmes: As per the employment guarantee act, Gram Sabhas have the right to select NREGA schemes for their village/Gram Panchayat. In the guise of &ldquo;convergence&rdquo;, the central government is imposing targets for construction of assets for other programmes, such as houses for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Anganwadi Centres for the Integrated Child Development Services. This &ldquo;hidden cross subsidization&rdquo; is done because the budgets for these programmes is also inadequate to meet their infrastructural requirements. As NREGA functionaries are made responsible for ensuring the completion of these assets, they are forced to compromise on their NREGA duties.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

NREGA also suffers from many other serious problems. Local functionaries are unable to cope with the increasing dependence of the programme on technology. Participation of Gram Panchayats in the programmes has decreased substantially due to the excessive centralization of NREGA implementation.&nbsp; This has adversely impacted the scale of work and local oversight.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Many workers are unable to receive their NREGA wages due to the forced integration of the programme with Aadhaar. There are rampant violations of workers&rsquo; rights to worksite facilities, unemployment allowance and time-bound redressal of grievances. Accountability and transparency provisions of the Act are ignored or undermined by central and state governments. Over time, this has created a climate of impunity and immunity around NREGA &ndash; anyone can get away with anything. This completely undermines the idea of enforceable entitlements for NREGA workers.

&nbsp;

After 12 years of implementation of the employment guarantee act, workers should have been celebrating the legal recognition of their right to work. However, they are struggling to save their existing NREGA entitlements.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

The inadequate budget for NREGA, and also for other rural development programmes, undermines the employment guarantee act in several ways.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) budget for 2018-19 is Rs 55,000 crores, the same as that of the past year in money terms. The initial budget of Rs 48,000 crores for 2017-18 was supplemented with Rs 7,000 crores in January 2018. Also, given the trend of rising pending liabilities at the end of every year, a sizable part of the 2018-19 budget will be utilised for clearing previous years’ payments. Even the 2017-18 budget was grossly inadequate to implement NREGA as per the provisions of the Act. The inadequate budget for NREGA, and also for other rural development programmes, undermines the employment guarantee act in the following ways: Long and unpredictable delays in wage payments: The Ministry of Rural Development releases MGNREGA funds only after states meet its requirements, such as submission of various documents and compliance with its instructions. Such checks and balances are required, but withholding of funds due to lapses by state governments unfairly penalises NREGA workers. In the ongoing financial year, the Ministry withheld the processing of Fund Transfer Orders for states till the time they did not meet its requirements for fund release. As a result, workers of many states remained unpaid for weeks, even months in case of Bihar and Jharkhand. Non-payment of compensation: Workers are not compensated for the delays in wage payments after the Fund Transfer Order is signed by the second signatory. As per the calculations made by independent researchers, compensation calculated by the NREGA Management Information System (MIS) for a sample of wage payments in 2016-17 was only 43% of the full compensation due to workers. This proportion fell to 14% for a sample of wage payments in the first quarter of 2017-18. A damning report of the Ministry of Finance accepts that workers are compensated only partially. It also notes that compensating workers for the full extent of wage delays “would vastly increase the expenditure”! Low scale of work: To manage the inadequate funds for MGNREGA, government officials informally instruct their juniours to ration the scale of work. Also, the long delays in wage payments discourage workers to seek MGNREGA employment. Since 2012-13, the average number of days of work received by households (those who were able to get any work) has not exceeded 49. If the total rural population is taken into consideration, the annual scale of employment averages only 10 – 15 days per household. Non-payment of minimum wages: Real NREGA wage rates have stagnated for several years now. In fact, currently, the NREGA wage rates of 17 states are less than the corresponding minimum wages. The government has ignored the recommendations of successive committees to reconcile between MGNREGA wage rates and state minimum wages. It has also not implemented the suggestion of indexing MGNREGA wage rates to the price level by using Consumer Price Index-Rural Labourers. Prioritising schemes for other programmes: As per the employment guarantee act, Gram Sabhas have the right to select NREGA schemes for their village/Gram Panchayat. In the guise of “convergence”, the central government is imposing targets for construction of assets for other programmes, such as houses for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Anganwadi Centres for the Integrated Child Development Services. This “hidden cross subsidization” is done because the budgets for these programmes is also inadequate to meet their infrastructural requirements. As NREGA functionaries are made responsible for ensuring the completion of these assets, they are forced to compromise on their NREGA duties. NREGA also suffers from many other serious problems. Local functionaries are unable to cope with the increasing dependence of the programme on technology. Participation of Gram Panchayats in the programmes has decreased substantially due to the excessive centralization of NREGA implementation. This has adversely impacted the scale of work and local oversight. Many workers are unable to receive their NREGA wages due to the forced integration of the programme with Aadhaar. There are rampant violations of workers’ rights to worksite facilities, unemployment allowance and time-bound redressal of grievances. Accountability and transparency provisions of the Act are ignored or undermined by central and state governments. Over time, this has created a climate of impunity and immunity around NREGA – anyone can get away with anything. This completely undermines the idea of enforceable entitlements for NREGA workers. After 12 years of implementation of the employment guarantee act, workers should have been celebrating the legal recognition of their right to work. However, they are struggling to save their existing NREGA entitlements. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion:  Inadequate budget for NREGA threatens rural employment

In my <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/opinion-taxing-the-super-rich-is-how-we-can-revive-indian-economy-30732">pre-budget piece written for WION</a>, I had pointed towards at least three sets of challenges faced by the Modi government, on the eve of the budget&mdash;firstly, the issue of a growth and investment slowdown; secondly, the problem of revenue generation and thirdly, the problem of rural distress. It was predicted in the piece that the government will have a tough time in meeting these three challenges simultaneously given the limited elbow room that it is facing in the economic sphere.

&nbsp;

The budget placed by the Finance Minister today has only shown that the government has practically run out of ideas about how to meet the problem faced by the economy. Firstly, there seems to be a sense of denial that the Finance Minister has shown about the growth slowdown in the economy. He has talked about the fact that he &lsquo;hopes to grow at 7.2% to 7.5% in the second half&rsquo;. But the Finance Minister has forgotten to state that the advanced estimates of the Central Statistic Office already pegs the growth rate of the economy at 6.1% (in terms of Gross Value Added) for the whole year. The fact that the FM did not report this in his speech only shows his denial mood.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Since Jaitley is in the denial mode it was easy for him to predict that &ldquo;We are now firmly on course to achieve high growth of 8% plus&rdquo;. This assessment, however, is not shared by the Economic Survey, which rather states that such a turn around &lsquo;cannot be taken for granted&rsquo;. The budget, however, seems to indicate that the government has no well thought out the roadmap towards bringing in such a turnaround. It has relied more on rhetoric than on substance in this budget.

&nbsp;

This reliance on rhetoric is most visible in the case of agriculture and rural development. The FM has spent a significantly large part of his time on discussing agriculture and rural development. He has declared that &ldquo;In the year 2018-19, for creation of livelihood and infrastructure in rural areas, total amount to be spent by the Ministries will be Rs. 14.34 lakh crore&rdquo;.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

This huge sum seems to have bowled the media into characterising this as a major boost for the rural areas. This, however, is nothing but jugglery with numbers. What this number includes is Rs 11 lakh crore as agriculture credit. It must be remembered that credit is not government expenditure. You take credit from banks only to return them back. It does not go out of government budget.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Already, in 2017-18 the target for agriculture credit was set at Rs 10 lakh crore, out of which Rs 5.88 lakh crore credit was disbursed from banks till September 30, 2017. Another Rs 1 lakh crore of agriculture credit is not going to solve the problem. In fact, a large part of the problem is in terms of loans that farmers have taken and are not being able to return them. The government has said nothing about waiving those loans, which has been a major demand of the recent farmer movements.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

However, it has announced that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) paid to the farmers will be 1.5 times their cost of production. This has been done purportedly to increase farmers&rsquo; income. It must, however, be pointed out that in 2016-17 out of the total production of wheat in the country, around 23% was procured by the government, for rice the number was around 34%. In other words, most of the crops are not sold to the government. How far the government is going to procure food grains through MSP remains to be seen.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Going beyond the rhetoric a look at the data suggests that far from increasing the expenditures in agriculture and rural development, the expenditure on agriculture, rural development and irrigation as a share of GDP will remain stagnant at 1.6% of GDP between 2017-18 Revised Estimates (RE)&nbsp; and 2018-19 Budget Estimates (BE). In short, therefore, there is no push being provided to the rural areas or agriculture. The Economic Survey had pointed out that the Gross Capital Formation (or investment) has witnessed a decline as a share of agriculture GVA. The government, however, is not doing much to reverse that decline. Moreover, with all the talk about providing employment in rural areas, the government has not increased the allocation for the MGNREGA even by a rupee!

