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‘TN govt may get into reform mode after local body polls’

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4 years ago

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Palanivel-Thiaga-Rajan

The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government may get into reform mode post the local body elections likely to be held by the end of 2021, say party leaders and industry experts.

“Though a white paper on the Tamil Nadu government finances spoke about the necessity to hike tax rates and other things for those who can bear it, the state budget that was presented was a usual one. Perhaps the state government may get into reform mode after the local body elections,” K.C. Palanisamy, former AIADMK MP and MLA, told IANS.

Palanisamy said the local body elections may be held before the end of 2021 or February 2022.

Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan after declaring ‘once in a generation reforms a must’ and ‘business as usual’ approach cannot continue while presenting the white paper on the state government’s finances, came out with a relatively populist budget.

As per the white paper, reforms/restructuring in state government undertakings, statutory boards, power utilities, mobilisation of tax revenues, mode of subsidy deliveries were on the cards.

“As a debutant Finance Minister, he might have taken a soft approach with his first budget which is an interim budget,” Palanisamy said.

Industry experts said Finance Minister Rajan’s budget is nothing but a status quo or an extension of the previous AIADMK government’s budget.

“The white paper set the expectation that the Finance Minister will provide a reform budget to reduce the state debt. One could agree that he needed more time to come up with the actual reforms but least expected was the transformation roadmap, a timeline,” Sriram Seshadri, Founder and Managing Partner, Disha Consulting and formerly Partner and Managing Director, Accenture India, told IANS.

According to him, a white paper lays down the problem, analysis, probable solution.

On the other hand, the government’s white paper laid out the problem statement which was well known and the expectations were there on reform proposals in the budget which surprisingly did not happen, Seshadri said.

“As an economist, I feel satisfied that the budget didn’t provide for any of the poll promises. For an economist the white paper gave an expectation that there would be a reform and transformation roadmap but the budget was disappointing,” he added.

According to him, nothing was there in the budget for beefing up the state revenues while the debt was increasing.

“Tamil Nadu will cross the debt of Rs six lakh crore mark by 2021 end. Only solace is during the budget discussions in the state Assembly, the Finance Minister has said some of the poll promises will not be met such as revising the old pension scheme for government employees,” Seshadri added.

He said if there is a reform agenda with the DMK government it has to be rolled out soon and not wait for the next year’s budget.

However, he agreed that the government will take some reform steps mainly targeted subsidies to poor sections of the society, refine the rules for ration cards and revenue optimisation initiatives like tax reforms.

“Already Tamil Nadu’s economy is the fourth largest in the country and will slip to fifth or sixth place soon. Hence, the state should regain the momentum, cut the red tape and enable ease of doing business both in MSME and large industries,” Seshadri said.

While the government’s popularity endures it should take some tough decisions to reduce government spending, disinvestment and make announcements to attract investment, he said.

“Sterlite Copper (copper smelter unit of Vedanta Ltd in Tuticorin) closure is one of the stumbling blocks for investors to invest in a big way because there is no guarantee to their investment. The government should enable reopening of Sterlite within the guidelines of the pollution control norms. Likewise closely monitor to optimize revenue on the natural resources, mining and sand. The government gets less than Rs 1,000 crore revenue whereas the potential is much higher,” he added.

However, the signs of change in the government are seen in the budget by not implementing its populist poll promises like Rs 1,000 per month dole to the female head of the family.

“Instead the government had decided to conduct a study to identify eligible beneficiaries. This move is new as in the past the state government used to disburse financial assistance for almost all ration card holders,” K. Puhazhendi, Director, Perfint Healthcare, told IANS.

Referring to Rajan’s statement that the governance will be data-based, Puhazhendi said the government can mine data available in its own departments/municipal corporations.

The smart ration cards are linked with Aadhar cards.

Puhazendhi said the government employees themselves form a big database so that undeserved subsidies can be stopped.

“Data on property taxpayers, land owners, vehicle registrations, power consumers, ration card holders, data about government employees, shops and business establishments, factories and other data are available with different departments,” Puhazhendi said.

The government can collate and gather from the people with help of door-to-door data gathering. This could be a starting point to build a database and target the subsidies and other government schemes, he added.

Stressing that the government’s focus should be on making each department, municipal corporations self-financing, Puhazhendi called for a freeze on government hiring and investment should be made in information technology systems to digitise the services.

It is high time the state government goes in for public-private partnership in the tourism sector. The state government owns several hotel properties which are in need of private investment and management.

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Business

Indian Railways Introduces Discounted ‘Round Trip Package’ To Ease Festive Season Travel

Published

1 week ago

on

August 9, 2025

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New Delhi: To avoid rush by ensuring hassle-free ticket booking experience during the upcoming peak festive seasons, the Ministry of Railways on Saturday said that it has decided to formulate a ‘Round Trip Package’ on discounted fare and rebates benefit.

The move will facilitate passengers and redistribute the peak traffic for a larger range during peak festival seasons and ensure both sides utilisation of trains, including special trains.

“It has been decided to formulate an experimental scheme named as Round Trip Package for festival rush on discounted fare,” the Railways Ministry stated.

According to the ministry, the scheme will be applicable for those passengers who choose their return journey during the prescribed period.

Under this scheme, rebates shall be applicable when booked for both the onward and return journey for the same set of passengers.

