The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) hailed the Union Budget 2020 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, it said that the budget could have gone further to liberalize some sectors. “USISPF is pleased to see a focus on inclusive growth, aspirational India, ease of living for all citizens, and digital technologies for economic growth in the 2020 Union Budget. However, we believe the budget could have gone further to liberalize sectors such as insurance that are in need capital. Despite a slowdown in growth, the global outlook for investment in India remains strong and therefore the budget was a…
Author: Our Correspondent
Indian-American Sabrina Singh, who served as a former top aide to New Jersey Senator Cory Bookers unsuccessful White House bid, has been appointed as the national spokesperson for Democratic candidate Michael Bloombergs presidential campaign. Singh, who also previously served as a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), took to Twitter on Thursday to announce her new innings with a vow to help defeat President Donald Trump, The American Bazaar said in a report. “Some personal news… I have joined @MikeBloomberg @Mike2020 as national spokesperson! I’m beyond excited to work with this incredible team to defeat Donald Trump,” she tweeted.…
Railways has got a budgetary allocation of Rs 70,000 crore and the highest-ever outlay for capital expenditure amounting to Rs 1.61 lakh crore from Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in the Union Budget for 2020-21 presented on Saturday. The capital expenditure of Rs 1.61 crore is higher than revised estimate of 2019-20 by 2.99 per cent. Last year, the outlay for the railways was Rs 1.60 lakh crore while the Budget allocation was Rs 65,837 crore. In the 2020-21 Budget, funds of Rs 12,000 crore been allocated for construction of new lines, Rs 2,250 crore for gauge conversion, Rs 700 crore for…
After Thiruvalluvar and Pisirandaiyar it was the turn of Tamil saint-poetess Avvaiyar to be quoted by Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman during her Budget speech. Presenting the 2020-21 Budget in Parliament on Saturday, Sitharaman while speaking about the government’s plan to encourage balanced use of all kinds of fertilisers instead of just chemical fertiliser quoted a small verse from ‘Aathichoodi’ by saint-poetess Avvaiyar. Sitharaman said Avvaiyar in just three words had said: “BhoomiThiruthiOon” meaning tend and till the land and eat. In her Aathichoodi, Avvaiyar in simple style, in just two or three words, had expressed a profound message. Sitharaman had…
A group of nearly 150 Pakistani nationals stuck at an airport China’s Xinjiang region for the past four days amidst the deadly coronavirus outbreak have appealed to the Imran Khan-led government in Islamabad to evacuate them. The Pakistani citizens, most of whom are students and their families with the rest being traders, have been trapped at the airport in Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, for several days as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to over 250, prompting the World Health Organisation to declare it as a global health emergency, reports Dawn news. They…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems keen to present a Budget that goes beyond incrementalism and gradualism. On January 6, he held a series of meetings with Indian Inc, economists and experts on the Union Budget for 2020-21. “He was open to criticism and heard out suggestions and seems keen to present a budget that goes beyond incrementalism and gradualism,” a source said. The Modi government seems to be getting ready to roll out a series of bold initiatives in the Union Budget. The PM has held as many as 12 meetings with sectoral experts and is investing a lot of…
Breaking the British stereotype of using a briefcase for the budget documents, Nirmala Sitharaman brought out her ‘Bahi-Khata’ for the Union Budget 2019. Keeping up with her new tradition, the union minster brought with her this year’s Khata for the Union Budget 2020. As Sitharaman prepares to deliver her budget speech today, the five key people in the government who are working behind the scenes to draw up the income-and-spending plan. Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Disinvestment Secretary | Tuhin Kanta Pandey is responsible for the strategic sale of Air India Ltd. — bids for which were invited Monday — and other state-owned…
Three terrorists were gunned down in an encounter in Jammu on Friday and the security forces arrested three overground workers while the search is on for the fourth terrorist, the police said. One policeman was also injured in the encounter. The incident took place at around 5.45 a.m., when a police team was randomly checking vehicles near the Nagrota toll post on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and intercepted a Srinagar-bound truck. Speaking to IANS, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said: “The module is from a fresh infiltration that could have happened from the International Border…
National carrier Air India’s special flight operated to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, to evacuate Indians stranded there, landed at the IGI airport here on Saturday. Accordingly, the flight ferried back 324 Indian nationals. The airline said that the special flight landed at Delhi airport at 7.26 a.m. Air India started evacuation of Indians from Wuhan with the first special flight which was operated using a double decker jumbo 747 with 15 cabin crew and five cockpit crew. The flight had departed from Indira Gandhi International Airport (T3), Delhi for the central Chinese…
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddiyurappa will induct 11 new ministers into his ministry, a BJP spokesperson said on Friday. “Amongst 11 ministers, maybe nine will be accommodated (from by-election winners) and another three from the regular BJP cadres,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson G. Madhusudhana told IANS. However, he said he was not privy to any names that would feature in the final list. Commenting on the amount of time being taken to expand the cabinet, Madhusudhana said 11 non-BJP candidates winning the by-election and all of them being promised a ministerial berth has created imbalances. “…the entry of 11…