Assorted articles and Information

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on March 10th,2008 removed all charges on using the cash vending machines, except for withdrawing money for which a maximum fee of Rs 20 has been prescribed. Even the withdrawal fee will be abolished from April 1, 2009.

While issuing guidelines on charges for use of ATMs, the RBI has asked the banks to abolish, with immediate effect, all charges on services such as balance enquiry. The banks, however, will have the freedom to fix charges for withdrawal of cash from ATMs through credit cards and from ATMs located abroad.

The guidelines, which are being issued in pursuance of the approach paper on ATM charges brought out by RBI in December 2007, seek to abolish fee on cash withdrawal from ATMs from April 1, 2009.

During the intervening period, the banks have been allowed to charge a maximum ATM cash withdrawal fee of Rs 20, irrespective of the amount withdrawn. “The charge of Rs 20 will be all inclusive and no other charges will be levied to the customers under any other head ,irrespective of the amount of withdrawal,” the apex bank said in the communication issued to all banks.

The guidelines are being issued to encourage customers to use ATM cards and ensure greater transparency in banking operations, it said.

Forbes’ 2008 Top Ten Richest Billionaires in the World

1. Warren Buffett, US, 62 billion dollars (investment/Berkshire Hathaway)

2. Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico, 60 billion dollars (telecom, banking, tobacco)

3. Bill Gates, US, 58 billion dollars (Microsoft)

4. Lakshmi Mittal, India, 45 billion dollars (steel)

5. Mukesh Ambani, India, 43 billion dollars (petrochemicals)

6. Anil Ambani, India, 42 billion dollars (energy)

7. Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden, 31 billion dollars (Ikea)

8. K.P. Singh, India, 30 billion dollars (real estate)

9. Oleg Deripaska, Russia, 28 billion dollars (aluminium)

10. Karl Albrecht, Germany, 27 billion dollars (retail).

Warren Edward Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist. Buffett is often regarded as one of the worlds greatest stock market investors and is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. With an estimated net worth of around US$62 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world as of March 5, 2008. In 2007, Buffett was listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College, where his advice on asset management has led to Grinnell College having the second largest endowment of any liberal arts college in the United States.

Education,Carrier and Contribution

Buffett started his education in Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, which is a secondary school in Washington, DC. He made his higher education in the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1947–1949. He made his Bachelor of Science (BSc) in University of Nebraska and Master of Science (MSc) in Columbia University. With regard to the employment carrier he started his carrier as a Investment Salesman at Buffett-Falk & Co, Omaha during 1951–1954. And as a Securities Analyst at Graham-Newman Corp, New York during 1954–1956. And as a General Partner at Buffett Partnership, Ltd, Omaha during 1956–1969. In 1970 Buffett became the Chairman, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Omaha.

In 1979, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, began to acquire stock in ABC. With the stock trading at $290 per share, Buffett’s net worth neared $140 million. However, he lived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year. And then by $775 per share, and ended at $1,310. Buffett’s net worth reached $620 million, placing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time. In 1988, Buffett began buying stock in Coca-Cola Company, eventually purchasing up to 7 percent of the company for $1.02 billion. It would turn out to be one of Berkshire’s most lucrative investments, and one which he still holds. In 1999, Buffett is named the top money manager of the 20th century in a survey by the Carson Group, ahead of Peter Lynch and John Templeton.

Personal life

Buffett married Susan Thompson in 1952. They had three children, Susie, Howard, and Peter. In 2004, his wife, Susan, died. Warren Buffett is currently working with Christopher Webber on an animated series with DiC Entertainment chief Andy Heyward. According to information presented by Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on May 6, 2006, the series will feature Buffett and Munger in roles and the series will teach children healthy financial habits for life. His 2006 annual salary of about $100,000 is tiny by the standards of senior executive remuneration in other comparable companies, He continues to live in the same house in the central Dundee neighborhood of Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500, today valued at around $700,000.

Philanthropy

Buffett is also a noted philanthropist. In 2006, he announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 83% of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $52 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In June 2006, Warren Buffett gave approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately USD 30.7 billion as of June 23 2006, making it the largest charitable donation in history. The foundation will receive 5% of the total donation on an annualized basis each July, beginning in 2006. Buffett will also join the board of directors of the Gates Foundation, although he does not plan to be actively involved in running the foundation

Buffett also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children. This is a significant shift from previous statements Buffett has made, having stated that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation. The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004.

Carlos Slim Helú

Carlos Slim Helú was born on January 28, 1940. He is a Mexican businessman largely focused on the telecommunications industry and is the second richest man in the world with a net worth of around US $60 billion through his holdings. On March 5, 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Carlos Slim Helú as the world’s second-richest person

Personal life

Carlos studied engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He married Soumaya Domit in 1967; the couple had three children and were married for 32 years until Domit died of a kidney ailment in 1999. Carlos has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America as well. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons Carlos Slim Domit, Marco Antonio Slim Domit and Patrick Slim Domit head them on a day-to-day basis.

Achievements, directorships

He has been vice-president of the Mexican Stock Exchange and president of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses. He was the first president of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council, and was in office from 1996 through 1998.

He was on the Board of Directors of SBC Communications until July 2004 to devote more time to the World Education & Development Fund, which focused on infrastructure, health and education projects. He is also the Majority Shareholder of CompUSA. In 1997, just before the company introduced its famous iMac line, Slim bought 3% of Apple Computer’s stock.

He built an important Mexican financial-industrial empire, Grupo Carso, which owns, among other companies, the now bankrupt CompUSA electronic retail chain. On December 8th, 2007, Grupo Carso announced that the remaining 103 CompUSA stores would be either liquidated or sold, bringing an end to the struggling company. After 28 years he became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the business. He is also Chairman of Teléfonos de Mexico, América Móvil, and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.

Telecom leadership

Slim gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex and Telnor from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. Today, ninety percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex. The mobile company, Telcel, which Carlos Slim Helú also controls, operates almost eighty percent of all the country’s cellphones. These operations have financed Mr. Slim’s expansion abroad. Over the past five years, his wireless carrier América Móvil has bought cellphone companies across Latin America, and is now the region’s dominant company, with more than 100 million subscribers.

