- Monday, April 29, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy and business for Friday, March 15, 2024:
The Indian railways ministry on Friday said it is on track to register its best-ever performance in terms of freight loading, overall revenue collection and track laying in the 2023-24 financial year. In a statement, the ministry said, “As per the preliminary data, IR (Indian Railways) has crossed an originating freight loading of 1500 MT today on 15th March, 2024. Previously, IR had achieved the best ever freight loading of 1512 MT during FY 2022-23. During FY 2023-24, total revenue of Indian Railways stands at Rs 2.40 lakh crore as on date. Last year on 15th March, total revenue was Rs 2.23 lakh crore, an increment of Rs 17,000 crore.” According to the ministry, the number of passengers during FY 2023-24 stood at 648 crore (6,480 million), an increment of 52 crore (520 million) compared to the figures of the same period of last year.
Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that a political funding mechanism, previously deemed “unconstitutional” by the top court, represented an advancement from the past. However, she emphasized the necessity for a more transparent system to be established. Her remarks made at a media conclave in New Delhi followed the Election Commission of India’s disclosure of the names of companies and individuals who had contributed billions of rupees to political parties under a system which had previously shielded their identities. The minister rejected criticism that the system, introduced by her government in 2017, resulted in corruption, patronage of business and crony capitalism across the political spectrum but added that lessons had to be learnt.
India’s Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested K Kavitha, a leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi party following a daylong raid at her premises in Hyderabad, the capital of the southern state of Telangana, and took her to New Delhi for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, sources in the agency said. Kavitha, 46, a state lawmaker, was arrested by the central probe agency at 5:20 pm local time from her residence at the posh Banjara Hills area in Hyderabad, according to the arrest memo. Her husband D R Anil Kumar was informed about her arrest, ED officials said. Agency sources said the BRS leader was being brought to Delhi for questioning. Kavitha is also the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Indian home minister Amit Shah on Friday defended the contentious electoral bonds scheme which has been struck down by the country’s Supreme Court as unconstitutional, saying it was an initiative to put an end to dominance of black money in the country’s politics. He, however, said that he respected the top court’s verdict. Speaking at a media conclave, Shah said he feared that black money will return with the scrapping of electoral bonds. He also said there should be reforms regarding the electoral bonds, rather than discarding them. He said before the scheme came in place, political donations were made through cash, and after its implementation, companies or individuals had to submit a check to the Reserve Bank of India to purchase the bond for making donations.
Import duty concessions announced in the electric vehicle (EV) policy on Friday will not impact domestic players and, on the contrary, expand the Indian EV market, a top government official said. Rajesh Kumar Singh, secretary of the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) under the commerce and industry ministry said that the government has taken the view of all the concerned stakeholders on the policy, which was balanced to the public interest. “We are not trying to, you know, tailor a package for anybody. This is open to everybody. The idea is to kickstart the four- wheeler e-car manufacturing in India, with very stringent kind of value-addition norms, while also ensuring that we allow imports in a very limited quantity,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
(With agencies)
