Highlights of the Union budget 2010-11

The Union Budget of India, referred to as the Annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India, is the annual budget of the Republic of India, presented each year on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India in Parliament. The budget has to be passed by the House before it can come into effect on April 1, the start of India's financial year(1^st April – March 31^st).

Ø  Total expenditure pegged at Rs 11.08 lakh crore, an increase of 8.6 per cent over 2009-10 Union Budget.

Ø  Plan expenditure pegged at Rs 3,73,092 crore and Non-Plan expenditure at Rs 7,35,657 crore in budget estimates. 6 per cent increase in plan expenditure and 15 per cent in non-plan expenditure.

Ø  The Gross Tax Receipts are estimated at Rs. 7,46,651 crore and Non Tax Revenue Receipts are estimated at Rs. 1,48,118 crore for 2010-11.

Ø  Income tax slabs for individual taxpayers to be as follows:

o   Income up to Rs 1.6 lakh – nil.

o   Income above Rs 1.6 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh - 10 per cent.

o   Income above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 8 lakh - 20 per cent.

o   Income above Rs 8 lakh - 30 per cent.

Ø  Fiscal deficit pegged at 6.9 per cent in 2009-10 as against 7.8 per cent in the previous fiscal. Fiscal deficit seen at 4.8 per cent and 4.1 per cent in 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively.

Ø  Banks have been consistently meeting the targets set for agriculture credit flow in the past few years. For the year 2010-11, the target has been set at Rs.3,75,000 crore.

Ø  Allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme stepped up to Rs.40,100 crore in 2010-11.

Ø  An amount of Rs.48,000 crore allocated for rural infrastructure programmes under Bharat Nirman.

Ø  Unit cost under Indira Awas Yojana increased to Rs.45,000 in the plain areas and to Rs.48,500 in the hilly areas. Allocation for this scheme increased to Rs.10,000 crore.

Ø  A 700% increase of Rs.1,270 crore allocated for Rajiv Awas Yojana as compared to Rs.150 crore last year.

Ø  Rs 1,900 crore allocated to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for 2010-11.

Ø  Defence allocation pegged at Rs 1,47,344 crore in 2010-11 against Rs 1,41,703 crore in the previous year.

Ø  Allocation for National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) doubled in 2010-11 to Rs.500 crore.

Ø  Rs.16,500 crore provided to ensure that the Public Sector Banks are able to attain a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by March 31, 2011.

Ø  Allocation to Backward Region Grant Fund enhanced by 26 per cent from Rs.5,800 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 7,300 crore in 2010-11.

Ø  Allocation for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation raised from Rs.850 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11.

Ø  Rs 500 crore allocated for solar and hydro projects for Ladakh region.

Ø  One-time grant of Rs 200 crore provided to Tirupur textile cluster in Tamil Nadu.

Ø  Rs.200 crore provided as a Special Golden Jubilee package for Goa to preserve the natural resources of the State, including sea beaches and forest cover.

Ø  A new initiative, “Swavalamban” will be available for persons who join New Pension Scheme (NPS), with a minimum contribution of Rs.1,000 and a maximum contribution of Rs.12,000 per annum during the financial year 2010-11, wherein Government will contribute Rs.1,000 per year to each NPS account opened in the year 2010-11. Allocation of Rs.100 crore made for this initiative.

Ø  Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana to meet the specific needs of women farmers to be launched with a provision of Rs 100 crore as a sub-component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

Ø  Rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) increased from the current rate of 15 percent to 18 per cent of book profits.(Inputs from :Rediff.com)

Download the Key features of Union Budget 2010-11.

From where the Rupee Comes from and the Rupee Goes to:

Highlights of Economic Survey 2009-10

The Finance Ministry presents the Economic Survey in the parliament every year, just before the Union Budget. It is the ministry's view on the annual economic development of the country.

Here are the some of the highlights of Economic survey 2009-10:

• Economy posted a remarkable recovery expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2009-10 against 6.7 per cent in 2008-09.
• Economy likely to grow by up to 8.75 per cent in 2010-11.
• Full recovery; return to 9 per cent growth in 2011-12.
• India world's 2nd largest wireless network with 525.1 million mobile users
• Manufacturing growth more than doubled to 8.9 per cent in 2009-10 from 3.2 per cent in 2008-09.
• India 10th largest gold holding nation at 557.7 tonnes or about 6 per cent of total foreign exchange reserves.
• Exports in April-December 2009 down 20.3 per cent.
• Imports in April-December 2009 down 23.6 per cent.
• Farm & allied sector production falls 0.2% in 2009-10.
• Need serious policy initiatives for 4% agriculture growth.
• Gross fiscal deficit pegged at 6.5 pc of GDP in 2009-10.
• Trade gap narrowed to USD 76.24 billion in April-December 2009.
• Per capita income increased to 5.3 per cent in 2009-10 from 3.7 per cent in 2008-09.
• Bank credit grows by 13.9 per cent on year-on-year basis. Non-food bank credit recorded an increase of 8.7 per cent on financial year basis till January 15, 2010 
• Economic Survey suggested gradual roll back of stimulus steps unveiled in the wake of the global financial meltdown.
• During the year 2009-10, 4.34 crore households have been provided employment under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
• FIIs investment in equity market rose to Rs 83,424 crore in 2009 compared to withdrawals of Rs 52,987 crore in 2008.
• The total foreign exchange reserves increased by $31.5 billion in 2009-10 fiscal, from $252 billion at the end of March 2009 to $283.5 billion in December 2009.
• Under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which was launched in 2005, infant mortality rate (IMR) is expected to fall below 30 in every 1,000 live births by 2012.The current IMR stands at 53, substantially lower than the figure of 80 in 1991.
• The Indian pharmaceutical industry has become the third largest in world in terms of volume and ranks 14th in terms of value at over Rs 1 lakh crore.
• The Dubai debt crisis is likely to have "some impact" on India's exports and imports as the gulf region is the country's largest trade partner.
• Given the uncertain global context, the Government did not fix an export target for 2009-10, instead the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2009-14 set the objective of an annual export growth of 15 percent with an export target of US$ 200 billion by March 2011.

For Complete details of Economic Survey 2009-10 download here.

What is a Budget

The Union Budget is the annual report of India as a country. It contains the government of India's revenue and expenditure for the end of a particular fiscal year, which runs from April 1 to March 31.

The Union Budget is the most extensive account of the government's finances, in which revenues from all sources and expenses of all activities undertaken are aggregated. It comprises the revenue budget and the capital budget. It also contains estimates for the next fiscal year.

What is a revenue budget?

The revenue budget consists of revenue receipts of the government (revenues from tax and other sources), and its expenditure.

Revenue receipts are divided into tax and non-tax revenue.

Tax revenues are made up of taxes such as income tax, corporate tax, excise, customs and other duties that the government levies.

In non-tax revenue, the government's sources are interest on loans and dividend on investments like PSUs, fees, and other receipts for services that it renders.

Revenue expenditure is the payment incurred for the normal day-to-day running of government departments and various services that it offers to its citizens.

The difference between revenue receipts and revenue expenditure is usually negative. This means that the government spends more than it earns. This difference is called the revenue deficit.

What is a capital budget?

The capital budget is different from the revenue budget as its components are of a long-term nature.
The capital budget consists of capital receipts and payments.

Capital receipts are government loans raised from the public, government borrowings from the Reserve Bank and treasury bills, loans received from foreign bodies and governments, divestment of equity holding in public sector enterprises, securities against small savings, state provident funds, and special deposits.

Capital payments are capital expenditures on acquisition of assets like land, buildings, machinery, and equipment. Investments in shares, loans and advances granted by the central government to state and union territory governments, government companies, corporations and other parties.

What are direct taxes?

These are the taxes that are levied on the income of individuals or organizations. Income tax, corporate tax, inheritance tax are some instances of direct taxation.

Income tax is the tax levied on individual income from various sources like salaries, investments, interest etc.

Corporate tax is the tax paid by companies or firms on the incomes they earn.

What are indirect taxes?

These are the taxes paid by consumers when they buy goods and services.

These include excise and customs duties.

Customs duty is the charge levied when goods are imported into the country, and is paid by the importer or exporter.

Excise duty is a levy paid by the manufacturer on items manufactured within the country.

Usually, these charges are passed on to the consumer.

What is plan and non-plan expenditure?

There are two components of expenditure -- plan and non-plan.

Of these, plan expenditures are estimated after discussions between each of the ministries concerned and the Planning Commission.

Non-plan revenue expenditure is accounted for by interest payments, subsidies (mainly on food and fertilisers), wage and salary payments to government employees, grants to States and Union Territories governments, pensions, police, economic services in various sectors, other general services such as tax collection, social services, and grants to foreign governments.

Non-plan capital expenditure mainly includes defence, loans to public enterprises, loans to States, Union Territories and foreign governments.

What is the Central Plan Outlay?

It is the division of monetary resources among the different sectors in the economy and the ministries of the government.

What is fiscal policy?

