Heena Sharma Blog

  The government on Monday announced a Rs 18,000 crore scheme to augment public transport in urban areas. In the first paperless Union Budget , Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there will be 100 per cent electrification of broad gauge rail tracks by December 2023. She also said a record Rs 1,10,055 crore will be provided for railways, of which Rs 1,07,100 crore will be for capital expenditure in 2021-22. Read More

  Budget 2021 LIVE updates : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting her third Union Budget in Parliament. Sitharaman said the Budget for 2021-22 rests on six pillars – from healthcare to infrastructure. The finance minister has also announced a total spend of around Rs 2 trillion on healthcare and mega national highway projects in election-bound states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala. The Budget speech is being keenly watched by both domestic and foreign investors, various interest groups like farmers, anxious middle class and corporate entities, besides parliamentarians. As the Covid-19 pandemic hit India last year, the government witnessed a rising expenditure and tumbling revenue, even as economic activity came to a standstill due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. However, the economy is now in a recovery mode. On Friday, the government tabled the Economic Survey 2020, which pegged India's real GDP growth at 11 per cent in FY22. Meanwhile, the finan...

  In a significant change amid digitalisation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman this year unveiled a ' Made in India ' tablet replacing the traditional briefcase before presenting Budget 2021 . With the move aimed at a paperless Budget, now 'bahi khata' (a ledger wrapped in a red cloth) has been completely removed from this year -- a move to reinforce Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Digital India' mission. In 1947, India's first Finance Minister R. K. Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio to present the first Budget. In January, the Central government also launched 'Union Budget Mobile App' on the occasion of the Halwa ceremony to enable MPs and people to access Budget documents digitally. It was launched as no budget papers will be printed this year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sitharaman, who will present the Budget for the third time, is expected to lift and give an impetus to the Indian economy that has been...

  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her third Budget in a short while from now. Here are the key numbers to watch out for in the Budget for 2021-22 , which is widely expected to be a " economic vaccine " for the pandemic-battered economy. Sitharaman, who had in her first budget in 2019 replaced leather briefcase -- which had been in use for decades for carrying budget documents -- with a traditional red cloth 'bahi-khata', had last month stated that the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 will be "like never before". Check Budget live updates here Covid-19 spending: India has started the world's largest Covid inoculation programme from January 16 and is using two vaccines Covishield and Covaxin. The expenditure on vaccination this fiscal as well as in the next would be the most watched figures in the Budget. Fiscal Deficit: The budgeted fiscal deficit, which is the difference between government expenditure and income, was 3.5 pe...

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meeting on January 30 during which the government will put forth its legislative agenda for the Budget session of Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Wednesday. He said the meeting will be held virtually and an invitation has been extended to floor leaders of all parties. An all-party meeting is a customary procedure before the beginning of every session of Parliament to ensure its smooth functioning.However, this time it is being held a day after the session starts on January 29. "The all-party meeting will be held on January 30, where government will put forth its legislative business for the Parliament session and would also listen to the opposition's suggestions," Joshi told PTI. Read More