Highlights for Day 44 of Narendra Modi government Development Work
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- Category: National Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 21:00
Highlights for Day 44 of Narendra Modi government Development Work
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Finance Minister pleases Modi, sanctioned Rs 200cr for Sardar Patel statue.
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel's statue which is touted as the tallest statue in the world at 182 metres will get Rs 200 from the central government, as was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely during his Budget speech on Thursday.
Jaitley's decision to allot a whooping sum of Rs 200 crore for the construction of Patel's statue is widely seen as an attempt to please Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had initiated the project. The project is set to be completed in two phases and the first phase is estimated to cost around Rs 2,000 crore. The statue which would almost be double the height of the statue of Liberty will have steel framing, reinforced cement concrete and bronze coating. The statue will be erected on an Island on Narmada riverbed facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia.
Tax immunity limit raised by Rs 50,000
In a minor relief to the indidual tax payers, the Narendra Modi government in its maiden Union Budget raised the income tax exemption slab from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. While presenting the Union Budget 2014-15, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed to raise the tax exemption limit for tax payers aged above 60 years to Rs 3 lakh from the present Rs 2.5 lakh.
Seeking to boost household savings, the government hiked the exemption limit for investments by individuals in financial instruments to Rs 1.5 lakh.
Presently the investments and expenditures up to a combined limit of Rs 1 lakh get exemptions under Sections 80C, 80CC and 80CCC of the Income-Tax Act. In some relief to those aspiring to take home loans, the housing loan interests exemption has been increased to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh.
Defence companies' shares slide among FDI hike
Shares of Difence equipment makers fell sharply by as much as 10 per cent on Thursday amid Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raising forigen direct investment in the sector to 49 per cent.
Bharat Electronics shares tanked 9.71 per cent, while Astra Microwave Products was down 8.45 per cent on the BSE. Among others, BEML fell by 4.99 per cent, Walchandnagar Industries (4.78 per cent) and Dynamatic Technologies (2.3 per cent).
FDI in defence sector raised to 49 per cent, Jaitley said while presenting the Budget for 2014-15. As per the current FDI policy, up to 26 per cent FDI is permissible in the defence sector subject to licensing through government route.
Meanwhile, selling was also seen in the broader market with the BSE benchmark Sensex trading lower by 280.40 points to 25,164.41 during noon trade.
Finance Minister announces to launch new TV channel for farmers
Modi government today announced a new 24-hour TV channel dedicated to agriculture sector with an outlay of Rs 100 crore for providing real-time information to farmers.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech for 2014-15 said that a sum of Rs 100 crore has been set aside for Kisan (Farmers) Television to provide real time information on various farming and agriculture issues. Earlier this month, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar had told PTI a channel will be named 'DD Kisan' will come very soon and Prasar Bharati is already working on finalising the plans for launching the channel at the earliest.
The BJP had before the 2014 General Elections declared that if voted to power, it would "explore setting up of regional Kisan TV channels." Earlier, Prasar Bharati had been deliberating whether a single agriculture channel would suffice considering the different languages and requirements in various states and regions of the country.
Doordarshan and the All India Radio already have been running programmes related to agriculture and farming. The Prasar Bharati Act lays down that the public broadcaster should pay special attention to fields of agriculture and rural development along with areas like education and spread of literacy, environment, health and family education welfare and science and technology.
--Written by Aadil Mir--