Fiscal policy is a change in government spending or taxing designed to influence economic activity. These changes are designed to control the level of aggregate demand in the economy.

Governments usually bring about changes in taxation, volume of spending, and size of the budget deficit or surplus to affect public expenditure.

What is a fiscal deficit?

This is the gap between the government's total spending and the sum of its revenue receipts and non-debt capital receipts. It represents the total amount of borrowed funds required by the government to completely meet its expenditure.

What is the Finance Bill?

The government proposals for the levy of new taxes, alterations in the present tax structure or continuance of the current tax structure beyond the period approved by the Parliament, are laid down before the Parliament in this bill.

The Parliament approves the Finance Bill for a period of one year at a time, which becomes the Finance Act.

Source: Rediff.

SBI Associates PO Pattern - 2010

Written Examination consists of two parts:

i)Objective Test(Time = 120minutes Marks =200):

It will comprise of four sections namely:

1)Test of English Language                                            50Q     50Marks

2)Test of GA, Marketing, Computer Awareness            50Q     50Marks

3)Test of Data Analysis & Interpretation               50Q     50Marks

4)Test of High Level Reasoning                                    50Q     50Marks

Note: Questions on the above sections(especially 3^rd & 4^th sections) are quite complex compared to what you faced for previous Bank PO exams. For each questions you will get 1mark. For every wrong answer 0.25 mark will be deducted.

In order to clear the objective test based on the Time and the No. of questions given with maintaining 95% accuracy. Time duration for each Section is shown below(This is an example only):

1)English                                         35Q     30Min

2)GA, Marketing, Computer           35Q     20Min

3)DA & Interpretation             35Q     35Min

4)Reasoning                                     35Q     35Min

ii)Descriptive(Time = 60minutes Marks =50):

It will consist of:

->Letter Writing

-> Précis Writing

->Essay.

Note: This paper will be evaluated only if you qualify in the Objective test only with high in percentile ranking. Both Objective(all sections) & Descriptive are to be reckoned for Merit ranking. The Total marks considered for the written exam is 250(200+50).

Allahabad Bank PO GK Paper 2010

1.      India signed a climate pact with – China.

2.      Sudhir Gokhran has been appointed as – Deputy Governor of RBI.

3.      K Radhakrsihna has taken over chairman as – ISRO

4.      Winner of man booker prize 2009 – Hillary Mantel

5.      Sachin created history by completing ____ runs in ODI – 17,000.

6.      Largest Steel Producer in the world – China

7.      Zine El Abidine Ben Ali sworn as president of – Tunisia

8.      East Asia Summit held in – Thailand

9.      Maximum Sugar mills are in which state – Uttar Pradesh

10. India’s GDP in 2008-09 – 6.7%.

11. H5N1 is a – Bird Flu

12. Mohammad Nasheed visited india, he was the president of – Maldives

13. Which country opposed Manmohan singh to visit Arunachal Pradesh – China

14. Ramakrihna venkatraman got nobel prize in – Chemistry

15. Genetically modified crop – Brinjal

16. ____ buyed 200 tones of gold from IMF – RBI

17. Who won the Champions trophy – Australia

18. Basel II norms – Maintaining Capital Adequate ratio

19. After the financial crisis, which affected the World crisis – Dubai crisis.

20. Chief Justice of India – K.G. Balakrishnan

21. POS – Point of sale

22. ECS – Electronic Clearing system

23. The exchange of goods between the two or more countries is known as - FTA(Free Trade Agreement).

24. Present EU President – Herman Van Rompuy

25. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards are given in the field – Science & Technology