Awards

Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico’s Chamber of Commerce. He is a “gold patron” of the American Academy of Achievement,[8] and the Belgian Government awarded him the Leopold II Commander Meda, CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade business magazine and one year later CEO of the decade by the same magazine.

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III was born on 28 October 1955. He is an American entrepreneur, software executive, philanthropist, the world’s third richest man (as of 2008) and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft he has held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and he remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 9 percent of the common stock.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticise his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive: an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. Other court cases on the same charges, in different jurisdictions, are still ongoing. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

The annual Forbes magazine’s list of The World’s Billionaires ranked Gates as the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2007; recent estimates of his net worth are in excess of US$58 billion.

Early life

William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Jr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way,

Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, Seattle’s most exclusive preparatory school. He enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973 intending to get a pre-law degree,but did not have a definite study plan and eventually left without his degree. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. At the same time, he co-authored and published a paper on algorithms with computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.

Microsoft and IBM partnership

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. He made a demonstration at MITS’s offices in Albuquerque, which was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Bill Gates and Paul Allen worked together at MITS, dubbing their partnership “Micro-soft” in November 1975. Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the tradename “Microsoft” was registered.

In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. IBM’s discussions with Digital Research was not successfull, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M and which Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee. Gates insisted that IBM let Microsoft keep the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM’s system. They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.

Personal life

Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates’ house is a 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is US$125 million, and the annual property tax is US$991,000. Also among Gates’ private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for USD US$30.8 million at an auction in 1994.

Philanthropy

In 2000, Gates and his wife founded the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father have met with Rockefeller several times and have modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family’s philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations. The foundation’s grants have provided funds for college scholarships for under-represented minorities, AIDS prevention, diseases prevalent in third world countries, and other causes. In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with US$210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation has also pledged over US$7 billion to its various causes, including US$1 billion to the United Negro College Fund. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over US$29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards.

Awards and recognition

Gates has received several doctors honoris causa from several institutions including; Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands in 2000, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 2005, Harvard University in June 2007, and from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008. Gates was also made an honorary KBE (Knighthood) from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2005, in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.

The Gates’ received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006, in recognition of their world impact through charity giving. In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program “Un país de lectores”.

Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal (or Lakshmi Niwas Mittal) was born on June 15, 1950. He is a London-based Indian billionaire industrialist, born in Sadulpur village, in the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, and resides in Kensington, London. He is the richest man in Europe and the fourth richest person in the world, with a personal fortune of US$50.0 billion according to Forbes magazine.

Personal life

He graduated from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Business and Accounting in 1969 .His father, Mohan, was a partner in a steel company in Calcutta and made a fortune. His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens was bought from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for $128 million (£57 million), making it the world’s most expensive house. Mittal has two children. His son, Aditya Mittal, is the CFO of Arcelor Mittal. Mittal paid over $60 million (£30 million) to host his daughter Vanisha Mittal’s wedding celebration held on 20 June 2004.

Carrier

Lakshmi Mittal began his career working in the family’s steelmaking business in India, and in 1976, when the family founded its own steel business, Mittal set out to establish its international division, beginning with the buying of a run-down plant in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards he married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender. In 1994, due to differences with his father and brothers, he branched out on his own, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family. Mittal’s family never spoke publicly about the reason that caused the split.

In March 2008, Mittal was reported to be the 4th wealthiest person in the world by Forbes Magazine (up from 61st richest in 2004) up one place since a year ago. The Mittal family owns 44% of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel company. Since 2005, Mittal has been the richest person residing in the United Kingdom. He is the President of the Board of Directors and CEO of ArcelorMittal; ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest producer of steel, with assets in France, Belgium, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Bulgaria, United States, Trinidad,Brazil and Mexico. On July 13, 2005 it was announced that he had donated £2 million to the Labour Party, and on January 16, 2007 it was announced that he had donated a further £3 million.

Awards

Lakshmi Mittal received Padma Vibhushan in 2008. The Financial Times named Mittal its 2006 ”Person of the Year”. In May 2007, he was named one of the “100 most influential people” by Time magazine. In 2004 ”European Businessman of the Year” by Fortune magazine. And in 1996 “Steelmaker of the Year” by New Steel.

Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani was born on April 19, 1957 in Yemen. He is an Indian businessman and a billionaire. He is the chairman, managing director and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%. His wealth is valued at US$43 billion (according to Forbes), making him the second richest Indian behind steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. Mukesh and younger brother Anil are sons of the late founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani.

Education

Mukesh Ambani holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT), (now University of Mumbai, Institute of Chemical Technology (UICT)). He has an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Personal life

Ambani is the son of one of the most prominent businessman in India, the late Dhirubhai Ambani, a Gujarati entrepreneur. His brother Anil Ambani heads other companies in the Reliance Group. The Ambani brothers had a well-publicized spat after their father’s death, which led to the Reliance Group being split between the two. Mukesh Ambani is married to Nita Ambani, who looks after the social and charitable arm of Reliance Industries. They have 3 children: Akash, Isha and Anant.

Ambani is currently building a US$1 billion residential building, Antilia in Mumbai for his family. It is expected to be ready in September 2008. Chicago’s Perkins and Will has designed the glass-tower which features a “health club, multiple “safe” rooms, 3 helipads, 168 parking spaces and require 600 servants to maintain, and physically, the structure stands at 27 stories, or 570 feet tall. He gifted his wife Nita a jet plane worth Rs.284-crore(US$70 million) recently on her birthday.

Career

Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance in 1981 and initiated Reliance’s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals. In this process, he directed the creation of 60 new, world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have raised Reliance’s manufacturing capacities from less than a million tonnes to twelve million tonnes per year. He directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, with a present capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure, at an investment of Rs 100000 crore (nearly $26 billion USD).

Mukesh Ambani set up one of the largest telecommunications companies in India in the form of Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocomm) Limited. However, Reliance Infocom now is under ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) post the brothers’ split. Mukesh Ambani is also steering Reliance’s initiatives in a world scale, offshore, deep water oil and gas exploration and production program, a pan-India petroleum retail network involving 5,800 outlets and a research-led life sciences initiative covering medical, plant and industrial biotechnology.

