Finally A Woman Lok Sabha Speaker

Miera Kumar is all set to become speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha. She is the first woman to become Speaker of the House. After nearly 65 years of independene a woman is finally able to ascend on to the speaker's post. She was a former Indian Foriegn Service Officer. She has been one of the top leaders of the congress in Bihar. She is also a keen Sportswoman who has won various medals in rifle shooting. Her father was a former Deputy Prime Minister and her mother was a freedom fighter. She is also a dalit leader and has in the past defeated leaders like Mayawati and Ram Vilas Paswan

AUSTRALIA A RACIST PARADISE

I am very much saddened by what has been happening in Australia. The various accounts of bone chilling attacks on students of Indian Origin has been an eye opener about the precarious situation of Indians in Australia. The time of Apartheid has long past gone in South Africa but due to these growing attacks i think Australia is all set to become to Apartheid Australia where feelings of Racism, Antisemitism and Nazism is all set to bloom once again. The total lack of sympathy by the Australian Administation and the Governmet of Australia has been very disheartning. It has been very sad to see that nearly 500 cases of racist attacks had to be registered with the Australian police for the Government to take action against these defilers of society. The Government should take stringent action against these attackers in order to maintain freedom and democracy. The Indian Consulate should also pressurise the Australian Government into taking precautions against these attacks on Indians. The biggest irony of ironies is that every year nearly 18% of the students flying abroad to study in Australia are Indians. If they dont take active measure they may see upto a 50% slump in immigration of Students and job seekers from India as well as other south east Asian countries

ENGLAND TOUGHENS ITS STAND ON IMMIGRATION

The first stage of Britain’s controversial Australian-style points-based immigration system, which will restrict entry of foreign workers from outside the European Union only to high-skilled categories, came into force on Friday amid criticism from migrant groups.

The new rules, described as the “biggest shake-up” of the immigration regime in 45 years and to be introduced in stages over the coming months, will be a blow to hundreds of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, who come to Britain every year to take low or unskilled jobs. Henceforth, only those non-E.U. citizens who have the qualifications and skills that benefit Britain will be permitted to come in.

The system is designed to attract IT professionals, financial exporters and entrepreneurs seen as “key contributors” to British economy. All applicants would be judged on a sliding “points” scale to determine their eligibility. Those with higher skills and qualifications will earn more points — the number of points progressively declining for those with lesser skills and few qualifications.

English tests will be introduced for all immigrants, including their spouses. The latter would be eligible to work in Britain. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the system would ensure that only those with skills that Britain needed could come.“Migrants benefit this country economically, contributing an estimated £6 billion to our national output, as well as socially and culturally and it is right that we have a system which is fair but firm, accessible but controlled,” she said. Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said the system had worked “extremely well in Australia”.

INDIAN BUDGET 2008

In a politically-crafted budgetary exercise ahead of the general election next year, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday announced a massive Rs.60,000- crore loan waiver programme to rid four crore farmers of their financial liability.

The Minister also gave higher-than-expected exemptions to income-tax payers along with restructuring of tax slabs. He put no fresh burden on the corporate sector even as he scaled down excise duties on a number of items to stimulate demand, production and economic growth. Striving to placate not only the aam aadmi but also all other sections, Mr. Chidambaram, while presenting the Union budget for 2008-09 — the fifth and final budget of the UPA government before the next general elections — sought to slash the excise duty to bring down the prices of drugs, small and hybrid cars, two and three-wheelers, water purification devices, breakfast cereals and a number of other products to make them more affordable.The only consumers who will be hit are smokers of non-filter cigarette as the duty on it has been brought on a par with the filter variety.

With the objective of pepping up demand and kick-starting the manufacturing sector to its earlier high growth momentum, Mr. Chidambaram proposed an across-the-board reduction in the general Cenvat (Central value-added tax) to 14 per cent from 16 per cent, while keeping the peak rate of customs duty unchanged. However, to prop up the petroleum sector in view of the spiralling world oil prices, unbranded petroleum products have been put under specific rates of duty in place of the current ad valorem ratesWith the government already having benefited from the Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) by way of annual information returns (AIR) for trailing black money transactions, the controversial levy is proposed to be withdrawn with effect from April 1, 2009.However, on the lines of the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) levied on stock market deals, a new Commodities Transaction Tax is being introduced on commodity dealings.

In a bonanza for the middle class, Mr. Chidambaram raised the income-tax exemption limit to Rs. 1.50 lakh from Rs. 1.10 lakh and also restructured the tax slabs. Accordingly, taxable incomes between Rs.1,50,001 and Rs.3,00,000 would attract a tax of 10 per cent; between Rs. 3,00,001 and Rs.5,00,000 would be in the 20 per cent tax bracket, while for Rs.5,00,001 and above, the tax would be 30 per cent. This would work out to a maximum tax saving of about Rs. 44,000 for the year. Besides, mediclaim policies for the parents of tax-payers would be deductible from the taxable income.More pleasing is the relief accorded to women tax-payers and senior citizens above 65 years. For the two categories, the income-tax exemption limit has been raised from Rs 1.45 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh and from Rs 1.95 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh respectively. Two popular savings schemes for senior citizens have also been included for exemption from income-tax.What should bring some more cheer to Central government employees is his announcement that the Sixth Pay Commission report would be out by March 31.

As for the corporates, even while keeping both the tax rates and surcharge unchanged, Mr. Chidambaram proposed exemption for crèche facilities, sports sponsorship and guest houses from the purview of the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT). He, however, imposed a higher tax of 15 per cent on short-term capital gains, against the existing 10 per cent.In his bid to garner resources for funding the farm loan waiver as also a number of social sector schemes, the Minister included four more services under the tax net: the asset management service provided under the ULIP, the services provided by stock and commodity exchanges and clearing houses as also customised software. As for the budget estimates, Mr. Chidambaram pegged the Plan expenditure at Rs 2,43,386 crore, while estimating the non-Plan expenditure at Rs 5,07,498 crore.

While claiming a significant improvement in the fiscal position, he said the revenue deficit for the current fiscal would be 1.4 per cent, against the estimated 1.5 per cent. The fiscal deficit would also be lower at 3.1 per cent against an estimated 3.3 per cent. With further progress during 2008-09, the revenue deficit is estimated at one per cent of the GDP, while the fiscal deficit has been pegged at 2.5 per cent of the GDP.Mr. Chidambaram declared that he would achieve the target of fiscal deficit under the FRBM Act and also left for himself some headroom. “In the case of revenue deficit, I will meet the target of annual reduction of 0.5 per cent. However, because of the conscious shift in expenditure in favour of health, education and the social sector, we may need one more year to eliminate the revenue deficit. In my view, this is an entirely acceptable deferment,” he said

Indian Premier League

The Man behind the Billions Mr Lalit Modi, the chairman and founder of the Indian Premier League and vice-president of BCCI has shown us that he is an entrepreneur with world class vision. The auction of the various international and Indian players by the ICCI to the various franchises representing the various metropolitan cities of India has been a resounding success. He has successfully introduced club cricket into the Indian cricketing scene. He also facilitated in integrating the splendour and influence of bollywood with the passion and ardour of cricket. Most of the owners of the various franchises are hoping to break even by the next year. It has helped cricketers across the world to earn high remuneration for their hard work on the field. It is also providing a high voltage platform for those youngsters with promising talent to have a level playing field.