Heena Sharma Blog

The resignation of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) deputy governor Viral Acharya six months ahead of the scheduled completion evoked mixed reactions from experts, especially at a time when the financial sector has seen a number of developments over the past one year. In the past three years, the central bank has seen the sudden exit of Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel as RBI Governors, and now Viral Acharya as its Deputy Governor, who was in charge of the Monetary Policy Department and the Department of Economic and Policy Research, among others. “ Dr. Acharya’s departure is not a complete surprise, as frictions between him and the government on issues related to central bank independence had come to the fore,” wrote Sonal Varma, managing director and chief India economist at Nomura in a co-authored report with Aurodeep Nandi. While the process of finding a successor should get underway soon, Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic advisor in the Ministry of Finance, and Dr. Micha...

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invited him to visit ' mohalla clinics and schools ' in Delhi while asserting that his dispensation will examine whether the Centre's Ayushman Bharat programme can be integrated with the Delhi government's health scheme. Kejriwal, who had skipped the all-party meeting called by the Prime Minister two days back, also assured full cooperation of his government to the Centre. It was the first meeting between Kejriwal and Modi since the BJP-led NDA has formed government for second term following a thumping victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections. "Ayushman Bharat was briefly discussed. Informed Hon'ble PM that Delhi Govt's Delhi Health scheme is much bigger and wider in scope. "However, assured him to examine if Ayushman Bharat scheme cud also be integrated into our scheme (sic)," Kejriwal said in a series of tweets after the meeting. Read ...

The Centre is considering increasing the personal income tax threshold in next month’s budget, according to people familiar with the matter, as authorities seek to kickstart consumption in the economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may raise the tax exemption limit for working-age individuals to Rs 300,000 ($4,316) of their annual income, up from the current Rs 250,000, the people said, asking not to be identified as they aren’t authorised to speak publicly about the proposals. The tax measures haven’t been finalised yet. Any tax exemptions will add stimulus to an economy that’s slowed sharply this year, with growth reaching a five-year low of 5.8 per cent in the first three months of the year. The proposed tax move would put at least Rs 2,500 more in the hands of each of India’s 50 million taxpayers. It could also add to pressure on the budget deficit, which is pegged at 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product for the current fiscal year that began on April 1. The f...

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 has seen 315 million viewers tuning to the Star India network from across the country. According to the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data, television viewership for the tournament has been 182.7 million average impressions. While reach refers to the number of people who have seen the tournament for at least a minute, impressions refer to the number of people watching the tournament or a particular match at any given point during its telecast. Star India, the official broadcaster of all International Cricket Council (ICC) events in the country, is showing the matches across its sports network. Article Source -> Business Standard

The 1992 cricket World Cup reserves a special place in the living memory of the cricket fan. The coloured jerseys, the white balls, and the day-night matches are remembered for their then novelty; you can still find fans holding on to memorabilia from that tournament as if an ethereal truth about cricket was woven into them. When the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced a return to the 1992 format for the 2019 edition— each team was to play everyone else in the round-robin stage —fears about a ten-team World Cup were mitigated by nostalgia for a time when everything seemed just right. But like many fond memories from younger days, even the 1992 World Cup is tarnished now. Nostalgia, it turns out, can deceive one badly. As the 2019 competition makes the case for it to be called the most boring World Cup ever, the myth about the essentially good format is busted. There is nothing inherently great about a long phase where each team faces off against the others. In fact, i...

UPPSC Judicial Services 2018 recruitment: Interviews for "UP Judicial Service Civil Judges (Junior Division) Exam-2018" has started today. Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) will hold the interviews till July 17. UPPSC will announce UPPSC Judicial Services 2018 result on July 20. According to the Times of India, as many as 1,857 candidates are competing for 610 vacancies of junior division civil judge in district courts across the state. This is one of the biggest recruitment of judges in Uttar Pradesh. It started after Allahabad High Court intimated the UP government about the rising number of vacancies in the judiciary. UPPSC secretary told TOI that the court has directed UPPSC to complete the recruitment in a time bound manner. The UP Judicial Service Civil Judges Exam, also known as Provincial Civil Services (Judicial), is held in three stages-Preliminary, mains and interviews. UPPSC had declared the result of the mains stage on June 13. Read...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday performed Yoga with around 40,000 enthusiasts at the Prabhat Tara ground here and said everybody should practice the ancient Indian discipline lifelong. The Jharkhand capital has been selected as the venue for the main event for the 5th International Day of Yoga . Events to mark the day are being held across the country and several of them are being led by Union ministers, including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh. Modi also said the government has been working to make Yoga a pillar of preventive healthcare. Expressing concern that young people are becoming vulnerable to heart ailments, Modi said, "Yoga can play a huge role in tackling the issue and hence, this year's theme is 'Yoga for Heart'." He also appealed to the people to take yoga to all sections of society. "We should make efforts to take yoga from cities to villages, tribal areas. Yoga is above region, above faith, above everything," Modi told t...