Defence expenditure was pegged at 1.4 per cent of GDP in the Budget for 2025-26 but it may widen, depending on tensions between India and Pakistan.
In 2024, Pakistan shelled out $10.2 billion in defence spends.
'When Prime Minister Modi met President Trump, they agreed to initiate a bilateral trade dialogue.' 'It makes sense to give these negotiations a chance.'
'But I don't think the government is in a great hurry to sign the BTA.'
The Archaeological Survey of India informed the JPC that 280 protected monuments have been listed as Waqf properties.
Among the cities that have fully implemented their projects are Agra, Varanasi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Udaipur, Pune, Surat, and Vadodara
Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha budgets maintain revenue surpluses despite welfare schemes while Rajasthan and West Bengal face high debt, fiscal deficits and low capital outlay.
Schemes like the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana strain fiscal resources amid rising unemployment and prices of food items.
Amid a debate on the basis of a monetary policy stance, one may be curious enough to know how non-food retail inflation has behaved over the years in India. Let the eager souls catch a glimpse of facts. In the past 10 years, non-food inflation came down below 4 per cent on two occasions - pre-Covid period of 2019-20 and now in the first four months of the current financial year (FY25).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director (MD) Gita Gopinath has condemned the "terrible and disturbing" incident of rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata. "Personally, it is terrible to have any event of this kind. It is disturbing," she told Business Standard in New Delhi.
Alloting more funds for MNREGA and PM-KISAN could wipe out the entire additional money that the Centre may have for FY25.
Average monthly GST collection rose from Rs 90,000 crore during the first year of its implementation -- 2017-2018 -- to Rs 1.68 trillion during 2023-2024, representing an 87 per cent rise.
Adding petrol and diesel to GST was a challenging task due to their significant role as revenue generators for both the central and state governments.
'The expeditious enactment of labour codes and strategic measures to bridge the skills jobs gap are critical.'
'The prime minister's comment on 'revdi culture' was welcome. But I am disappointed he did not follow up on that.' 'All political parties, including the BJP, have been guilty of this.' 'Now, Modi's guarantees, the Congress's 'nyay' path and both ruling and Opposition parties are vying with each other for freebies in my home state Andhra Pradesh.'
Services provided by Indian information-technology (IT), marketing, and consulting companies to foreign clients may not always draw integrated goods and services tax (IGST) if a ruling by the Authority for Advance Rulings' (AAR's) Telangana Bench becomes a precedent. The AAR gave its ruling on a specific case of referral services provided by the Hyderabad-based Center for International Admission and Visas (CIAV) to foreign universities and colleges for admitting Indian students.
In a case related to Mumbai-based Jai Trust versus Union government, the court ruled that a gift is a consideration-less transaction, and hence, not liable for capital gains tax. It quashes the reassessment notice issued by the tax authorities alleging that a specific income has escaped assessment on transfer of shares as gift by the trust.
The state's economic health is in focus as it has consistently breached the fiscal deficit in eight of the last 10 years since Telangana's formation.
Direct tax collection, net of refunds, moderately exceeded the revised estimates (RE) for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) on the back of personal income tax revenues, but corporation tax receipts fell short of the RE. Net direct tax collection stood at Rs 19.58 trillion in FY24, surpassing the RE of Rs 19.45 trillion by Rs 13,000 crore, or 0.7 per cent. The government had revised up FY24 projections for personal income tax by 13.5 per cent over the Budget estimates (BE) of Rs 9 trillion, at Rs 10.22 trillion.
The new excise policy, introduced in Delhi in November 2021, made sweeping changes to the city's liquor trade.