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Union Budget 2020: Rs 100 lakh crores to be spent on Infrastructure in the next 5 years to spur growth. Read details

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2020 speech announced a host of measures for infrastructure development. An ambitious plan to invest Rs 100 lakh crores on overhauling the Infrastructure in the country was declared by the FM which will give a fillip to the economic growth. The Union Minister mentioned that the investment of Rs 100 lakh crores will open up a host of job opportunities in the infrastructure sector.

Rs 1.76 lakh crores have been envisioned in Budget 2020 to be spent on transport infrastructure development in 2021. FM talked about the accelerated pace of development of highways. Delhi-Mumbai Expressway along with 2 other projects are intended to be completed by 2023 with 2,500 km access-controlled highways and 9,000 km of an economic corridor.
Chennai-Bengaluru expressway will be commenced very soon. A National Logistics Plan will be released soon. 12 lots of highway bundles spread over 6,000 km will be monetised before 2024.

Stating that Indians are fast embracing the air mode of transportation, the finance minister declared that her government plans to build and operationalise 100 new airports by 2024 to fulfil the fledgeling aspirations of the countrymen. With the aim to energise economic activities along the river banks, the government has conceived a project called ‘Arth Ganga’ for developing the inland waterways transport system in Ganga and other rivers that will provide employment opportunities and means of livelihood for people living along the banks of rivers.

In addition, N Sitharaman also stated that Rs 27,300 crores have been earmarked for the development and promotion of commerce and industry in the financial year 2020-2021 and about 3.24 lakh vendors have been registered on the Government e-marketplace. Ushering the villages into the digital age, the government has announced that 1 lakh gram panchayats will be getting optical fibre links to connect with the dynamic world of the Internet. Plans are afoot to institute a new policy to set up Data Centre parks across the country to provide digital connectivity to all public institutions, said FM Nirmala Sitharaman.

Scheme to encourage the manufacture of mobile phones, electronic equipment and semiconductor packaging to be introduced.

The government also made a number of announcements apropos the Rs 1.03 lakh crore National Infra Pipeline scheme. About 6500 projects are envisioned under NIP across sectors — housing, safe drinking water, healthcare, clean energy, logistics, irrigation etc. “NIP is improving the ease of living for every citizen. Generic and sectoral reforms are there…There is huge employment opportunity in the construction, operation and maintenance of projects,” N Sitharaman said.

Budget 2020: Here is all you need to know about new optional personal tax regime where the govt foregoes Rs. 40,000 crores in revenue

Nirmala Sitharaman presented her second budget as Union Finance Minister on Saturday. The provisions in the Budget for Income Taxes were expected to create ripples as it was one area where reforms were expected the most. Along with Corporate Taxes, Income Tax reforms were believed to be crucial towards ensuring a revival of the economy.

In her second budget, Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed a new tax regime for the country. It is, however, optional for the taxpayers for the country. It was announced that in the new tax regime, those earning between Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7.5 lakh will pay income tax at the rate of 10%. Those earning between Rs. 7.50 and 10 lakhs will pay a 15% income tax. Those between Rs. 10 lakh and 12.50 lakh will pay a 20% income tax and the same for people earning between Rs. 12.50 and 15 lakh will be 25%. For those earning above Rs. 15 lakh in a year will be taxed at 30%. These rates are entirely optional and taxpayers willing to pay income tax at this rate will have to forego deductions and exemptions. Those who want to keep availing the deductions and exemptions can choose to pay tax at existing rates.

Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will forego a revenue of Rs. 40,000 crores due to the new income tax rates for individuals. She also said that 70 exemptions will be removed, with a view to further simplify the tax code. “A person earning Rs 15 lakh per anum and not availing any deductions will pay Rs 1.95 lakh tax in place of Rs 2.73 lakh now,” the Finance Minister said.

Read live updates of the Budget 2020 here.

