Congress highlighted internship programme, employment-linked incentive scheme and abolition of angel tax as examples of ideas Modi govt ‘copied’ from its Lok Sabha polls manifesto.
Sitharaman also announced an initiative for increased connectivity to rural habitations, and introduced an interest subsidy to facilitate affordable housing loans.
The allocation, at 3.4% of GDP, remains unchanged from the figure announced in interim budget in February, and is 11% higher than last year’s outlay of Rs 10 lakh crore.
It was NDA that introduced Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in 2016. IBC replaced earlier framework which was governed by various laws that made the process cumbersome.
‘Angel tax’, introduced in 2012 in an attempt to prevent money laundering, referred to the tax imposed on excess capital raised over fair market value.
Besides development of Vishnupad and Mahabodhi temple corridors, Union Budget also proposed industrial node for Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor at Gaya in Bihar.
Trastuzumab deruxtecan, osimertinib & durvalumab to become more affordable for cancer patients. But no new initiatives or push to ongoing projects in the healthcare sector in the budget.
Urban development among nine priority areas in this year’s budget. Since 2014, Centre has been implementing land reforms in rural areas. Now, it aims to do so in urban areas.
In terms of pure numbers, the total defence budget for 2024-25 stands at Rs 6,21,940 crore as against Rs 6.23 lakh crore in the revised estimates for the last fiscal.
In Episode 1544 of CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta looks at some top economists pointing to the pitfalls of ‘currency nationalism’ with data from 1991 to 2004.
Using this technology, IDF carried out fully robotic combat missions, drastically reducing risk to Israeli troops. The robotic combat task force also enhanced situational awareness.
While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.
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