City New Delhi Financial News

NEW DELHI : The Union budget for 2024-25 may set aside ₹2 trillion for the agriculture ministry to help it expand the government’s flagship schemes on income support and crop insurance for farmers, two officials aware of the plans said. This will be a 39% increase in allocation for the ministry, which received ₹1.44 trillion in the 2023-24 budget. A bigger allocation may also help the ministry raise annual farmer income support from the current ₹6,000 to ₹9,000.

NEW DELHI : Packaged foods company LT Foods, widely known for its Daawat brand of rice, is eyeing a greater share of business from convenience foods such as ready-to-cook meals and snacks, with an aim to generate revenues of ₹800 crore from them by 2028-29. The move comes after the company set plans in motion to diversify from selling packaged rice under Daawat, which is sold both in India and exported to markets overseas. In 2017, LT Foods set up a joint venture (JV), Daawat-Kameda India Pvt.

NEW DELHI : The tender to set up the first green hydrogen plant of state-run oil refiner and marketer Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL) received one bid till the 29 November deadline, people aware of the development said. The bid came from GH4India Pvt.

ICIMOD) report, released earlier this year, warns that glaciers in Hindu Kush Himalayas are melting at unprecedented rates. They could lose up to 75% of their volume by the end of the century, leading to flooding and water shortages for the nearly 2 billion people who live downstream of the rivers. Such warnings mean that international monitoring of glaciers will be a crucial bulwark for safeguarding the region's future. But, last week, GoI rejected a parliamentary panel's recommendation for a data-sharing agreement on Himalayan glaciers with countries of the region, including not-best-of-pals China.

Ayushman Bharat card, Jan Aushadhi Kendra, tap water connections and more hours of uninterrupted power supply. The third National Chief Secretaries' Conference, scheduled to be held on December 27-28 in New Delhi, will mull the overarching theme of 'Promoting Ease of the Living' across five key social aspects — schooling, drinking water, electricity, health and wellness and land & property. To be chaired by PM Narendra Modi, the conference will be pushing for better schemes and service delivery in both urban and rural areas, with the help of technology and good governance tools. The theme of the conference, the second one in 2023, is also quite in tune with the ruling NDA government's focus on beneficiaries of its flagship schemes or the 'labharthis' who have emerged as a unique socio-political constituency for the current dispensation. The steadfast focus on the 'labharthis' is also, in fact, being borne out in the ongoing Viksit Bharat Sankalp yatra wherein government servants have been deployed to take the message of central government beneficiary schemes and its achievements across states. In the case of the new 'Ease of Living' focus, over 5,000 officials from across state governments and the Centre have already been engaged in the exercise, holding several workshops on the five sub-themes to states and sending details of success stories and feedback. Ease of Living In a September 16 meeting chaired by the Cabinet secretary, state governments were told that the overarching theme for the conference 'Ease of Living' is to focus on two facets — access to schemes «especially individual beneficiary schemes» and «ensuring the quality of service delivery». For individual beneficiary schemes, simplification and

NEW DELHI : The government is in the final stages of creating special purpose vehicles for the Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) parks to boost the textile sector. All formalities to establish SPVs will conclude early next year, two officials aware of the development said.

NEW DELHI : Covid cases continued to rise, with India reporting 628 fresh cases and one death in the past 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Monday. The active caseload of covid-19 infections rose from 3,742 on Sunday to 4,054 showed ministry data. A death was reported from Kerala, bringing the national fatality toll to 5,33,334.

NEW DELHI : The central government’s revamped fund transfer mode for state agencies executing centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) is helping the Centre save interest costs, and ensuring timely funds for executing agencies. That apart, it also ensures transaction data is made available directly to policymakers at the ground level, a person aware of the impact of executing the new mode, said.

NEW DELHI : GMR group expects the debt cost for its airports to decline, ensuring significant inflow from passive funds, as well as foreign fund managers following the merger of GMR Airports Ltd with group holding company GMR Airports Infrastructure Ltd, Saurabh Chawla, executive director, finance and strategy at GMR Airports Infrastructure, told Mint. The merger is expected to be concluded around March, but the procedures indicate that the company may complete the merger by February, he added. “With the completion of the merger, the market capitalization of the listed entity GMR Airports Infrastructure Ltd will double and that will bring us several benefits.

