With the financial year drawing to a close, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat & Mumbai have emerged as the states where people pay the highest taxes on petrol and diesel, while Tamil Nadu was the state with the highest increase in rates this year. In Madhya Pradesh, people pay an eye-watering 39.75% tax on petrol imposed by […]
The finance ministry has conducted an examination of the existing welfare and subsidy schemes of the central governments and identified 532 of them as being suitable to be migrated to the ‘direct benefit transfer’ or DBT model of disbursing of funds. Under the DBT scheme, the scheme benefit is converted into an equivalent monetary value, which […]
The Reserve Bank of India has told the management of Tirumala Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh that the money deposited in the temple’s hundis cannot be exchanged for new notes. The move was in response to a letter by the temple management asking if it was possible to convert the old notes into valid cash. “We […]
With the country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, refusing to rollback service charges for customers who do not maintain a minimum balance in their accounts, only Oriental Bank of Commerce, UCO Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank remain as ‘free’ providers of savings bank services, according to an analysis of RBI data. SBI said […]
Punjab National Bank, the third largest public sector bank in India, and smaller cousin Corporation Bank can teach bigger siblings like State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda a thing or two about going after big loan defaulters, an analysis of Reserve Bank of India data shows. In the last four years, these two banks […]
The government is not planning to extend the two-year-old scheme to supply subsidized, imported natural gas to stranded gas power projects when it expires this month, according to a senior power ministry official. “We got a representation from the association of power producers requesting us to extend the scheme,” said the official “but we have decided […]
A well-publicized scheme for ensuring security for women in public road transport unveiled in the wake of the brutal ‘Nirbhaya’ rape and murder of in December 2012 seems to have ground to a halt in the absence of political will. According to the ministry of road transport and highways, only Rs 1.43 cr was spent on the ‘Security […]
India will set a target of adding 34.5 GW of hydro-power generation capacity in the next ten years, according to power ministry sources. “The target for the 13th plan has been set at 13.31 GW and that for the 14th plan will be 21.15 GW,” said a power ministry official. This will take India’s total […]
The Department of Telecom has lifted its freeze over the recruitment of 2,700 junior engineers into Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, India’s state-owned telecom operator. The results of the recruitment exam, conducted in September last year, were put on hold in December after the Department of Telecom received complaints about the conduct of the exam from several […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is now offering 30 GB of 3G data with a validity of 30 days for Rs 549 rupees under a promotional scheme till the end of the month. The scheme is intended to coincide with similar freebies announced by new entrant Reliance Jio. Jio offers 10 GB of extra 4G data […]
The total number of Aadhaar cards issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India has reached 112.25 cr or 1.122 bln as of the beginning of this month, but enrollments in the border state of Assam trail at 6.5%, according to numbers provided by the UIDAI. The total number suggests that about 86% of India’s estimated […]
Many people who booked railway tickets worth thousands of rupees during demonetization period and cancelled these tickets for refunds are yet to get their money back. According to Indian Railway sources, many of these people could end up waiting for 90 days or more to get their money. DEMONETIZATION RUSH When the government announced that […]
National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd, which is setting up the Rs 1 lakh cr Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail service, has brought on Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) as key partner for the project. GIDB — which is also involved in the prestigious GIFT City project — will also pump in equity into the corporation and help […]
The Department of Telecom is considering the remove of local address requirements for people taking a new mobile connection using an Aadhaar card. “We are in final talks. It will take a few more days,” said a DoT official. At present, taking a mobile phone connection requires that the subscriber should either have proof of […]
The home ministry has written back to the National Human Rights Commission that non-governmental organizations cannot be allowed to work against India’s strategic or economic interest. In it’s response to the NHRC, the home ministry said it cannot allow organizations that take money from outside India to conduct “activities detrimental to national interest ,including security, strategic, […]
A total of 308 people died in police custody in the three years from 2013 to 2015 — including 75 in Maharashtra — but not a single policeman was convicted in any case related to custody deaths in the country during those years, data from the home ministry showed. On an overall level, Maharashtra led in […]
After keeping the move on hold for three months due to the elections, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization has cut its administrative charges on the funds it manages to 0.65% from 0.85%, according to labor ministry sources. The cut in administrative charges — which was notified on Mar 15 — is to reflect the lower […]
Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has written to over 250 corporate houses in India, inviting them join it in setting up 70 start-up incubators across the country. Half of the centers will be set up in existing institutions — such as the IITs — while the other half will be set up as independent […]
With rising passenger numbers, congestion and delays have increased at India’s major airports, going by air traffic data for the first two months of this year released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation today. According to them, the number of domestic air passengers in India jumped 21% on year, with January seeing an increase […]
Various private entites have sought the central government’s permission to open 39 Ayurveda colleges in the state of Uttar Pradesh, according to data obtained from the ministry of alternative medicine or AYUSH. Uttar Pradesh is already home to 48 out of the country’s 341 Ayurveda colleges. Ayurveda, literally the study of life, is the traditional […]