&nbsp;

The other area where the FM gave significant emphasis was on health and education. In fact, he declared a health scheme which will give Rs 5 lakh cover for hospitalisation to be provided to 10 crore families belonging to the poorer sections. The idea of providing insurance coverage to the poor by paying premiums to the insurance company is not what universal health care is about.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Instead of spending the money on insurance companies and through them to the private healthcare sector, the government should have increased the allocation on health. However, nothing much has been done in this regard. The expenditure on health will only increase from Rs 53198 crore (2017-18RE) to Rs 54667 (2018-19BE) crore or by only Rs 1469 crore, which is not even near the expenditure that is required to go in for the proposed health scheme. Thus, even in this case, the tall words of the FM are not backed by budgetary resources.

&nbsp;

On the fiscal front, as we had predicted earlier, the government has failed to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.2%, with the final number stated to be 3.5% of GDP. But because the government is committed to its policy of fiscal conservatism it has again decided to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.3% of GDP in 2018-19.&nbsp; This is being projected on the basis of two factors. Firstly, the budgeted total expenditure of the government as a share of GDP will decline from 13.3% of GDP (2017-18 RE) to 12.9% (2018-19 BE). Secondly, the government is projecting a huge increase in GST collection amounting to more than Rs 6 lakh crore, while the collection in this fiscal was around Rs 2.2 lakh crore.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

This comes on the backdrop of the assumption that the nominal growth rate of GDP will be 11.5%. If this falls short, the GST collections will suffer. Moreover, oil prices are rising in the international market, which will exert downward pressure on the growth rate, since India is a net importer of oil. The excise duties on oil might have to be reduced to give relief to the people. All this can seriously jeopardise the fiscal deficit and revenue projects of the government.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The government, as predicted in my earlier piece, did not go for increasing the direct taxes through wealth tax or increasing the tax rate on the corporates. They have rationalised long term capital gain tax which is estimated to generate revenue worth Rs 20000 crore this fiscal. The budget has also reduced tax rate to 25% for companies with an annual turnover of up to Rs 250 crore. The idea of boosting investment through tax concessions is a time-tested one and evidence shows that such tax concessions have a very limited impact on investment. Rather, the government could have taken definitive steps to solve the bad loan problem. But such decisive steps were clearly lacking in the budget.

&nbsp;

In the ultimate analysis, the budget will do precious little for addressing the serious issues affecting the economy. Being high on rhetoric, however, the propaganda machinery of the ruling party and government will project this as a people-friendly budget in an election year. The politics will play itself out, while the much promised &lsquo;ache din&rsquo; for the economy and common people, will remain elusive.

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The Finance Minister has relied more on rhetoric than on substance in this budget.

In my pre-budget piece written for WION, I had pointed towards at least three sets of challenges faced by the Modi government, on the eve of the budget—firstly, the issue of a growth and investment slowdown; secondly, the problem of revenue generation and thirdly, the problem of rural distress. It was predicted in the piece that the government will have a tough time in meeting these three challenges simultaneously given the limited elbow room that it is facing in the economic sphere. The budget placed by the Finance Minister today has only shown that the government has practically run out of ideas about how to meet the problem faced by the economy. Firstly, there seems to be a sense of denial that the Finance Minister has shown about the growth slowdown in the economy. He has talked about the fact that he ‘hopes to grow at 7.2% to 7.5% in the second half’. But the Finance Minister has forgotten to state that the advanced estimates of the Central Statistic Office already pegs the growth rate of the economy at 6.1% (in terms of Gross Value Added) for the whole year. The fact that the FM did not report this in his speech only shows his denial mood. Since Jaitley is in the denial mode it was easy for him to predict that “We are now firmly on course to achieve high growth of 8% plus”. This assessment, however, is not shared by the Economic Survey, which rather states that such a turn around ‘cannot be taken for granted’. The budget, however, seems to indicate that the government has no well thought out the roadmap towards bringing in such a turnaround. It has relied more on rhetoric than on substance in this budget. This reliance on rhetoric is most visible in the case of agriculture and rural development. The FM has spent a significantly large part of his time on discussing agriculture and rural development. He has declared that “In the year 2018-19, for creation of livelihood and infrastructure in rural areas, total amount to be spent by the Ministries will be Rs. 14.34 lakh crore”. This huge sum seems to have bowled the media into characterising this as a major boost for the rural areas. This, however, is nothing but jugglery with numbers. What this number includes is Rs 11 lakh crore as agriculture credit. It must be remembered that credit is not government expenditure. You take credit from banks only to return them back. It does not go out of government budget. Already, in 2017-18 the target for agriculture credit was set at Rs 10 lakh crore, out of which Rs 5.88 lakh crore credit was disbursed from banks till September 30, 2017. Another Rs 1 lakh crore of agriculture credit is not going to solve the problem. In fact, a large part of the problem is in terms of loans that farmers have taken and are not being able to return them. The government has said nothing about waiving those loans, which has been a major demand of the recent farmer movements. However, it has announced that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) paid to the farmers will be 1.5 times their cost of production. This has been done purportedly to increase farmers’ income. It must, however, be pointed out that in 2016-17 out of the total production of wheat in the country, around 23% was procured by the government, for rice the number was around 34%. In other words, most of the crops are not sold to the government. How far the government is going to procure food grains through MSP remains to be seen. Going beyond the rhetoric a look at the data suggests that far from increasing the expenditures in agriculture and rural development, the expenditure on agriculture, rural development and irrigation as a share of GDP will remain stagnant at 1.6% of GDP between 2017-18 Revised Estimates (RE) and 2018-19 Budget Estimates (BE). In short, therefore, there is no push being provided to the rural areas or agriculture. The Economic Survey had pointed out that the Gross Capital Formation (or investment) has witnessed a decline as a share of agriculture GVA. The government, however, is not doing much to reverse that decline. Moreover, with all the talk about providing employment in rural areas, the government has not increased the allocation for the MGNREGA even by a rupee! The other area where the FM gave significant emphasis was on health and education. In fact, he declared a health scheme which will give Rs 5 lakh cover for hospitalisation to be provided to 10 crore families belonging to the poorer sections. The idea of providing insurance coverage to the poor by paying premiums to the insurance company is not what universal health care is about. Instead of spending the money on insurance companies and through them to the private healthcare sector, the government should have increased the allocation on health. However, nothing much has been done in this regard. The expenditure on health will only increase from Rs 53198 crore (2017-18RE) to Rs 54667 (2018-19BE) crore or by only Rs 1469 crore, which is not even near the expenditure that is required to go in for the proposed health scheme. Thus, even in this case, the tall words of the FM are not backed by budgetary resources. On the fiscal front, as we had predicted earlier, the government has failed to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.2%, with the final number stated to be 3.5% of GDP. But because the government is committed to its policy of fiscal conservatism it has again decided to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.3% of GDP in 2018-19. This is being projected on the basis of two factors. Firstly, the budgeted total expenditure of the government as a share of GDP will decline from 13.3% of GDP (2017-18 RE) to 12.9% (2018-19 BE). Secondly, the government is projecting a huge increase in GST collection amounting to more than Rs 6 lakh crore, while the collection in this fiscal was around Rs 2.2 lakh crore. This comes on the backdrop of the assumption that the nominal growth rate of GDP will be 11.5%. If this falls short, the GST collections will suffer. Moreover, oil prices are rising in the international market, which will exert downward pressure on the growth rate, since India is a net importer of oil. The excise duties on oil might have to be reduced to give relief to the people. All this can seriously jeopardise the fiscal deficit and revenue projects of the government. The government, as predicted in my earlier piece, did not go for increasing the direct taxes through wealth tax or increasing the tax rate on the corporates. They have rationalised long term capital gain tax which is estimated to generate revenue worth Rs 20000 crore this fiscal. The budget has also reduced tax rate to 25% for companies with an annual turnover of up to Rs 250 crore. The idea of boosting investment through tax concessions is a time-tested one and evidence shows that such tax concessions have a very limited impact on investment. Rather, the government could have taken definitive steps to solve the bad loan problem. But such decisive steps were clearly lacking in the budget. In the ultimate analysis, the budget will do precious little for addressing the serious issues affecting the economy. Being high on rhetoric, however, the propaganda machinery of the ruling party and government will project this as a people-friendly budget in an election year. The politics will play itself out, while the much promised ‘ache din’ for the economy and common people, will remain elusive. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Paying premium to insurance companies is not universal health care

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met with industry heavyweights Friday morning <a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/as-expected-budget-2018-friendly-to-farmers-big-on-health-stocks-fall-31454" target="_blank">a day after releasing his Budget</a>.&nbsp;

There are sections of the economy which need government aid, Jaitley told the CEOs, taking off from where he had left off in his Budget. Jaitley&#39;s last full year Budget before the general elections in 2019 has been called pro-poor, populist, and aimed at the elections next year.&nbsp;

The stress in the farm sector is real, Jaitley said Friday. (Critics of his government have been saying the same thing for some time now.)

