The Things You Should Know

Rajya Sabha Elections: The Election Commission on Friday, 23rd February announced elections to 59 Rajya Sabha seats in 16 states; 58 due to retirement and 1 due to the resignation of Kerala MP Veerendra Kumar. Elections will be held on 23rd March.  BJP tally will go up but still will remain in minority state. Currently BJP has 58 MPs against Congress' 54 in Upper House of the Parliament. As per the schedule released by EC, the notification of the polls will be issued on 5 March. The last date for filing nominations is 12 March, scrutiny will take place on 13 March and the last date of withdrawing nominations is 15 March, according to the EC. “The Commission has directed that for the purpose of marking preference(s) on the ballot paper only integrated violet colour sketch pen(s) of pre-fixed specification, provided by the Returning Officer, shall be used. No other pen shall, under any circumstances, be used in the above said elections,” the release by the EC said. St...

Congress's Steering Committee Meeting: Rahul Gandhi today chaired Congress's Steering committee meeting in Delhi to finalize the date for party's Plenary session. The new Congress president dissolved the CWC (Congress Working Committee), highest level decision making body of the party formed by previous Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi set up the 34-member Steering Committee to work in its place till a new CWC was set up. March 16,17 & 18 were fixed for a session after a meeting of the Steering Committee. The session will take place in Delhi to decide the future strategy of the party ahead of the 2019 general election. “Congress president Rahulji emphasised that the composition of the new Congress Committee should reflect a harmonious blend of experience of senior leaders and vitality and dynamism of the youth. He also stressed the point that representation of women, scheduled castes and tribes in the party hierarchy is the first priority and sa...

Tax Proposals: Here are the key points. Agriculture: At present, hundred per cent deduction is allowed in respect of profit of co-operative societies which provide assistance to its members engaged in primary agricultural activities. In order to encourage professionalism in post-harvest value addition in agriculture, FM proposes to allow hundred per cent deduction to these companies registered as Farmer Producer Companies and having annual turnover up to Rs.100 crores in respect of their profit derived from such activities for a period of five years from financial year 2018-19. Employment Generation: Currently, a deduction of 30% is allowed in addition to normal deduction of 100 % in respect of emoluments paid to eligible new employees who have been employed for a minimum period of 240 days during the year under section 80-JJAA of the Income-tax Act. However, the minimum period of employment is relaxed to 150 days in the case of apparel industry. In order to encourage crea...

On 1st February 2018, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union budget for the year 2018-19. This budget is the last full budget of the ruling NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government.  FM started his budget speech with NDA government's achievements and current economic condition. Here are some of the key points: Average economy growth of 7.5% in first 3 years of current government Indian economy is now 2.5 trillion dollar economy Indian economy is 7th largest economy in the world GDP growth of 6.3% in 2nd quarter of the current fiscal Next year's GDP growth forecast - 7.4% Exports expected to grow at 15% in 2017-18. Improvement of India’s ranking by 42 places in last three years in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Revised Fiscal Deficit estimates for 2017-18 are 5.95 lakh crore at 3.5% of GDP. Key points of the union budget 2018-19. 1. Agriculture Sector:   In year 2016-17 India achieved food grain production of around 275 mi...