Achievements

He has been Conferred the ‘Asia Society Leadership Award’ by the Asia Society, Washington D.C., USA, May 2004 and the ‘World Communication Award’ for the Most Influential Person in Telecommunications in 2004 by Total Telecom, October, 2004. He has been chosen as ‘Telecom Man of the Year’ 2004 by Voice and Data magazine, September 2004. He has been ranked 13th in Asia’s Power 25 list of ‘The Most Powerful People in Business’ published by Fortune magazine, August 2004.

Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani was born onJune 4, 1959. He is an Indian businessman. As of October 6th 2007, he has a net-worth of US$45 billion, making him the 6th richest person in the world. His was the world’s fastest-growing multi-billion-dollar fortune in percentage terms as his wealth tripled in 1 year. Ambani is chairman of Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Energy, and was formerly Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited. His personal stake in Reliance Communications is 66%.

Personal Life

Reliance group is India’s largest business house, founded by Anil’s late father Dhirubhai Ambani (1938-2002). His mother is Kokilaben Ambani. He is married to Tina Ambani(Munim) who was a well known Indian Actress in early 80’s, and with whom he has two sons: Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul.

Education

Ambani holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mumbai and an MBA degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he serves as a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers.

Career

Ambani joined Reliance in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. For example, he led India’s first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depositary receipts, convertibles and bonds. He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100-year Yankee bond issue in January 1997 being the high point. After which people regarded him as a Financial Wizard. He has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India’s leading textiles, petroleum, petrochemicals, power, and telecom company. One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns Mumbai’s only dome theatre.

The total investors’ wealth in the four Anil Ambani Group firms — Reliance Communications (RCOM), Reliance Capital (RCL), Reliance Energy (REL) and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) has reached 1,42,384 crore rupees, while total promoter holding is estimated at about Rs 87,000 crore. Anil’s wealth comes mostly from his over 65 per cent stake in RCOM, which has a market cap of about Rs 1,03,000 crore. He also has over 50 per cent in RCL (market cap of Rs 24,000 crore), 35 per cent in REL (market cap of Rs 12,700 crore) and close to 54 per cent in RNRL, which has a market cap of about Rs 2,600 crore. As of 6th October 2007, his net worth was calculated at $45 billion.

Awards and recognition

Anil Ambani has been Conferred as the ‘Businessman of the Year 1997′ award by India’s leading business magazine Business India, December 1997 and also Conferred ‘The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award’ by the Bombay Management Association, October 2002. He has been Voted ‘MTV Youth Icon of the Year’, September 2003. He was adjudged as the CEO of the Year at the prestigious Platts Global Energy Awards for 2004.

Anil was the member of Uttar Pradesh Development Council (This council has now been scrapped) He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar and a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is member of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is also a member of the Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In June 2004, Anil was elected as an Independent Member of the Rajya Sabha - Upper House, Parliament of India with the support of the Samajwadi Party. In March 2006, he resigned. Recently after his brother Mukesh Ambani he also has his name in the books of Trillionaires.

India’s financial hub and the city of billion dreams, Mumbai is back in news.
This time the reason is not the molestation of a woman or the unruly violence against north Indians, but Mumbai has figured on seventh in the list of world’s dirtiest cities position in , compiled by the Forbes magazine.
The list is based on the ranking of over 200 cities worldwide on the parameters of air pollution, water potability, hospital services, waste management, medical facilities and the spread of infectious diseases.
Now question arises, who is responsible for the filth in the city, the authorities or the citizens? And, how can Mumbai make a clean image for itself.
The citizens blame the government for not being concerned to the city’s civic amenities.
More than half of Mumbai’s population lives in slums. Dharavi, probably one of India’s biggest slum, albeit has public toilets and water taps, but is marred by wrecked sanitation.
In contrast, the Mumbai administration claims that the city is cleaner than before.

Whom to believe?

In each Monsoon season the claim about the cleanliness and proper maintenance falls flat when the water deluge virtually forces the city to standstill.
Who can forget that horrible day of July 26, 2005 when hell broke loose on Mumbaikars, due to unrelenting rains and blocked drainage?
The government, which wants to develop Mumbai on the lines of Shanghai, does not even have a foolproof plan to ensure the city grows.
The irony is that the very same dirty city rents luxury apartments at a rate, which are one of the highest in the world.
Experts believe that the reason why Mumbai is going out of control is that it is registering a steep increase in population. The migration from various parts of India has forced Mumbai to cope with the demands of the residents.
Who are responsible for this mess, the migrants or the local citizens of the city? No doubt that Mumbaikars have to be more responsible, but for this, the government should plan inspirational drives to bring awareness.
Basic infrastructure has to be provided in the city so that they can make the city live up to the expectations.
Bollywood has geared up for a better face of Mumbai. An upcoming movie, Mumbai Chaka Chak would show Rahul Bose sweeping the streets of the city.
It is high time, Mumbaikars gear up for the cause of their city.
On their part, authorities say the city is cleaner than before. ”The benchmark used was not appropriate, comparing Mumbai to other developed cities. We are doing a lot of things, we have started a plan and most have said that the city is better in cleanliness than before,”.
Just two years ago, Readers Digest magazine had listed Mumbai as the world’s rudest city. While many agree that Mumbaikars lack civic sense, others blame civic authorities instead for their lack of initiative in keeping the city clean.
The Mumbai Makeover Project recently unveiled its plans to brand the city in which consultants will be invited from across the world for ideas.
The project now seems necessary to help add shine to the city’s fading image, tainted with the stamp of being among the world’s rudest and dirtiest cities.

Delhi is also in the list:

Delhi is also among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world while the four Indian metros and Bangalore are among the 20 densest cities, according to the Forbes magazine.
The US business magazine also lists Sukinda in Orissa and Vapi in Gujarat among the 10 most polluted places globally.
While listing Mumbai as the seventh dirtiest, the magazine also cites a recent private sector proposal, Vision Mumbai, which seeks $1 billion government aid for infrastructure, pollution control and economic growth strategy.
Delhi at No.24 fares little better but gets drubbing for the pollution in Yamuna river, which is devoid of marine life and where “garbage and sewage flow freely, creating a rich environment for the growth of water-borne diseases contributing to extremely high rates of infant morbidity.”
In neighbouring Bangladesh, Dhaka, with lead-poisoned air and water pollution from pesticide use, gets the dubious distinction of being the second dirtiest city in the world.
The top slot as the dirtiest city in the world is taken by Baku in Azerbaijan, suffering life-threatening levels of air pollution emitted from oil drilling.
The list, now on the magazine’s website, is based on Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s ranking of over 200 cities worldwide on levels of air pollution, waste management, water potability, hospital services, medical supplies and the presence of infectious diseases. New York was used as the norm.
Chennai is at No.8, Delhi at No.13 and Bangalore at No.19 in the list of densely populated cities. Karachi in Pakistan is at No.3.
Living in a dense place affects quality of living, unless you have loads of money and the place is gentrified like Tokyo and New York, the magazine commented. Dense is, however, a relative term. “A Mumbai native visiting New York is bound to feel like a New Yorker vacationing on a Wyoming dude ranch,” it added.

