Union Budget 2007-2008

Highlights of the India Union Budget 2007-2008 presented by Finance Minister PC Chidambaram in parliament.

• Income tax limit unchanged, increased the threshold limit by Rs 10,000 giving every assessee a relief of Rs 1,000.
• Deduction in respect of medical insurance under Section 80 (D) increased to Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 for senior citizens.
• Exemption limit for women was increased to Rs 145,000 and for senior citizens to Rs 195,000.
• Corporate tax: No surcharge for firms with a taxable income of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) or less.
• E-governance allocation to be increased from Rs.395 to Rs.719 crore.
• Indian investors to be allowed investment in overseas capital markets through mutual funds. Mutual funds to set up Infrastructure Fund schemes.
• Any requirement for security of the nation to be provided.
• Backward Regions Grant Fund to be raised to Rs 5800 crore.
• A high-powered committee report aimed at making Mumbai a world class financial centre submitted. Public suggestions will be invited.
• Rs 50 crore provided to begin work on vocational education mission for which Task Force in Planning Commission is chalking out a strategy.
• 1,396 Indian Technical Institutes to be upgraded to achieve technical excellence.
• An autonomous Debt Management Office in government to be set up.
• Government to create one lakh jobs for physically challenged. Government will reimburse the EPF contributions of employers in the case of physically challenged people taken on rolls of the company and included in the PF scheme. A fund of Rs 150 crore to be started which will go up to Rs 450 crore.
• An Expert Committee to be set up to study the impact of climate change in India.
• Rs 150 crore to be given to Ministry of Youth and Sports for Commonwealth Games and Rs 350 crore to the Delhi Government for the purpose. Rs 50 crore to be provided for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune.
• Rs 100 crore for recognising excellence in the field of agricultural research.
• VAT revenues increased by 24.3 per cent in the first nine months of 2006-07.
• A national level goods and services tax to be introduced from next fiscal.
• Fiscal deficit to be 3.7 per cent in the current year and revenue deficit two per cent.
• Fiscal management enabled States consolidate debt to the tune of Rs.1,10,268 crore and 20 states availed of debt waiver to the tune of Rs.8575 crores. The share of States from the revenue expected to touch Rs.1,42,450 crore during 2007-08 as against Rs.1,20,377 crore during 2006-07.
• Total expenditure estimated at Rs 6,81,521 crore.
• Increase in gross tax revenue by 19.9 per cent, 20 per cent and 27.8 per cent in first three years of UPA government. Intend to keep tax rates moderate.
• Peak customs duty rate on non-agricultural items reduced from 12.5 to ten per cent.
• All coking coal fully exempted from duty.
• Duties on seconds and defective reduced from 20 to ten per cent.
• Customs duty on polyster to be reduced from ten per cent to 7.5 per cent.
• Fiscal deficit for 2007-08 pegged at 3.3 per cent of GDP at Rs.1,50,948 crore. Revenue deficit at Rs.72,478 crore which will be 1.5 per cent.
• Total expenditure during 2006-07 estimated at Rs.6,80,521 crore including Rs.40,000 crore for SBI shares.
• Duty on pet food reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.
• Duty on sunflower oil to be reduced by 15 per cent.
• Duty reduced on watch dials and movements and umbrella parts from 12.5 to five per cent.
• Import duty of 15 specified machinery to be reduced from 7.5 per cent to five per cent.
• Economy grows 8.6 per cent in third quarter of this fiscal compared to 9.3 per cent in the year-ago period
• Three per cent import duty to be levied on private importers of aircraft including helicopters.
• No change in general CENVAT rate.
• Ad valorem duty on petrol and diesel to be brought down from eight to six per cent.
• Export duty on iron ore and concentrate at the rate of Rs.300 per tonne. Export duty on Cromium proposed at Rs 2000 tonne.
• Small-scale industries excise duty exemption raised from Rs one crore to Rs 1.5 crore.
• Manufacturing sector grows at 10.7 per cent, agriculture at 1.5 per cent during October-December 2006-07.
• Excise duty for plywood reduced from 16 per cent to eight per cent.
• Food mixes to be fully exempted from excise duty.
• Excise duty for plywood reduced from 16 per cent to eight per cent.
• Bio-diesel to be fully exempted from excise duty.
• Water purification devices, small and big, fully exempted from excise. Specific rates of excise duty on cigarettes increased.
• Excise duty on Pan Masala without tobacco as mouth freshners reduced from 66 per cent to 45 per cent.

