Equity benchmarks the Sensex and Nifty ended with modest losses on February 1 after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Interim Budget 2024-25 which steered clear of big-bang announcements ahead of the General Elections. She did, however, announce some sector-specific initiatives while sticking to the government’s fiscal consolidation roadmap.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted various schemes and measures rolled out by the Union government in her interim budget speech. These include the National Education Policy 2020, PM Schools for Rising India, Skill India Mission, PM Mudra Yojana, Garib Kalyan initiative, PM-SVANidhi, PM-JANMAN Yojana, PM-Vishwakarma Yojana, and others.

The government's fiscal deficit target of 5.1% for FY25 is fairly aggressive and there could be a reduction in capex spends if revenue falls short, according to market expert Shankar Sharma. In the Interim Budget 2024, FM Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to raise capital expenditure — the fourth consecutive year of upward revision — by 11.1% on-year to Rs 11.11 lakh crore, which is 3.4% of the GDP.

The Finance Minister presented the Interim Budget 2024 today. The Interim Budget laid focus on Governance, Development and Performance (GDP), giving a new meaning to the old abbreviation. Though a significant rejig in the direct tax rates and exemptions was in any case not expected, however, the salaried class was still hopeful to receive some benefit from the Interim Budget to reduce the tax.

Shares of housing finance companies jumped up to 18% following Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman’s announcement that the government will launch a scheme for middle-class families to buy a house or build one. In the last Budget speech of the Modi 2.0 government, the FM said the scheme will help deserving sections of the middle class, who are currently living in rented houses or slums.

The 2024-25 Budget was not a pre-election one according to Sonal Varma, Nomura's chief economist for India and Asia ex-Japan. "This was not a pre-election budget. While the budget speech talked a lot about the key voter constituents, it has chosen to prioritise fiscal consolidation," Varma said on February 1 following Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's speech in Parliament.

Representative ImageBELAGAVI: To counter escalating instances of fraudulent property transactions and manipulation of land records, Karnataka government has unveiled plans to digitize all old realty-related documents at taluk offices across the state. This strategic move, while ensuring transparency and efficiency in maintaining land records, will also allow easy accessibility to those records.

The interim budget turned out to be what it promised, an interim budget. It has some very interesting data about the state of the economy. Both corporate tax and income tax are showing an increase compared to the budget estimates. However, we are seeing non-tax revenues go up because of increased dividends from RBI and public sector companies.

The government’s market borrowing cost is likely to remain lower in the next financial year after the government in the Union Budget 2024 announced a lower-than-expected market borrowing and lower fiscal deficit numbers, experts said. This will be aided further by the strong demand from foreign investors after inclusion of Indian bonds in the JP Morgan bond index, they added.

Paytm is in discussion with some of its banking partners to transfer the business of Paytm Payments Bank, the company's founder and chief executive officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma said on February 1. “Many large banks have reached out to us offering support and we are overwhelmed. We will have to change our Virtual Payment Address (VPA) as we partner with other banks.

Maruti Suzuki India's total vehicle sales, including exports, increased 5 per cent at 1,99,364 units in January from 1,72,535 units in the same month last year, the company said in a statement on Thursday. This was the highest-ever monthly sales volume for the Gurugram-based car maker, as per the statement. The total domestic sales grew 13 per cent at 1,70,214 vehicles.

PM Narendra Modi will dedicate three power projects in Odisha, with an investment of Rs 28,978 crore. These projects include Darlipali STPP, NSPCL Rourkela PP Expansion Project, and NTPC Talcher Thermal Power Project. These projects will provide low-cost power to states like Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and others. They also have modern environmental features and will create job opportunities.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invoked caste in her Interim Budget speech on February 1, saying the BJP-led Centre’s highest priority is welfare of four major castes – poor, women, youth and farmer. Her statement was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who for the first time on November 30 last year.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman where on the one hand left the direct and indirect tax rates unchanged, on the other, she withdrew the outstanding direct tax demands for select financial years in the past. The Interim Budget 2024 proposes to withdraw such tax demands up to Rs 25,000 till the financial year 2009-10, and up to Rs 10,000 for five financial years till March 2015.

Indian pharma, CDMO and niche chemical companies have of late been spending heavily on R&D to discover new molecules and processes. This has turning out to be a prudent move as Indian companies are moving up the value chain. They are not only looking at opportunities arriving from the shift in supply chain from China to India a.k.a. China plus one theme but eyeing collaboration.