On Thursday, Jaitley had announced in his Budget that farmers would be paid 1.5 times the cost of production of their kharif crops.&nbsp;

The MSP has to be reasonable, Jaitley said Friday. And that the agriculture ministry, state governments, and NITI Aayog would work out the details.&nbsp;

Jaitley added Friday that the government was concentrating on targeting the welfare of individual rural homes, providing interest subventions, and aid for irrigation to rural areas.&nbsp;

Jaitley&#39;s biggest announcement on Thursday however had been the creation of the world&#39;s largest health insurance programme. The programme, Jaitley said, would cover 500 million people -- close to half of the country&#39;s population -- with 50 million families insured for up to Rs 5 lakh a year.&nbsp;

The &quot;health scheme is a major target for the government&quot;, Jaitley said Friday.&nbsp;

Jaitley said the health insurance programme too was first envisaged by the NITI Aayog. He added that the programme could be built on a trust or insurance model, and that the scheme would kick off on April 1, 2018.&nbsp;

Jaitley said Friday the MSP and healthcareprogrammes were &quot;ambitious&quot;&nbsp;and that the real success would lie in implementing it.

&ldquo;We were concerned this year on account of various global and domestic factors that this had to be a &lsquo;spend-more&rsquo; and not a &lsquo;save-more&rsquo; budget,&quot; Jaitley added.&nbsp;

Jaitley&#39;s Buget had offered a number of other sops to the poor, especially the rural poor -- including the distribution of eight million free gas connections, and four million free electricity connections.&nbsp;

The sops however mean the governnment will breach its fiscal deficit target. Jaitley said Thursday that the target this year was&nbsp;3.3%, up from the earlier 3%.&nbsp;

The stock markets did not respond well to the announcement. They dove further after Jaitley announced long-term capital gains on the sale of shares above Rs 1 lakh would be taxed at 10%. Jaitley said Friday that that had been a &quot;tough call&quot;.&nbsp;

Also read: <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/day-after-union-budget-sensex-drops-324-points-nifty-below-11000-on-ltcg-jitters-31550" target="_blank">Sensex drops 324 points, Nifty below 11,000 on LTCG jitters</a>

He added Friday that the &quot;manufacturing sector has picked up in the last few months&quot;. But that India has a serious challenge ahead of it when it comes to tax compliance and increasing the tax base. He added that tax rates in India are low. That no other country has a five per cent tax slab and that you cannot get slabs any lower than the ones we already have.&nbsp;

The finance minister met Friday with industry heavyweights

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met with industry heavyweights Friday morning a day after releasing his Budget. There are sections of the economy which need government aid, Jaitley told the CEOs, taking off from where he had left off in his Budget. Jaitley's last full year Budget before the general elections in 2019 has been called pro-poor, populist, and aimed at the elections next year. The stress in the farm sector is real, Jaitley said Friday. (Critics of his government have been saying the same thing for some time now.) On Thursday, Jaitley had announced in his Budget that farmers would be paid 1.5 times the cost of production of their kharif crops. The MSP has to be reasonable, Jaitley said Friday. And that the agriculture ministry, state governments, and NITI Aayog would work out the details. Jaitley added Friday that the government was concentrating on targeting the welfare of individual rural homes, providing interest subventions, and aid for irrigation to rural areas. Jaitley's biggest announcement on Thursday however had been the creation of the world's largest health insurance programme. The programme, Jaitley said, would cover 500 million people -- close to half of the country's population -- with 50 million families insured for up to Rs 5 lakh a year. The "health scheme is a major target for the government", Jaitley said Friday. Jaitley said the health insurance programme too was first envisaged by the NITI Aayog. He added that the programme could be built on a trust or insurance model, and that the scheme would kick off on April 1, 2018. Jaitley said Friday the MSP and healthcareprogrammes were "ambitious" and that the real success would lie in implementing it. “We were concerned this year on account of various global and domestic factors that this had to be a ‘spend-more’ and not a ‘save-more’ budget," Jaitley added. Jaitley's Buget had offered a number of other sops to the poor, especially the rural poor -- including the distribution of eight million free gas connections, and four million free electricity connections. The sops however mean the governnment will breach its fiscal deficit target. Jaitley said Thursday that the target this year was 3.3%, up from the earlier 3%. The stock markets did not respond well to the announcement. They dove further after Jaitley announced long-term capital gains on the sale of shares above Rs 1 lakh would be taxed at 10%. Jaitley said Friday that that had been a "tough call". Also read: Sensex drops 324 points, Nifty below 11,000 on LTCG jitters He added Friday that the "manufacturing sector has picked up in the last few months". But that India has a serious challenge ahead of it when it comes to tax compliance and increasing the tax base. He added that tax rates in India are low. That no other country has a five per cent tax slab and that you cannot get slabs any lower than the ones we already have.

Stress in farm sector is real, Jaitley says day after Budget

Amidst all the &ldquo;last budget&rdquo; euphoria and the high expectations from the general public of it, the budget outlay details for the Indian Railway went relatively unnoticed. And possibly this was the prime reason for merging the Railways budget with the Union budget. Significant reforms are needed in Indian Railways whilst keeping populism at bay.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The Railways budget has been bumped up from 1.31 lakh crores in 2017-18 to 1.48 lakh crores in 2018-19, an increase of nearly 13%. This substantial increase went mostly under the radar as no fanfare projects like new train announcements were announced. Much of the outlay is towards upgrading the current infrastructure to achieve higher average speeds. Elimination of unmanned road crossings, old track replacement and track strengthening are much needed as the frequency of infrastructure breakdowns have already resulted in an increase in the number of accidents. The 19th January incident near Murad Nagar would also force Railways to rethink plans for enhancing the safety of the infrastructure. The outlay towards safety has been increasing by 6.3% (73065 Cr from 68725 Cr) over the last year&nbsp;

&nbsp;

A significant portion of the budget has been earmarked for upgrading all the 8500 stations with CCTV cameras and escalators for all stations with footfalls more than 25000. CCTV cameras would also be installed in the entire fleet of rolling stock. Fund allocation for increasing rolling stock procurement emphasizes the commitment to upgrading infrastructure. Modern train sets are expected to roll out from the Integrated Coach Factory in Chennai in 2018-19. Mumbai and Bangalore suburban railway networks have also been highlighted for special focus.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

These investments are likely to kick in private investments as well, especially in the station redevelopment process. With an operating ratio of 96% (94.8% target), Railways still needs to increase overall revenues. A 92.8% operating ratio target for 2018-19 seems too ambitious. On the revenue front, the Railway Fare Review committee is yet to be formed. Though overall revenue is up by 7.3%, freight loading is up only by 4.3% (1216 million tonnes from 1165). A detailed review of fare revenue (passenger and freight) and non-fare revenue should help make a true assessment of customers&rsquo; view of Railways as a freight transporter.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Possibly, the low passenger fares would still continue to crowd out freight share, as the service commitment to the freight customers is still low. Dedicated freight corridors, as mentioned in the budget might help alleviate the situation, but they are still far from completion.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Infrastructure upgrade is also aimed at lessening the delays in train arrivals. Railways could possibly also consider a hub-and-spoke mechanism of travel within the country, but a significant focus would have to be given to punctuality as well as accessibility at interchange stations.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Transportation infrastructure investments have been a key focus of the BJP government since coming to power. Holistically, the Railways future plans must be seen in the overall context of transportation including roads, airways and waterways. A unified system of transportation should ease the issues of traversing this vast country, quickly and inexpensively. Overall, the budget holds steady on the promise of capacity augmentation and infrastructure upgrade. The effectiveness of implementation remains to be seen.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

Overall, the Union Budget holds steady on the promise of capacity augmentation and infrastructure upgrade. However, the effectiveness of implementation remains to be seen.

