Vol. 67 No. 107 | FRIDAY | FEBRUARY 2, 2024 | 31Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper Mod Sarkar ki Guarantee di Government of india CBC 22 2201/13/0243/2324 PM SVANidhi ensuring self-reliance in business M Collateral-free loans to 78 lakh street vendors Hamara Sankalp p Viksit Bharat Scan for more information KhichdiFM offers no stand by for halwa for now, Sure of winning, Excellent fiscal restraint by FM revdis or freebies in poll year POLL OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI U nion Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seems to be quite optimistic of the Modi government winning the upcoming elections and capturing power. No wonder, she declared with aplomb that the government will present a detailed roadmap for pursuit of "Viksit (prosperous) Bharat" by 2047, as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Presenting an hour-long interim budget for 2024-25 in the Lok Sabha, the last one by the Modi government before the country heads to the general elections, she used a tablet to read out the proposals, assuring a higher sustainable economic growth path and promising a white paper on how the economy has functioned in the last 10 years since Modi came to power in 2014. The Finance Minister dwelt on Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas, and Atmanirbhar Bharat and asserted, “We expect that our government, based on its stupendous work, will be blessed with a resounding mandate” She highlighted the achievements of the Modi government in the past 10 years, especially in administering social justice effectively and said the country's welfare and progress depended on the betterment of the poor, women, youth and the ‘annadata’ (farmers). She pegged India's real GDP growth at closer to 7% in 202425 with considerable scope to outpace 7% by 2030, adding that it will hit the US $5 trillion mark in the next three years, making India the third largest economy in the world. CONTD. ON NATION MALL Analysis ÷Ajit Ranade S `15,554CR ALLOCATION TAKE FOR MAHA RAIL INFRA Whopping Rs 25k-cr shot for bullet train project GIVE AND VIKSIT  BHARAT D EFENCE UP 18%: The interim budget has enhanced the defence budget by a whopping 18 per cent. TAX SLABS REMAIN N o tinkering; both the old and new tax regimes will continue, meaning one can choose between them when filing returns. OLD TAX DEMANDS F M has proposed withdrawing outstanding direct tax demands of up to  Rs 25,000 till FY09/10 and up to  Rs10,000 for FY10/11 to 14/15, and said it would benefit around one crore taxpayers. LAKHPATI DIDI T his is a reference to selfhelp groups in which members earn an income of one lakh a year. FM announced that the target would be increased from two to three crore beneficiaries. Also, anganwadi and ASHA workers would come under the Ayushman umbrella. STARTUP SOPS T he tax incentives for startups and investments made by sovereign wealth or pension funds have been extended for one more year till March 2025. GOLDEN ERA T he FDI (foreign direct investment) inflow between 2014 and 2023 marked a "golden era". The inflow of $596 billion was twice that between 2005 and 2014. To encourage sustained foreign investment, the government is negotiating bilateral investment treaties with foreign partners in the spirit of FDI, or 'First Develop India'. IN THE RED B enchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Thursday, with FM marginally hiking the capital expenditure outlay but not making any big announcement. FREE POWER O ne crore houses will be able to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity per month through rooftop solar technology. A saving of Rs 18,000 cr is expected in these households annually. KAMAL MISHRA /  MUMBAI A sum of Rs 15,554 crore has been allocated in the interim budget towards Maharashtra’s rail infrastructure for the fiscal year 2024-’25. Union Minister for Railways, Communication, Electronics, and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw made this announcement at a press conference in Delhi, with simultaneous video conferencing for Maharashtra.   The allocation marks a notable increase, slightly more than 13 times the average annual allocation of Rs 1,171 crore given to Maharashtra between 2009 and 2014. This financial boost underscores `1 lakh cr corpus for loans without interest R&D in sunrise domains SHANKAR RAJ / BENGALURU Predicting a ‘golden era for techsavvy youth’, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus of interest free loan to bolster research and innovation. This will strengthen deep-tech technologies in India, she said. The corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore that will be established comes with a fifty-year interest free loan. It will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates. “This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. We need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology added Sitharaman. ,” In addition, a