• PAN to be made single identity card for all securities/stocks/MFs related transactions.
• Insurance companies to launch a senior citizens scheme in 2007-08.
• Defence budget increased to Rs 96,000 crore
• Tourism infrastructure to get an allocation of Rs.520 crore as against Rs.423 crore last year.
• The ceiling of loans for weaker sections under deferential rate of interest scheme will be raised from Rs 6500 to Rs 15,000 and in housing loan from Rs 5000 to Rs 20,000.
• Regulations would be put in place for mortgage guarantee company for housing loans.
• Regional Rural Banks, which are willing to take up greater responsibilities, to undertake aggressive branch expansion programme. One RRB branch for each of 80 districts so far uncovered. RRBs to accept NRE and FCNR deposits.
• FDI inflows between April and January this fiscal touched $12.5 bn while portfolio investment reached $6.8 billion
• Technology Upgration Fund in textiles to continue during the 11th Plan. Rs 911 crore to be provided for this.
• Allocation for National Highway Development programme to be stepped up from Rs 9,955 crore to Rs 12,600 crore.
• Work on Golden Quadrilateral road project nearly complete. Considerable progress made on North-South, East-West corridor and likely to be completed by 2009.
• Northeastern region will get Rs 405 crore for highway development. Road-cum-rail project over Brahmaputra in Bogibil, Assam.
• Health insurance cover for weavers to be enlarged to ancillary industries. Allocation increased from Rs 241 crore to Rs 321 crore.
• A scheme for modernisation and technologiucal upgradation of choir industry for which Rs 23.55 crore has been earmarked.
• Manufacturing growth rate estimated at 11.3 per cent.
• 9.2 per cent GDP growth rate estimated in 2006-07.
• Average growth for last three years is 8.6 per cent.
• Saving rate of 32.4 per cent, investment rate of 33.8 per cent will continue.
• A number of proposals to perk up agriculture to be announced.
• Average inflation in FY'07 to be 5.2-5.4 per cent; govt confident of managing inflation
• Bank credit rate grew by 29 per cent during first ten months of 2006-07
• Inflation during 2006-07 estimated at between 5.2 and 5.4 per cent against 4.4 per cent during the previous year.
• Abhijit Sen report on forward trading to be submitted in two months' time.
• Additional irrigation potential of 24 lakh hectares to be implemented, including nine lakh hectares under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme.
• Economy in a stronger position than ever before.
• 15,054 villages have been covered under rural telephony and efforts to be made to complete the target of covering 20,000 villages by 2006-07.
• Allocation on Healthcare to increase by 21.9 per cent.
• Allocattion for education to be enhanced by 34.2 per cent.
• Two lakh more teachers to be employed and five lakh more classrooms to be constructed.
• Secondary education allowance to be increased from Rs.1,837 crore to Rs.3,794 crore.
• Government committed to fiscal reforms.
• Foreign exchange reserves stand at 180 billion dollars.
• Allocation under Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Mission stepped up from Rs 4680 crore to Rs 5850 crore.
• Government concerned over inflation and would take all steps for moderating it.
• Already a number of steps on fiscal, monetary and supply management side have been taken.
• Annual target of 15 lakh houses under Bharat Nirmal Programme to be exceeded.
• Allocation for National Rural Health Mission stepped up from Rs 8207 crore to Rs 9947 crore.
• Gross budgetary support in 2007-08 raised to Rs 2,05,100 crore from 1,72,728 crore in 2006-07. Of this, budgetary support to the Central plan will go up to 1,54,939 crore against 1,72,728 crore.
• School dropout rates high. To prevent dropout, a National Means-cum-Merit scholarship to be implemented, with an allocation of Rs 6,000 per child.
• Rs 1290 crore to be provided for elimination of polio. Intensive coverage will be undertaken in 20 districts in UP and 10 districts in Bihar. This will be integrated into NRHM.
• National AIDS Control Programme to achieve zero level disease.
• Measures for significant improvement of health care in rural area.

• Allocation for ICDS programme to be increased from Rs 4087 crore to Rs 4761 crore.

• 30 more districts under NREGA. Additional allocation of Rs.12,000 crore for it.