Amidst all the “last budget” euphoria and the high expectations from the general public of it, the budget outlay details for the Indian Railway went relatively unnoticed. And possibly this was the prime reason for merging the Railways budget with the Union budget. Significant reforms are needed in Indian Railways whilst keeping populism at bay. The Railways budget has been bumped up from 1.31 lakh crores in 2017-18 to 1.48 lakh crores in 2018-19, an increase of nearly 13%. This substantial increase went mostly under the radar as no fanfare projects like new train announcements were announced. Much of the outlay is towards upgrading the current infrastructure to achieve higher average speeds. Elimination of unmanned road crossings, old track replacement and track strengthening are much needed as the frequency of infrastructure breakdowns have already resulted in an increase in the number of accidents. The 19th January incident near Murad Nagar would also force Railways to rethink plans for enhancing the safety of the infrastructure. The outlay towards safety has been increasing by 6.3% (73065 Cr from 68725 Cr) over the last year A significant portion of the budget has been earmarked for upgrading all the 8500 stations with CCTV cameras and escalators for all stations with footfalls more than 25000. CCTV cameras would also be installed in the entire fleet of rolling stock. Fund allocation for increasing rolling stock procurement emphasizes the commitment to upgrading infrastructure. Modern train sets are expected to roll out from the Integrated Coach Factory in Chennai in 2018-19. Mumbai and Bangalore suburban railway networks have also been highlighted for special focus. These investments are likely to kick in private investments as well, especially in the station redevelopment process. With an operating ratio of 96% (94.8% target), Railways still needs to increase overall revenues. A 92.8% operating ratio target for 2018-19 seems too ambitious. On the revenue front, the Railway Fare Review committee is yet to be formed. Though overall revenue is up by 7.3%, freight loading is up only by 4.3% (1216 million tonnes from 1165). A detailed review of fare revenue (passenger and freight) and non-fare revenue should help make a true assessment of customers’ view of Railways as a freight transporter. Possibly, the low passenger fares would still continue to crowd out freight share, as the service commitment to the freight customers is still low. Dedicated freight corridors, as mentioned in the budget might help alleviate the situation, but they are still far from completion. Infrastructure upgrade is also aimed at lessening the delays in train arrivals. Railways could possibly also consider a hub-and-spoke mechanism of travel within the country, but a significant focus would have to be given to punctuality as well as accessibility at interchange stations. Transportation infrastructure investments have been a key focus of the BJP government since coming to power. Holistically, the Railways future plans must be seen in the overall context of transportation including roads, airways and waterways. A unified system of transportation should ease the issues of traversing this vast country, quickly and inexpensively. Overall, the budget holds steady on the promise of capacity augmentation and infrastructure upgrade. The effectiveness of implementation remains to be seen. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Union Budget invested in Railways without giving in to populism

Amidst the clamour of commentary around the Union Budget yesterday and today, one issue is conspicuous by its absence: jobs.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Of the big three issues I had flagged in my pre-budget analysis, viz. rural distress, jobs, and stimulating private investment, the first has found a prominent place and the third somewhat less so, but the second issue has been given short shrift. Even MGNREGA finds itself with a stagnant budget in nominal terms (constant at INR 55,000 crores), which will mean a decrease in real spending. This is contrary to expectations in many quarters that this budget would see a big push on job creation.

&nbsp;

Before we look at what little the budget does offer on jobs, let us look at the big announcements; an increase in the minimum support price for all crops to 150% of the costs of production and a new national health insurance program.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The revised MSP was a long-expected announcement and, politically speaking, this is the right time to make it. However, there is no clear budgetary allocation for it. Is it to come from the additional INR 7000 crore allocated to agriculture? If so, is this increase enough? Further, what does &ldquo;cost of production&rdquo; mean?&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Will the government take into consideration paid out costs plus family labour (called A2 + FL) or the above plus imputed rent of land and capital owned (called C2)? Until several such details become clear it is impossible to tell whether this can actually improve farm incomes and, thereby, stimulate the rural economy. Add to this the well-known fact that MSPs rarely function as effective price floors (as they are supposed to) because of very poor implementation, forcing farmers regularly sell for less than MSP. All said though, an announcement is better than no announcement. Since this is a big election year, this is the opportunity to press the government on delivering the promise in a proper manner.

&nbsp;

Now let us come to the second big announcement, a National Health Protection Scheme, with up to INR 5 lakh annual coverage for 10 crore families. This has been hailed as a big move and it is. The question is, who stands to benefit from it? The FM mentioned that it would create &ldquo;lakhs of jobs, particularly for women.&rdquo; But in the absence of details it is not clear how this will happen.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The newspaper accounts of the scheme do not mention the jobs angle much. Rather, there are mentions of this huge government-funded programme (some say the largest such in the world) being a boost for the insurance and healthcare sector. Assuming that the NITI Aayog wants to design this scheme to benefit the poor, maximally, it would be useful to keep a few things centre-stage so that the scheme does not become a giveaway from the government to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

First, either improve public delivery of healthcare or find a way to keep prices of drugs, treatment etc. tightly under control. Given the current inflation in healthcare costs and declining medical ethics and standards, this programme runs the risk of funneling a huge amount of public money to private hands while delivering poor quality healthcare to the poor.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Second, make job creation in the healthcare sector an integral part of the scheme by expanding public healthcare coverage. In fact, the public expansion option has two advantages, it keeps costs under control, the government will only be paying itself, not third parties, and it creates jobs. Of course, this will need more than the INR 1473 crore allocated to this program.

&nbsp;

Jobs and employment are directly addressed only in a small and uninspiring section under MSMEs and Employment. There are no big ideas here commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge or with this government prior commitment to the issue. The government is proposing to pay 12% of EPF costs for new employees for up to three years, to create incentives for firms to hire new workers. This extends the scope of the previous policy.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

There are also some policies specifically to create incentives for women to participate in the workforce, such as maternity leave and creches. While most of these are welcome measures, they stop far short of what needs to be done on the jobs front. Sadly, the FM also cites the same flawed study cited by the PM in a recent interview, that 70 lakh formal jobs will be created in the current year. The problems with this have been widely discussed in the media already.

&nbsp;

The second pro-jobs measure mentioned in the budget is the reduced tax rate (from 30% to 25%) for firms with turnovers of INR 250 crores and less. This is again a disappointingly supply-side view of job creation. Lowering taxes to create jobs will only work if some other key conditions are satisfied. Most importantly, firms need to see strong demand in the economy, particularly in the vast rural sector.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

On the whole, there is a large missed opportunity here to go big on the employment front by proposing a range of direct public employment measures, a potential expansion of MGNREGA to more occupations, payment of wage subsidies for jobs where the minimum wage is far below a living wage, and so on. All of these have long been on the policy wish-list.

&nbsp;

One last comment on the third front I had highlighted in my pre-budget analysis, viz. private investment. The Economic Survey chapter on Savings and Investment ends by saying &ldquo;`animal spirits&rsquo; need to be conjured back.&rdquo; This refers to John Maynard Keynes&rsquo; famous characterisation of the behaviour of the owners of capital to be moved to action on the basis of mood swings of optimism and pessimism rather than calculations of risks and rewards. The measures suggested are, addressing the problem of stressed assets on bank and firm balance sheets, lowering taxes, easing the costs of doing business, etc. The budget more-or-less confirms to this approach. And no doubt, these measures are important.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

But the list leaves out the obvious driver of &ldquo;animal spirits&rdquo; in the Keynesian tradition, viz. aggregate demand. The thinking is almost purely supply-side, whether discussing an incentivising investment by big business or by small and medium industries. Time and again we have seen, and even industry leaders have said, that a revival of demand in the economy, an increase in spending across the income distribution, is a strong determinant of private investment.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

In sum, while the budget seems to deliver strongly on &ldquo;ease of doing business&rdquo;, on the &ldquo;ease of living&rdquo; front, much remains unclear. Pressure should be kept up in this election year to hold the government accountable for the proper implementation of the revised MSP formula and the new health insurance scheme.

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

Lowering taxes to create jobs will only work if some other key conditions are satisfied, for instance, firms need to see strong demand in the economy, particularly in the vast rural sector.

