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Jayanta Roy Chowdhury: The Telegraph: February 03, 2019 The Modi government’s grand announcement of Rs 6,000 a year for small and marginal farmers owning land up to 2 hectares — which many critics see as a blatant cash-for-votes overture ahead of this year’s general election — is likely to stumble because of India’s patchy land records system. The agriculture ministry, which is going to spearhead the scheme, had written to the states seeking farmer data to implement prior schemes but has not made much headway in its efforts to update records from a majority of the states. Officials say they have written again seeking the records to try and create a database for the new scheme, unveiled in the interim budget on Friday. The Centre has yet to put together a list of the 12 crore beneficiaries of the Rs 75,000-crore-a-year dole scheme. Officials say they are under pressure to identify the beneficiaries so that the Rs 20,000 crore earmarked for spending in this financial ye...

Nishant Kumar: ETmarket: February 03, 2019 NEW DELHI: Booster dose from the Interim Budget and Fed policy helped Mr Market settle in the positive territory last week even as third quarter earnings and the expiry of January F&O series kept stocks volatile. While Budget moves that are likely to boost consumption were seen as major positives for the market, investors also breathed easy as the fiscal deficit numbers projected in the Budget looked manageable. The US Fed also assuaged concerns of further tightening this year. Third quarter earning numbers were mixed and the US-China trade talks did not conclude with any significant outcome, yet the market managed to log some gains for the week. RBI money policy review The monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will announce its rate policy on February 7, Thursday. Analysts are expecting a softer stance from the central bank in the wake of easing inflation. As per global financial firm Goldman S...

PTI: The Asian Age: February 04, 2019 Islamabad: China will provide USD 2.5 billion in loans to Pakistan to boost the foreign exchange reserves of its "all-weather ally", a media report said Saturday. Pakistan is nearly broke with the drying up of foreign cash reserves and mounting external debt. The country's USD 8.12 billion reserves, which are below the minimum level that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) prescribe, are sufficient to cover only seven weeks of imports. Due to this, the WB and the Asian Development Bank are not providing loans for budget financing. "Beijing will place the USD 2.5 billion in deposits with the central bank," a top Finance Ministry official here told The Express Tribune. With the anticipated USD 2.5 billion deposits, China's contribution in this fiscal year alone would surge to USD 4.5 billion, the paper said. Pakistan has struggled to maintain reserves that are not cur...

The Indian Express: February 04, 2019 Expressing concern over the detention of 129 Indian students in the US, India issued a demarche to the US Embassy in New Delhi and sought immediate consular access to them. The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said that India continues to closely monitor and take proactive measures to address the situation arising out of the detention of several Indian students in connection with their enrolment in a “fraudulent university in the US”. As many as 129 Indians are among the 130 foreign students arrested on Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for enrolling at a fake university, allegedly to remain in the US. “Our concern over the dignity and well-being of the detained students and the need for immediate consular access for Indian officials to the detainees was reiterated,” the MEA said. The ministry underlined to the US Embassy that the students, who may have been duped into enrolling in the ‘univ...

The Indian Express, Sandeep Singh, Feb 02, 2019 The Government’s announcement of zero tax for all individuals — salaried, self-employed, pensioners, small business and traders — who have a taxable income of up to Rs 5 lakh will incentivise individuals with gross income of even around Rs 10 lakh to visit their HR and chartered accountants to make the best use of the deductions available. Goal: to bring taxable income under Rs 5 lakh. While it does not benefit those with taxable income above Rs 5 lakh, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, speaking to the media, did suggest that there may be more tax relief in the offing when the full Budget is presented in July. “I had the constraint of this being an interim Budget. However, there were many things which could not have waited for the final Budget, particularly relief for the small taxpayer which I have passed on. The rest is for the then Finance Minister to decide in July 2019,” Goyal said. While taxpayers can claim deductions...

The Indian Express, Ajay Vir Jakhar, Feb 02, 2019 In less than a hundred days from now, the country will be deciding the fate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The final pre-poll budget of his government was expected to contain announcements to stem the angst arising out of the bleak rural landscape. The distress in rural India is on the verge of becoming a maelstrom that threatens to suck in the entire country. After four years of slogans and promises not delivered, farmers have stopped believing in miracles. It has been a long time since they have experienced any. Ever since the grandiose announcement in 2016 of doubling farmers’ incomes, the real incomes of farmers have actually fallen. The data confirms this. It rarely happens that the growth of gross value added for agriculture at current prices is not more than what it is at constant prices. Agriculture prices have remained below the rate of inflation of between three and four per cent. This is possibly the third tim...