• Rs 800 crore for Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana in districts not covered by NREGA. Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana allocation increased from Rs 250 crore to Rs 344 crore.
• Computerisation of PDS and integrated computerization programme for FCI.
• Allocation for schemes only for SCs and STs to be increased to Rs 3271 crore.
• Rs 63 crore for share capital for National Minorities Development Finance Corporation following Sachar Committee recommendations.
• Allocation for SC/ST scholarships enhanced from Rs.440 crore to Rs.611 crore.
• Scholarships programme for minorities students to be of the order of Rs 72 crore for pre-metric, Rs 48 crore for graduate and postgraduate.
• Total Budget for the Northeastern region raised from Rs 12,041 crore to Rs 14,365 crore.
• New Industrial Policy for the northeastern region to be in place before March 31.
• Women's development allocation will be Rs.22,282 crore.
• Rs 7,000 crore allocation for better tax administration to be used for social schemes.
• Rs 2,25,000 crore farm credit proposed in the new budget. A target of additional 50 lakh farmers to be brought under farm credit.
• Farmers' credit likely to reach Rs.1,90,000 crore as against the targeted Rs.1,75,000 crore during 2006-07.
• Special Purpose Tea Fund to rejuvenate tea production.
• Rs 100 crore allocated for National Rainfed Area Authority.
• One hundred per cent subsidy for small farmers and 50 per cent for other farmers for water recharging scheme.
• World Bank signed agreement for revival of 5,763 waterbodies in Tamil Nadu. Loan component Rs 2,182 crore. To have a command area of four lakh hectares. Similar agreement with Andhra Pradesh in March for recharge of 2,000 bodies. Command area 2.5 lakh hectares.
• Bonds worth Rs 5,000 crore to augment NABARD to be issued.
• Death and disability cover for rural landless families to be introduced, known as 'Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana'.
• 70 lakh households to be covered under a social welfare scheme with LIC and with support from state governments.
• 50 per cent of the premium at Rs.200 per household to be given by the Centre. Rs.1,000 crore fund to be maintained by LIC for the purpose.
• Central public sector enterprises will be given Rs 16,261 crore as equity support and loans of over Rs 2600 crore.

Highlights of the Railway Budget 2007-2008 presented by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

• Ladies above 45 years will have greater quota.
• New rail lines to aid new steel & power plants.
  
• No more wooden seats in trains.
• 800 bogies to be added to popular trains.
• Rail infrastructure revamp planned.
• Huge investment for containers.
• Wagon production up by 10%.
• Fifty per cent fare concession for UPSC and other official examinees.
• Changes in the design of compartments to help physically disabled.
• Separate coach for vendors, milkmen and petty traders in passenger trains.
• Coupon validating machines (CVMs), after its success in Mumbai, is to be introduced in Kolkata, Chennai
• Mumbai to get smart card-based reservation system in Mumbai on trial basis
• Six thousand automatic ticket vending machines to be set up in next two years
• Number of berths to be increased from 72 to 84 in sleeper coaches.
• Tickets to be sold at petrol pumps, ATM centres, etc
• Ticket bookings and hotel bookings can be done through railway call centres to be set up
• Railway interest surplus at Rs 10,227 crore
• Freight earning s up 17% in Apr-Dec
• Passenger traffic up 14% in Apr-Dec
• 60 MT extra freight loading in 2007
• To invest in 3 storey freight containers
• 15 private container licence issued
• Pipavah-Jaipur double-decker train to begin
• Tariff discount to up high axle output; to explore independent private tariff agency.
• Railways to reserve a quota of lower seats for senior citizens and for women aged more than 45 years.
• 20-30 per cent increase in passenger traffic
• All customer complaints to be disposed in three months
• Fund balance at Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion)
• Freight: Incremental loading of 60 million tonne this year
• Cement steel traffic up by 20 to 30 per cent
• High surplus recorded without load on common man
• Plan to start three-storey container trains
• Will invest massively in container operations over the next 5 years
• Lalu claims container train experiment has been successful
• Efforts to increase container traffic five-fold to 100 million tonnes by 2011-12
• Each zone will have a SP grade officer to look into consumer complaints
• New wagons to be replaced by new ones
• To invest in improving infrastructure around railway stations
• Wooden seats to be replaced by cushioned ones in ordinary class passenger trains from next fiscal.
• Unreserved compartments in new trains to be increased from four to six
• Freight revenues up 17 per cent, passenger revenues increase 14 per cent in April-December 2006

Cold Fluorescent Bulbs


So what is a cold cathode? In most fluorescent bulbs, a cathode is heated to produce light, but with cold cathodes the cathode operates at the ambient room temperature. They offer several advantages over the others like,

• they have a very long life,
  
• they can be dimmed,
  
• they can be used in flashing signs,
• they can be exposed to the elements

But the only problem with them so far is that they're not too bright. This cold cathode fluorescent (CCF) technology is excellent for computer case mods and backlights for flat-panel displays, but barely bright enough to use as lamps. For instance, a 5-watt lamp, one of the brightest ones available, can only put out the equivalent of a 20- to 25-watt incandescent bulb.

Inflation rises and life quality sucks
"Congress ka hath Garibo ke Sath" or "Congress ka hath Aam aadmi ke sath" that was Indian National Congress propaganda in 2004 elections.

Three years since then, the reality speaks differently. Rising inflation, sky rocketing prices of essential commodities does not augur well for Congress lead UPA government at the center.

Finance minister says he is hapless, and doesn't have a magical wand to ward off inflation. Prime minister appeals to Chief Minister's of states to work on controlling prices. President appeals to government to control prices. No government hopes that the new produce coming into market will control the prices of essential commodities.

