Month: July 2014

The allocation for the ministry for external affairs was increased from Rs.11,793.65 crore to Rs.14,730.39 crore in the budget for 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Of this increase, the allocation for technical and economic cooperation with other countries and advances to foreign governments alone was raised by Rs.2,396.67 crore to Rs.9,434.82 crore.

The allocation for secretariat and general services too saw a marginal raise of Rs.21.09 crore from Rs.261.67 crore in the previous budget.

–IANS

Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet soon to determine the process of dialogue between the two countries, the Foreign Office said here today.

A meeting between foreign secretaries of the two countries was agreed when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited India in May to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said in her weekly briefing.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday hiked the budget for the administration of justice by a mere Rs.74.1 crore over and above the allocation made in the revised budget estimates for 2013-14.

While in the revised budget estimate for 2013-14, the total allocation was Rs.1,973.15 crore, for the current financial year, it has been increased to Rs.2,047.25 crore under the plan and non-plan allocations.

Describing black money as a “curse” of economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the country will have to address the problem.

“We also must address fully the problem of black money which is curse of our economy,” he said in his maiden budget speech.

The Finance Ministry has already constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court judge Justice M B Shah.

The government has been making sustained efforts to obtain information about Indians having black money stashed abroad.

The following is the tea scoreboard on the second day of the first Test between India and England at Trent Bridge here Thursday:

India (first innings)

Murali Vijay lbw b Anderson 146
Shikhar Dhawan c Prior b Anderson 12
Cheteshwar Pujara c Bell b Anderson 38
Virat Kohli c Bell b Broad 1
Ajinkya Rahane c Cook b Plunkett 32
Mahendra Singh Dhoni run out (Anderson) 82
Ravindra Jadeja c Prior b Stokes 25
Stuart Binny c Root b Stokes 1
Bhuvneshwar Kumar not out 46
Ishant Sharma b Broad 1
Mohammed Shami not out 39

Extras (b 1, lb 8, w 1) 8
Total (nine wickets in 153 overs) 433

Maharashtra Thursday managed to get a few goodies in the union budget 2014-15, though Mumbai was completely left out.

The renowned Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune will be accorded status of an “institute of national importance”, along with the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata.

It was also proposed to set up a National Centre for Excellence in Animation, Gaming and Special Effects in Maharashtra.

A National Industrial Corridor Authority, to be headquartered in Pune, will come up to coordinate development of all industrial corridors.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the capital, a premier research and educational institute that also serves over 9,000 patients every day, topped the list of medical institutes that benefited from the union budget announced Thursday.

AIIMS was allocated Rs.1,365 crore in the budget, higher than the Rs.1,355 crore given in 2013-14.

The Delhi-based institute is among the top 10 medical colleges in the world, and caters mostly to underprivileged people that flock to it from all over the country.

The realty sector has patted union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for giving an impetus to the sluggish construction sector in the budget for 2014-15 presented Thursday.

Tata Housing managing director Brotin Banerjee said that several proposals are introduced to kick-start investments in the realty sector, necessary incentives to REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) and a tax pass-through would reduce pressures on the banking systems, avail fresh equity and attract long-term finance from foreign and domestic sources.

Veteran actress Zohra Sehgal died here Thursday of cardiac arrest at the age of 102, a family member said.

A heart patient, Sehgal was admitted to the Max Hospital in south Delhi’s Saket area after being diagnosed with pneumonia Wednesday. She died of a heart attack at 4.30 p.m. Thursday.
(IANS)

The death toll in Syria’s three-year war has eclipsed 170,000 people, one-third of them civilians, a monitoring group said in a new toll released today.

“Ever since the first casualty of the Syrian revolution was registered on March 18, 2011 in Daraa province, the deaths of 171,509 people have been documented,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among the dead were 56,495 civilians, including 9,092 children, according to the toll, which included casualties documented up to July 8 this year.

As uncollected garbage is piling up following the strike called by Bhagyanagar Municipal GHMC Employees Union over salary hike, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has deployed collection vehicles in all the 150 wards.

Commissioner Somesh Kumar today said GHMC had written a letter to the state (Telangana) government for increasing the salaries of outsourced employees, but yet the union went ahead with its strike simce last midnight.

This brought garbage collection to halt, which was “inappropriate” in view of festivals and the rainy season, Kumar added.

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka Thursday praised the union budget for its promise to reduce fiscal deficit, steps to attract investments in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, and restore investor confidence with a stable and predictable tax regime.

Goenka also lauded the promise to reduce fiscal deficit to 4.1 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year, and encouragement for infrastructure investment in roads and the increase in investment allowance.

