Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi took oath for a third straight term as the head of a coalition government after two full tenures in which the BJP enjoyed a majority on its own. Mr. Modi, 73, equalled the feat of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who won in the 1952, 1957 and 1962 general elections.
Leaders from India's neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean Region including Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended the event.
In the French Open Tennis Women’s singles final, World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland overcame an early wobble to beat first-time Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 at Roland Garris on Saturday. She became only the third woman in the Open era to clinch three straight French Open titles.
The Survey on Household Consumption Expenditure by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has found that Rural India’s average monthly capital expenditure stood 71 percent lower than Urban India in the period from August 2022 to July 2023. The National Sample Survey Office has been regularly conducting household consumption expenditure surveys since 1950.
The survey said that rural India on average, clocked a monthly Per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE of three thousand 773 rupees in the period under review. Urban India’s average estimated MPCE during the period stood at 6,459 rupees. The survey stated that in the 2022-23 period, Rural India spent 46 percent of its household consumption expenditure towards food.
Instant mixes, including idli, dosa and khaman flour, cannot be classified as chhatua or sattu and 18 per cent GST should be levied on them, the Gujarat Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling has ruled. The company sells flour mixes of gota, khaman, dalwada, dahi-wada, dhokla, idli and dosa in powder form and pleaded that it is akin to Sattu and should attract GST of 5%
The appellate authority also said that merely because the end consumer of the instant mix flour is required to follow certain food preparation processes before such products can be consumed is no grounds that 18 per cent GST should not be levied on it.
With deposit growth lagging credit growth, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it plans to revise upwards the definition of bulk deposits for scheduled commercial banks (excluding regional rural banks), small finance banks and local area banks.This is aimed at helping banks’ garner more deposits to support loan growth.
RBI is proposing to revise the definition of bulk deposits as ‘single Rupee term deposit of ₹3 crore and above’ for scheduled commercial banks/SCBs (excluding regional rural banks/RRBs) and Small Finance Banks. Currently, ‘single Rupee term deposit of ₹2 crore and above’ are classified as bulk deposits by these banks.
Further, the central bank also plans to define the bulk deposit limit for Local Area Banks as ‘Single Rupee term deposits of ₹1 crore and above’, as applicable in case of RRBs.
The Reserve Bank of India has upped real GDP growth projection for 2024-25 to 7.2 per cent from 7.0 per cent projected earlier. The quarterly projections are: Q1 at 7.3 per cent (7.1 per cent earlier projection), Q2 at 7.2 per cent (6.9 per cent); Q3 at 7.3 per cent (7.0 per cent); and Q4 at 7.2 per cent ( 7.0 per cent). The risks are evenly balanced.
CPI inflation projection for 2024-25 has been retained at 4.5 per cent with Q1 at 4.9 per cent; Q2 at 3.8 per cent; Q3 at 4.6 per cent; and Q4 at 4.5 per cent.
The Health Ministry along with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) are working on measures aimed at allowing patients to access quality healthcare swiftly and with reduced out-of-pocket expenditure. The IRDAI’s objective is to achieve ‘Insurance for All by 2047’.
The Ministry and IRDAI are launching the National Health Claim Exchange (NHCX), a digital platform which will bring together insurance companies, healthcare sector service providers and government insurance scheme administrators.
The NHCX will serve as a gateway for exchanging claims-related information among various stakeholders in the healthcare and health insurance ecosystem. The integration with NHCX is expected to enable seamless interoperability of health claims processing, enhancing efficiency and transparency in the insurance industry, benefiting policyholders and patients.
ISRO, on the occasion of World Environment Day, on Wednesday provided details about its collaborative endeavour with the French national space agency CNES for the upcoming Thermal Infrared Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural Resource Assessment (TRISHNA) mission.
TRISHNA is engineered to deliver high spatial and high temporal resolution monitoring of earth’s surface temperature, emissivity, and biophysical and radiation variables for surface energy budgeting at regional to global scale. The scientific and societal benefits of TRISHNA are extensive.
TRISHNA’s primary objectives include detailed monitoring of the energy and water budgets of the continental biosphere for quantifying terrestrial water stress and water use and high-resolution observation of water quality and dynamics in coastal and inland waters. Additionally, the mission will support the detection of sub-surface fires and assessment of geothermal resource
Vellayan Subbiah, Executive Vice-Chairman of Tube Investments of India (TII) and Chairman of Cholamandalam (Chola) Investment and Finance Co. Ltd., was named the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 at an award ceremony held in Monaco’s Salle des Etoiles.
He is the fourth winner from India in the award’s 24-year history and his win also makes India the only country among EY regions to win the global entrepreneurship award four times. Narayana Murthy, Uday Kotak and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw are the other Indians to win this award.
World number-one Magnus Carlsen has won his sixth Norway Chess title after beating GM Fabiano Caruana in armageddon while GM Hikaru Nakamura was held to an incredibly tense classical draw by GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. The young Indian won the armageddon but still takes third place behind Nakamura.
Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun took the Women’s Norway Chess title and a prize of around $65,000 after scoring a smooth classical win against her great rival GM Lei Tingjie. That allowed GM Anna Muzychuk to climb into second place with an armageddon win over GM Koneru Humpy.
Sebi has been given 'Best Conduct of Business Regulator' award in Asia Pacific by The Asian Banker for its role in enhancing the regulatory framework for securities markets in India.
The award was received by Sebi's Whole Time Member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney in a ceremony held in Hong Kong.
SEBI has been actively working towards instantaneous settlement. In 2021, T+1 settlement was introduced in a phased manner, which was fully implemented from January 2023. This move has provided investors with faster access to their funds following trade execution and settlement, enhancing market efficiency and liquidity,
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