New light blue color jersey for Team India

Indian Cricket team gets ready for Cricket World Cup 2007, a new Jersey has been designed by their apparel sponsors NIKE Inc. It's light blue color and 15 percent lighter. According to NIKE official it is designed to beat the heat in West Indian climate.



A lot of inputs from Dravid and the other players have gone into the making of the new jersey. Since tying up with BCCI, Nike officials informed that they have been interacting with coach Greg Chappell and the entire support staff to finalise details of the jersey.


Some of the highlights of the new designed jersey are.

• Lightweight poly microfibre fabric
• Vents for breathability ensured due to engineered mesh
• Dri-fit technology to keep players dry from sweat and cool all day long
• Easy body movement due to design
• Shades of the Tri-colour on the jersey for inspiration
• Thermal vest adds warmth, reduces wind resistance and bulk

Konkan Railway services
Just back from my native place, a small village in konkan. It is quite relaxing making a small visit to the place. Konkan railway is a boon traveling in this part of world, as traveling via road is tough, being a hill area bus travel is not comfortable. But the trains are always crowded and konkan railway management and those who are responsible for the services are not that efficient to manage the crowds. They are always late in responding.

They have a holiday special for the occasions, but the festive mood in mumbai based konkanis is so over whelming and add to that the ever growing tourist influx towards Goa.

It is just not understandable that, the Konkan Railway who boasts fantastic growth in revenue this year, responds so slow to the infrastructure and service augmentation. They should make the holiday special is regular service on the route and take the task of improving the infrastructure along with.

Maharashtra's power crisis

Maharashtra's power crisis deepening day by day and yet Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is seen enjoying bollywood events without any remorse. You can find him in front chairs of every award function in mumbai. He is less bothered about the responsibilities bestowed on him by the democratic setup of this country.

During the last 8 years rule of Congress and its allies, government has not shown any vision or rather understanding of the power crisis of the state. They say Maharashtra has a deficit of 5000 Mega watts this year, and nothing done in past few years to tackle this problem. First five years they just kept on blaming the previous government, and playing the secularism card to confuse the masses. Now the very same government which came to power on the slogan of government for poor, and backwards has made life miserable for the very same section of society by deepening power crisis and rising inflation.

If the elections were due in coming months, people would have kicked them out of power, that is quite evident in recent Municipal elections of Greater Mumbai.

Vodafone outbids other to acquire Hutchison Essar




The worlds second largest mobile operator Vodafone has out bidded the other competitors Reliance Infocomm, Ruias, and Hindujas in a auction to acquire controlling stake in Hutchison Max popularly known as Hutch the fourth largest mobile operator in India.

Vodafone offer gives hutch essar a total value, including debt, of US$ 18.8 billions. Sources said that Hindujas were the highest bidders at US$ 20 billion, but the deal went to Vodafone on other parameters. Reliance bidded below US$ 17 billion despite creating much hype in last month.

Vodafone has managed to stay put the major investors in Hutch the Ruia's of Essar, Analjit Singh and Asim Ghosh who together control 12.26% of the Hutch.

Industry analysts value the bid to be on premium side upto 45%. Effect of this deal has soared the valuation of other indian telcos also.

Uttar Pradesh Governor irks students

Uttar Pradesh Governor TV Rajeshwar has angered the student's of Sampoornand Snskrit Vidyalaya, Varanasi, where he was Chief Guest at convocation ceremony.

The governor in his speech given in broken Hindi said, which can be loosely translated in english as "World has gone on moon and you people are still in age of bullock carts learning Sanskrit. You won't get any jobs nor you can go to abroad learning Sanskrit."

This has angered the students and they protested violently, some even abusing the governor and hurling the chairs at him.

The whole incident shows lack of sensitivity from governors side. What he wanted to say about Sanskrit is debatable but the way he has done it and the dais he has used to express his valuable thoughts shows utter immaturity on his part.

If the governor behaves such a way, then you can't blame the hot headed teenagers acting in the manner they felt right at the moment.

Marlon Samuel in match fixing scandal

Marlon Samuel of West Indies cricket team is the latest addition to players falling to match fixing scandal. After the Nagpur police conveyed the findings on conversation of bookie Mukesh Kochar with Samuel, where Samuel reveals vital information to the bookie. These revelations has casted serious doubts about fairness of latest West Indies tour to India.

It is now apparent that demon of match fixing has engrossed the cricketing fraternity all over the world.

Unfortunate thing about all these incidents is that every time a scandal is exposed the bookies involved are from India and these people have a link with mafia don's currently settled in middle east. It's a shame on our beloved country.

Big money in cricket is bound to make the players vulnerable for these kind of allurements. It is easy making good money for under performing or revealing the team strategy to the bookies. People involved in these scandals make big money as betting on cricket goes into multi million dollars.