Public sector banks (PSBs) have written off bad loans of about Rs 5.82 lakh crore in the last five financial years, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. During 2024-25, the loan write-off of PSBs was at Rs 91,260 crore, compared to Rs 1.15 lakh crore in the previous fiscal, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Bharatiya Janata Party National general secretary Tarun Chugh said on Sunday that the BJP government does not work for the people by asking their religion and added that they are fulfilling the message of Prophet Muhammad by empowering Muslim women.
By democratising access to finance, empowering women and marginalised groups, and adapting to India's diverse regional landscapes, PMMY has helped fortify the country's grassroots growth engines, says Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, V Anantha Nageswaran.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sounded the poll bugle in Bihar, where assembly elections are due this year, calling for 'an NDA government, once again', which would protect the state from the 'evil intentions' of the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress combine.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the world has seen the power of India's indigenous weapons during Operation Sindoor, which is 'not over yet'.
The government on Friday doubled the limit of Mudra loan amount under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh under a new 'Tarun Plus' category to promote entrepreneurship in the country.
He said the transformation brought about by the fintech sector in India is not just limited to technology, but its social impact is far-reaching. He also stressed that fintech has dented the parallel economy and is bridging the gap between villages and cities on the financial services front. The prime minister also said that in the last 10 years, the fintech space has attracted investments of more than $31 billion and fintech startups have grown by 500 per cent.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced the doubling of the upper limit of Mudra loans to Rs 20 lakh to promote entrepreneurship in the country. "The limit of Mudra loans will be enhanced to Rs 20 lakh from the current Rs 10 lakh for those entrepreneurs who have availed and successfully repaid previous loans under the 'Tarun category', she said while presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha.
India's unemployment rate is at a record low and the country's labour market is undergoing a structural transformation, a report said on Tuesday. In the new report, the economists at the country's largest lender SBI also pitched for a "reinterpretation of old fashioned rhetoric" while looking at a subject like employment. "India's unemployment rate is at a record low, India's labour market is undergoing a deep structural transformation with self-entrepreneurship across all echelons and higher educational attainment emerging as key enablers," the report said.
The share of women employed in regular salaried jobs in urban India hit a fresh low in the January-March quarter (Q4) of 2023-24 (FY24). In the same period, the share of women engaged in self-employment went up. An analysis of the latest quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data showed the share of women in regular wage work among all employed women stood at 52.3 per cent in Q4FY24, down from 53 per cent in the previous quarter.
Introducing the 128th Constitution Amendment Bill, which was approved by a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Meghwal recounted the measures initiated by the Narendra Modi government for the empowerment of women over the last nine years.
As more companies ask their employees to return to office after the pandemic, the share of women employed in regular salaried jobs in urban India decreased from 54 per cent in the first quarter to 52.8 per cent in the second quarter of the current financial year, according to the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data. The slump in the share is the lowest in wage employment in any quarter in the last six years when the National Statistical Office started releasing the quarterly PLFS surveys in Q3 of FY19. The share of women in wage work was highest in Q1 of FY21 at 61.2 per cent.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
The prime minister took no names but made an apparent reference to reports about "rate card" for different government jobs in the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and prevalence of "cut money" in the state.
CAIT has attributed its displeasure to the economic downturn, and indifferent attitude of ministers/officials towards domestic trade.
The PM targeted the Opposition after launching the National Sickle Cell Anemia Eradication Mission 2047 by unveiling a portal and releasing a guideline for the management of the disease and different modules at Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh.
After taking benefit of the scheme, jobs increased by around 11 mn in establishments that took loans.
Experts attribute the lower target to increased allocation under the credit guarantee scheme for small businesses. Out of the Rs 3.21 trillion worth loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in the last financial year, Rs 3.12 trillion were disbursed to entrepreneurs, according to official data.
A total of 22.05 crore applications were received during the period.
Noting that Goddess Durga was worshipped as a symbol of 'Shakti' (strength), Modi said his government was consistently working for the empowerment of women.
Taking a sceptical view of MUDRA program, Shiv Sena sought to know when the distressed farmers get help and how does the government plan to curb their suicides.
It was widely expected that this time around, the government would be less likely to initiate fresh reforms and rather loosen its belt a little to give various segments of the economy, especially the multitudes that truly constitute India, something to smile about, says Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
This is part of the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2020-21 moved by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha.
The Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana can lend between Rs 50,000-Rs 10 lakh to small entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs to get support from the government
'India is the only country whose economy is strong and growing fast.'
"People forgot about income for farmers. But for the first time, this thinking has been changed," he said and listed steps the Centre has taken for the welfare of farmers.
Former RBI governors Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan have also expressed worry about the Mudra scheme, particularly government's target-setting practice and the rising bad loans.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
Not only has the Mudra loan mela generated no jobs, it has frittered away trillions of taxpayers' money and it's time to bury the scheme, argues Debashis Basu.
Replying to the general discussion on Budget in Lok Sabha, she said the former Congress chief was creating fake narratives but does not have patience to listen to replies on allegations levelled against the government.
Rural populations will get will get employment in the industrial corridors following amendments to the land acquisition bill.
MUDRA Bank will have a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.
Modi said he used the 'bitter medicine' of demonetisation to bring back money into banking system.
The President said that because of the policies of the government foreign investment has increased from $36 billion to $60 billion during the period.
Launching a veiled attack on Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, who he did not mention by name, Modi said Bihar has come out of an era when rail, road and internet connectivity were made light of and people used to say of what use roads are for those who walk on their feet.
The party says it has trained over 1,00,000 workers in the last one year.
Modi said the National Democratic Alliance government wouldn't have been able to do any development work in the country without the support of the people.
Addressing the nation for the fourth time since he took office in 2014, the prime minister called upon the citizens to perform their duties towards the nation and co-operate to work towards a common goal of peace, harmony and development in the country.
The RBI panel has also recommended a government-sponsored 'fund of funds' of Rs 10,000 crore to support the venture capital and private equity firms investing in the MSME sector.
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