Computers, long used as tools to design and manipulate three-dimensional objects, may soon provide people with a way to sense the texture of those objects or feel how they fit together, thanks to a haptic, or touch-based, interface developed at Carnegie Mellon University.
Unlike most other haptic interfaces that rely on motors and mechanical linkages to provide some sense of touch or force feedback, the device developed by Ralph Hollis, research professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, uses magnetic levitation and a single moving part to give users a highly realistic experience. Users can perceive textures, feel hard contacts and notice even slight changes in position while using an interface that responds rapidly to movements.
“We believe this device provides the most realistic sense of touch of any haptic interface in the world today,” said Hollis, whose research group built a working version of the device in 1997. With the help of a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant, however, he and his colleagues have improved its performance, enhanced its ergonomics and lowered its cost. The grant also enabled them to build 10 copies, six of which are being distributed to haptic researchers across the U.S. and Canada.
“We have gone from the prototype to a much more advanced system that other researchers can use,” Hollis said. Putting the instrument in the hands of other researchers is critical in a young, developing field such as haptic technology, he emphasized. Though haptic interfaces have uses in engineering design, entertainment, assembly, remote operation of robots, and in medical and dental training, their full potential has yet to be explored. That’s particularly the case for magnetic levitation haptic interfaces because so few have been available for use by researchers, he added.
“This is an affordable device that’s also practical,”. “Now other people can have this technology, and this represents technology transfer in the very real sense.”
Six devices will be delivered to researchers at Harvard, Stanford, Purdue and Cornell, as well as to the universities of Utah and British Columbia. All are members of the Magnetic Levitation Haptic Consortium, an international group dedicated to fostering increased use of this technology.
“This is beyond the capability of most commercially available haptic devices, but the maglev device developed by Dr. Hollis will make it possible to continue this research,”.
“The field of haptic research and development is expanding rapidly,”. “Carnegie Mellon’s research opens new possibilities by joining the world of haptic feedback with a comfortable magnetic levitation interface. The magnetic levitation decouples the interface device from the mechanical world, eliminating friction, backlash, jump, sticking and other interfering effects, so that the user feels only the artificial environment in complete accuracy down to the micro scale.”
The system eliminates the bulky links, cables and general mechanical complexity of other haptic devices on the market today in favor of a single lightweight moving part that floats on magnetic fields.
At the heart of the maglev haptic interface is a bowl-shaped device called a flotor that is embedded with six coils of wire. Electric current flowing through the coils interacts with powerful permanent magnets underneath, causing the flotor to levitate. A control handle is attached to the flotor.
A user moves the handle much like a computer mouse, but in three dimensions with six degrees of freedom — up/down, side to side, back/forth, yaw, pitch and roll. Optical sensors measure the position and orientation of the flotor, and this information is used to control the position and orientation of a virtual object on the computer display. As this virtual object encounters other virtual surfaces and objects, corresponding signals are transmitted to the flotor’s electrical coils, resulting in haptic feedback to the user. Hollis and his colleagues will demonstrate the new maglev haptic interfaces at the IEEE 16th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, March 13-14 in Reno, Nevada.

Introduction

Major Highlights of budget 2008

Trade, Industry & Infrastructure

Financial sector highlights

Major sectors and Industries influenced on Budget

Small and medium IT enterprises (SMEs)

Corporate taxes & Tax payers

Social sector benefits

Conclusion

Introduction

India has emerged as the second fastest growing major economy in the world with its positive indicators such as a stable 8-9 per cent annual growth, rising foreign exchange reserves, a booming capital market and a rapid rise in FDI in the last year. India’s per capita income has increased at a rapid pace, from US$ 460 in 2000-01 to over US$ 1000 in 2007-08.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram revealed the much-awaited General Budget for the fiscal 2008-09 in the Parliament on 29 th Feb, 2008. Chidambaram presented his seventh full budget - two when the United Front government was in power and the remaining five under the United Progressive Alliance government. The Finance Minister presented the Budget against a backdrop of slowing expansion and creeping inflation, which has hit the poor hardest.

Major Highlights of budget 2008

The major highlights of budget 2008, revealed by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram are:

▪ Tax exemption for women increased to Rs 1.8 lakh

▪ New tax slabs: 10 per cent for 1,50,000 to 3,00,000, 20 per cent for 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 and 30 per cent above 5,00,000

▪ Excise on packaged softwares to be lower from 8 per cent to 12 per cent

▪ No excise duty on refrigerating equipments

▪ Reduced excise duty on two, three wheelers

▪ Excise on small cars cut to 12 pct from 16 pct

▪ Defence allocation up by 10 per cent from Rs 96,000 cr to Rs 1,56,000 cr

▪ PAN sole identification in securities market

▪ Debt waiver scheme and relief to small and marginal farmers Rs 750 crore for upgradation of 300 ITIs in 25 districts.

