Budget: Focus On Health, Farmers, Polls; Relief For Seniors Above 75
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday proposed more than doubling the healthcare spending to Rs 2.2 lakh crore. Out of this, an amount of Rs 35,000 crore has been allocated for developing Covid-19 vaccines.
- The government has increased capital expenditure by around 34 per cent to Rs 5.54 lakh crore in an attempt to nurse the country's economy back to health. Budget 2021 provided every opportunity for the economy to capture pace and grow sustainably, Ms Sitharaman said.
- Ms Sitharaman expanded the National Infrastructure Pipeline to cover 7,400 projects by 2025. She also announced the creation of a development finance institution called the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, with a capital base of Rs 20,000 crore and a lending target of Rs 5 lakh crore over a 3-years time horizon
- In an incentive to the farming community, the government announced an increase in agriculture credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore in FY 2021-22. The Finance Minister also gave an assurance that the procurement of produce by the government under the minimum support price (MSP) will continue at a steady pace.
- The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the insurance sector has been increased from 49 per cent to 74 per cent
- In a big relief to citizens, the Finance Minister announced that the compliance burden will be reduced for citizens aged 75 years and above. Senior citizens with only one pension and interest scheme are exempted from filing income tax returns.
- Ms Sitharaman said the government will infuse Rs 20,000 crore into public sector banks (PSBs) in 2021-22 in order to meet the regulatory norms. For the current financial year, the government had made a provision of Rs 20,000 crore towards recapitalisation.
- In order to incentivise the purchase of affordable house, the finance minister proposed to extend the period for claiming an additional deduction for the interest of Rs 1.5 lakh paid for home loans by one year to March 31, 2022
- Nirmala Sitharaman announced special infrastructure projects for poll-bound states of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. A whooping 1.03 lakh crore has been set aside for Tamil Nadu;Â Kerala has been earmarked Rs 65,000 crore and Assam has received Rs 34,000 crore.
- According to Ms Sitharaman, Budget 2021 proposals rest on six pillars. These are Health and Well-Being, Physical and Financial capital and infrastructure, Inclusive Development for Aspirational India, Reinvigorating Human Capital, Innovation and R&D, and Minimum Government, and Maximum Governance.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
