P. Chidambaram

When Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi became in charge of distribution of tickets and also of the party's campaign strategy, it was a given that it is now going to be more or less Rahul's generational shift within the Congress party and more young leaders will be made to contest and getting those tickets.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has agreed to the proposal that the right to decide on an inflation target for the economy will become the government‘s mandate and that the central bank would focus on achieving it, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said while addressing a joint press conference with governor Raghuram Rajan.

One of the big takeaways also from that press conference is P Chidambaram made it very clear that cabinet meetings, FIPB meetings would very much continue despite the model code of conduct being kicked in.

Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, CARE Ratings is not expecting a turnaround in the fourth quarter – there isn't much pickup in consumption, investment or even government expenditure. He says going by the revised fiscal data released by the government on Friday, it does not have much room to increase expenditure either.

An Indian owned and controlled company can purchase agricultural land for construction, development provided all applicable laws, rules and regulations being enforced are duly complied with.

Eager to change the perception that the Aam Aadmi Party is opposed to business and reforms, senior party member Yogendra Yadav said growth was a non-negotiable agenda.

Yesterday the finance minister, P Chidambaram in the Interim Budget slashed the excise duty on two-wheelers, passenger cars, SUVs as well as commercial vehicles between 3 percent and 6 percent. The cut in excise duties would largely be passed on to consumers, which effectively translates into average price reduction.

Leif Eskesen, Chief Economist -India & ASEAN at HSBC says even the government's own underlying assumptions for nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth is quite low - around 11-12 percent, while the nominal tax revenue growth expectations are buoyant, which will make it difficult to achieve some of the revenue targets.

"We have had a very successful auction; ultimately of Rs 62,000 crore in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band. We have taken some very hard policy decisions. We have opened up the sector,” he told CNBC-TV18‘s Shereen Bhan.

Already, most auto companies have said they will pass on the benefits of the excise duty cuts to customers, even as a section of the industry is not sure it will boost demand in the current environment.

Most of the numbers are not gelling in terms of the economic reality. It is an instance of taking away revenues from the next government as well as imposing more expenses on them and also imposing on them the difficult task of achieving 4.1 percent fiscal deficit.

But, Dinesh Kanabar, deputy CEO at KPMG says "history has taught us once a surcharge is levied, it stays, it never goes away."

D Muthukumaran, Head Grp Corp Finance, Aditya Birla Group, says the country has been in an extended slowdown cycle, which at some point in time should come to an end.

Though both Memani and Godrej rate the Interim Budget, presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, as positive, they feel the government should have been stronger on the execution side.

According to Taimur Baig, real cut in spending, substantial pickup in revenues and more than USD 500 billion divestment target looks like exceptionally ambitious given the last few years track record of the government

According to Singh, though the fiscal deficit numbers have been brought down, but the quality of fiscal consolidation is rather dubious.

Bobby Parikh, managing partner, BMR Advisors, adds that there is a lack of sentiment and fundamental strength to the Indian economy, thereby making the country a tough place to do business.

FM understands the importance of manufacturing on one side and sustaining demand on other side and that is why the reduction on excise duty

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan says one can expect tremendous pressure on increasing the plan expenditure that Finance Minister P Chidambaram left unchanghed in today's Vote on Account.

Ramesh Damani, member, BSE & NSE is hailing the FM's Vote on Account and says it won't have any negative implications for the equity market.