▪ Custom duty on steel scrapped

▪ Set-top boxes to become cheaper

▪ Implementation of waiver to be completed by June 2008

▪ National Agri Insurance scheme get Rs 640 cr

▪ National Highway development program gets Rs 12,966 cr

▪ Rs 8,000 cr plan for faster power reforms

▪ National housing bank gets Rs 1,200 cr for refinancing

▪ Govt asks commercial banks to add 250 rural household accounts every year in rural and semi-urban banks

▪ States urged to open bidding for 5 more ultra mega power projects

▪ All 30 integrated textile parks approved

▪ Rs 340 cr insurance scheme to cover 17 lakh farmers and weavers

▪ Tea Research association gets Rs 20 cr

▪ Schedule Commercial Banks farm credit 75 per cent

▪ Micro irrigation scheme gets Rs 500 cr to cover 4,00,000 additional hectares

▪ 3 IITs to be set up in Bihar, AP, Rajasthan

▪ 288 public sector bank branches to be opened in areas with concentration of minorities

▪ IT industry gets Rs 100 cr for connecting knowledge institutions

▪ Health covers of Rs 30,000 for workers in unorganised sectors

▪ Agriculture credit to touch 2,40,000 cr in 2008

▪ Total agri production to be 219.32 million tonnes at all time high

▪ Focus on management of supply side of food, market, capital inflows next year

Trade, Industry & Infrastructure

Investment, Infrastructure, Industry and Trade

Saving rate and investment rate estimated to be 35.6 per cent and 36.3 per cent, respectively, by the end of 2007-08; between April- December 2007-2008. FDI amounted to US$ 12.7 billion and FII to US$ 18 billion.

Support to Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs):

▪ Government to provide Rs.16,436 crore as equity support and Rs.3,003 crore as loans to CPSEs in 2008- 09;

▪ 44 CPSEs listed as on date;

▪ Government policy is to list more CPSEs in order to unlock their true value and improve corporate governance.

Rural Infrastructure Development Fund

Corpus of RIDF-XIV to be raised in 2008-09 to Rs.14,000 crore, with a separate window for rural roads.

Manufacturing Sector

Growth in capital goods still very high at 20.2 per cent. Goal to take manufacturing growth rate to double digit through more reforms.

Power

▪ Against Eleventh Plan target for additional power generation capacity of 78,577 MW Commercial Operation Date (COD) on about 10,000 MW to be achieved by end March 2008.

▪ Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP): Fourth UMPP at Tilaiya to be awarded shortly; Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamilnadu urged to bring five more UMPPs to the bidding stage by extending the required support.

▪ Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana to be continued during the Eleventh Plan period with a capital subsidy of Rs.28,000 crore; allocation of Rs.5,500 crore for 2008-09.

▪ Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Project: Rs.800 crore to be provided in 2008-09, A National Fund for transmission and distribution reform to be created.

Roads

National Highway Development Programme (NHDP): Allocation for NHDP enhanced to Rs.12,966 crore in 2008-09 from Rs.10,867 crore in 2007-08; Completion rate in the Golden Quadrilateral is 96.48 per cent and in the North South, East West Corridor project is 23.36 per cent; Special attention being paid toSARDP-NE; programme devised for the North Eastern region; 180 kms of roads completed in 2007-08 and 300 kms. of road targetted for completion in 2008-09.

Oil and Gas

Seventh round of bidding under the New Exploration Licensing Policy; bids invited for 57 exploration blocks; estimated to attract investment of the order of US$3.5 billion to US$8 billion for exploration and discovery.

Coal

53 coal blocks with reserves of 13,842 million tonnes allotted during April-January 2007-08 to Government and private sector companies; new Coal Distribution Policy notified in October 2007; coal regulator to be appointed.

Information Technology

Allocation to the Department of Information Technology enhanced to Rs.1,680 crore in 2008-09 from Rs.1,500 crore in 2007-08; Two Schemes for establishing 100,000 broadband internet-enabled Common Service Centres in rural areas and

State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) with Central assistance under implementation; new scheme for State Data Centres also approved; Rs.75 crore provided for the common service centres; Rs.450 crore provided for SWAN and Rs.275 crore for the State Data Centres.

Textiles

Schemes for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) and the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) to be continued in the Eleventh Plan period; Provision for SITP being maintained at Rs.450 crore in 2008-09; Provision for TUF to be increased to Rs.1,090 crore in 2008-09 from Rs.911 crore in 2007-08.

Handloom sector:

▪ 250 clusters being developed and 443 yarn banks established under the cluster approach to the development of the handloom sector;

▪ Over 17 lakh families of weavers to be covered under the health insurance scheme by March 2008;

▪ Allocation being increased to Rs.340 crore in 2008-09;

▪ Infrastructure and production being scaled up by taking up six centres for development as megaclusters;

▪ Varanasi and Sibsagar to be taken up for handlooms, Bhiwandi and Erode for powerlooms, and Narsapur and Moradabad for handicrafts;

▪ Each mega-cluster to require about Rs.70 crore;

▪ Initial provision of Rs.100 crore made in 2008-09.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

A risk capital fund being created in the Small Industries and Development Bank of India (SIDBI); Credit Guarantee Trust with SIDBI had extended guarantees to 89,129 units for an amount of Rs.2,479 crore as on January 31, 2008; SIDBI to reduce the guarantee fee from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent and the annual service fee from 0.75 per cent to 0.5 per cent for loans up to Rs.5 lakhs.

Foreign Trade

Relief given to exporters in three tranches amounting to over Rs.8,000 crore; Interest cost of sterilization through market stabilization bonds (MSS), which is in a sense, subsidy to the export sector, estimated at Rs.8,351 crore for the year 2007-08.

 

Financial sector highlights

 

Financial Inclusion

Two recommendations of the Committee on Financial Inclusion proposed to be accepted viz

(i) to advise commercial banks, including RRBs, to add at least 250 rural household accounts every year at each of their rural and semi-urban branches;

(ii) to allow individuals such as retired bank officers, ex-servicemen etc to be appointed as business facilitator or business correspondent or credit counselor; banks to be encouraged to embrace concept of Total Financial

Inclusion

Government to request all scheduled commercial banks to follow the example set by some public sector banks and meet the entire credit requirements of SHG members, namely, income generation activities, social needs like housing, education, marriage etc., and debt swapping.

(i) Fund of Rs.5,000 crore to be created in NABARD to enhance its refinance operations to short term cooperative credit institutions;

(ii) Two funds of Rs.2,000 crore each to be created in SIDBI - one for risk capital financing and other for enhancing refinance capability to the MSME sector.

(iii) Fund of Rs.1,200 crore to be created in NHB to enhance its refinance operations in the rural housing sector.

These funds are to be governed by the general guidelines that are now applicable to RIDF with some modifications.

Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) scheme:

Borrower’s eligibility criteria for loan under the DRI scheme to the weaker sections of the community engaged in gainful occupations enhanced.