Amidst the clamour of commentary around the Union Budget yesterday and today, one issue is conspicuous by its absence: jobs. Of the big three issues I had flagged in my pre-budget analysis, viz. rural distress, jobs, and stimulating private investment, the first has found a prominent place and the third somewhat less so, but the second issue has been given short shrift. Even MGNREGA finds itself with a stagnant budget in nominal terms (constant at INR 55,000 crores), which will mean a decrease in real spending. This is contrary to expectations in many quarters that this budget would see a big push on job creation. Before we look at what little the budget does offer on jobs, let us look at the big announcements; an increase in the minimum support price for all crops to 150% of the costs of production and a new national health insurance program. The revised MSP was a long-expected announcement and, politically speaking, this is the right time to make it. However, there is no clear budgetary allocation for it. Is it to come from the additional INR 7000 crore allocated to agriculture? If so, is this increase enough? Further, what does “cost of production” mean? Will the government take into consideration paid out costs plus family labour (called A2 + FL) or the above plus imputed rent of land and capital owned (called C2)? Until several such details become clear it is impossible to tell whether this can actually improve farm incomes and, thereby, stimulate the rural economy. Add to this the well-known fact that MSPs rarely function as effective price floors (as they are supposed to) because of very poor implementation, forcing farmers regularly sell for less than MSP. All said though, an announcement is better than no announcement. Since this is a big election year, this is the opportunity to press the government on delivering the promise in a proper manner. Now let us come to the second big announcement, a National Health Protection Scheme, with up to INR 5 lakh annual coverage for 10 crore families. This has been hailed as a big move and it is. The question is, who stands to benefit from it? The FM mentioned that it would create “lakhs of jobs, particularly for women.” But in the absence of details it is not clear how this will happen. The newspaper accounts of the scheme do not mention the jobs angle much. Rather, there are mentions of this huge government-funded programme (some say the largest such in the world) being a boost for the insurance and healthcare sector. Assuming that the NITI Aayog wants to design this scheme to benefit the poor, maximally, it would be useful to keep a few things centre-stage so that the scheme does not become a giveaway from the government to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals. First, either improve public delivery of healthcare or find a way to keep prices of drugs, treatment etc. tightly under control. Given the current inflation in healthcare costs and declining medical ethics and standards, this programme runs the risk of funneling a huge amount of public money to private hands while delivering poor quality healthcare to the poor. Second, make job creation in the healthcare sector an integral part of the scheme by expanding public healthcare coverage. In fact, the public expansion option has two advantages, it keeps costs under control, the government will only be paying itself, not third parties, and it creates jobs. Of course, this will need more than the INR 1473 crore allocated to this program. Jobs and employment are directly addressed only in a small and uninspiring section under MSMEs and Employment. There are no big ideas here commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge or with this government prior commitment to the issue. The government is proposing to pay 12% of EPF costs for new employees for up to three years, to create incentives for firms to hire new workers. This extends the scope of the previous policy. There are also some policies specifically to create incentives for women to participate in the workforce, such as maternity leave and creches. While most of these are welcome measures, they stop far short of what needs to be done on the jobs front. Sadly, the FM also cites the same flawed study cited by the PM in a recent interview, that 70 lakh formal jobs will be created in the current year. The problems with this have been widely discussed in the media already. The second pro-jobs measure mentioned in the budget is the reduced tax rate (from 30% to 25%) for firms with turnovers of INR 250 crores and less. This is again a disappointingly supply-side view of job creation. Lowering taxes to create jobs will only work if some other key conditions are satisfied. Most importantly, firms need to see strong demand in the economy, particularly in the vast rural sector. On the whole, there is a large missed opportunity here to go big on the employment front by proposing a range of direct public employment measures, a potential expansion of MGNREGA to more occupations, payment of wage subsidies for jobs where the minimum wage is far below a living wage, and so on. All of these have long been on the policy wish-list. One last comment on the third front I had highlighted in my pre-budget analysis, viz. private investment. The Economic Survey chapter on Savings and Investment ends by saying “`animal spirits’ need to be conjured back.” This refers to John Maynard Keynes’ famous characterisation of the behaviour of the owners of capital to be moved to action on the basis of mood swings of optimism and pessimism rather than calculations of risks and rewards. The measures suggested are, addressing the problem of stressed assets on bank and firm balance sheets, lowering taxes, easing the costs of doing business, etc. The budget more-or-less confirms to this approach. And no doubt, these measures are important. But the list leaves out the obvious driver of “animal spirits” in the Keynesian tradition, viz. aggregate demand. The thinking is almost purely supply-side, whether discussing an incentivising investment by big business or by small and medium industries. Time and again we have seen, and even industry leaders have said, that a revival of demand in the economy, an increase in spending across the income distribution, is a strong determinant of private investment. In sum, while the budget seems to deliver strongly on “ease of doing business”, on the “ease of living” front, much remains unclear. Pressure should be kept up in this election year to hold the government accountable for the proper implementation of the revised MSP formula and the new health insurance scheme. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: In terms of job creation, Union Budget has little to offer

India&rsquo;s Defence Budget FY 18-19 registered only a marginal increase. Allocation from previous FY moved up from 2.74 lakh crores to 2.95 lakh crores. Thus, pitching the increase at 1.58% of the projected GDP for 2018-19. This is probably the lowest in terms of percentage, since the debacle of 1962. This increase is of 7.66% in terms of Budget Estimates (BE) when compared with that of FY 17-18.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

India&rsquo;s Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley in his budget speech on Feb 01, 2018, dedicated 183 words to the armed forces of India. He praised the role played by our armed forces in meeting the challenges on our borders as well as in managing the internal security environment both in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

The Finance Minister in his speech said, &ldquo;ever since the NDA Government has assumed office in 2014, lot of emphasis has been given to modernizing and enhancing the operational capability of the Defence Forces.&nbsp; A number of initiatives have been taken to develop and nurture intrinsic defence production capability to make the Nation self-reliant for meeting our defence needs. Ensuring adequate budgetary support will be our priority&rdquo;.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

He emphasised that the government of the day has opened up private investment in defence production, including liberalising foreign direct investment.&nbsp; Mr Arun Jaitley announced his government&rsquo;s intent to develop two &ldquo;defence industrial production corridors&rdquo; in the country. He added that the Government will also bring out an industry-friendly Defence Production Policy 2018 to promote domestic production by public sector, private sector and MSMEs.

&nbsp;

The Finance Minister declared that the government was focusing on developing connectivity infrastructure in border areas to secure the country&#39;s defences. &quot;Rohtang tunnel has been completed to provide all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region. The contract for construction of Zozila Pass tunnel of more than 14 kilometers is progressing well. He announced the proposal to take up construction of a tunnel under Sela Pass (in Arunachal Pradesh).

&nbsp;

Comparative analysis of the Defence Budget 2018-19 reveals that this increase of 7.6 % is majorly under Revenue head showing an increase of 8808 crores. Increase under Revenue head allotment has eclipsed the increase under Capital head by 1314 crore. A total of 62.52% revenue budget this year goes towards the ever-growing burden of pay and allowances of the armed forces personnel.&nbsp; &nbsp;

&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

This defence budget under Demand No 21, reflects a capital outlay of just Rs 93982.13 crore. This fund is largely utilised for procurement of new weapon systems and modernisation. Out of the amount allotted, nearly 80% would go towards the realisation of existing commitments (installment payments) of deals realised in the previous years. Implying that there would only be 18796.4 cr left for any new procurements towards modernisation.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

There is also a capital allotment of 2700 crore for the Coast Guard under the MiscellaneousHead of Demand No 19 of the Defence Budget 2018-19. Thus, making an overall allocation of 96,682.13 crores for capacity and capability building.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

However, it must be noted that the defence budget does not include Rs 1,08,853 crore separately allocated for defence pensions.

The annual defence budgets over the years have shown a discernible trend of declining modernisation outlays for new projects. This has meant that our armed forces continue to grapple with critical shortages on several fronts, ranging from tank ammunition to fighters and submarines to helicopters, howitzers and modern infantry weapons.

&nbsp;

While the jugglery with the data and the percentages could depict the story of government&rsquo;s apathy and neglect of our armed forces. The decline in the BE is steady and the trend pans over to almost three decades.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

During the FY 2016-17, a sum of 6000 crores was left underutilised. The challenge, so far, actually has not been the budget allocation but rather, its underutilisation. Even doubling this allocation would not solve the issue of underutilisation of BE witnessed each year. The nation suffers in the bargain as capacity building and capability enhancement of our armed forces struggles to meet the growing security challenges. Therefore, the solution lies elsewhere outside the budget. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

To overcome the challenge of underutilisation of the budget, estimates and ever-increasing revenue expenditure induced stress, we need to tackle it through structural reforms. It is now for the civil and military leadership of this country to introspect and review the existing structures, strengths, systems and procedures to overcome these existing formidable barriers hindering modernisation.&nbsp; &nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The budgetary allocation indicates that Indian armed forces continue to grapple with critical shortages on several fronts, ranging from tank ammunition to fighters and submarines to helicopters, howitzers and modern infantry weapons.