In 2019, the income tax relief provided in the interim budget were the talk of the town and it is believed that it played a great part in alleviating the middle-class disenchantment with the Modi government head of the Lok Sabha Elections. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had announced a tax rebate for individual taxpayers with annual income up to Rs. 5 lakhs. It meant that individual taxpayers up to a gross income of ₹6.5 lakhs need not pay any income tax if they made investments in provident fund and prescribed equities. Around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers benefited from the tax exemption due to this measure.

A Taxpayer Charter will be enshrined into the laws, harassment of taxpayers will not be tolerated: Finance Minister during budget speech

During her speech presenting the budget for the financial year 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that a taxpayer charter will be a part of the statutes of the government, to stop tax harassment.

Emphasising that honest taxpayers will not be harassed by tax officials, the finance minister said that the government is committed to taking measures to ensure that taxpayers are free from tax harassment of any kind. Saying that tax harassment cannot be tolerated, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the wealth creators will be respected in this country.

The government believes in trusting every citizen, the aspirational youth, the hard-working women, the risk-taking entrepreneur, the ever hopeful and untiring farmer, or the wise and old senior citizen, many among them are taxpayers, the finance minister said. She said that the prime minister has laid before us the ease of living as a goal to be achieved on behalf of all citizens.

Read live budget updates here

An important aspect of ease of living and ease of doing business is fairness, the efficiency of tax administration. Businesses should have the confidence that things are fair. “We wish to enshrine in the statutes a taxpayer charter through this Budget,” the finance minister said. The taxpayers charter will be going to part of our law, to build trust, she said. Tax harassment can’t be tolerated when we are talking about citizens and wealth creators.


There have been debates about building in statue criminal liability for acts that are civil in nature. Hence certain amendments for the Companies Act are proposed to correct this, the Finance Minister said. Similarly, other laws will also be examined where such provisions are present, and an attempt will be made to correct them also.

MSME in Budget 2020: Debt Restructuring Window extended by a year, NBFCs to extend invoice financing to MSMEs

Union Budget 2020 was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday. One of the primary focus of Budget 2020 was expected to be Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). Addressing the concerns of MSMEs was crucial towards reviving the economy amidst a global slowdown. And the budget, as expected, focused significantly on this front.

Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2020 speech that over 5 lakh MSMEs have benefited from the debt restructuring mechanism put forth by her government. The Government has also asked the RBI to extend the debt restructuring window for MSMEs by a year. It had a deadline of March 2020 which has now been extended. The Finance Minister also announced that amendments will be made to enable Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to extend invoice financing to MSMEs.

A great deal of attention was given to MSMEs in last year’s interim budget as well. A 2% interest subvention was announced for MSMEs that had taken a loan of up to Rs. 1 crore. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had stated that the government had increased the share of government procurements from MSMEs through Government eMarketplace (GeM) to 25 percent, including 3 percent from MSMEs run by women.

It was also announced that businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 5 crores, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to file quarterly GST returns. The Government also abolished duties on 36 capital goods. The GST council was asked to devise ways to reduced GST for homebuyers.

Modi derangement syndrome? Anurag Kashyap fails to spot obvious sarcasm, makes a fool out of himself

The ‘anti-Modi’ hatred of the left and ultra-left wing intelligentsia of the country have turned them blind and delusional in such a way that they have completely lost their ability to distinguish between satire and real news on social media.

In one such incident, controversial Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap, who is not only known for his films overloaded with abusive slangs but also for being a fake news peddler, indulged in one such embarrassing incident where he tried to not only ‘fact-check’ a satirical post but also indulged in abusing right-wingers. Following his gaffe, social media users ridiculed the director for his inability to comprehend satire.

On Thursday, Rahul Roushan, the CEO of OpIndia, took to Twitter to express a satirical take on the Jamia shootout where an alleged shooting incident had occurred. Subsequently, the shooter was arrested and turned out to be a Hindu, predictably triggering the leftist media to incessantly peddle the ‘Hindu terror’ narrative.