Capital Markets

▪ Measures to expand the market for corporate bonds: Exchange-traded currency and interest rate futures to be launched and transparent credit derivatives market to be developed with appropriate safeguards; Tradability of domestic convertible bonds to be enhanced through the mechanism of enabling investors to separate the embedded equity option from the convertible bond, and trade it separately; Development of a market-based system for classifying financial instruments based on their complexity and implicit risks to be encouraged.

▪ Permanent Account Number (PAN): Requirement of PAN extended to all transactions in the financial market subject to suitable threshold exemption limits.

▪ National market for securities: Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to be requested to work with the Central Government to create pan Indian market for securities that will expand the market base and enhance the revenues of the State Governments.

 

TAX PROPOSALS

▪ Tax to GDP ratio that was 9.2 per cent in 2003-04, set to rise to 12.5 per cent at the end of 2007-08.

▪ Set to achieve the Budget Estimates of indirect taxes and exceed the Budget Estimates of direct taxes.

 

Indirect Taxes

 

Customs duties

▪ No change in the peak rate of customs duty.

▪ Customs duty on Project Imports to reduce from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent; 4 per cent special CVD to be imposed on a few specified projects in the power sector.

▪ Customs duty being reduced on steel melting scrap and aluminium scrap from 5 per cent to nil.

▪ Customs duty to be reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent on certain specified life saving drugs and on the bulk drugs used for the manufacture of such drugs. They are also being exempted from excise duty or countervailing duty.

▪ Specified parts of set top boxes and specified raw materials for use in the IT /electronic hardware industry to be exempted from customs duty.

▪ Customs duty on convergence products to be reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent to establish parity between devices used in the information/ communication sector and the entertainment sector

▪ Customs duty removed on helicopter simulators to facilitate training of helicopter pilots

▪ Customs duty reduced on crude and unrefined sulphur from 5 per cent to 2 per cent, in order to support domestic fertiliser production.

 

Excise duty

▪ General CENVAT rate on all goods reduced from 16 per cent to 14 per cent to give a stimulus to the manufacturing sector.

▪ Excise duty on all goods produced in the pharmaceutical sector reduced from 16 per cent to 8 per cent.

▪ Excise duty reduced on buses and their chassis from 16 per cent to 12 per cent.

▪ Excise duty reduced on small cars from 16 per cent to 12 per cent and on hybrid cars from 24 per cent to the general revised rate of 14 per cent.

▪ Excise duty reduced on two wheelers and three wheelers from 16 per cent to 12 per cent.

▪ Excise duty rates on bulk cement and packaged cement brought on par; bulk cement to attract excise duty of Rs.400 per Metric Tonne or 14 per cent ad valorem, whichever is higher; cement clinkers excise duty at Rs.450 per Metric Tonne.

▪ Excise duty being increased on packaged software from 8 per cent to 12 per cent, bringing at par with customised software attracting a service tax of 12 per cent.

▪ Excise duty on both filter and non-filter cigarettes brought on par by applying higher rates on non-filter cigarettes.

 

Service tax

▪ Four services brought under service tax net namely,

1. asset management service provided under ULIP,

2. services provided by stock/commodity exchanges and clearing houses;

3. right to use goods, in cases where VAT is not payable;

4. customised software, to bring it on par with packaged software and other IT services.

▪ Threshold limit of exemption for small service providers increased from Rs.8 lakhs per year to Rs.10 lakh per year; about 65,000 small service providers go out of the tax net.

 

Direct Taxes

▪ Threshold limit of exemption from personal income tax in the case of all assesses increased to Rs.150,000. The slabs and rates of tax are :

– Up to Rs.150,000 NIL

– Rs.150,001 to Rs.300,000 10 per cent

– Rs.300,001 to Rs.500,000 20 per cent

– Rs.500,001 and above 30 per cent

▪ In case of a woman assessee, the threshold limit increased from Rs.145,000 to Rs.180,000; for a senior citizens, the threshold limit increased from Rs.195,000 to Rs.225,000.

▪ No change in the corporate income tax rates.

▪ No change in the rate of surcharge.

▪ Corporate debt instruments issued in demat form and listed on recognised stock exchanges exempted from TDS.

▪ Rate of tax on short term capital gains under Section 111A & Section 115AD increased to 15 per cent.

▪ Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) to be introduced on the same lines as STT on options and futures.

▪ Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) being withdrawn with effect from April 1, 2009.

CST and a Roadmap towards GST

▪ Central Sales Tax rate being reduced from 3 per cent to 2 per cent from April 1, 2008.

▪ Roadmap for Goods and Service Tax being prepared for introduction of GST from April 1, 2010.

Major sectors and Industries influenced on Budget

Agricultural sector

The Union government is planning the largest farm-loan relief package in the country’s history totalling at least Rs 32,000 crore. The package, which could end up totalling as much as Rs 90,000 crore depending on the final shape of the proposals, is at the core of efforts by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and its largest constituent the Congress, to revive agriculture — and hopefully ride back to power in elections due in about a year.

People familiar with the process of creating the package say it will have several components from a waiver of interest on some loans to the complete writing off of not just stressed assets but even those loans that have been rescheduled. As on March 30, 2007, the exposure of commercial banks to the agriculture sector was Rs 230,180 crore. The total value of agricultural loans could be to the tune of Rs 362,000 crore, including loans of cooperative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs).

The UPA came to power in 2004 riding a promise of a “new deal for rural India” by increasing investment in agriculture and stepping up credit flow to farmers. Commercial banks have non-performing agricultural loans of more than Rs 7,500 crore. However, cooperative banks and RRBs, major dispensers of farm loans, have larger non-performing assets (NPAs) related to agriculture. Industry estimates put overall NPAs in the sector at around Rs 31,000 crore. And at least another Rs 30,000 crore worth of farm loans have been rescheduled thus far under various schemes.

Loans that have not turned into NPAs but are “overdue” for repayment add up to another Rs 40,000 crore. The government plans to address this chunk of more than Rs1 trillion of farm loans through its relief package. The package is being put together by officials from the ministries of finance and agriculture, the banking regulator, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the apex agricultural bank National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), but none of them is willing to go on record with the details given the sensitivity of the subject.

Any package aimed at the agriculture sector has significant political ramifications, especially given that the UPA government could choose to go to the polls before the end of its five-year term. That means, Budget 2008-09 could well be this government’s last. The previous government, the BJP-led NDA lost the last elections after running a high voltage “India Shining” campaign that backfired in rural India.

