The Ministry of Finance has released loans worth Rs 66,745 crore to 28 states under the Scheme for 'Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment'. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the scheme is aimed at boosting capital expenditure by states. Under the scheme, special assistance is being provided to the state governments in the form of a 50-year interest-free loan up to an overall sum of Rs 1.3 lakh crore during the financial year 2023-24. Between April 1, 2023, and February 1, 2024, Rs 66,745.21 crore has been released to 28 states under the Scheme for 'Special Assistance to States for Investment', Chaudhary said. In the 2022-23 fiscal, Rs 81,195.35 crore was released under the scheme. Capital investment projects in diverse sectors have been approved, including health, education, irrigation, water supply, power, roads, bridges and railways. Funds for meeting the state share of Jal Jeevan Mission and Pradhan Mantri Gram S

Employment fell marginally in 2020-21 due to the pandemic but gained momentum in 2021-22 with 7 per cent year-on-year growth in the manufacturing sector, according to the Annual Survey of Industries. "In fact, the estimated number of persons engaged in this (manufacturing) sector in 2021-22 has exceeded the pre-pandemic level (that is 2018-19) by more than 9.35 lakh," a Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) statement said. At the same time, it added that average emoluments also registered an increase. Average salary earned per employee in this sector had gone up by 1.7 per cent in 2020-21 and 8.3 per cent in 2021-22, in comparison to respective previous years, it explained. "Due to the Covid pandemic, there had been a marginal fall in employment in 2020-21, which was more than compensated in the subsequent year i.e. in 2021-22, with total estimated employment in the sector showing a robust growth of 7.0 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y)," it said. The number of .

For FY26, OECD has kept its growth forecast for India unchanged at 6.5 per cent

The government is making constant efforts to bring the prices of compressed natural gas under control and has delinked Indian gas prices from four international hubs based in US, Canada, UK and Russia, and aligned them to the Indian crude basket, Oil minister Hardeep Puri informed the Rajya Sabha. Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, he said the government is encouraging consumption of compressed natural gas as it is relatively a cleaner fuel. "The government has ensured that while global prices were witnessing turbulence, massive increases and shortfall. Lockdown prices do not reflect reality prices, as during the lockdown crude prices came down to USD 19.56 per barrel and then shot up to USD 128 and USD 130 per barrel. "In April 2023, we rationalised the CNG prices and as a result while global prices shot up, domestic gas price was much lower, 83 per cent lower," the minister told the upper house. "It is our constant effort to provide more gas for domestic cook

The government has taken several steps to ramp up domestic production of coal and is committed to reducing shipments of all substitutable grade coal, Parliament was informed on Monday. Coal import for blending dropped 44.3 per cent in April-November FY24 over the year-ago period, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. "The focus of the government is on increasing the domestic production of coal and to eliminate non-essential imports of coal in the country. Most of the requirements of coal in the country are met through indigenous production/supply," he said. The country imported 169.08 MT of coal in April-November FY24. The import was 237.67 MT in FY23, 208.63 MT in FY22 and 215.25 MT in FY21.

The government on Monday sought Parliament's nod for a net additional spending of Rs 78,673 crore in the current financial year, including Rs 10,798 crore expenditure towards MGNREGA. The second batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2023-24 was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also provides for additional spending of Rs 9,231 crore and Rs 3,000 crore towards food and fertiliser subsidy, respectively. The supplementary demands for grants include a gross additional spending of over Rs 2 lakh crore, which would be matched by savings of over Rs 1.21 lakh crore. The proposal involves net cash outgo aggregating to Rs 78,672.92 crore, said the document tabled in Parliament. The Interim Budget for 2024-25 has pegged the government's total expenditure in the current financial year at Rs 44.90 lakh crore, up 7.1 per cent from 2022-23. Other major spending heads include Rs 9,162 crore for payments to defence services and Rs 3,890 crore towards defence ...

To bring down the debt burden, the government has taken various measures like increasing the tax revenue buoyancy, enhancing the public expenditure effectiveness, commitment to reducing fiscal deficit and augmenting the productive efficiency, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. In addition to strengthening the financial system, the government has more than doubled its effective capital expenditure from Rs 6.57 lakh crore in 2020-21 to Rs 13.71 lakh crore and Rs 14.97 lakh crore in 2023-24 (BE) and 2024-25 (BE), respectively, to crowd in private investments, she said in the Lok Sabha. The government's emphasis on increasing capital expenditure will not only boost the investments, but also return a higher GDP growth to lower the debt burden, she said. Simultaneously, she said, the state governments have been incentivised to increase their capital spending through measures like 50-year interest-free capex loans and front-loading of tax devolution instalments. Various .