However, the humanising project that often happens across the “liberal-secular” media to absolve the crimes of the accused by creating a wave of sympathy in support of the accused, even when they are dreaded terrorists, did not happen during the Jamia incident as the accused was not a Muslim.

In an obvious sly to the whitewashing of the crimes of terrorists by we usually see in the ‘liberal-secular’ media, like how the Pulwama suicide bomber was ‘slapped by an army personnel in his adolescent days‘ or how slain Hizbul terrorist Zakir Musa ‘loved sports bikes’, Rahul Roushan had mocked the ‘liberal-secular’ media by taking a sarcastic view of the incident. Thorugh his tweet, he reflected upon the prevailing times on how media would have reported the Jamia shooting incident and had tried to ‘humanise’ the accused shooter if he was a Muslim.


Rahul Roushan through his satirical tweet stated that how media would have narrated the incident by claiming that the attacker was subject to bullying when he had gone to admission at Jamia.

Roushan even cited ‘The Squint’, a parody of the left-wing website Quint which has a history of humanising and absolving even the likes of Islamic terrorist like Taliban leader Osama Bin Laden.

However, the obvious sarcasm of Roushan’s tweet was perhaps too difficult to comprehend for ‘left-liberals’ and their assorted trolls.

Replies to Rahul Roushan’s tweet

Anurag Kashyap, one of the flag bearers of India’s ‘secular-liberal’ intellectuals, also took to Twitter to showcase his ‘intellect’ and expressed his views on Jamia incident. Kashyap who failed to grasp the satire in Rahul Roushan’s tweet began to foul mouth him. Calling Rahul Roushan a ‘Bhakt’, the controversial filmmaker went on to fact-check the sarcastic tweet.

Kashyap’s reaction to OpIndia CEO’s satire

The most ironical of the above tweet by Kashyap is that he went on to ‘fact-check’ a tweet which was an obvious pun on the ‘liberal-secular’ media ecosystem.

Just the hyper-reactive ‘fact-check’ was not enough apparently. Kashyap has even retweeted others foul-mouthing Roushan, totally oblivious to the satire that was literally staring them on the face.

Anurag Kashyap on Twitter

Interestingly, fact-checking memes, sarcastic posts, photoshopped images have become a new trend of self-proclaimed fact-checkers lately. As the credibility of media is dwindling day-by-day, ‘fact-checking’ has now emerged as a new form of propaganda machinery in which any posts that are not ideologically suitable for the left-wing are checked for its authenticity.

Further mocking Kashyap’s rant over a sarcastic tweet, Rahul Roushan had tried to expand Kashyap’s knowledge about sarcasm. However, Kashyap was too reluctant to admit his failure to understand pun, seeing his ‘intellectualism’ challenged, he ranted further. Roushan has shared the screenshot of a Twitter user claiming that he did go to Jamia at 14.


Sparing no sympathy for raving and ranting Kashyap, Roushan took his pun a further notch up. It seems that that life is going to be more difficult fo Kashyap.


Alt-news, the ultra-left wing propaganda website, have a habit of checking the authenticity of memes, cropped videos and satirical images whenever it seems that the pun is not aligned with its political ideology. The left-wing self-proclaimed ‘fact-checking’ outlets like Alt-news has not only allowed their ideological masters to continue their false propaganda but also created a mess in the public discourse, thanks to their biased and selective approach towards exposing the truth.

Read: Anurag Kashyap shares a fake video to prove Modi’s ‘hate me, not India’ remark the same as Hitler’s: Here is the truth

Following a similar line, director Anurag Kashyap seems to be carving a niche for himself to uplift his career by resorting to fact-check sarcastic tweets to score some brownie points.

While Kashyap failed to identify an obvious satire, we cannot help but look sadly at the irony that left-wing elements like Anurag Kashyap who often proclaim to be fighting for free-speech often indulge in foul-mouthing social media users who just share a different viewpoint or do not agree with their political opinions.

