Election Financial News

government has announced the extension of the Rs 300 per LPG cylinder subsidy to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana for the next fiscal starting April 1. The subsidy was increased from Rs 200 per cylinder last year. Union Minister Piyush Goyal stated that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has decided to extend this subsidy until 2024-25. It is expected to benefit nearly 10 crore families and will cost the government Rs 12,000 crore. The announcement comes ahead of the general elections scheduled for April-May. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in May 2016 to provide deposit-free LPG connections to adult women of poor households.

Abhijit Gangopadhyay was ruling against West Bengal due to his political bias. "A BJP babu was sitting on the bench and now he has joined the BJP. How can you expect justice from them? The mask is off," NDTV quoted Mamata Banerjee as saying.

President Joe Biden will propose increasing the minimum tax rates paid by major US and multinational corporations to 21% and eliminating breaks for companies with high-paid executives in his election-year State of the Union address on Thursday night.

Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered Gujarat from neighbouring Rajasthan on Thursday and the Congress leader was given a welcome by local leaders and workers of his party as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The yatra reached Jhalod town of Dahod district in Gujarat from Rajasthan around 4.45 pm. People, who gathered at the spot to welcome the Wayanad MP, shouted slogans hailing him. Many of them even tried to click selfies with the Congress leader. Gujarat Congress in-charge Mukul Wasnik, state unit president Shaktisinh Gohil, leader of opposition Amit Chavda and others were present to welcome Gandhi. The state Congress had also invited AAP leaders to join the yatra as both these parties will be fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat as part of the INDIA bloc. AAP's state unit president Isudan Gadhvi and its leader Gopal Italia were present to welcome Gandhi.

₹6,400 crore and addressed the public at the Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar. Ahead of PM Modi's visit, security was beefed up in the valley with more deployment of security personnel and check posts. Thousands of people thronged the Bakshi Stadium to listen to PM Modi's address and even chanted slogans in his support.

China and the Maldives have signed an agreement paving the way for greater Chinese military assistance to Male. While the details of the agreement are remain unclear, The agreement, details of which are still unclear, follow a string of decisions in recent months by president Mohamed Muizzu’s government to reduce his country’s reliance on India. Mint takes a look.

By Steve Holland

coordination committee will be formed in a day or two for the joint campaign of the Congress and the AAP in the national capital, Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely said on Thursday. Speaking to PTI, Lovely said a panel under the chairmanship of former Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra will be formed and several former Delhi ministers will be a part of it. The Congress and the AAP are constituents of the INDIA bloc formed by opposition parties to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While the AAP will contest on four seats in Delhi, the Congress will fight on three. «Congress and AAP will definitely campaign together for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. We will form a coordination committee under the chairmanship of Subhash Chopra in a day or two and all former ministers will be a part of it. They will coordinate the campaigns and public meetings of both the parties,» Lovely told PTI.

Marjorie Taylor Greene clearly doesn’t like being called out about conspiracy theories.

₹5,000 crore worth of projects and programme in today's event in Jammu & Kashmir. With Lok Sabha elections nearing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly travelling to different states and launching several projects to strengthen his Bharatiya Janata Party's voter base.

State Bank of India has not provided information on electoral bonds encashed by political parties as of March 6, missing the Supreme Court's deadline, PTI reported. The bank had on March 4 requested an extension until June 30 to disclose details, but the plea has not yet been scheduled for a hearing by the apex court. In its plea, SBI argued that retrieving information from various sources and matching data between silos would be time-consuming.

2024 general election. “It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People," Trump wrote Wednesday in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!" Trump’s desire to debate comes hours after his final Republican rival, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race, marking the start of the longest general presidential election in recent history.

The stage is set for a Joe Biden-Donald Trump rematch in the US presidential election due in November after Trump swept 14 of the 15 primary elections in ‘Super Tuesday’ states, even as his Republican rival Nikki Haley reportedly decided to suspend her White House campaign. Though Haley did manage a win in Vermont, Trump becoming the party’s nominee seems just a formality.

No Bitcoin ETF will gain approval in South Korea unless the government introduces new crypto rules, the head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said on March 5.

We have entered a period of intensifying geopolitical rivalries and conflicts. Russia’s war on Ukraine is now in its third year; the Israel-Hamas conflict could still become a regional war; and the deepening Cold War between the US and China may yet turn hot over Taiwan later this decade. If Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November, the world will be even further destabilized.

Chicago voters will get the chance this month to decide on a ballot measure that would levy a one-time tax hike on luxury properties to pay for services for homeless people, according to a panel of Illinois appeals court judges

Nikki Haley says she's suspending her presidential campaign

Quiver Quantitative — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in his recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, conveyed a cautiously optimistic outlook for the U.S. economy, emphasizing that it's not on the brink of recession. However, he expressed uncertainty about the timeline for rate cuts, acknowledging the need for further progress on inflation. This stance comes as Powell and other Fed officials grapple with balancing the goals of sustaining economic growth and achieving the Fed's 2% inflation target. With the current unemployment rate at 3.7%, the central bank aims for a 'soft landing' where the economy continues to grow without spurring inflation.

Congress central election committee (CEC) meetings are slated to begin from Thursday to choose candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, the party circles are abuzz with talks of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting from Raebareli, vacated by Sonia Gandhi to move to Rajya Sabha, and her brother Rahul Gandhi again from both Wayanad and Amethi seats. AICC is likely to announce its first list on Thursday, including that of Kerala where LDF and BJP candidates are already campaigning. The appearance of posters in parts of Raebareli on Wednesday reading 'Rae Bareli pukarti, Priyanka Gandhi ji aaye' (Raebareli calls, Priyanka Gandhi come), statements by local Congress leaders in favour of the siblings' candidatures and UP Congress unit's appeal and proposal before the screening committee for the duo to fight from the family seats added to the buzz. AICC has made no official comments yet. Some leaders also pointed out that it would be ultimately, as has been, a decision of the family.

BJP is banking on the backing of Dalits, the largest voting bloc in Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency, to win the elusive Congress bastion in the upcoming general elections. After breaching Amethi, one of the Nehru-Gandhi family's two bastions, in the 2019 election, BJP has its eyes set on bagging Raebareli this time. Its focus on the seat was also evident in its move to get Samajwadi Party MLA from Unchahar in Raebareli, Manoj Pandey, to cross-vote for BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls, a development which is being seen as a prelude to Pandey joining BJP and adding to the Dalit base with his Brahmin following. Raebareli has a total of 1.8 million voters, 34% of which are Dalits. Last year, BJP appointed Buddhilal Pasi, a Pasi Dalit, as its district chief, following a rejig of its district presidents. Brahmins account for 13-14% of the voters. In both 2014 and 2019 elections, BJP increased its vote share by about 17% over the previous election, gaining 34% share over 10 years. The Congress, on the other hand, lost about 17% share over the same time. «I come from the Pasi community and can assure the community alone will be enough to make BJP win in the seat,» Pasi told ET.

Election Commission has asked former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to be more careful in his public utterances in the wake of his ‘panauti’ (bad omen) and ‘pickpocket’ jibes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, news agency PTI reported on Wednesday citing sources. The report said the election commission also asked the senior Congress leader to follow its recent advisory for star campaigners and political leaders in the right earnest during the election campaign.