Union Budget 2018-19: Complete Analysis

Dear Readers,

Union Budget 2018-19:

Will you be appearing for Banking, Insurance and other Government Job Examinations in 2018? Then to score in General Awareness section it is very important for you to get updates on The Union Budget 2018-19. This will be the last full Union Budget to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the session of Parliament and it will be unlike his previous four such exercises because of the complete overhaul of the indirect tax regime affected by implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) last year.

Candidates who will be appearing for Syndicate Bank PO, Canara Bank PO, SBI Clerk 2018 Exams and all other Competitive Exam should carefully read the Budget Analysis because there is a high possibility that you might face questions from this year’s Union Budget in the General Awareness Section. The highlights and analysis of budget are not only important for exam point of view but also this can help you to prepare for the interview of this year’s government job recruitment process.

The Budget, to be the last for this government in view of the general elections due in the first half of 2019, may have two main components: The first part deals with new schemes and outlays for various existing schemes and sectors for the coming fiscal, while the second contains announcements on direct and indirect taxes. With the implementation of single tax regime GST, this year’s budget is believed to take into account only those items that still remain outside the purview of GST. It is highly expected that 2018-19 budget could contain changes in customs and excise duties on these remaining products, which for most others have been subsumed under GST. For the rest, you’ll have to watch this space for the review of Union Budget 2018-19.

We will be covering The Union Budget from Examination’s Point of View to help you remember all the important points in a simple and easy manner.

Budget 2018 Takeaways-

As per the FM in the Union Budget, India is expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon.
The Growth rate is expected between 7.2-7.5% in the second half of 2017-18.
Exports are expected to grow 15% in 2018.
As per the FM, India is a Rs2.5 trillion economy.
MSP to increase at least 1.5 times that of production cost.
Minimum Support Price (MSP) of all crops shall increase to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.
The government will set up a fund of Rs 2,000 crore for developing agricultural markets.
Our focus is on productive and gainful on-farm and non-farm employment for farmers and landless families, says Jaitley.
MSP for Kharif cost will be 1.5 times the cost of production.
As per the FM, APMCs will be linked with ENAM.
The government will develop 22,000 Gramin agricultural markets.
The cluster-model approach will be adopted for agricultural production.
Allocation in food production sector doubled to Rs 1400 crore.
Minimum Support Price shall be increased by 1.5 times. Operation Green will be launched for agriculture and the Minister allocates Rs500 crore for this.
Agricultural corpus worth Rs 2000 crore will be set up. 470 APMCs have been connected to eNAM network, the rest to be connected by March 2018.
A fund for the fishery, aquaculture development and animal husbandry will be set up with a total corpus to be Rs 10,000 crore. We will also allocate Rs 1290 crore for a bamboo mission, as it is green gold.
In all, we are providing Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore as credit for agricultural activities.
Jaitley proposes to increase the target of providing free LPG connections to 8 crore to poor women.
Ujjwala Yojana, the free LPG connection scheme expanded to eight crore households.
Six crore toilets have been built already, and in the next year, two crore additional toilets will be constructed.
The government will provide 4 crore electricity connections to the poor under Saubhagya Yojana.
Kisan credit card to be extended to fisheries,animal husbandry farmers.
The government will establish a dedicated affordable housing fund.
Loans to self-help groups will increase to Rs75,000 crore.
Govt. allocated Rs5,750 crore to National Livelihood Mission and Rs2,600 crore to the groundwater irrigation scheme.
Ayushman Bharat program discussed.
Eklavya schools for tribal children.
24 new government medical colleges.
Government is implementing a comprehensive social security scheme.
Govt. will initiate an integrated B-Ed programme for teachers.
Government proposes to launch the Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education (RISE) by next year.
Govt. proposed to set up two new full-fledged schools of planning and architecture.
18 new schools of planning and architecture will be set up in the IITs and NITs.
Rs. 1 lakh crore over 4 years for initiative for Infrastructure Devt. in education.
2 major initiatives as part of Ayushman Bharat program.
Eklavya schools to be open for tribal children.
National health protection scheme to cover 10 cr poor families. Health cover of up to 5 lakh per family per year for poor & vulnerable. National health protection scheme to benefit 50 crore people.
24 new govt medical college & hospitals.
Rs. 600 crore for nutritional support to all TB patients.
Rs. 1200 crore for health and wellness centres.
Loans to women self-help groups of women to be increased to 75,000 cr by March 19.
Govt. is launching a new national health protection scheme – Rashtriya Samaj Beema Yojana. This will have 50 crore beneficiaries and 10 crore families will get 5 lakh per year for their families to cover secondary and tertiary hospital expenses. This is the world’s largest government-funded healthcare program.
A Rs 600 crore corpus is being set up to help Tuberculosis patients. This will build a new India in 2022 and enhance productivity and will also generate lakhs of jobs for women.
PM Jeevan Beema Yojana benefitted more than 2 crore families.
Jan Dhan Yojana will be extended to all 60 crore bank accounts.
The government increased allocation for SC-ST earmarked programmes: Rs 56,000 crore for SCs and Rs 39,000 crore for STs.
By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas.
The government will announce measures to address non-performing assets of MSMEs.
As per the FM, Rs. 3 lakh crore for lending under is being allocated in FY 19 for PM’s MUDRA Yojana.
Smart city Mission and AMRUT discussed.
Smart city command control centre discussed.
Govt to contribute 12% of wages of new employees to EPF for 3 yrs.
Rs. 7148 crore allocation for the textile sector.
Govt. will launch a scheme for Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARDHAN).
Under the Smart City mission, 99 cities selected with the outlay of Rs. 2.04 lakh crores.
EPF contribution has been reduced to 8% for the first 3 years of employment and 12% government contribution to EPF in sectors employing a large number of people, however, there will be no changes in employer contribution.
10 tourist cities to be developed into iconic tourist destinations.
600 railway stations to be redeveloped.
Over 3600 km railway track renovation targeted in the current year.
Scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of 1 lakh crore rupees over four years. Called RISE – Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education.
The Bharatmala project has been approved and we are confident of completing 9000 km of highway construction.
In Railways, 18,000 kms of doubling of tracks would eliminate capacity constraints.
We are moving towards optimum electrification of railway. Over 3,600 km of track renewal is being targeted in 2018-19.
150 km additional suburban railway network at the cost of Rs. 40,000 cr.
Regional air connectivity scheme shall connect 56 unserved airports.
Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips per year.
Training for 50 lakh youth by 2020.
Customs duty increased on mobile phones from 15% to 20%.

