-The Indian Express   Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced Rs 1,00,000 crore increase in the agriculture credit target to Rs 5,75,000 for the next fiscal and raised the outlay for farm sector by about Rs 3,000 crore. "Agriculture continues to be a priority to the government. The total plan outlay for agriculture and cooperation has been increased by 18 per cent from Rs 17,123 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 20,208 crore in...

-The Financial Express The Finance ministry today said income tax dues from 12 individuals, including stud-farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, account for 90 per cent of the total income tax outstanding. "The amount of outstanding income tax dues is a dynamic figure. As on September 30, 2010, about 90 per cent of the outstanding personal income-tax demand were due from 12 individual taxpayers," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said...

-PTI The World Bank has announced $ 4.3 billion financial aid to India through a new innovative and flexible financing arrangement to help the country fight poverty. This arrangement, while facilitating a $ 4.3 billion increase in support to India, is designed to maintain International Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (IBRD) - which is its lending arm - net exposure within the limit of $ 17.5 billion established by it. In a statement,...

The latest round of data on the 2011 Census shows that the country is exhibiting distinct signs of trading up as material living conditions improve for large sections of the population. Although this aggregate picture is not uniform across the country, analysts believe that the upward material mobility in society is creating the basis of a new consumer boom in the economy—serving up a perfect backdrop ahead of the presentation of...

The government is likely to peg fertiliser subsidy for next financial year at Rs 66,000 crore, lower than the actual outgo in 2011-12.  "A moderate increase is likely," said a government official. The actual subsidy bill for the fiscal is likely to come at over Rs 70,000 crore though the government had budgeted for just Rs 49,997 crore in the budget 2011-12.  Private analysts had soon after the presentation of the last...