Passenger details of the return journey will be the same as those of the onward journey. Passengers can book their tickets from August 14 for the advance reservation period (ARP) date of October 13.

“An onward ticket shall be booked first for the train start date between 13th October 2025 and 26th October 2025, and subsequently return journey ticket shall be booked by using the connecting journey feature for the train start date between 17th November and 1st December 2025,” the Ministry stated.

However, advance reservation period will not be applicable for booking of return journey.

Other conditions to avail the benefits of the railway’s new special scheme are the booking shall be permissible only for confirmed tickets in both directions, total rebates of 20 per cent shall be granted on base fare of return journey only, booking under this scheme shall be for the same class and same O-D pair for both onward and return journey.

According to Railways, no refund of fare shall be permissible for the tickets booked under this scheme.

This scheme shall be allowed for all classes and in all trains, including special trains (Trains on demand), except trains having Flexi fare.

In addition, no modification will be allowed on these tickets in either of the journeys, and there will be no discounts, Rail travel coupons, Voucher-based bookings, or Passes be admissible during return journey booking on concessional fare.

Passenger can book their ticket via both online and offline modes; however, both onward and return journey tickets must be booked using the same mode (online or offline).

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Business

Sensex crosses 81,000 Mark, Nifty Jumps 157 Points On Strong Metal & Auto Stocks

Published

2 weeks ago

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August 4, 2025

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Mumbai: The Indian stock market ended Monday on a strong note, with the BSE Sensex rising 418.81 points (0.52%) to close at 81,018.72, crossing the key 81,000 mark. During the day, it touched a high of 81,093.19. The NSE Nifty also surged by 157.40 points (0.64%) to end at 24,722.75, after hitting an intraday high of 24,734.65.

Top gainers and losers

Among major gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel, BEL, Adani Ports, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Trent, M&M, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement and L&T.

On the flip side, Power Grid, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Hindustan Unilever ended the session with losses.

Why the market rallied

The market’s rally was mainly driven by strong performances in the metal and auto sectors. According to experts, a weakening US dollar, strong auto sales, and positive Q1 results from key companies helped boost investor confidence.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said,

“Consumption-driven companies are showing recovery in volume demand. Also, weak US job data may lead to interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.”

Global cues positive

Asian markets mostly ended in the green with Hong Kong, South Korea, and China posting gains. However, Japan’s Nikkei closed in red.

European markets were trading positively, while US markets had ended lower on Friday.

Oil prices also slipped, with Brent crude falling 1.15% to USD 68.87 per barrel.

Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,366.40 crore on Friday, as per exchange data.

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Business

India Lost ₹22,842 Crore To Cybercriminals & Fraudsters In 2024: DataLEADS

Published

2 weeks ago

on

August 2, 2025

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India lost Rs 22,842 crore to cybercriminals and fraudsters in 2024, DataLEADS, a Delhi-based media and tech company, said in its report on widespread digital financial frauds in the country. The amount stolen by digital criminals and fraudsters last year was nearly three times more than the Rs 7,465 crore in 2023 and almost 10 times more than the Rs 2,306 in 2022, DataLEADS said in ‘Contours of Cybercrime: Persistent and Emerging Risk of Online Financial Frauds and Deepfakes in India.

Prediction For Cyber-Crime Frauds

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, I4C, a federal agency that liaises between state and central law enforcement, predicts Indians will lose over Rs 1.2 lakh crore this year. The number of cybercrime complaints has spiked similarly; nearly twenty lakh were reported in 2024, up from around 15.6 lakh the year before and ten times more than were logged in 2019.

The surge in the number of cybercrime complaints and the volume of money lost points to one inescapable conclusion – India’s digital crooks are getting smarter and more efficient, and, in a country with a staggering nearly 290 lakh unemployed people, their ranks are increasing.

Bank-related frauds have increased dramatically; the Reserve Bank of India reported a nearly eightfold jump in the first half of FY 2025/26 compared to the same period last year. And the amount of money lost was staggering – Rs 2,623 crore to Rs 21,367 crore. Private sector banks accounted for nearly 60 per cent of all such incidents. But it was customers in public sector banks who were worst-hit; they lost Rs 25,667 crore in all.

Why have these numbers jumped so much over the past three years?

Because of the increased use of digital payment modes – i.e., smartphone-enabled services like Paytm and PhonePe – and the sharing and processing of financial details online – via (what many believe are encrypted and fail-safe) messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Federal data says there were over 190 lakh UPI, or unified payment interface, transactions in June 2025 alone, and these were worth a combined Rs 24.03 lakh crore. Digital payments’ value has grown from roughly Rs 162 crore in 2013 to Rs 18,120.82 crore in January 2025, and India accounts for nearly half of all such payments worldwide.

COVID-19

Much of this increase can be attributed to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.

During COVID-19, the government pushed for a switch to UPI apps like Paytm to ensure social distancing and minimise contact with currency notes, via which the virus could be transmitted.

Digital Payment Tools In Rural Areas

The government also reasoned that digital payment tools would ensure greater penetration of financial services, particularly in rural areas. By 2019, India already had 440 million smartphone users and data rates were among the cheapest in the world – 1 GB cost Rs 200, or less than $3.

Insurance sector scams were also common. These included life, health, vehicle, and general, and are becoming an increasingly lucrative option for cybercriminals, particularly as insurance companies urge customers to opt for app-based services.

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