GST will also make our exports more competitive and also provide a level playing field to domestic industry to compete with imports, the President said.

Formidable challenges including funds for the farm loan-waiver, and law and order stare him at his face, with the opposition claiming the misses have outnumbered the hits.

'I can tell you, Mr Chairman, from personal experience that there is nothing sadder than witnessing a close one, a loved one with mental illness at close quarters.' 'I have lived with a victim of mental illness. Like many in that condition, very often such people are in a state of denial.'

The bill seeks to ensure health-care, treatment and rehabilitation of persons with mental illness "in a manner that does not intrude on their rights and dignity."

Earlier, while presenting the Budget on February 1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to cap cash transactions at Rs 300,000 with effect from April 1.

The opposition Congress could muster only 16 votes against the government with one of its legislators absenting from the crucial floor test.

Successors of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during Partition will have no claim over the properties left behind in India, with Parliament on Tuesday passing a bill to amend a 49-year-old law.

Michael Phelps urged US lawmakers on Tuesday to push for a reform of the global anti-doping effort in sport after a career in which the Olympic great said he was never confident he was competing against clean athletes.

Taking a leaf from the US, Canada and the UK, where students and research scholars get to work with Parliamentary panels, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is pushing for induction of interns in the Parliamentary standing committees.

'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.

Despite a temporary relief, foreign investors still see the sword of double-taxation hanging above their hard earned returns.

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

"Every action we take will be designed to ensure our military is ready to fight today and in the future," Mattis said on Friday in a message to department of defense soon after he was being sworn in as head of the Pentagon by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House.

Stockmarket participants expect the Budget to be a major trigger for Indian equities.

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

This is the highest number of Indian-Americans in the history of the US Congress.

The government is learnt to have described the Union Budget as an annual constitutional exercise covering the entire country and not just a few states.

While the session will begin with the President's address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, the same day the pre-budget economic survey will be tabled.

The early tabling of the financial Budget ends a 70-year tradition.

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.

The Union Cabinet will soon take a call on setting up Railway Development Authority of India, an independent regulator, which will decide on passenger and freight rates

Drawing continuous flak from the Supreme Court for not implementing the Lodha Committee recommendations, Board of Control for Cricket in India president Anurag Thakur on Monday said the state units are currently confused about some of the suggestions and need more clarity before complying.

A Durga Puja pandal in New Delhi turns literature into art.

Qatar is to construct a special Bedouin-style desert camp to house thousands of fans during the 2022 World Cup as the Gulf state looks to broaden accommodation for the tournament beyond the limited number of apartments and hotels. A fan village among the sand dunes close to the Saudi border will house up to 2,000 visitors in Arabian tents, allowing them to experience the desert from close quarters, Qatar's World Cup organising committee said in a statement on Tuesday. "We will allow visitors from outside the country to enjoy Qatar and their football experience in an entirely new way," said the committee's Abdulaziz al-Mawlawi.

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 Union Budget for 2017 is likely to be presented on February 1. An approval for merging the Railway Budget with the General Budget was accorded by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday.

Also on the anvil is abolition of distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure and replacing it with capital and revenue expenditure

'It will be interesting to see how Dr Patel handles gadflies with the maturity of egregiously petulant three year olds.' 'That Dr Patel does not, in so far as we can tell, cause society matrons to gush like hormonal teenagers can only be a good thing for him.' 'Look where their febrile imaginations and breathless prose took his predecessor.'

In July, IRS officers in Mumbai held an incendiary meeting where they criticised the alleged interference in 'operational matters' by the department of revenue.

'This may seem like a lyrical lamenting of a writer, but it is the sad reality in and outside the industry. In films, nine out of 10 times the writer's name is not mentioned in posters, publicity or even reviews.' Screenwriter Anjum Rajabali and actress-writer Preeti Mamgain hope to make way for Bollywood's writers.

Rio de Janeiro will deliver a successful Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Sunday, despite delays in preparations, lack of funds and the country suffering from its biggest political and economic turmoil in decades.

After Raghuram Rajan leaves, the world for the succeeding RBI governors will be distinctly different.

Upon implementation of the 7th Pay Commission the expected yearly burden on the central exchequer will be more than Rs 100,000 crore. Central government employees will get on an average a 24 per cent pay hike. Still, the unions aren't happy.

The session will have 20 working days for now.

The recent revelations come six years after another round of tapes stole the limelight.

There is a case for analysing the fiscal deficit, separately for expenditure and investment.

"The poor will not suffer disproportionately due to bouts of sharp inflation, and the middle class will not see its savings eroded," Raghuram Rajan said.

'We have about Rs 4 lakh crore debt on a state budget of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.' 'We are in a debt two-and-a-half times our annual budget,' says the banker who would have been Tamil Nadu's finance minister had the DMK won.