A healthy, wealthy and wise punch from FM With an eye on polls, the finance minister has spared no effort to give a thrust to the social sector, including health and education. While several new programmes have been launched, particularly in the health sector, allocations under some of the already-existing schemes too have increased sharply.

Rs 85 cr to INSPIRE career in science With the number of students enrolling for science subjects showing a marked decline, the Centre has earmarked Rs 85 crore for an ambitious programme...

6,000 new model schools announced Acting on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s promise, made in last year’s Independence Day speech...

Happy days are here again This is a Budget for the common man, strong tax collections have prompted the FM to temper with the tax slabs. There is therefore more income coming in by way of lower taxation.

A boost to middle-class savings basket Unprecedented, fantastic and brilliant—these were the first-cut reactions to the Budget announcements made by finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday. What seemed to be a dull and drab announcement took a turn when the minister announced the taxation provisions.

Will the budget take markets to where they belong? “Budget” would mean “taxes” to an individual, “tax treatment and sops” to corporates, and it would mean “many” to the commodity market participants and the ecosystem, as most budgetary announcements in one way or the other affect the commodities ecosystem in terms of trading or pricing of commodities.

Budget 2008-09 may benefit common man: Survey Budget is likely to be 'traditional' for India Inc since key challenge for govt is to sustain growth momentum, an Assocham survey said.

Budget 2008-09: feasible options Being a pre-election Budget, it would be difficult for the Finance Minister to reduce big ticket expenditures on subsidies and income generation programmes.

Single levy model to spur growth In a bid to ensure that the unabated growth of the telecom sector continues in the next fiscal, the industry is looking forward to a reduction in annual licence fee, zero duty and abolishment of VAT, among other things in the forthcoming Budget.

Making merry with surcharge on corporate tax The Budget for 1963-64 introduced two new instruments for resource mobilisation. First was the proposal to “super-impose a super profit tax”. Surcharge on corporate tax was born and is making merry even in 2007-08.