Health and Education in Union Budget 2020: End of TB by 2025, Jan Aushadi shops across country, NEP among slew of measures

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2020-2021 on Saturday. “People of India have unequivocally given their support to the policies of the Narendra Modi government. People reposed faith in our economic policies. This Budget aims to address aims, aspirations of people,” Sitharaman said in her address today.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman said the Budget 2020 was focussed on three themes — ‘Aspirational India, Economic Development For All and A Caring Society’.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced several measures to boost the social sectors of Health, Educational and Skill sectors in the country.

Health in Budget 2020

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech announced that the government has provided an additional Rs 69,000 crore for the health sector, adding that proceeds from taxes from medical devices will be used to build health infrastructure.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that a proposal to set up viability gap funding to allow for entry of hospitals into aspirational districts through the PPP model, marking an expansion of capacity. Districts out of 112 aspirational districts that do not have any empanelled hospitals will be a priority, she added.

Focussing on ending the menace of Tuberculosis in the country, Finance Minister said, “TB will lose, India will win. Will eliminate TB by 2025. Mission Indradhanush has been extended to cover new diseases and new vaccines, said FM.

Finance Minister also said that the government is committed to ODF plus in order to sustain ODF open-defecation free behaviour.

She said Mission Indradhanush has been expanded to cover 5 more diseases and that 20000 hospitals have been empanelled under PM Ayushman Bharat Yojana. The FM proposed to expand Jan Aushadhi Kendras in all districts of the country to provide medicines at affordable rates.

Stressing on the health of mother and child, the minister said the government proposed to allocate Rs 35, 600 crore for nutritional programmes to be launched in 2021.

“We launched Poshan Abhiyaan in 2017-18, where more than 6 lakh Anganwadi workers were provided smartphones to upload nutritional status of 10 crore households,” said Sitharaman.

Education and Skill Development

In the Budget 2020-21 presented today, FM Nirmala Sitharman announced a Rs 99,300 crore outlay for the education sector and Rs 3,000 crore for skill development. The Modi government also proposed online education to ensure education accessibility for everyone.

“By 2030 India is said to have the largest working population in the world. Urban Local bodies around the country will provide internships for fresh engineers for up to a year,” said FM.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government will bring a new national education policy and Rs 400 crore has been provided for world-class institutions.

“Talented teacher, nurses, paramedics and caregivers to be helped acquire better skills through a special course,” added Sitharman in her speech.

“To ensure education reaches everyone, degree-level full-fledged online education programs will be allowed for institutes ranked in the top 100 for children of the deprived sections of the society,” Sitharaman emphasised on budget’s focus on quality education in the country.

Sitharaman also proposed an online education to ensure education accessibility for everyone. “INSAT exam will be held in African and Asian countries to benchmark foreign students,” added Finance Minister.

In a big boost to the education sector, Finance Minister said from now External Commerical Borrowing and Foreign Direct Investment to be allowed to help states to deliver higher quality education to citizens.

“Internship programmes at local govt bodies for fresh engineering grads for a period up to 1 year. For deprived students, there will be a degree level full-fledged online education programme offered by top 100 institutes,” FM Sitharaman in her speech.

“More medical colleges will be built at district levels so as to train and produce more doctors in the country with a special training package,” she said in the Parliament.

“There exists a huge demand abroad for teachers, paramedical staff and caregivers. But their skills do not match the required ones by employers. My government proposes Rs 3000 crore for skill development. There is a shortage of qualified medical doctors both general practitioners and specialists,” Finance Minister announced.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2020 shall set out a road map to achieve the PM Narendra Modi-led government’s goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

(Read LIVE Updates on Union Budget 2020-21 at Opindia here)

Railway part of Budget 2020: Solar Panels along railway tracks and plan announced for Bengaluru Suburban Rail

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2020, her second as FM, on Saturday. Until 2016, the Railway budget was presented by the Minister of Railways but that was ended by the Modi government and Suresh Prabhu became the last Railway Minister to present the Railway Budget in 2016. Since then, the Railway Budget has been presented as part of the Union Budget even in Budget 2020.