new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘atmanirbharta’, she said in her short budget speech.. Reacting to the move, Devroop Dhar, Co-Founder & MD, Primus Partners said the Finance Minister “emphasized the crucial role played by Digital Public Infrastructure in fostering inclusive development centered around the people. There has been a substantial increase in budget allocation for Research and Development (R&D) in IT/Electronics, Cybersecurity and , e-Governance, marking a positive stride towards realizing the vision of Digital India. Notably 1500 , Crores have been earmarked in the budget for the third phase of ecourt development, a move expected to revolutionize the delivery of justice, making it more efficient and accessible to the common man.” CONTD. ON NATION the government’s commitment to enhancing rail connectivity and the transportation network in the state.   Central Railway a key player in , the region, is set to benefit significantly from the allocated funds. The total plan outlay for CR in FY ’24-’25 is Rs 10,611.82 crore, marginally higher than the Rs 10,600 crore in the previous fiscal year.   One of the noteworthy components of the budget is the allocation of Rs 1,941 crore for new railway line projects within the state. CONTD. ON NATION ince national elections are around the corner, the 2024 budget was supposed to be passed by a vote on account, which essentially meant that no special initiatives could be expected or inserted. Even then, the incumbent ruling party could be tempted to pump in some fiscal fuel to charge up the economy on the eve of elections. This is not unheard of in India’s own electoral history A famous . quip by an American president, which resonates all over, has been, “it’s the economy , stupid”. Implicit in this is the belief that the voter always votes with economic interest in mind. That may not be wholly true of the Indian voter, yet the temptation of an incumbent government to provide fiscal expansion has always been there. The most remarkable thing about Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman’s budget proposal presented on February 1 is the fiscal restraint. The proposed expenditure is bare- ly 6 percent more than last year. Of which the non-capex, i.e. revenue expenditure is barely up by 3.2 percent. This is the so called “non-productive” or routine expenditure and its growth has been sharply curtailed. Two years ago, it grew at 8 percent. Even the capital expenditure is budgeted to grow at 17 percent next year, much less than the rate of 31 percent growth per year seen for the past three years. The FM reminded Parliament that the fiscal deficit target of 6 percent for this year had been met, indeed bettered to 5.8 percent of the GDP That is good news for . fiscal rectitude, although part of the success of a lower fiscal deficit ratio is because the denominator -- i.e. nominal GDP is -- at only 8.6 percent, lower than planned. Next year’s target for the deficit is only 5.1 percent, even though the denominator, i.e. nominal GDP is projected to grow at 10.5 percent. And the FM indicated that the following year in 2026 the deficit target will be lower than 4.5 percent. This is quite remarkable, and shows that fiscal restraint is indeed the main flavour of this budget. CONTD. ON NATION INFRA PUSH: Rs 11.11 lakh crore will be spent on infrastructure. The Union government will also provide Rs 1.3 lakh crore in long term loans to states for this purpose. CONFIDENCE OR BRAVADO? Shedding crocodile tears before polls I f there were some who were expecting bigticket announcements to be made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Interim Budget for 202425, the last “budget” before the general elections, they were disappointed. An interim budget is a vote-on-account to provide a grant to the Union government to meet its expenditures for four months. However, since the Narendra Modi government has broken many a convention after he became Prime Minister in May 2014, expectations of populist pronouncements were not en÷Paranjoy tirely out of place. Why Guha Thakurta did this not happen? Before answering the question, it needs to be mentioned that this government is desperately addicted to the clever use of words, even as its actions do not match the reality on the ground. What else was the point in claiming that capital expenditure (capex) would go up by 11.1 per cent to Rs 11,11,111 crore? Or that the two acronyms – the gross domestic product (GDP) and the foreign direct investment (FDI) – should be expanded to “governance, development and performance” and to “first develop India”? What’s the truth behind the hype about these numbers? The reality is that the government spending on capex based on borrowings has increased the country’s debt burden to more than 80% of the GDP CONTD. ON NATION Flip Side HOUSING FOR MIDDLE CLASS: Also on the anvil are 2 crore affordable houses in the next 5 years and a specific housing scheme for the middle class apart from three major railway corridors. 