Deepshikha Sikarwar

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will convene a meeting with fintech leaders, RBI officials, and representatives from key ministries on February 26 to address concerns following regulatory action against Paytm Payments Bank. The government aims to reassure the fintech industry of its priority status and understand their apprehensions. The meeting will involve officials from finance, information technology, and DPIIT.

Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, chair of the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the WTO, emphasizes the shared desire to expand and modernize global trade. The conference aims to be inclusive, transparent, and uphold the multilateral rules based trading system, while addressing various issues and expectations.

India's power ministry is supporting the private sector's entry into nuclear energy to meet rising demand. The country's nuclear power generating capacity is at 6,780 MW, and the government is looking to increase capacity generation to meet rising demand. The current target of 85,000 MW of thermal capacity addition can be exceeded, and for hydro power, the target is to double capacity from the current 46,000 MW.

Suchit Jain, vice president of strategy and business development at Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp said India has a lot of good talent in terms of what the company needs to develop the products and has proven infrastructure and added that it has a wide customer base.

Notices sent a few weeks ago to multiple startups by the I-T department asking for genuineness, credit worthiness of their investors. Post the notices were served, some startups have been asked to cough up taxes and penalties, if their submissions havent been adequate. The tax demands have been arrived at by clubbing the funding with the startups income.

“Some concerns have been raised on the India Mauritius DTAA amended recently. In this context, it is clarified that the concerns /queries are premature at the moment since the Protocol is yet to be ratified and notified u/s 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes said on ‘X.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will take up for discussions lingering concerns of startups on issues around Angel tax, taxation of Employee Stock Option Plans and bank guarantee commitments in tenders in the upcoming budget to be presented after the general elections.

Iran Saturday night launched a drone missile attack on Israel. This was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus on April 1 in which seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel, including two generals, were killed. New Delhi has called for immediate de-escalation and a return to the path of diplomacy. The development comes as India gears up for general elections from April 19 to June 1. Independent economists said the government will need to remain vigilant.

India's economic prospects face challenges from global uncertainties and rising commodity prices. Policy certainties, inflation concerns, job creation, and electoral targets shape the path ahead, reflecting a mix of opportunities and challenges in the evolving economic landscape, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

The Finance minister recognised the tests facing the Indian economy, which is expected to grow 6.8% in FY25, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast released earlier this week, maintaining its status as the fastest-expanding one.