Currently, farmers get small loans up to Rs 2 lakh at a concessional rate of 7 per cent but government offers 2 per cent subsidy on such loans to banks through RBI. This is not the first time the government has made out concessions to farmers in the budget but what makes the planned package unique is its magnitude.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced a Rs 60,000 crore relief package for farmers, including complete waiver of loans given to small and marginal farmers.Presenting his fifth Budget and the last one before the general elections, Chidambaram announced waiver of Rs 50,000 crore worth of loans to small and marginal farmers and a settlement scheme for other farmers that would cost the exchequer another Rs 10,000 crore.

Relief package for farmers

In July 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a relief package for distressed farmers in 31 districts across Andhra Pradesh (16 districts), Karnataka (6 districts), Kerala (3 districts) and Maharashtra (6 districts). The package was worth Rs 16,978.69 crore - Rs 10,579.43 crore as subsidy and Rs 6399.26 crore as loan. The critical component of the package was the waiver of interest on overdue loans up to July 2006 to the tune of Rs 2,718 crore. This was shared equally between the Centre and states.

The government also rescheduled overdue loans to the tune of Rs 9,052 crore over three to five years with a one-year moratorium. And commercial banks committed fresh credit commitments over Rs 20,000 crore to these affected districts. “The first installment of loans rescheduled in 2004 and 2006 would be due by the end of the current fiscal year after the moratorium period is over but the farmers are in no position to pay,” said an agricultural banker.

The government’s concern over farm loans is understandable in the context of a sharp decline in the share of agriculture in India’s GDP, from 41% in 1971-72 to 19.6% in 2005-06 and an estimated 18.5% in 2006-07 and 17.47% in 2007-08. However, in terms of employment, agriculture’s share has declined, but much more gradually, from 73.9% in 1972-73 to 56.6% in 2004-05.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on 29 th Feb, 2008 announced a Rs 60,000 crore relief package for farmers, including complete waiver of loans given to small and marginal farmers.Presenting his fifth Budget and the last one before the general elections, Chidambaram announced waiver of Rs 50,000 crore worth of loans to small and marginal farmers and a settlement scheme for other farmers that would cost the exchequer another Rs 10,000 crore.

Defence Sector

India’s defence spending is likely to rise by between 8 and 10 per cent in this year’s Budget, not enough to please the armed forces, but enough for a gradual modernisation of the world’s fourth-largest military force. India is emerging as one of the world’s biggest arms buyers, and is planning one of its biggest ever arms purchases, a $10 billion deal to buy 126 fighter jets. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in India this week trying to push American bids for that deal.

India raised its defence budget by 7.8 per cent to $22 billion for the year ending March 2008 as part of plans to modernise its 1.3-million-strong military. But it failed to spend around 70 per cent of its $10 billion allocation for capital outlay because of red tape.

India spends around less than 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on its military, a smaller percentage than is believed spent by rivals China and Pakistan. Although there has been a critical need to augment inventory, modernisation efforts have not been sustained.

In the past year India has cleared a few pending arms deals, buying 347 T-90s tanks from Russia and six C-130J military transport planes from the US firm Lockheed Martin. It also inducted eight British advanced jet trainers into its air force, almost 27 years after it began negotiating the deal. Looking ahead, it plans to spend $30 billion on imports over the next four years to modernise its largely Soviet-era arms.

To overhaul its inventory of ageing fighter aircraft, it wants to buy the 126 new multi-role jets, with the $10 billion outlay likely to be spread over several years. It also wants to arm its navy with long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and add more missiles and artillery to its army.

Gem and jewellery sector

The gem and jewellery industry was disappointed with the union budget, saying it would not bring relief to the industry, which is saddled by rupee appreciation. Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s decision to reduce duty on zircons and corals, and halve duty to five per cent on polished cubic zirconia and rough coral would not provide the much-needed boost to the industry.

Mehul Choksi, chairman of Gitanjali Gems Ltd said, that the industry wanted the duty removed on polished coloured gem stones and duty cut on plain gold jewellery below 18 carat. The duty reductions would benefit employment and trading. Sanjay Kothari, chairman, The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, said that the budget is not going to give a boost to the industry. The industry had greater expectations.

Education Sector

With 11th Five Year plan giving special focus on education, government has alloted over Rs 38,702 crore to the sector in the Union Budget 2008-09, showing a massive increase of over Rs 9,000 crore. A sum of Rs 27,850 crore has been provided for school education as compared to last year’s revised estimate of Rs 23,191.35 crore.

The Mid-day Meal Scheme which would receive Rs 8,000 crore would be extended to all children upto upper primary level (from class I to VIII) in all areas across the country. Allocation for the secondary education has been doubled with Rs 5,139.70 crore in 2008-09 as against Rs 2,465.18 crore last year.

With government proposing to set up high quality model schools, a sum of Rs 582.80 crore has been earmarked for this purpose during the year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his Independence Day address last year had announced setting up of 6,000 new High Quality schools - one in every block of the country.

Tea industry

The mega tea industry in Assam, expressed its satisfaction over the allocations in the union budget for tea research and boosting production. Debeswar Bora of the Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA) said that they are happy as the central government has decided to lay stress on research and development in the tea sector and also earmarked funds for revamping tea bushes and improve overall productivity.

The 2008-09 budget has allocated Rs 400 million ($10 million) for Special Purpose Tea Fund and Rs 200 million ($5 million) for tea research.Assam contributes over 50 per cent of India’s total tea production of 900 million kg per year. The state has over 800 tea plantations.

Textile industry

The textile industry has expressed disappointment at the Union Budget presented, as it was expecting reduction of customs and excise duties on fibres and capital goods, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) said here.

PD Patodia, CITU Chairman said the country’s most labour intensive sector was facing a severe financial crisis and that the cut in duties would have helped in reviving the industry. He said the sector has been going down with each passing day following the rupee appreciation and escalation of interest rates which are the direct results of government policies.

Referring to the allocation of Rs 10.9 billion for Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), Patodia said that this amount will not be sufficient even to service the existing TUFS loans. And in fact, there is a backlog of over Rs.6 billion from the year 2007-08 and the requirements for 2008-09 against existing loans will amount to another Rs 11 billion. Currently, there is a delay of nearly one year in disbursement of TUFS loans and with the small allocation made in the Budget for next year, the delay will only increase in the coming months.

