Month: February 2020

National

Budget 2020: 10 Important Points Of The Budget

HT News

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented the Union Budget 2020 with the longest-ever budget speech in Parliament. In the speech, she vowed to boost the income and purchasing power of the people.

Highlights of Union Budget 2020

• The FM in her budget speech reiterated PM Modi’s goal of making India a $5 trillion economy. She said that government would empower people through higher growth and meaningful employment.

• In the move to introduce new tax rates, the FM brought down the income tax outgo for people earning Rs. 15 lakh a year by Rs. 78,000 to Rs. 1,97,000.

• FM announced that the government’s debt had reduced to 48.7% of GDP from 52.2% in March 2014. She also said that fundamentals of the economy were strong.

• FM said that the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit from 3.8% of the GDP (revised estimate 2019-20) to 3.5% of GDP in the financial year ending March 2021.

• The government assigned a budget of Rs. 2.83 lakh crore for agricultural and rural sectors; Rs. 3.6 lack crore for piped water supply to every household; Rs. 99,300 crore for the education sector and Rs. 28,600 crore on central schemes for women.

• In 2019-20, the agricultural credit would be boosted to Rs. 15 lakh crore. The FM said that Non-banking financial companies (NBFs) would help in agriculture.

• The FM assured citizens of safety of their savings in banks by increasing the insurance cover on deposits to Rs. 5 lakh from existing Rs. 1 lakh.

• Healthcare sector got Rs. 69,000 crore with the promise that taxes from medical devices will be invested in … Read the rest

International

Britain Puts An End To Brexit On Friday 11 PM

HT News

On Friday 11 p.m., Britain bade farewell to the European Union. It has been nearly a half-century since UK joined the world’s largest trading bloc but it decided to walk out of EU to an uncertain future as a midsize economy.

Brexit timeline

Three-and-a-half ago, the then prime minister of Britain Theresa May proclaimed that “Brexit means Brexit” but she couldn’t keep her promise and had to resign in the wake of her inability to negotiate a Brexit deal.

The present prime minister Boris Johnson was voted to power only for Brexit and he kept the promise. He got commanding majority in election last month only on the promise to get Brexit done. After Brexit, he tweeted that spread hope and opportunity to every part of the UK.

Mr. Johnson met his cabinet in Sunderland to celebrate Brexit and promise that his government would undertake the biggest revival of the infrastructure since the Victorians. Sunderland is an industrial city in the north and also a traditional labor stronghold.

UK before and after Brexit

Brexit debate split the country geographically and generationally. But the future of UK seems uncertain even after Brexit. Scotland is threatening to renew its drive for independence. Also, Northern Ireland wants to join hands with Ireland. But UK is certain that Brexit will upend settle relations in virtually all areas of society. But at the same time, Britain will have to confront and answer new questions.

Source: https://nyti.ms/38SCvke

… Read the rest