Mohan Yadav has announced that members of the state cabinet will take the oath around 3:30 pm on Monday. CM Yadav, after meeting with Governor Mangubhai C Patel at Raj Bhawan in the state capital on Monday morning, told reporters that the new cabinet members would be sworn in and dedicated to improving the state. «At 3:30 pm today, the Governor will administer the oath to the members of our new cabinet.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bigwigs led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the 'Sadaiv Atal' memorial in New Delhi on Monday to offer floral tributes on the 99th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar were also present at the memorial. Leaders like Former President Ram Nath Kovind, BJP National President JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, and others paid their respects by offering floral tributes on the occasion.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi extended greetings to the people of the country on the occasion of Christmas. Taking to his official social media account, X, the Congress leader, said, "Merry Christmas! May your hearts be filled with love, your homes with happiness, and your lives with peace." The Congress party posted on X, «The Congress family wishes you all a Merry Christmas and a season filled with love and togetherness. Let us cherish the spirit of unity and compassion during this holiday season!» People across the country celebrated Christmas Eve with mass midnight prayers taking place in different states.

There has been much debate over the sovereign credit rating India deserves. New Delhi has long lamented that rating agencies have been unjust in assigning the country their lowest investment grade. Re-examining Narratives: A Collection of Essays, released last week by the Chief Economic Advisor’s office, attempts to explain why these agencies are wrong.

G20 standing out as the country's diplomatic achievement of the year. Through its G20 presidency, India was able to get the most influential, powerful, and consequential countries of the world to gather around the table and discuss, agree on some of the most pressing issues concerning the world today. As External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar rightfully said, the G20 is like the World Cup of diplomacy, where the biggest and strongest players come together. «When we took the presidency, people did not have many expectations out of it. Through our G20, we bridged all the divides, found a common ground for countries which were otherwise arguing among themselves, who found it very difficult to reconcile.

life insurance: safeguarding the family’s financial future if the breadwinner dies. However, there are plenty of wrong reasons to do the same. Topping the list is the need to save tax.

NEW DELHI : The price stabilization fund (PSF), established to build buffer stocks of farm commodities to help contain sudden rise in food prices, may get additional allocations in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets of ₹1,500 crore each. The department of consumer affairs (DoCA) has placed a proposal for the allocations before the expenditure finance committee (EFC), government officials aware of the matter said.

MUMBAI , NEW DELHI : Tata Steel Ltd is looking to capture India’s infrastructure boom by doubling the manufacturing of long steel products used in construction over the next six years, a top company executive said. Currently, three-fourth of its capacity is in flat steel, used in automobiles and consumer goods. The company will boost capacity at its recently acquired Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) to 5.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from the present 1 mtpa, said Ashish Anupam, vice-president, long products at Tata Steel.

Mohan Yadav Sunday said the cabinet of the government will be expanded on Monday. However, he refused to divulge details like the number of inductees in the council of ministers. " Tomorrow at 3:30 pm Madhya Pradesh cabinet expansion will take place...under the leadership of PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda, we will come again as double engine govt," Yadav told reporters after meeting BJP president JP Nadda in New Delhi on Sunday evening.

NEW DELHI : The Indian Railways will invest at least ₹7 trillion over the next decade to lay a record 50,000 kilometres (km) of new train tracks to modernize its network and boost train speeds, a top railway ministry official said. Encouraged by significant progress in laying new lines over the past couple of years, Railways now wants to go into mission mode to improve connectivity with modern tracks that can handle higher speed trains such as Vande Bharat, the official said on the condition of anonymity. Laying new tracks will be part of a new Vision 2047 document for the national transporter, under which it expects to add 100,000 km of new alignments, including some replacements, doubling and gauge conversion works over the next 25 years costing ₹15-20 trillion.

NEW DELHI : As the government looks to bring electricity under goods and services tax (GST), the Union power ministry is looking at its likely impact on the industry, states’ revenue and household electricity bills. Electricity is one of several commodities like petrol, diesel and natural gas that have so far remained out of the purview of GST. Audit and consulting firm Deloitte, which was appointed to analyse the impact of the move, submitted a report to the power ministry that showed the move would benefit industry by lowering its outgo in levies.

NEW DELHI : Spain is pushing for a high level visit from its Prime Minister to India in 2024 according to people aware of the matter. The focus of both countries will be on deepening defence ties and inking migration and mobility agreements. The move comes after Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez missed the G20 Leaders Summit in Delhi in September due to a positive covid diagnosis.