The Wire, Akhil Kumar, Feb 01, 2019 New Delhi:  A ‘mega pension scheme’ announced by acting finance minister Piyush Goyal in his budget speech on Friday is being hailed as one of the major announcements by the Narendra Modi government. Trade unions and activists working with unorganised sector workers believe it needs more work. The contribution-based and voluntary ‘Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan’ assures a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after workers attain the age of 60. A monthly contribution of Rs 100 for those who join the scheme at the age of 29 and Rs 55 for those joining at 18 will be matched by the government and the total sum added to their pension account. “Half of India’s GDP comes from the sweat and toil of 42 crore workers in the unorganised sector working as construction workers, rickshaw pullers, rag pickers, street vendors, agricultural workers,  beedi  workers, leather, handloom etc. Domestic workers are also significant in number. We ...

The Hindu,  Sriram Lakshman, Feb 01, 2019 The U.S. is suspending its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)  Treaty  effective February 2 and will withdraw from the treaty in six months, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press briefing that lasted less for about eight minutes. The treaty, signed during the Cold War in 1987, bans ground-launched missiles with a range of 500-5,500 km. It was key to ending the arms race between the (then) two super powers and helped protect the U.S.’s NATO allies in Europe from Soviet missile attacks. The U.S. will formally give  Russia  and the other treaty parties a formal notice that it is withdrawing under Article XV of the Treaty, Mr. Pompeo said. Article XV mandates a six-month notice period before withdrawal. “Russia has jeopardised the United States’ security interests and we can no longer be restricted by the treaty while Russia shamelessly violates it,” Mr. Pompeo said. ...

ET Markets, Feb 01, 2019 This is an election budget with farm sops and huge tax breaks for the middle class. The figures do not add up, says  Swaminathan Aiyar , Consulting Editor, ET Now. What is your initial reaction on the budget? It is like a full budget plus a 10-year plan. Mr Modi is saying this is an election thing, please elect me for 10 more years! The highlight of the budget is the farm support programme at Rs 75,000 crore. It is not an exceptionally high figure, but it is over and above all the state schemes, over and above all the existing subsidies. It would reach 10 crore families of the 23 crore overall.  So, it is not clear whether this is going to reach the tenants and the sharecroppers. If it only reaches the farm owners, it will be more like the Telangana model and will be inferior to the Odisha model.  On top of that, the big surprise is the fantastic amount of tax breaks for the urban middle class especially through income...

Firstpost, PTI, Feb 04, 2019 New Delhi:  Tata Teleservices has offered to surrender spectrum allocated to it without auction in around 15 circles before its merger with Bharti Airtel is approved by the Department of Telecom, an official said. Spectrum in 800 Mhz band can be used for 4G services but the airwaves held by Tata Teleservices across 15-16 circles can be used for 2G services as well and these frequencies cannot be transferred to Airtel, according to rules. "In a meeting with DoT, Airtel and Tata Teleservices offered to surrender 2.5 megahertz of spectrum assigned to Tata Tele administratively in 800 Mhz band in all circles," the official told PTI. Tata Teleservices is required to pay the present market rate to make the airwaves allocated without auction usable for 4G services or for transferring them to Airtel. However, according to sources, given their debt condition, both Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Airtel are not willing to pay the market rate of...

Moneycontrol.com: February 03, 2019 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policy, key earnings, as well as technical factors, among others, will be on investors’ radar this week. The market ended last week on a positive note, especially after digesting all major cues from the Interim Budget presented by Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal. It was certainly not a trading session for the weak-hearted as the Budget-day trading was marked by severe volatility. Indices, eventually, managed to end in the green, but not before seeing wild swings in both the directions. The Nifty ended below 10,900-mark. For the week, both indices have closed with gains of over a percent. Among sectors, IT was the big gainer, while metals lost the most. RBI Policy Investors will eye outcome of the RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. It assumes significance after the Interim Budget witnessed moves to shore up consumption demand. Will the central bank follow suit and cut repo rat...