1. Union Budget on Feb 28 The General Budget for financial year 2015-16 will be presented on Saturday, February 28. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has approved dates for the budget session. According to sources, the session will start on February 23 with the traditional Presidential Address to both the Houses. Then Railway Budget will be presented on February 26 followed by tabling of the Economic Survey on February 27. First leg of the Budget session will end on March 20. After one month recess, both the Houses of Parliament will reassemble on April 20 and continue till May 8. One month recess period is used by department related Standing Committees of Parliament to consider expenditure provisions for various Central Ministries/Departments and also the Finance Bill. Though the Government is not bound to accept suggestions given by these committees, the convention is to accept some of the suggestions and amend the provisions of Budgets accordingly. 2. NDA government’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has entered into Guinness book of World Records. Guinness book of World Records has given certificate stating it as most bank accounts opened in one week. In one week, 18,096,130 bank accounts were opened as part of the financial inclusion campaign from 23rd to 29th August, 2014. It was achieved by the Department of Financial Services (Government of India). Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the goal of eradicating financial untouchability of the poor by opening at least one bank account for every family in the country in less than six months. It seeks to financially empower the poor by providing them access to formal banking system. It also seeks to provide platform for Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) which will curb leakages in government subsidies and thus saving government exchequer. Initially, after its launch the scheme had a target of opening 7.5 crore bank accounts by 26 January, 2015, but later it was revised and raised to 10 crore bank accounts. As on 17th January 2015, PMJDY has achieved feat of opening of 11.50 crore bank accounts under it in the short span of 5 months since it was launched against the original target of 7.5 Crore by 26th January, 2015. 3. India’s GDP growth rate set to surpass China’s in 2016-17: IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) became the latest organisation to predict that India is on track to outpace China in the next few years and become the world’s fastest growing large economy.In its latest update to its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the IMF said India is likely to grow 6.5 per cent in 2016-17, higher than 6.3 per cent for China. Reform push: This prediction comes a week after the World Bank said that India is expected to outpace China in 2017-18 with growth of 7 per cent (as against China’s 6.9 per cent) on the back of reform initiatives of the Modi-led Government. However, in the latest update, IMF lowered India’s growth projection for 2015-16 to 6.3 per cent, from 6.4 per cent estimated in October 2014. China impact: The slowdown in China could drag the growth rates of most emerging Asian countries other than India, said the IMF report. India’s growth will not slide with others as it is expected to reap huge net gains from the fall in global oil and commodity prices, according to the IMF report. In India, the growth forecast is broadly unchanged, however, as weaker external demand is offset by the boost to the terms of trade from lower oil prices and a pick up in industrial and investment activity after policy reforms, the IMF report added. World growth to slow :The latest IMF report also said world growth for 2015 and 2016 is projected at 3.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, a downward revision of 0.3 per cent as against the October 2014 forecast. China’s economy slowed down to 7.4 per cent in 2014 – the slowest in 24 years – missing the official target of 7.5 per cent. The IMF has now projected that China’s growth rate will decline to 6.8 per cent in 2015-16 and 6.3 per cent in 2016.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 08:00:35 +0000
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