Just watch this space for all the updates!!

Economic Survey 2018: Complete Analysis

Dear Readers,

Economic Survey 2018:

The Economic Survey, an annual publication of the Finance Ministry, is presented in both houses of Parliament during the Budget Session. It is a review of the developments in the country’s economy over the previous one year. It presents a summary of the performance of the government’s major development programmes undertaken during that period. It also details the main policy initiatives of the government.

We will be covering The Economic Survey from Examination’s Point of View to help you remember all the important points in a simple and easy manner.

Just watch this space for all the updates!!

Economic Survey 2018

FM Jaitley tables Economic Survey in Parliament.
Economic Survey sees FY19 GDP growing 7-7.5% vs 6.75% in FY18.

Economic Survey sees average crude oil prices rising 12% in FY19.
Due to higher expected increase in imports, net exports of goods and services are slated to decline in 2017-18.
Exports biggest source of the boost to growth.

GVA growth seen at 6.1% vs 6.6% in FY17.
GST data shows growth of 50% in the number of indirect taxpayers.
Real GDP to clock 6.75% this FY.
Average FY18 CPI inflation seen at 3.3%.
Services Growth seen at 8.3%, Industries at 4.4%.
Agriculture, industry and services sectors are expected to grow at the rate of 2.1%, 4.4%, and 8.3% respectively in 2017-18.
It points out that the GDP growth has averaged 7.3% for the period from 2014-15 to 2017-18, which is the highest among the major economies of the world.
Demonetisation helped share of financial saving to rise. The ratio of domestic saving to GDP reached 29.2 percent in 2013 to a peak of 38.3 percent in 2007, before falling back to 29 percent in 2016.

Sanitation coverage in rural India increased substantially from 39 percent in 2014 to 76 percent in January 2018. With the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) on October 2, 2014, the sanitation coverage in rural India increased substantially. So far, 296 districts and 307,349 villages all over India have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).
India is gradually improving its performance in Science and Technology. In 2013, India ranked 6th in the world in scientific publications. Its ranking has been increasing consistently. The growth of annual publications between 2009 to 2014 was almost 14%. This increased India’s share in global publications from 3.1% in 2009 to 4.4% in 2014 as per the Scopus Database.
The foreign exchange reserves grew by 14.1% on a year-on-year basis from the end of Dec 2016 to end of Dec 2017. The forex reserves as per 2016-17 were estimated at USD 370 billion. It grew to USD 409.4 billion in 2017-18.

For the first time in India‘s history, data on the international exports of states has been dwelt in the Economic Survey. Such data indicates a strong correlation between export performance and states‘ standard of living. States that export internationally and trade with other states were found to be richer.

India’s exports are unusual in that the largest firms account for a much smaller share of exports than in other comparable countries. Top one percent of Indian firms account only for 38% of exports unlike in other countries where they account for substantially greater share – (72, 68, 67 and 55 percent in Brazil, Germany, Mexico and USA respectively).

Rs.20,339 crore has been approved by the Government in 2017-18 to meet various obligations arising from interest subvention being provided to the farmers on short-term crop loans, as also loans on post-harvest storages meet an important input requirement of the farmers in the country, specially small and marginal farmers who are the major borrowers.
FDI equity inflows to the services sector grew by 15% during 2017-18 (April-October). It has been possible because the Government has undertaken a number of reforms to ensure that India remains an increasingly attractive investment destination, which includes announcement of National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy, implementation of GST, reforms for ease of doing business.

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Australian Open 2018- Complete List of Winners

The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually in Melbourne Park, Australia. First held in 1905, the tournament is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events of the year – the other three being the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The 2018 Australian Open is the 106th edition of the tournament. The tournament is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Roger Federer was the defending champion and successfully defended his title, defeating Marin Cilic in the final. It was Federer’s 20th Grand Slam title. In women’s’ single, Caroline Wozniacki became the first Danish player to win a Grand Slam singles title, defeating Simona Halep in the final.

Here is the complete list of Winners of Australian Open:

S.No.	Category	Winner	Runner Up
1.	Men’s Singles	Roger Federer (Switzerland)	Marin Cilic (Croatia)
2.	Women’s Singles	Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)	Simona Halep (Romania)
3.	Men’s Doubles	Oliver Marach (Austria) Mate Pavic(Croatia)	Robert Farah (Colombia) J. Cabal (Colombia)
4.	Women’s Doubles	Kristina Mladenovic (France) Tímea Babos (Hungary)	Elena Vesnina (Russia) Ekaterina Makarova (Russia)
5.	Mixed Doubles	Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) Mate Pavic (Croatia)	Timea Babos (Hungary) Rohan Bopanna (India)

Source- Australian Open Official Site

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