India’s Defence Budget FY 18-19 registered only a marginal increase. Allocation from previous FY moved up from 2.74 lakh crores to 2.95 lakh crores. Thus, pitching the increase at 1.58% of the projected GDP for 2018-19. This is probably the lowest in terms of percentage, since the debacle of 1962. This increase is of 7.66% in terms of Budget Estimates (BE) when compared with that of FY 17-18. India’s Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley in his budget speech on Feb 01, 2018, dedicated 183 words to the armed forces of India. He praised the role played by our armed forces in meeting the challenges on our borders as well as in managing the internal security environment both in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. The Finance Minister in his speech said, “ever since the NDA Government has assumed office in 2014, lot of emphasis has been given to modernizing and enhancing the operational capability of the Defence Forces. A number of initiatives have been taken to develop and nurture intrinsic defence production capability to make the Nation self-reliant for meeting our defence needs. Ensuring adequate budgetary support will be our priority”. He emphasised that the government of the day has opened up private investment in defence production, including liberalising foreign direct investment. Mr Arun Jaitley announced his government’s intent to develop two “defence industrial production corridors” in the country. He added that the Government will also bring out an industry-friendly Defence Production Policy 2018 to promote domestic production by public sector, private sector and MSMEs. The Finance Minister declared that the government was focusing on developing connectivity infrastructure in border areas to secure the country's defences. "Rohtang tunnel has been completed to provide all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region. The contract for construction of Zozila Pass tunnel of more than 14 kilometers is progressing well. He announced the proposal to take up construction of a tunnel under Sela Pass (in Arunachal Pradesh). Comparative analysis of the Defence Budget 2018-19 reveals that this increase of 7.6 % is majorly under Revenue head showing an increase of 8808 crores. Increase under Revenue head allotment has eclipsed the increase under Capital head by 1314 crore. A total of 62.52% revenue budget this year goes towards the ever-growing burden of pay and allowances of the armed forces personnel. This defence budget under Demand No 21, reflects a capital outlay of just Rs 93982.13 crore. This fund is largely utilised for procurement of new weapon systems and modernisation. Out of the amount allotted, nearly 80% would go towards the realisation of existing commitments (installment payments) of deals realised in the previous years. Implying that there would only be 18796.4 cr left for any new procurements towards modernisation. There is also a capital allotment of 2700 crore for the Coast Guard under the MiscellaneousHead of Demand No 19 of the Defence Budget 2018-19. Thus, making an overall allocation of 96,682.13 crores for capacity and capability building. However, it must be noted that the defence budget does not include Rs 1,08,853 crore separately allocated for defence pensions. The annual defence budgets over the years have shown a discernible trend of declining modernisation outlays for new projects. This has meant that our armed forces continue to grapple with critical shortages on several fronts, ranging from tank ammunition to fighters and submarines to helicopters, howitzers and modern infantry weapons. While the jugglery with the data and the percentages could depict the story of government’s apathy and neglect of our armed forces. The decline in the BE is steady and the trend pans over to almost three decades. During the FY 2016-17, a sum of 6000 crores was left underutilised. The challenge, so far, actually has not been the budget allocation but rather, its underutilisation. Even doubling this allocation would not solve the issue of underutilisation of BE witnessed each year. The nation suffers in the bargain as capacity building and capability enhancement of our armed forces struggles to meet the growing security challenges. Therefore, the solution lies elsewhere outside the budget. To overcome the challenge of underutilisation of the budget, estimates and ever-increasing revenue expenditure induced stress, we need to tackle it through structural reforms. It is now for the civil and military leadership of this country to introspect and review the existing structures, strengths, systems and procedures to overcome these existing formidable barriers hindering modernisation. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Since the debacle of 1962, Indian defence gets lowest budgetary allocation

&nbsp;

Even as the budget debates on television screens continued, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took Twitter to express his take on the budget and described it as nothing but &#39;fancy schemes&#39;, with no &#39;matching budgets&#39;.&nbsp;

Rahul said that four years have gone but the BJP is still promising the farmers a fair price.&nbsp;

Gandhi attacked the government on a variety of issues for which the government has come under increasing criticism of late&nbsp;such as unemployment, Minimum selling price (MSP) for corps.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price. 
4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets. 
4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH. 
Thankfully, only 1 more year to go.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Budget2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budget2018</a>
&mdash; Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficeOfRG/status/959030301791014913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

Deriding the budget announcement as only fancy schemes with no matching budgets, he added &#39;&#39;thankfully only 1 year to go&#39;&#39;. &nbsp;

Gandhi also attacked the Modi led government for failing to deliver on its promise of job creation and said that four years have gone, no jobs for our youth.&nbsp;

Rahul said that four years have gone but the BJP is still promising the farmers a fair price.

Even as the budget debates on television screens continued, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took Twitter to express his take on the budget and described it as nothing but 'fancy schemes', with no 'matching budgets'. Rahul said that four years have gone but the BJP is still promising the farmers a fair price. Gandhi attacked the government on a variety of issues for which the government has come under increasing criticism of late such as unemployment, Minimum selling price (MSP) for corps. 4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price. 4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets. 4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH. Thankfully, only 1 more year to go.#Budget2018 — Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 1, 2018 × Deriding the budget announcement as only fancy schemes with no matching budgets, he added ''thankfully only 1 year to go''. Gandhi also attacked the Modi led government for failing to deliver on its promise of job creation and said that four years have gone, no jobs for our youth.

Budget 2018: Fancy schemes, with no 'matching budgets', says Rahul Gandhi

This year&#39;s budget was not like any other. The government had to announce something effective to boost a terribly upset agricultural sector. Considering the setbacks BJP suffered in the state of Gujarat and with an election coming up in 2019, it was politically imperative for Narendra Modi&#39;s government to come up with a developmental vision for the agricultural sector.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Commenting on his plans for India&#39;s farmers, the Finance Minister said that his government is bringing about a &#39;paradigm shift&#39; in the agricultural and rural sector. Unlike the production-centric approach of the past, India is now going to concentrate on a producer-centric approach. The crux of this paradigm shift will be to double the income of the farmers by 2022.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The current government is committed to seeing agriculture as an &quot;enterprise&quot; and not simply a livelihood. This means that farmers are now seen as an entrepreneur and not someone who just works to fill his belly or that of the nation. What he does is not philanthropy but business. Thus, he needs to make a profit.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Unlike the initial decades of India&#39;s independence, the agriculturalists can&#39;t be made the sacrificial lamb in the altar of nation&#39;s development needs.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

However, while the government spoke in terms of bringing about a paradigm shift in the rural sector, it committed nothing to improve the land ownership scenario of the country. Without any structural reforms, the marginal farmers continue to be marginal, owning a small parcel of land. But the government has promised to bring down the cost of farming while raising the non-farm employment for farmers.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

This two-pronged approach is what they believe will make agriculture profitable in India.

&nbsp;

What Jaitley refers to as a &quot;historical decision&quot; is the government&#39;s plan to provide minimum support price to Kharif crops. This will ensure that farmers get back 150% of the production cost of growing their crops. This is in a way help to balance the somewhat contradictory requirement of the nation: to keep food prices low while giving the farmers a profitable return.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

For a very long time in India, in a rush to boost production of basic industries, such as iron and steel and to appease the Indian middle-class, we have kept the food prices low. This long trend has delivered an indelible blow to Indian agriculture notwithstanding the price support introduced during the Green Revolution of the late 1960s.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Surprisingly, the Finance Minister did not mention any plans to improve the nutritional standard of crops growing in India either with the help of biotechnology or not. He was more keen on developing an institutional mechanism which would help farmers to deal with perishable produce, particularly, onion, potato and tomato. The Government of India will invest 500 crores towards this scheme which is being called Operation Green, a reminiscence of the Green Revolution of the past.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

What is interesting in this Union Budget is that the government, rather than concentrating on &quot;poor man&#39;s crops&quot;, such as raagi, bajra and other hardy cereals that are grown in the rainfed regions of India, is keener on developing a cluster-based model around the cultivation of horticultural crops. The government is going to spend 200 crores on medicinal and aromatic plants. Considering, all these types of plants are sensitive to their water requirements, which need to planned and regularised, there has been little said in the budget speech about expanding the scope of irrigation beyond installing pumps to make groundwater accessible.

&nbsp;

Organic farming has also received a boost with women self-help group being encouraged to practise such a form of farming. But it is yet to be seen to what extent organic farming becomes part of the mainstream agricultural practices of India.

&nbsp;

With farmers suicide, low prices, inadequate infrastructure, heavy debt burden, the Indian farming sector is not doing well at all. While these measures will go only so far in addressing the problem, the deeper structural issues remain unresolved. Inadequate landownership, limited credit opportunities and on-farm employment, sketchy ideas of sustainable farming are some of the key issues which will require sincere resolve on the part of the government to find a resolution.

&nbsp;

Without a clearcut policy stemming from the Budget, the chances are the chasm between rural and urban India will continue to grow, putting the current government in deep political crisis.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Without a clearcut policy stemming from the Budget, the chances are the chasm between rural and urban India will continue to grow, putting the current government in deep political crisis.

