Finance
minister P Chidambaram presented his interim budget for 2014.
§ Fiscal deficit for current fiscal to be
4.6%
§ Revenue deficit estimated at 3% for
current fiscal
§ Excise duty on SUVs cut from 30 to 24%, in
large and midsegment cars from 27‐24% to 24‐20%
§ No changes in tax laws in interim budget
§ Excise duty cut from 12 to 10 per cent in
capital goods sector to stimulate growth
§ Excise duty on mobile handset to be 6% on
CENVAT credit to encourage domestic production
§ Rs 500crore estimated requirement for
implementing one‐rank‐one‐pay
scheme for armed forces in 2014‐15
§ Rs 6000crore to rural housing fund, Rs
2000 crore for urban housing fund
§ Rs 3711 crore for minority affairs;
housing and urban poverty alleviation gets Rs 6000 crore
§ Fiscal deficit target of 3% to be achieved
by 2017
§ CAD will be $45 billion in 2013-14
§ Foreign exchange reserves up by $15
billion
§ Foodgrain production estimated at 263
million tons in 2013‐14
§ 3 more industrial corridors — Chennai
Bangalore, BangaloreMumbai, Amritsar Kolkata — under various stages of
§ implementation
§ GDP growth rate in Q3 and Q4 of 2013‐14
will be at least 5.2%
FDI Limits
|
Sr. No.
|
List of
Limits in various sectors (in %)
|
|
|
1
|
Defence
|
26
|
|
2.
|
Pension
|
49
|
|
3.
|
Insurance
|
49
|
|
4.
|
Print media
|
26
|
|
5.
|
Civil
aviation
|
49
|
|
6.
|
Public sec.
banks
|
20
|
|
7.
|
Private sec.
banks
|
74
|
|
8.
|
Multi brand
|
51
|
|
9.
|
Single brand
|
100
|
|
10.
|
Tourism
|
100
|
India GDP Forecast:
RBI pegged 2014‐15 GDP growth
at a central estimate of 5.5 %
World Bank lowers India’s GDP growth forecast for
2014‐15 at 5.7 %
ADB pegs India GDP growth rate for 2014‐15
at 5.5 %
IMF projected GDP growth for India in 2014‐15
at ‐ 5.4 %
India ranking in different Indexes for
2013 ‐ 14:
1. Global Environment Performance Index 2014 – 155
2. Intellectual property (IP) environment 2014 – 25 (US
ranked on the top followed by UK and France)
3. World Press Freedom Index 2014 ‐
140 in the list of 180 countriess
4. Nuclear material security index 2014 ‐
23rd out of 25 countries
5. World's best countries for doing business 2014 ‐
98th (Ireland topped the list).
6. Social Progress Index 2014: 102 out of 132
7. Global Hunger Index 2013 ‐ 63
8. World Prosperity Index 2013 – 106. Norway tops the list.
9. Global Gender Gap Report 2013 ‐
101. Iceland tops the list.
10. Global Peace Index 2013 – 141
11. Human Development Report 2013 – 136
12. Global Corruption Index 2013 – 94
13. Global Competitiveness Index 2013 ‐60
for 2013 (Switzerland top in this report)
14. Gender Inequality Index 2013 ‐
132nd (UN Human Development (Index) Report)