'The idea behind the new rules is that slaughter markets must buy directly from the farms as is the case in the bloody world.' 'The cattle markets have become centres for the organised beef mafia.'

Piloting the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said it will extinguish the government's liability towards scrapped notes and also eliminate the possibility of their bring used as parallel currency.

'The world is going to be more insular.' 'What India needs to do is develop the domestic market for domestic consumption.' 'The emphasis has to be on Bharat as against India.'

In a Q&A with Doordarshan, Jaitley discusses how he chose the areas on which he would spend more.

Softening the demonetisation blow, the Budget for 2017-18 on Wednesday halved the tax to 5 per cent on incomes up to Rs 500,000 but proposed a new surcharge of 10 per cent on incomes between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore and raised duties on cigarettes and pan masala while stepping up allocations for infrastructure, rural, agriculture and social sectors.

Government looking at cushioning slowdown due to demonetisation with sops and higher outlay for micro, small and medium enterprises, agriculture, and affordable housing.

Incoming US President Donald Trump has assembled a core team that is -- not surprisingly -- overwhelmingly white and male.

One Raj Shah has been the top Indian American in the Obama administration; the other Raj Shah is poised to play a key role in the Trump administration.

The most serious recommendations to change the financial year came in the years preceded by deficient rainfall. The Jha committee was formed after droughts in 1979-80 and 1982-83, reports Rishika Pardikar/IndiaSpend.

In the third of a six-part series, Business Standard travels through diamond and textile units in Surat to assess the impact of demonetisation.

The Assam government has taken the initiative to pay workers their wages electronically and has asked banks to open branches adjacent to tea gardens and install ATMs in estates.

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Opposition parties on Wednesday alleged that selective leak of information on demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes to 'friends of BJP' and demanded making public the names of those who had bought gold and foreign exchange of over Rs 1 crore since April.

FPIs, which are holding large exposures in Indian debt, could also be expected to book some capital gains as yields slide down

The Congress, out of power in UP for 27 years is making a big pitch to bounce back, on a cocktail of caste politics and promises of agriculture debt waiver worth Rs 49,000 crore and power rate reduction for farmers hit by high input costs and diminishing returns., reports Amit Agnihotri.

The manifesto said that loans of poor farmers and farm labourers will be waived off and loans of SCs and BCs will also be waived off.

'You cannot treat workers like beggars.'

'Only the smoke is coming out now. Let us prevent the lava from coming out by taking proper measures.' 'I have told every leader that you cannot have a stable government without winning the confidence of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the most backward castes.' 'Leaders feel that by giving a sop here and there and by symbolic actions, they can win votes. That's all they want. Votes.'

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday kept the repo rate unchanged 6.50 per cent.

A minimum levy of 12 per cent GST on tea will increase the cost, which will ultimately be passed on to consumers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Tanzania where he held talks with Tanzanian President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli.

Surat had bagged the fourth rank under the Smart Cities Mission based on its proposal.

'India is no longer the India of the '70s and the '80s.' 'It's a large country with the fastest growing economy.' 'In working with India, you just can't go and humiliate the nation publicly.' USIBC President Mukesh Aghi tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com about how he advises American companies to do business with India, what he thinks of Modi's government and the way forward for the India-US relationship.

AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday restructured the party's apex body.

Arun Jaitley interview.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front on Wednesday suggested further tightening of the measures on liquor policy if it returns to power.

The bill would prohibit unaccounted money from being pumped into the sector and as now 70 per cent of the money has to be deposited in bank accounts through cheques.

'On the tax front, most of the Budget proposals are sensible'.

Arun Jaitley had a tough fiscal hill to climb.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday presented the Union Budget for 2016-17.

Despite various political leaders, including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealing protesting Jats to maintain calm and peace, the incidents of violence and arson continued during the night in various parts of the state, crippling the normal life in worst affected places like Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Hisar.

Once these banks start showing losses, they will not be able to pay dividends to the government nor pay taxes, which will further aggravate the situation for the government as its return on investment as an investor would be very negligible for the next few years, says M V Subramanian.

Veteran Congress leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar passed away in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was 92.

A raise in the I-T exemption limit has been sought by many.

With logjam in the Upper House leaving key bills in the limbo, Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari has called an all-party meeting on Friday.

For all the blame-game over the flood preparedness in Chennai and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, this is not the first of its kind. Nor would it be the last, given the nature of the north-east monsoon, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.

'Everybody was ready to agree with the government if the process to acquire land was a judicious one. All of us want industrialisation and development of the country.'

The future too looks grim.

The NITI Aayog will now assimilate the views of states and then present a report to the PM.

The proposed changes to the child labour law to allow children and adolescents to work for their families would be most retrograde and regressive, say Shinzani Jain and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.