This year's budget was not like any other. The government had to announce something effective to boost a terribly upset agricultural sector. Considering the setbacks BJP suffered in the state of Gujarat and with an election coming up in 2019, it was politically imperative for Narendra Modi's government to come up with a developmental vision for the agricultural sector. Commenting on his plans for India's farmers, the Finance Minister said that his government is bringing about a 'paradigm shift' in the agricultural and rural sector. Unlike the production-centric approach of the past, India is now going to concentrate on a producer-centric approach. The crux of this paradigm shift will be to double the income of the farmers by 2022. The current government is committed to seeing agriculture as an "enterprise" and not simply a livelihood. This means that farmers are now seen as an entrepreneur and not someone who just works to fill his belly or that of the nation. What he does is not philanthropy but business. Thus, he needs to make a profit. Unlike the initial decades of India's independence, the agriculturalists can't be made the sacrificial lamb in the altar of nation's development needs. However, while the government spoke in terms of bringing about a paradigm shift in the rural sector, it committed nothing to improve the land ownership scenario of the country. Without any structural reforms, the marginal farmers continue to be marginal, owning a small parcel of land. But the government has promised to bring down the cost of farming while raising the non-farm employment for farmers. This two-pronged approach is what they believe will make agriculture profitable in India. What Jaitley refers to as a "historical decision" is the government's plan to provide minimum support price to Kharif crops. This will ensure that farmers get back 150% of the production cost of growing their crops. This is in a way help to balance the somewhat contradictory requirement of the nation: to keep food prices low while giving the farmers a profitable return. For a very long time in India, in a rush to boost production of basic industries, such as iron and steel and to appease the Indian middle-class, we have kept the food prices low. This long trend has delivered an indelible blow to Indian agriculture notwithstanding the price support introduced during the Green Revolution of the late 1960s. Surprisingly, the Finance Minister did not mention any plans to improve the nutritional standard of crops growing in India either with the help of biotechnology or not. He was more keen on developing an institutional mechanism which would help farmers to deal with perishable produce, particularly, onion, potato and tomato. The Government of India will invest 500 crores towards this scheme which is being called Operation Green, a reminiscence of the Green Revolution of the past. What is interesting in this Union Budget is that the government, rather than concentrating on "poor man's crops", such as raagi, bajra and other hardy cereals that are grown in the rainfed regions of India, is keener on developing a cluster-based model around the cultivation of horticultural crops. The government is going to spend 200 crores on medicinal and aromatic plants. Considering, all these types of plants are sensitive to their water requirements, which need to planned and regularised, there has been little said in the budget speech about expanding the scope of irrigation beyond installing pumps to make groundwater accessible. Organic farming has also received a boost with women self-help group being encouraged to practise such a form of farming. But it is yet to be seen to what extent organic farming becomes part of the mainstream agricultural practices of India. With farmers suicide, low prices, inadequate infrastructure, heavy debt burden, the Indian farming sector is not doing well at all. While these measures will go only so far in addressing the problem, the deeper structural issues remain unresolved. Inadequate landownership, limited credit opportunities and on-farm employment, sketchy ideas of sustainable farming are some of the key issues which will require sincere resolve on the part of the government to find a resolution. Without a clearcut policy stemming from the Budget, the chances are the chasm between rural and urban India will continue to grow, putting the current government in deep political crisis. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Will the Budget help India's struggling farmers?

There were sufficient hints in recent months and so nobody can claim surprise over the Union Budget 2018-19 offerings. The Gujarat Assembly election result had demonstrated that rural voters were upset with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP had fared less well than it had expected in village local body elections in some States.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had admitted in his recent interviews that rural distress was a reality which his government had to soon address. Community-specific agitations that had occurred in rural parts of the country were seen as a manifestation of ground-level discontent among the people, though they were couched in quota-demand terms. All in all, an agri-rural crisis had shaped up, and it threatened to thwart the Bharatiya Janata Party&rsquo;s march of electoral victories. The government had to do something, and there would not have been another big occasion for it, but this last full Budget of the regime&rsquo;s current term.

&nbsp;

Can it be said that Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley has addressed those concerns effectively? The last word will be said only by the end of the coming fiscal year when the impact of the measures he has announced will be known. Needless to emphasise, implementation holds the key. But until then, we have to depend on what has been promised in the Budget. And here, there is no doubt that the government has taken to heart the electoral lessons it has learned over the past few months, and has sought to take corrective measures.

&nbsp;

Performers, generally, like to reserve their best for the middle or the end of their act. But Jaitley&rsquo;s big-bang announcements came right in the beginning &mdash; in the first 45 minutes or so when he was at his freshest. He seemed to relish those moments when he let loose a slew of schemes to address the rural distress and provide health coverage to the very needy (many of whom reside in villages or semi-rural regions of the country).&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Indeed, in the later parts of his speech when he began to list proposals for the corporate sector, Jaitley appeared to do so rather perfunctorily. It was clear from his tone and from the impressions gathered by attentive listeners that this Budget was primarily about the rural poor and the agrarian sector.

&nbsp;

Implicit in this emphasis was the realisation that enough had been done and was being done for corporate India. More importantly, the government had correctly understood that a boost to rural India would have a far greater multiplier effect on the national economy than sops in the shape of tax concessions etc to the industry.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Given that the rural sector employs close to 85 per cent of the country&rsquo;s total workforce, it makes sense to empower that section of the population. If disposable income grows here, it will find its way in the consumer market &mdash; both for perishable and lasting goods. And this, in turn, would boost production in industry and, hopefully, lead to more employment in the organised sector. Conversely, a distressed rural economy can drag down the national growth figures.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Besides, the political costs of alienating the large mass of rural voters (taken as a bloc, it is overwhelmingly the single largest) is one that no party in its right frame of mind will want to pay. Therefore, it would not be surprising if the BJP now extols the Budget to win the affections of voters in the coming elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh &mdash; all with huge rural populations &mdash; later this year.

&nbsp;

Even if one concedes that the Union Finance Minister has been driven by necessity in framing a &lsquo;pro-poor/pro-farmer/pro-marginalised&rsquo; Budget, it must also be admitted that he has adopted a wholistic rather than a bits-and-pieces approach. For instance, while he has proposed a hike of at least 1.5 times to the existing minimum support prices for the ensuing Kharif crops, he also appears to understand that a higher MSP alone does not address the grievances. Therefore, he has announced the upgradation of the existing rural haats where small and marginal farmers (86 per cent of the farmers come under this category) can sell their produce at remunerative prices. Jaitley has also proposed a cluster system for the cultivation of horticulture crops to enhance production and marketability.

&nbsp;

But, however, much the government does to improve the production and marketing of traditional crops, it knows that its plans to double farmers&rsquo; income by 2022 is simply unrealisable unless farmers have other means of income. The Finance Minister is, therefore, hoping that his proposal to create a fisheries, aquaculture infrastructure development coupled with the animal husbandry fund (totalling some Rs 10,000 crore), will encourage farmers to adopt these vocations and help double their income.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The National Bamboo Mission, which gets a fund of Rs 1,290 crore, is expected to be immensely useful in the promotion of bamboo cultivation and connected industries &mdash; mostly in the small scale industry sector &mdash; especially in the North-East.

&nbsp;

There is more that the Finance Minister has unveiled to woo rural India. An institutional mechanism will be established to frame policies and practices for price and demand forecast for agri-produce; Kisan Credit Cards have been extended to fisheries and and animal husbandry farmers; a Rs 2,000 crore fund is proposed to be set up for the development and upgradation of agri-marketing infrastructure; and the agricultural credit disbursal target has been increased, albeit modestly, from Rs 10 lakh crore in the 2017-18 fiscal to Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19.

&nbsp;

But let&rsquo;s not forget that rural distress does not only cover agriculture and allied activities. It relates to the lack of infrastructure, healthcare, roads, closer-to-home employment etc. The Finance Minister has offered a roughly Rs 14 lakh fund to enhance rural infrastructure and improve rural livelihood. The activities under this category would include the construction of houses, roads, toilets etc which would build capacities and generate jobs. Buoyed by the success of its Ujjwala scheme for providing free cooking gas connections to the rural poor women, the Minister said the earlier target of reaching five crore homes now stood revised upward at eight crores. It must be recalled that the Ujjwala project was one of the primary factors in the electoral victory of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

&nbsp;

This brings us to another fresh, and by all accounts, an unprecedented, measure the Finance Minister has announced and which could turn the tables in favour of the BJP in coming electoral battles: It has been billed as the world&rsquo;s largest government-funded healthcare system. It proposes to cover 10 crore targeted families (or roughly 50 crore people). The scheme ensures five lakh rupees per year to a family for covering its medical costs (hospitalisation etc). This is just a step away from what is generally known as universal health coverage.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

If this ambitious project were to work well, the demand for a universal basic income (which some lawmakers have favoured, and which even last year&rsquo;s Economic Survey of India had mooted), might not have a purpose. After all, the biggest fear of drain on the resources of a poor family is the fear of expensive medical attention. Do we see a ModiCare in the making?