One of the more significant announcements for Railway in Budget 2020 was the announcement of the Rs 18,600 crore plan for 140 km long Bengaluru suburban rail. It was also proposed that large solar power capacity will be set alongside railway tracks on railway owned land. It was also announced that more Tejas type trains will be launched across the country. Four station redevelopment programs will also be launched under the PPP model. High-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will also be actively pursued.

In the Union Budget last year, it was decided that the Indian Railways would require an investment of 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030. It was determined that the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) would be used effectively for faster development and delivery of passenger freight services. It was also decided that Indian Railways will be encouraged to invest more in urban and suburban regions.

Read the LIVE updates of Budget 2020 HERE.

Now farmers can earn even from their barren lands: Here is Modi govt’s 16 point action plan for farmers in Budget 2020

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her second budget on Saturday. Agriculture is one sector that always occupies a prominent space in the annual budget. And this year during Budget 2020 was no different. The government was expected to deliver on matters of enhancing agricultural exports and increasing the wages of farmers. Much of the provisions in the budget are directed towards the same.

Nirmala Sitharaman said during the budget that the government is committed to doubling the farmer’s wages by 2022. She proposed 16 action points for farmers.

The 16 points announced in Budget 2020 include:

-Encourage states to take up model agricultural laws
-Comprehensive measures for 100 water-stressed districts.
-PM Kusum scheme removes dependence on kerosene and encourages the use of solar power
-The government will encourage the balanced use of fertilizers. This is an important step because the current use of chemical fertilizers is incentivized.
-NABARD will take up an exercise of mapping and geotagging agricultural warehouses, cold storage and other inventory storages
-A village storage scheme is proposed to be managed by SHEs. This will help farmers store more and reduce logistics costs. Women in the village will be responsible for managing this seamless storage mechanism.
-Krishi UDAAN scheme will be launched by the Aviation Ministry.
-The horticulture sector with its current produce exceeds the production of food grains. We will now take it to, One Product One District.
-The financing of negotiable warehousing receipts will be integrating other e-services.
-Agricultural credit availability for 2021 has been set at 15 lakh crore.
-Our govt aims to eliminate the foot and mouth disease in sheep and goat by 2025
-Doubling of milk production of 53.5 million metric tonne of milk to 103 metric million tonnes by 2025.
-Our govt will involve youth in the fishery sector. We hope the rural youth will work as Sagar Mitras and also form Fish Farmer Organisation
-Under the Antodyaya scheme, SHEs will be further taken forward and made stronger.
-Rs 2.83 lakh crore to be allocated for agriculture.
-Rs 1.23 lakh crore to be allocated for rural development and panchayati raj

Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will help farmers with barren lands convert their land into solar farms which can be used to generate electricity. She also said that the government will help 15 lakh farmers solarize their farms. It will also encourage 20 lakh farmers to set up solar-powered pumps.

Last year, the announcement that Rs. 6000 will be paid to farmers with less than 2 hectares of land annually in three installments was one of the prominent declarations of the interim budget. The scheme came into effect on the 1st of December, 2019 and the annual expenses for the scheme was pegged at Rs. 75,000 crores per year.

Apart from that, a 2% interest subvention for farmers who practice animal husbandry and fisheries was announced. An additional 1% interest subvention was announced if loans were repaid on time. The setting up of Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog was also declared to ensure the welfare of cows, including genetic improvement and sustainable development. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had said, “Yeh sarkar kabhi Gau mata ke samman mein peeche nahi hategi. (This government will never shy away from honouring our Mother Cow).”

Jamia shooter bought country-made gun, 2 bullets for ₹10,000 from local dealer in UP

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On Thursday, a 17-year-old boy shot at an Anti-CAA protestor outside the Jamia Millia Islamia University. A preliminary investigation into the case has revealed that the Jamila shooter, Gulshan (name changed), had bought the gun and two bullets for a price of ₹10,000 from a local dealer in UP’s Jewar district.