Small and medium IT enterprises (SMEs)

Small and medium IT enterprises here are disappointed with the 2008-09 budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were expecting that the software technology park of India (STPI) scheme, which has been offering them various exemptions including 10-year income tax exemption for exports, would be extended beyond 2009.

The big IT companies are moving to SEZs to avail the various tax exemptions being offered by SEZs. Non-extension of STPI scheme may hit 3,000 SMEs in Hyderabad alone. These units, with a turnover of less than Rs.10 million each, employ over 50,000 people. Hyderabad Software Exporters’ Association (Hysea) feel that the SMEs would be badly hit as they spend 55 percent of their revenues on salaries. If the concessions are withdrawn, many units might be forced to shut down the operations.

Sagar, former president of Hysea, said the industry was expecting that the budget would remove the sunset clause under Section 10B of the Income Tax Act, under which no income tax exemption would be available for the exports by the 100 percent export-oriented units after March 2009.

Corporate taxes & Tax payers

Corporate taxes

Corporate taxes will contribute a whopping 24 percent of the government’s annual Budget of Rs.750,884 crore (over Rs.7.5 trillion) for 2008-09 that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented in the Lok Sabha .There is a remarkable increase in the plan expenditure to create assets. In the next fiscal, the government will spend Rs.243,386 crore under the plan head against the revised Rs.207,524 crore in 2007-08.

Finance Minister Chidambaram in his budget speech said that the fiscal position of the country had tremendously improved. The revenue deficit for the current year will be 1.4 percent against the budget estimate of 1.5 percent, and the fiscal deficit will be 3.1 percent against the budget estimate of 3.3 percent.

As much as 43 percent contributions to the state coffer come from income, excise and customs taxes, accounting respectively for 15, 13 and 15 percent. Service and other taxes will contribute seven percent. All taxes together account for 74 per cent of the country’s total budget, with the rest coming from borrowings, non-tax, non-debt capital and other liabilities. The non-tax revenues make only 10 percent of the total budget amount.

In 2008-09, the government intends to receive Rs.602,935 crore from the taxes, while the capital receipts would generate Rs.147,949 crore compared to the revised Rs.184,275 in 2007-08. The states’ share of taxes and duties claim 19 percent of the budget funds, followed by defence that gets 11 percent of the total funds.

Compared to the current fiscal year, there is a slight increase in non-plan expenditure in the next fiscal, estimated to be Rs.507,498 crore. It was Rs.501,849 crore in 2007-08. The non-plan expenditures take care of maintenance and other in-built expenses involving salaries and other costs. Chidambaram said that revenue deficit in 2008-09 is estimated to be one percent of the gross domestic product, while the fiscal deficit of 2.5 percent at Rs.133,287 crore.

Tax payers

The working class people will stand to benefit by up to Rs 44,000 a year in income tax following the changes proposed by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget for 2008-09, which also provides for a minimum benefit of Rs 4,000. While raising the income tax exemption limit to Rs 1.5 lakh from 1.1 lakh, Finance Minister P Chidamabaram also provided for lower tax rates for income up to Rs 5 lakh.

Earlier, the minimum exemption limit stood at Rs 1.1 lakh for all classes of individuals. For women, the exemption limit has been raised to 1.8 lakh from 1.45 lakh previously, while for senior citizens it has been hiked from Rs 1.95 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh.

For an income of Rs 10 lakh a year, an individual would have to pay a tax of Rs 2,05,000, as against Rs 2,49,000 under the previous tax structure. For women assessees, a similar income would attract a tax of Rs 2,02,000 under the new regime, down from Rs 2,45,500 previously, while the tax for senior citizens would drop to Rs 1,97,500 from Rs 2,36,000 earlier.

According to the proposals, income between Rs 1.5-3 lakh will be taxed at 10 per cent, between Rs 3-5 lakh at 20 per cent, while for Rs 5-10 lakh it would be 30 per cent. Based on this structure, an individual having an income of Rs 10 lakh would pay no tax on income up to Rs 1.5 lakh, Rs 15,000 between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh, Rs 40,000 between Rs 3-5 lakh and Rs 1,50,000 between Rs 5-10 lakh. Previously, the tax amounts for these four slabs were Rs 4,000, Rs 35,000, Rs 60,000 and Rs 1,50,000 respectively.

Social sector benefits

The government has pegged the annual plan outlay for 2008-09 at Rs 3.76 lakh crores, with social sector getting a maximum allocation of Rs 95,919 crore. The central plan outlay has been increased from Rs 2.92 lakh crore in revised estimates (RE) for the current fiscal to Rs 3.76 lakh crore in 2008-09, representing an increase of about 29 per cent. The allocation for social services has been stepped up from Rs 75,162 crore (RE 2007-08) to Rs 95,919 crore, showing a growth of about 28 per cent.

Among other important sectors, the outlay for energy sector has been raised from Rs 72,230 crore to Rs 93,815 crore, while for the transport sector it has been increased from Rs 84,177 crore from Rs 68,930 crore. For rural development, the outlay has been raised to Rs 23,831 crore from Rs 21,147 crore, while for the industry and minerals segment it would be Rs 28,836 crore, up from Rs 17,953 crore. The budgetary support for the central plan outlay has been fixed at Rs 1.80 lakh crore, up from Rs 1.49 crore in the revised estimates.

The internal and external budgetary resources (IEBR) target for 2008-09 has been significantly stepped to Rs 2.00 lakh crore from Rs 1.44 lakh crore, putting much greater onus on public sector enterprises to fund the central plan. The central plan outlay for current fiscal will fall short of the budget estimates by around Rs 28,000 crore. According to the budget documents, the central plan outlay in RE has been estimated at Rs 2.92 lakh crore, much below the budget estimate of Rs 3.20 lakh crore.

Conclusion

With an eye on election and last full budget in the office, finance minister P Chidambaram is expected to cheer all around with Budget 2008-2009. It has helped to raise the exemption limit for income tax and increase in the amount of savings one can make to qualify for tax breaks. It also look into providing options of wider range of tax-free instruments for investments and a reorder in tax slabs.