January figure marks 30 months of the index remaining above the 50-mark since July 2021. A reading above 50 in the survey indicates expansion of the sector and a figure below that suggests contraction

Chinese Consul General in Mumbai Kong Xianhua has said the economic and cultural connections between the people of China and India are so strong that nothing and nobody could push them apart. Kong was addressing a gathering on Friday on the occasion of the Chinese New Year Reception and Chinese Cultural Festival in Mumbai. He said that 2023 marked a year of achievements and harvest for both China and India. "It is the extensive cooperation between our people that makes it happen," he said. The China-India trade volume surpassed 136.2 billion dollars in 2023, he said. The Chinese Embassy and its Consulates-General in India have issued more than 1.8 lakh visas in the last year, showing a new high of Indian visitors to China after the pandemic, he said. One of the biggest news in Mumbai these days is that the Coastal Road is set to open this month, he said. "It is worth noting that the tunnel under Malabar Hill (in south Mumbai), the hardest part of the project, was built with a Ch

The government on Monday sought Lok Sabha's approval for a net additional spending of Rs 78,673 crore in the current financial year. The second batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2023-24 fiscal was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The supplementary demands for grants includes a gross additional spending of over Rs 2 lakh crore, which would be matched by savings of over Rs 1.21 lakh crore. The proposal involves net cash outgo aggregating to Rs 78,672.92 crore, said the document tabled in the Lok Sabha.

India's crude oil imports from Russia fell for a second straight month in January to its lowest in 12 months but the nation's insatiable appetite for Russian crude remains for the long term, according to data from energy cargo tracker and industry officials. Russia supplied 1.2 million barrels per day of crude oil to India in January, down from 1.32 million barrels in December and 1.62 million barrels in November 2023, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia however continues to remain India's top oil supplier, accounting for a little less than a quarter of 4.91 million barrels a day of oil that the world's third largest energy consumer imported in January. The decline in cargoes from Russia was made up by increased sourcing from Iraq, which supplied 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, up from 985,000 bpd in the previous month. Supplies from Saudi Arabia declined to 659,000 bpd from 668,000 bpd in December. India is more than 85 per cent dependent on .

Experts suggest that given the economic size of India and its acceleration towards being the third largest economy, at least a couple of banks of global size are required to facilitate the growth

According to the HSBC India Services PMI, new business placed with Indian service providers increased at the fastest rate in six months during January

The guidelines signed on January 25 said that the applications on PARIVESH 1.0 that haven't shown progress in the past 90 days will be deemed inactive and rejected

The Interim Budget documents for FY25 show central government employee strength is estimated to peak in 2024 at 3.51 million, growing 12 per cent over the preceding year

There is no adverse impact on India's exports and imports so far due to the Red Sea crisis, an official said. The official said that the transportation cost has increased as the shippers are taking a long route. "There is no impact in volume terms so far. Only the transportation cost is up. It has risen for all the countries. It has not affected the trade adversely so far. We have to see the long term demand, but it will depend on the EU and the US," the official added. These two regions account for over 30 per cent of the country's total exports. However, exporters said that they are keeping their fingers crossed as due to the significant jump in freight cost, India's exports may be impacted. The trade data for January will be released by the commerce ministry on February 15. In December last year, exports rose marginally by one per cent to USD 38.45 billion. Due to the attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels on commercial ships, the movement of goods from the Red Sea, the world's

The existing taxation structure for corporates with a 22 per cent tax is "very reasonable" when compared to an economy of the size of India and hence the concessional tax regime which was in force for four years for new manufacturing units was not extended beyond March 2024, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said. In an interview with PTI, Malhotra said the Interim Budget 2024-25 provides for continuity in taxation regime and the benefits given to taxpayers in the last years are showing results in the form of huge buoyancy in personal income tax. "Taxpayer services have been a major focus of the government and this will continue going forward. Taxpayer services includes rationalisation, simplification and trust-based taxation with less scrutiny and more pinpointed assessments and use of technology. We are hopeful taxpayer services will continue to improve helping us in compliance and improving tax collection efficiency," Malhotra said. To a question on why the concessional tax regim

Coming close on the heels of the interim budget which maintained the status quo on policy front, the Reserve Bank is likely to continue with the pause on the short-term lending rate in its upcoming bi-monthly monetary policy this week as retail inflation is still near the higher end of its comfort zone, say experts. It is almost a year since the Reserve Bank has kept the short-term lending rate or repo rate stable at 6.5 per cent. The benchmark interest rate was last raised in February 2023 to 6.5 per cent from 6.25 per cent to contain inflation driven mainly by global developments. The retail inflation in the current financial year has declined after touching a peak of 7.44 per cent in July, 2023, it is still high and was 5.69 per cent in December 2023, though within the Reserve Bank's comfort zone of 4-6 per cent. RBI Governor-headed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will start its three-day deliberations on February 6. Governor Shaktikanta Das will announce the decision of the ...

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said India is in the driving seat of the Quad, while America is in the seat next to it with the corrective steering wheel, and added that it is up to India to "forcefully define" the nature of the diplomatic partnership. Garcetti, speaking here at the 17th edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), used a rather unique analogy of 'eating, drinking and sharing a ride together' to explain the different roles of member countries in the Quad. The Quad is a diplomatic partnership between India, the US, Australia, and Japan to deepen economic, diplomatic, and military ties among the four countries. "India is very much in the driver seat of the Quad... may be America is in the next seat with the corrective steering wheel, I think Japan has been an avid navigator from the beginning and Australia is really excited to be back in the car and asking if everybody has enough to drink and eat, and where we are going. "So it is a great time and we love these

The government in October imposed a 28% tax on funds that online gaming companies collect from their customers for every bet, shocking a nascent $1.5 billion industry that is backed by global investor