40,000 railway bogies will be converted to Vande Bharat standard. ‘Puja’ in Gyanvapi basement BISWAJEET BANERJEE / LUCKNOW W ithin 8 hours of a court order allowing Hindus to perform Puja at the cellar of the southern wall of Gyanvapi mosque, religious ceremonies commenced in the basement of Vyasji followed by mangala aarti on Thursday morning. Coming out of the cellar District Magistrate S Ramalingam told reporters that “court orders have been complied with;” however, he refused to use the word ‘puja’ to describe the ceremony . The ritual, the first in 30 years, was performed after the barricades were removed at night around 11 pm on Wednesday night. This was followed by mangala aarti on Thursday where a total of five people, including three officials and two purohits, were present. Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid, who decided the date and time of Ram Mandir's consecration in Ayodhya, and Pandit Om Prakash Mishra, the priest of Vishwanath temple, were present during mangala aarti. DRONE SALE TO INDIA GETS US APPROVAL ONLINE REPORT WASHINGTON People privy to the occasion said Mishra carried out the aarti and distributed charnamrit and prasad to the people present there. District Judge Dr. Ajay Krishna Vishvesh issued the directive on Wednesday instructing the priest of , the Vyas family and the Kashi Vishwanath Trust Board to conduct wor- ship and rituals in the basement, situated near the south wall. The court also asked installation of a protective iron fence within seven days. The next hearing is scheduled for February 8, during which objections from both plaintiff and defendant parties will be entertained. CONTD. ON NATION The US has cleared the sale of MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones to India in a deal nearly worth $4 billion. The Defence Security Cooperation Agency has delivered the required certification, notifying the US Congress of the possible sale. India had proposed to purchase 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian drones during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US last year. The Biden administration's approval is an important landmark in the government-to-government deal. "This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to strengthen the USIndian strategic relationship. CONTD. ON NATION FOR FAILING TO REGISTER PROJECTS WITH REGULATORY BODY FIRST Show-cause notices to 41 promoters FOG LIFTS AS JMM LEADER GETS SWEARING-IN INVITE FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has initiated suo motu action against promoters and developers who are selling plots without registering their projects with the authority a press note issued by the regula, tory body said on Thursday . Show-cause notices have been issued to 41 promoters across the state, who have advertised their projects without obtaining a MahaRERA registration number. According to MahaRERA  Chairman  Ajoy Mehta, it is imperative to obtain a MahaRERA registration number before advertising any sale of plots, flats and buildings. “It amounts to vio- lation of law to advertise and sell plots without obtaining MahaRERA’s registration number. The idea is to protect the rights of investors. MahaRERA does not tolerate any irregularities in the real estate sector and therefore, show-cause notices have been issued with the sole purpose of protecting investor/purchaser interests.” According to the press note, MahaRERA office-bearers have observed that there are advertisements placed by developers to sell ‘non-agricultural plots’, and these projects are being sold in the market without obtaining a MahaRERA registration number. As per Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, registration with the MahaRERA is essential for the sale of a plot, flat or building, subject to certain conditions. Apart from that, promoters cannot advertise the sale of plots, flats or buildings. Of the 41 projects found in violation, 21are in Pune, 13 in Konkan and seven CONTD. ON NATION from Nagpur. DHEERAJ KUMAR / RANCHI J MM leader Champai Soren has been invited to take the oath of office on Friday . Earlier in the day the Governor had , showed no inclination to call him. This left the political scene in Jharkhand fluid and in limbo, at the same time. In the meanwhile, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand prepared to spend another night in judicial custody . Such was the uncertainty that it was decid, ed to fly the majority of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLAs, who are with Champai Soren, to Hyderabad; however, the plan ran aground on Thursday evening as Ranchi airport found itself enveloped in thick fog, preventing the plane from taking off. The 39 MLAs who had disembarked proceeded to the Circuit House in Ranchi. A senior JMM MLA, close to Soren, has been asked to keep a watch on all MLAs, CONTD. ON NATION sources added.