Budget 2025 Live Updates: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents Budget 2025
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has begun presenting the Union Budget, her eighth consecutive one.
Here are the live and important updates of Union Budget 2024:
12:05 PM: No income tax payable upto annual income upto Rs 12 lakh
12:05 PM: Personal income tax reforms with special focus on middle class
12:05 PM: Personal I-T law to focus on middle class
12:00 PM: Direct tax proposals: New I-T Bill will see half of the present law removed; will be simplified for taxpayers
12:00 PM: 36 lifesaving drugs and medicines to be added to the list of medicines fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty
11:55 AM: The modified UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme to be launched. Initially introduced in 2016, the scheme aims to enhance regional connectivity and make air travel more affordable.
11:55 AM: The Patna Airport will be expanded. Further farmers in Mithilanchal from a project on a canal system which will help farming in 50,000 hectares in Bihar.
11:55 AM: After announcing the formation of the Makana Board for Makana farmers in Bihar, FM also announced new scheme for Greenfield airport in the state of Bihar, that goes to poll later this year.
11:50 AM: Investment-friendliness index of states to be launched this year
11:50 AM: Finance Minister highlights the significance of MSMEs in India, noting that they contribute around 45% of the country's exports. She emphasised support for 7.5 crore MSMEs and announced plans to enhance credit access for them. India has more than 1 crore registered MSMEs.
11:50 AM: New Income Tax Bill to be brought next week, says FM
11:45 AM: The FM has announced the Nuclear Energy Mission for research, development of small modular reactors with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore.
11:45 AM: Government will facilitate setting up day-care Cancer centres in all district hospitals in the next 3 years, with 200 centres to be established in 2025-26 itself.
11:40 AM: FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of a Centre for Excellence in AI for education with an outlay of Rs 500 crore.
11:40 AM: Term loan of Rs 2 crore for women, first-time entrepreneurs from SC/ST, backward classes
11:35 AM: Broadband connectivity for all government schools: FM
11:35 AM: Jal Jeevan mission to be extended: 100% coverage to be achieved, mission extended till 2028 with enhanced outlay
11:30 AM: Govt to arrange for ID cards, registration of gig workers on e-Shram portal
11:30 AM: Govt to introduce customised credit cards with Rs 5 lakh limit for micro-enterprises: FM.
11:25 AM: 10,000 additional seats in medical colleges next year
11:25 AM: India ranks second largest globally in fishery products. “Our government will bring an enabling framework for sustainable harnessing of fisheries in India’s economic zone.”
11:20 AM: Government will be launching a 6-year programme for Atamnirbharta in pulses with special focus on tur, urad, and masoor.
11:20 AM: The FM has announced the setting up for a new Makana board for Makana farmers in poll bound Bihar.
11:15 AM: The FM announced that Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) will continue to facilitate short-term loans for 7.7 crore farmers, fishermen, and dairy farmers. The loan limit will be enhanced from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
11:15 AM: The proposed development measures span ten broad areas, focusing on the poor, youth, farmers and women.
11:10 AM: The Budget will place special focus on taxation, the power sector, mining, the financial sector, and regulatory reforms.
11:10 AM: The Finance Minister introduces a new scheme aimed at the agricultural sector, stating that it would benefit approximately 1.7 crore farmers and contribute to the sector's growth.
11:05 AM: No poverty, quality education, high-quality, affordable and comprehensive healthcare: FM on vision for Viksit Bharat
11:05 AM: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Budget, said it continues efforts to accelerate growth and provide inclusive development,
11:00 AM: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman begins presentation of her 8th Union Budget in Lok Sabha.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Ex-army man hacked into pieces by wife, lover in UP's Ballia; 4 arrested
Ballia (UP), May 13 (PTI): A 44-year-old woman, with the help of her lover and two others, allegedly hacked her ex-army soldier husband into six pieces in a village here, police on Tuesday said.
The accused dumped the body parts in different locations to conceal the identity of the victim.
The incident came to light Saturday with the discovery of severed hands and legs, wrapped in polythene, in a field near Khareed village under Sikandarpur Police Station.
The victim was later identified as Devendra Kumar, a 62-year-old retired Army personnel, police said.
Maya Devi, his wife, at first tried to mislead the investigation by filing a missing person complaint on May 10 at the Ballia City Kotwali Police Station.
Things took a dramatic turn, when her own daughter, Ambli Gautam, testified against Maya Devi and accused her of killing her father.
Based on the complaint, Maya Devi was booked under charges of murder and arrested.
Ballia Superintendent of Police Omveer Singh told reporters on Tuesday that Maya Devi confessed to killing her husband with the help of her lover, truck driver Anil Yadav, and two others, Mithilesh Patel and Satish Yadav.
Mithilesh Patel was arrested on Monday, while Anil Yadav and Satish Yadav were nabbed on Tuesday.
According to police, the group killed Devendra Kumar inside his home in Bahadurpur locality and then cut the body into six parts, severing both arms, legs, and the head, before dumping the pieces in separate locations to prevent identification.
At Maya Devi's instance, police recovered the torso from a well in Khareed Darauli village.
On Tuesday, during a vehicle check near Town Polytechnic in Parikhara, police accosted Anil Yadav and Satish Yadav, who fired gunshots at the team. Police in retaliatory fire shot Anil Yadav in the leg. He is recuperating in the district hospital.
A country-made pistol, a spent cartridge, and a live round were recovered from him, and from Satish Yadav, the murder weapon.
The SP said Maya Devi orchestrated the murder because she had an affair with Anil Yadav.
The brutal killing, which has triggered shock and anger in the area, comes as the latest in a string of similarly executed spousal murders that took place in Uttar Pradesh in recent months.
In March, a former merchant navy officer in Meerut was killed by his wife and her lover, who stuffed his body in a drum and filled it with cement.
In another incident in Deoria last month, a woman and her lover killed her husband just ten days after he returned from Dubai, cut his body in two, and dumped it in a suitcase in a field.
He was identified by the airline tag still attached to the luggage.
In Auraiya, a newlywed man was killed last month barely 15 days into marriage by his wife and her lover, who hired a contract killer.