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;

The government had correctly understood that a boost to rural India would have a far greater multiplier effect on the national economy than sops in the shape of tax concessions etc to the industry.

There were sufficient hints in recent months and so nobody can claim surprise over the Union Budget 2018-19 offerings. The Gujarat Assembly election result had demonstrated that rural voters were upset with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP had fared less well than it had expected in village local body elections in some States. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had admitted in his recent interviews that rural distress was a reality which his government had to soon address. Community-specific agitations that had occurred in rural parts of the country were seen as a manifestation of ground-level discontent among the people, though they were couched in quota-demand terms. All in all, an agri-rural crisis had shaped up, and it threatened to thwart the Bharatiya Janata Party’s march of electoral victories. The government had to do something, and there would not have been another big occasion for it, but this last full Budget of the regime’s current term. Can it be said that Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley has addressed those concerns effectively? The last word will be said only by the end of the coming fiscal year when the impact of the measures he has announced will be known. Needless to emphasise, implementation holds the key. But until then, we have to depend on what has been promised in the Budget. And here, there is no doubt that the government has taken to heart the electoral lessons it has learned over the past few months, and has sought to take corrective measures. Performers, generally, like to reserve their best for the middle or the end of their act. But Jaitley’s big-bang announcements came right in the beginning — in the first 45 minutes or so when he was at his freshest. He seemed to relish those moments when he let loose a slew of schemes to address the rural distress and provide health coverage to the very needy (many of whom reside in villages or semi-rural regions of the country). Indeed, in the later parts of his speech when he began to list proposals for the corporate sector, Jaitley appeared to do so rather perfunctorily. It was clear from his tone and from the impressions gathered by attentive listeners that this Budget was primarily about the rural poor and the agrarian sector. Implicit in this emphasis was the realisation that enough had been done and was being done for corporate India. More importantly, the government had correctly understood that a boost to rural India would have a far greater multiplier effect on the national economy than sops in the shape of tax concessions etc to the industry. Given that the rural sector employs close to 85 per cent of the country’s total workforce, it makes sense to empower that section of the population. If disposable income grows here, it will find its way in the consumer market — both for perishable and lasting goods. And this, in turn, would boost production in industry and, hopefully, lead to more employment in the organised sector. Conversely, a distressed rural economy can drag down the national growth figures. Besides, the political costs of alienating the large mass of rural voters (taken as a bloc, it is overwhelmingly the single largest) is one that no party in its right frame of mind will want to pay. Therefore, it would not be surprising if the BJP now extols the Budget to win the affections of voters in the coming elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — all with huge rural populations — later this year. Even if one concedes that the Union Finance Minister has been driven by necessity in framing a ‘pro-poor/pro-farmer/pro-marginalised’ Budget, it must also be admitted that he has adopted a wholistic rather than a bits-and-pieces approach. For instance, while he has proposed a hike of at least 1.5 times to the existing minimum support prices for the ensuing Kharif crops, he also appears to understand that a higher MSP alone does not address the grievances. Therefore, he has announced the upgradation of the existing rural haats where small and marginal farmers (86 per cent of the farmers come under this category) can sell their produce at remunerative prices. Jaitley has also proposed a cluster system for the cultivation of horticulture crops to enhance production and marketability. But, however, much the government does to improve the production and marketing of traditional crops, it knows that its plans to double farmers’ income by 2022 is simply unrealisable unless farmers have other means of income. The Finance Minister is, therefore, hoping that his proposal to create a fisheries, aquaculture infrastructure development coupled with the animal husbandry fund (totalling some Rs 10,000 crore), will encourage farmers to adopt these vocations and help double their income. The National Bamboo Mission, which gets a fund of Rs 1,290 crore, is expected to be immensely useful in the promotion of bamboo cultivation and connected industries — mostly in the small scale industry sector — especially in the North-East. There is more that the Finance Minister has unveiled to woo rural India. An institutional mechanism will be established to frame policies and practices for price and demand forecast for agri-produce; Kisan Credit Cards have been extended to fisheries and and animal husbandry farmers; a Rs 2,000 crore fund is proposed to be set up for the development and upgradation of agri-marketing infrastructure; and the agricultural credit disbursal target has been increased, albeit modestly, from Rs 10 lakh crore in the 2017-18 fiscal to Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19. But let’s not forget that rural distress does not only cover agriculture and allied activities. It relates to the lack of infrastructure, healthcare, roads, closer-to-home employment etc. The Finance Minister has offered a roughly Rs 14 lakh fund to enhance rural infrastructure and improve rural livelihood. The activities under this category would include the construction of houses, roads, toilets etc which would build capacities and generate jobs. Buoyed by the success of its Ujjwala scheme for providing free cooking gas connections to the rural poor women, the Minister said the earlier target of reaching five crore homes now stood revised upward at eight crores. It must be recalled that the Ujjwala project was one of the primary factors in the electoral victory of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. This brings us to another fresh, and by all accounts, an unprecedented, measure the Finance Minister has announced and which could turn the tables in favour of the BJP in coming electoral battles: It has been billed as the world’s largest government-funded healthcare system. It proposes to cover 10 crore targeted families (or roughly 50 crore people). The scheme ensures five lakh rupees per year to a family for covering its medical costs (hospitalisation etc). This is just a step away from what is generally known as universal health coverage. If this ambitious project were to work well, the demand for a universal basic income (which some lawmakers have favoured, and which even last year’s Economic Survey of India had mooted), might not have a purpose. After all, the biggest fear of drain on the resources of a poor family is the fear of expensive medical attention. Do we see a ModiCare in the making? (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Budget 2018 implies enough had been done for corporate India

Amid tensions along the<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/as-expected-budget-2018-friendly-to-farmers-big-on-health-stocks-fall-31454"> border with Pakistan, the finance minister</a> today announced an increase of 7.81 per cent in India&#39;s defence budget in 2018.

During his speech, the<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/union-budget-2018-govt-imposes-10-per-cent-surcharge-on-income-above-rs-50-lakh-31470"> finance minister lauded the </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/union-budget-2018-govt-imposes-10-per-cent-surcharge-on-income-above-rs-50-lakh-31470">defence</a> forces in the country for their contribution towards protecting India&#39;s border in the west and the east including in J&amp;K.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/business-economy/union-budget-2018-full-text-of-finance-minister-arun-jaitleys-speech-to-parliament-31464">Also Read:&nbsp;Full text of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley&#39;s speech to Parliament&nbsp;</a>

&quot;The government will take measures to develop two defence industrial production corridors in the country,&quot; Jaitley said during his budget speech.

The government has set 2.95 lakh crore for the defence budget in the next fiscal, out of the total allocation the outlay for the three defence services - Army, Navy and Air Force - &nbsp;for the purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware has been pegged at Rs 99,947 crore.

In effect, the defence outlay has been raised to Rs 2.95 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2.74 lakh crore in current year.

During his Budget speech, Jaitley said modernising and enhancing the operational capability has become the focal point for the defence forces.

The finance minister also&nbsp;emphasised that the government would be moving towards &quot;self reliance&quot; in defence production adding that private investment in defence production had been opened up, including liberalising foreign direct investment. &nbsp;

In a move to placate the ex-officers, Jaitley announced Rs 1,08,853 crore allocation for pension payments which is an increase of over 26 per cent from last year.

 
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w5SeNGdQQBI" width="560"></iframe> 
&nbsp;

Jaitley announced Rs 1,08,853 crore allocation for pension payments which is an increase of over 26 per cent from last year.

Amid tensions along the border with Pakistan, the finance minister today announced an increase of 7.81 per cent in India's defence budget in 2018. During his speech, the finance minister lauded the defence forces in the country for their contribution towards protecting India's border in the west and the east including in J&K. Also Read: Full text of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's speech to Parliament "The government will take measures to develop two defence industrial production corridors in the country," Jaitley said during his budget speech. The government has set 2.95 lakh crore for the defence budget in the next fiscal, out of the total allocation the outlay for the three defence services - Army, Navy and Air Force - for the purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware has been pegged at Rs 99,947 crore. In effect, the defence outlay has been raised to Rs 2.95 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2.74 lakh crore in current year. During his Budget speech, Jaitley said modernising and enhancing the operational capability has become the focal point for the defence forces. The finance minister also emphasised that the government would be moving towards "self reliance" in defence production adding that private investment in defence production had been opened up, including liberalising foreign direct investment. In a move to placate the ex-officers, Jaitley announced Rs 1,08,853 crore allocation for pension payments which is an increase of over 26 per cent from last year.

Budget 2018: Jaitley bets on defence forces, increases pension allocation

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