North Block

Nearly 90% of finance ministry files go digital as officials shift to new Central Vista building

Legacy files have been scanned and shredded; officials are citing storage constraints and shift to a new paperless regime

North Block receives bomb threat email; security personnel conduct searches

According to an official, the threat was communicated via email.

Domestic, multinational firms owe Rs 6.9-lakh crore to I-T dept

News from the north block, the latest data from the finance ministry shows that domestic and multinational companies owe a staggering Rs 6 lakh 89 thousand crore to the tax department in outstanding arrears. The tax department has already sent a missive to the companies asking them to pay up.

Cash crunch continue; Parliament House ATMs too run dry

Cash crunch in many parts was quite severe as banks were closed in North and Western India. The situation, as far ATMs are concerned, is still grim even though a task force under the chairmanship of RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra was set up to expedite the normal working of cash vending machine.

Chidambaram, Pranab put pressure over interest rates: D Subbarao

"Both Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee were piqued by the Reserve Bank's tight interest rate policy on the ground that high interest rates were inhibiting investment and hurting growth," writes Subbarao, who manned the Mint Road during the global financial crisis and had a five-year tenure from September 5, 2008 to September 4, 2013.

Seen only incremental reforms from Modi govt: Yashwant Sinha

He may have presented 5 full year Budgets, and his peer P Chidambaram considers him to be a very competent but unlucky finance minister. But left to himself, Yashwant Sinha did not want his seat at the North Block in the first place.

Budget 2016: Meet the team that prepares the Union Budget

Here is a look at the key players of this crack team involved in the preparation of the Union Budget 2016, that remains a top secret until the finance minister begins to deliver his speech.

Centre worried about states' 7th Pay Commission adoption

The fear is that the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission is going to hit the growth of states.

Time for rate cut; response to yuan drop soon: Fin Secy

Asked if out-of-turn rate can be expected, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told CNBC-TV18 said he would not want to comment on monetary policy action of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) but being out of sync with the world, which we are this point, does not seem right.

Telcos initiate curbing call drops; submit report to DoT

The telecom operators have submitted their action taken report on reducing call drops to department of telecom wherein they have given details about network optimisation, addition of new sites in problem areas, conduction of drive tests, among others.

Working on comprehensive package to help PSU banks: Sinha

Jayant Sinha, minister of state for finance, says the finance ministry is trying to understand exactly what the public sector banks' capital requirements are going to be in the next one to three years.

Is rate cut by RBI imminent before February 3?

When the governor spoke on December 3, he had given two conditions for a rate cut and he had admitted it could be outside the policy date as well. First condition was inflation being below trajectory, and second was fiscal consolidation.

Rate cut before Feb 3? Here‘s CNBC-TV18 poll

Now, with consumer inflation dipping below RBI's forecast in December, will Rajan deliver that promised out-of-policy rate cut some time in January itself?

Will Jaitley abandon Chidambaram's fiscal fundamentalism?

In plain words, Subramanian is saying that Chidambaram left his bills for 2013-14 unpaid, and passed them on to the next government, by shifting payments to 2014-15.

Review 'stringent' infra lending rules: Govt tells RBI

In a letter to Raghuram Rajan, banking secretary, GS Sandhu, has asked the RBI to delink the extent of a project cost over-run with the restructuring of a loan as it feels this provision is counterproductive when it comes to reviving stalked projects.

MCA, FinMin divided over NSEL-FTIL merger

Both MCA and the Finance Ministry have been debating over the recommendations submitted by the Forwards Market Commission (FMC) on the NSEL scam

Holding company for PSU banks: FM okays draft Cabinet note

After sounding a stern warning to PSU banks last week, the Finance Minister has taken a major step towards meeting their long-term capital needs. The North Block has approved a draft Cabinet note, which proposes to create a holding company structure for state-run banks.

Raghuram hits first-ball sixer; looks set to bowl mkts over

Raghuram Rajan, RBI governor emphasised that the changes proposed may be â€œriskyâ€ but â€œas India develops, not changing is even riskier. We have to keep what is good about our system, of which there is a tremendous amount, even while acting differently where warranted.â€

INR rescue measures to take toll on India's fiscal deficit

The measures taken by the government to save the rupee is likely to throw its fiscal out of whack. North Block sources say this may impact the fiscal deficit by over Rs 18,000 crore. CNBC-TV18‘s

Recent RBI moves don't amount to capital control: Sources

Despite the market reaction today (Friday), finance ministry sources reiterate that recent RBI measures don‘t amount to capital control, reports CNBC-TV18‘s Siddharth Zarabi.

Fiscal deficit to slip up by 50 bps on new food scheme: DBS

Government's fiscal deficit may exceed the target of 4.8 percent of GDP by 0.50 percentage points in this financial year, and money-guzzling measures like decision to push the Food Security Bill are only expected to complicate the matter, brokerage DBS Bank said. "We do not expect a repeat of last year's fiscal prudence in 2013-14.