In a boost to higher learning with a stress on “world class” centres of learning, India Thursday earmarked Rs.27,656 crore (Rs.276.56 billion) for higher education, an increase of almost 13 percent over 2013.

For the year 2014-2015, the government allocated Rs.27,656 crore to the department of higher education under the human resource development (HRD) ministry compared to Rs.24,485 crore in 2013-14, registering an increase of 12.9 percent.

DMK president M.Karunanidhi Thursday said the 2014-15 budget presented by union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has a number of welcome features.

In a statement issued here, Karunanidhi said: “Overall the central government’s budget majorly contain welcome features.”

According to him, the setting up of National Institute of Ageing, a mega textile park, and a solar power project in Tamil Nadu are welcome measures.

Karunanidhi said the duty reduction on picture tube would make the televisions cheaper.

The German government Thursday decided to deport a representative of the US intelligence agencies in Berlin in view of the emerging US spy row.

The German government took US espionage cases “very seriously”, Xinhua cited German government spokesman Steffen Seibert as saying Thursday in a statement.

The representative of the US intelligence agencies at the US embassy in Berlin was asked to leave Germany, Seibert said.

At least 81 Palestinians have died and more than 500 have been injured since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge two days ago to prevent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said Thursday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any ceasefire.

The number of injured was put at 567, 20 of them in critical condition, Efe news agency reported citing the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

Special services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) members should be prepared for any possible threats, especially those from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

“The situation in Afghanistan will not calm down and improve. We must be ready for any scenarios,” Xinhua reported Putin as saying during a meeting of security and intelligence services’ chiefs of CIS countries here.

He stressed that Russia, however, hopes the situation in the fragile state will be controlled by official authorities.

Stakeholders of the healthcare sector Thursday hailed the union budget for its stress on quality healthcare and increase in the excise duty on tobacco and tobacco products.

“Provisions in this year’s budget for healthcare are indicative of the focus on ensuring that quality healthcare reaches every level of the demographic pyramid,” said Amit Mookim, partner and head of healthcare practice of KPMG.

Income tax exemptions and the focus on women’s safety and senior citizens has put a smile on the common man’s face.

The maiden budget of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saw the IT exemption limit for those below 60 raised from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.2.5 lakh and from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs.3 lakh for senior citizens. It also proposed to use the huge amount of money lying “unclaimed” in saving schemes for the welfare of senior citizens.

India reached 433 for nine against England at tea on day two of the first cricket Test at Trent Bridge, here today.

Last pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (46 batting) and Mohammed Shami (39 batting) were at the crease when break was taken.

Brief Scores:

India: 433 for nine in 153 overs (Murali Vijay 146, M S Dhoni 81, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 46 not out; James Anderson 3/109).

An officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been booked on charges of molesting a woman from the northeast here, police said Thursday.

The RAW officer, posted in Delhi, was booked after the 30-year-old Manipuri woman, residing in DLF-3 area, lodged a complaint against him.

Police officer Sanjay Kumar told IANS they were probing as to why and how the accused officer came in contact with the woman.
(IANS)

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris Thursday arrived in India, amid simmering tensions over the arrests of Indian fishermen for fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters.

Peiris will be holding talks with India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here Friday.

In the first official talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries after the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in India in May, Peiris will brief Swaraj on the dispute over fishermen crossing into each other’s territorial waters and their subsequent arrests.

Himachal Pradesh should get preference in the union budget for disaster management, organic farming and tourism development, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said Thursday.

“The budget is disappointing as the government has failed to show how it would strengthen the Indian economy,” the chief minister said in a statement.

Moreover, he said, the budget is silent on steps to check price rise.

The chief minister said the target of reducing the fiscal deficit of 4.1 percent has now increased to 4.5 percent, which would mean more borrowings resulting in further increase in prices.

The West Bengal Assembly Thursday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the railway budget for “neglecting” the state, besides criticising the hike in passenger and freight charges.

The resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee, alleged that the state has been “deprived” in the railway budget.

The motion, supported by all parties including the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Congress and the Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist, regretted that there was insufficient allotment of funds for the ongoing projects in the state.

Sweltering heat and high humidity in the capital Thursday sent the power demand soaring to a record high so far – 5,789 Mega Watt.

Prior to this, the highest demand was recorded at 5,653 MW in 2013.

The Delhi government said the peak demand was successfully met.

“The maximum demand today (Thursday) was 5,789 MW at 4.11 p.m. This was the highest demand Delhi has ever met so far,” a government official said.

“Due to the excessive heat and humidity, the demand for power in Delhi is increasing day by day,” the official added.