India

New Delhi, Feb 29: Aiming to double farmers income by 2022, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced an allocation of nearly Rs 36,000 crore for the farm sector while raising the agri-credit target to Rs 9 lakh crore for the next fiscal. He also allocated Rs 15,000 crore for interest subvention on the farm credit, Rs 5,500 crore for the new crop insurance scheme and Rs 500 crore to boost

New Delhi, Feb 29: Amid debate over balancing growth and financial management, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today adhered to the fiscal consolidation roadmap by proposing to keep the deficit at 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2016-17. He also assured that development agenda will not be compromised and a committee would be set up to review the working of Fiscal Resposibility and Budget Management (FRBM)

New Delhi, Feb 29: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today listed 'nine pillars' including tax reforms, promoting ease of doing business and ensuring fiscal discipline, that will transform India. Unveiling the Budget 2016-17, he said the pillars also include emphasis on governance reforms. The other pillars, he added, include focus on agriculture and rural areas with a view to doubling farm income by

New Delhi, Feb 29: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley faces a tough task of balancing the needs of farm sector as well as the industry when he presents his third and challenging Budget Monday as he seeks to garner resources to boost public spending for higher growth amid global headwinds. On the income tax front, the Budget may continue with the status quo on the tax slabs while it may tinker with the

New Delhi, Feb 28: Accusing the NDA government of using Rohith Vemula and JNU incidents to "divert attention" from its "failure" in keeping poll promises, youth wings of Left and other parties today decided to intensify their stir against the Centre. They demanded dropping of sedition charges against the JNU students and action against Delhi Police Chief B S Bassi, who will retire tomorrow. "The

Bareilly (UP), Feb 28: Pitching for converting farmers' challenges into opporunities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urged all states to give priority to implementation of the "roadmap" for boosting the agriculture sector with a target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022. Addressing a farmers' rally here, he sought to hardsell the recently-launched Crop Insurance scheme, which he termed

Lahore, Feb 28: Three suspects arrested in Pakistan in connection with the Pathankot terror attack have been sent to a six-day police remand by an anti-terrorism court, days after an FIR was registered in the high-profile case. The three accused - Khalid Mahmood, Irshadul Haque and Muhammad Shoaib - were yesterday presented before ATC-2 judge Bushra Zaman in Gujranwala, some 70 kms from here, in

Geneva, Feb 28: Amid much hoopla over alleged black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, Switzerland has disclosed that India is the top source for illegally imported medicines confiscated by their customs department. As per the latest data released by the Swiss government, India accounted for 42 per cent of the confiscated medicinal product shipments in 2015. Two thirds of all seized

New Delhi, Feb 27: A Delhi court today allowed the custodial interrogation of two JNU students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, arrested in a sedition case, by two more days. The court extended the police custody of the duo, who had allegedly organised a controversial event at the JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were said to have been raised, after police contended that they were

New Delhi, Feb 27: Watching child pornography cannot be allowed in the name of liberty or freedom of expression, the Supreme Court said on Friday, even as the Centre informed that an exercise to block such contents on the Internet has been undertaken. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh asked Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand to take suggestions from the National