26. Dada sahib phalke awards are give in the field – films

27. Which of the following is not a government undertaking – ICICI bank

28. Balraj puri is associated with – Journalist

29. Nobel Prize awardees will give 10 million Swedish ________ - Krones

30. Player not Associated with Lawn Tennis – Anand Pawar

31. Government is disinvesting PSU’s upto _______ percentage – 10%

32. Which of the following is not a river – Ural(Russia)

33. Atta Dal scheme launched in which state – Rajasthan

34. Book by V.S Naipaul – Half a Life

35. Orissa government want to change the name of state as – Odisha

36. Government has celebrated ____ birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi – 140^th.

37. Which of the following is not a grandslam title in Tennis – Grandmaster.

38. India Generation Gap review is discussed in – India - European Summit

39. Term not related to Economics – Handedness

40. Term not related to banking and finance – Jacksonian seizure

41. Mullaperiyar dam is constructed on the river – Periyar

42. What percentage of education used in India’s GDP – 1%.

43. India buyed Barak anti missile defence from – Israel.

44. Food and Agriculture Organisation comes under the wing – UNO

45. National Skill development is launched by – Ministry of finance

46. Derby is a term used in the sport – Football.

47. Term related to hockey – Centre Forward.

48. Dadaab camp is in news recently, it is in which country – Kenya

49. E-shakti yojana a scheme started in which state – Bihar

50. Social Audit – NREGA

51. Which of the following is not a plant crop –All are plant corps(Vanilla,kiwi,camphor,etc)

52. A/c to world report what % of water is used for agriculture purpose - 69%

53. Only Credit Rating agency in India – CRISIL

54. State Level Afforestation formed by Government – CAMPA(Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority)

55. Indo-US TPF held in Delhi. What is the fullform of TPF– Trade policy Forum.

56. India discouraged free movements of unskilled labourers from – EU.

57. Scheme launched for pregnant and Lacting women – Indira Gandhi Matritava Sahayog Yojana.

58. UNIFEM launched a project in which state – Delhi.

59. India – European trade value - $60 billion.

60. What amount is required for PSU – 25,000 crore.

61. RBI has kept Emergency Fund facility for which of the following banks –Urban Co-operative banks.

62. One Carbon Credit is equal to – one ton of CO2.

63. Which of the following terms not related to climate change – Basel norms

64. Tax which the employer will pay to employee has been abolished in Union budget – Fridge Benefit Tax.

65. India and china concerned over Payment Imbalance – China is paying in their own currency rather than dollar.

66. India is concerned about instability in which of the following countries – Afghansitan & Pakistan.

Note: Almost 35+ questions are from this blog(directly & indirectly). If you know more questions/answers post in a comment box.

January Current Affairs 2010

·        Shri R. Gopalan assumed the office of Secretary, Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance. Prior to this, Shri Gopalan was serving as Special Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

·        Australian skipper Ricky Ponting beat Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, legends Shane Warne, Jacques Kallis, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and many others to be voted as the "ESPN Cricinfo Player of the Decade for the 2000s".

·        Veteran diplomat Shivshankar Menon, appointed as the new National Security Adviser (NSA).

·        Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati launched various welfare schemes to the tune of over Rs 7,312 crores on the occasion of her 54th birthday, being observed as "Jan Kalyankari Diwas".

·        Marxist patriarch and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu died.

·        Kuldip Singh, director, technical, of telecom PSU MTNL, has been appointed the new chairman and managing director. His appointment came after his predecessor R S P Sinha's tenure ended on January 9, this year. 

·        Bollywood star Salman Khan conferred the 'Pride of the Nation' award for spreading the message of patriotism, secularism and national integration through films. Constituted by Anti Terrorist Front.

·        The US plans to spend a whopping USD 200 million this year to revamp Pakistan's deteriorating public education system.

·        An Indian delegation headed by Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy attended the 3rd World Future Energy Summit at Abu Dhabi. .

·        The government said that it has provided nearly Rs 49 crore subsidy till November 2009 under the special purpose tea fund for redeveloping old tea gardens.

·        Nearly 90 per cent of world's 7,000 oral languages will disappear within the next 100 years, according to a UN report.

·        Noted magician Atul Patil has been elected president of the Society of Indian Magician.

·        United Kingdom-based Cadbury, the world's second biggest confectionery company with huge operations in India, agreed to being taken over by Kraft Foods after agreeing to an improved offer from the US food giant. The improved takeover offer is worth $18.9 billion.

·        Canadian actress Emmanuelle Chriqui voted most desirable women 2010.

·        India still has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, a new UN report on education.

·        Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor was decorated with the honorary rank of General of the Nepal Army by President Ram Baran Yadav.

·        India has been rated the 124th freest economy in the world, according to the 16th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. 

·        Veteran diplomat Shivshankar Menon, appointed as the new National Security Adviser (NSA).

·        India has been named the guest country at the 23rd Turin International Book Fair in Italy from May 13-17.

·        Maharashtra government has decided to gift Rs 50,000 to a couple opting for inter-caste marriage.

·        Net direct tax collections during first three quarters of the present fiscal (up to December 2009) stood at Rs.2,50,232 crore, up from Rs.2,30,598 crore in the same period last fiscal, registering a growth of 8.51 percent. Growth in Corporate Taxes was 13.47 percent (Rs.1,66,503 crore as against Rs.1,46,737 crore), while Personal Income Tax (including STT, and residual FBT and BCTT) grew at -0.41 percent (Rs.83,178 crore as against Rs.83,524 crore).