Finance Minister

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 5 lashed out at US-based 'Freedom House' for demoting India in freedom index and publishing wrong Indian map. Sitharaman said, "How do I take you seriously when you don't have our map right and comment on matters so intrinsic as freedom in country like India." Earlier, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry also rejected the "Democracy Under Siege" report which had downgraded India from "free"… read-more

Opposing Centre’s decision to privatise two public sector banks, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on February 9 called for a two-day strike starting from March 15. Reportedly, this year's Budget witnessed the FinMin stipulating the privatisation of two PSBs under its disinvestment strategy. Earlier, the Centre had privatised IDBI Bank and had merged 14 PSBs in four years. Calling the alterations regressive, UFBU has exhibited resentment… read-more

A group of influential figures from the film industry, including BJP MP Sunny Deol, met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam on January 23, ahead of the budget session on February 1. The team explained the problems and appealed to consider relief measures towards the pandemic-hit film industry. The meeting was led by the joint Managing director of PVR Pictures Sanjay Kumar Bijli. Reportedly, the Minister has assured to "certainly consider the… read-more

Karl-Heinz Grasser, former Austrian Finance Minister, has been convicted of corruption and bribery amounting to nine million euro. Awarding him an eight-year imprisonment, the Vienna Court found him guilty of leaking information of a bid and termed it as deliberate abuse of authority. The court also handed jail terms to former Austrian leader Walter Meischberger and a lobbyist Peter Hochegger. Interestingly, Grasser became the youngest… read-more

According to the Finance Ministry data, 12 states have selected to borrow Rs 97,000 crore through RBI-facilitated window (option 1) to meet the compensation deficit under GST regime. However, Manipur, opted to borrow the entire compensation deficit from the market (option 2). While six other states are expected to send in their option in a couple of days, others have written to the Finance Minister, expecting other options.