It has also been known that he had cited the reason of “celebratory firing” for a cousin’s wedding to acquire the gun from the dealer who also provided him 2 bullets. The unused bullet has been recovered by the police.

Gulshan has been booked under the Arms Act and Section 307 (attempt to murder). He has been sent to preventive custody for 2 weeks. He has been declared a “juvenile” based on his Aadhar card and 10th Class mark sheet. The police had requested the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to conduct a bone ossification test to verify Gulshan’s age.

A Crime Branch investigator said, “We have identified the supplier of the gun, as well as a friend who helped him get in touch with the supplier. Our teams are looking for them. They will be booked under appropriate sections of the law as well.”

The juvenile’s family alleged that they saw behavioural changes in him from over a fortnight. He was supposed to go to school and then attend a cousin’s wedding in the evening. Instead, he boarded a bus to Delhi and then an auto to Jamia Millia Islamia University area where he committed the crime. His family have stated that of late, he was also shouting slogans around the home and the neighbourhood too.

The Jamia shooter had uploaded photos on social media that showed him brandishing a gun. He wanted to get recognition online. As shocking as it might sound, the Jamia shooter told his sister that she would be proud of him from that day.

Read: ‘Rambhakt’ Gulshan shooting in Jamia: A well-hatched conspiracy? Here are some questions that need answers

He conceded that he had no experience in firing a gun. The boy maintained that none brainwashed him and that he had no accomplice in the act. Sources also suggested that he showed no signs of remorse or regret.

The injured student, Shahdab Farooq, was taken to AIIMS hospital. The latter was discharged from the hospital on Friday.

Police sources have revealed that the boy was self-radicalised. He used to watch inciteful videos online and also share offensive content. Gulshan was seen brandishing a country-made pistol on Thursday, as policemen watched and media persons clicked away his pictures. This has raised questions about the possibility of a well-hatched conspiracy.

Aspirations of people, economy and a Kashmiri poem: Here are initial comments made by Nirmala Sitharaman during Budget 2020

On Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled her second Budget in Parliament. Presenting the Budget 2020 in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the budget is “to boost the income and purchasing power of people.”

“People of India have unequivocally given their support to the policies of the Narendra Modi government. People reposed faith in our economic policies. This Budget aims to address aims, aspirations of people,” Sitharaman said in her address today.

Responding to fears of a recession in the country, Sitharaman said the fundamentals of the economy are strong and that inflation has been well contained. Presenting the budget, the Finance Minister said, “We have added 60 lakh new taxpayers, in GST ambit.”

“Banks saw a thorough cleanup. Of our structural reforms, GST has been the most historic. From 2014-2019, the Modi govt has focused on fundamental structural reforms and inclusive growth,” Sitharaman said in her budget speech and paid homage to former finance minister late Arun Jaitley.

Hailing the passage the Goods and Services Tax (GST), she said that an average household now saves about 4% of its monthly spend on account of reduced GST rates. “Consumers have got an annual benefit of 1 lakh crore rupees by GST. There are 1 million out of poverty and we should be proud of it,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.

“The budget 2020-21 will focus on three themes — Aspirational India, Economic Development For All and A Caring Society.” FM Sitharaman said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also recited a Kashmiri poem written by Pandit Dinanath Kaul as she presented Union Budget 2020. FM also translated the Kashmiri poem into Hindi, which read, “Hamara vatan khilte huey Shalimar bagh jaisa…hamara vatan Dal jheel me khilte huey Kamal jaisa…Naujawaanon ke garm khoon jaisa…Mera vatan, tera vatan, hamara vatan Duniya ka sabse pyara vatan”.

“Our land is like a blooming Shalimar Garden, like a lotus in Dal Lake…With the hot blood of the youth…My land, your land, our land The world’s best-loved land,” the poem reads in English.

Finance Minister Sitharaman is expected to outline the Centre’s plans to deal with the challenges posed by the downward spiral of the economy and achieve the $5 trillion economy target by 2025.

(Read LIVE Updates on Union Budget 2020-21 at Opindia here)