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Highlights of Interim Budget 2014

 Finance minister P Chidambaram presented his interim budget for 2014.
§  Fiscal deficit for current fiscal to be 4.6%
§  Revenue deficit estimated at 3% for current fiscal
§  Excise duty on SUVs cut from 30 to 24%, in large and midsegment cars from 2724% to 2420%
§  No changes in tax laws in interim budget
§  Excise duty cut from 12 to 10 per cent in capital goods sector to stimulate growth
§  Excise duty on mobile handset to be 6% on CENVAT credit to encourage domestic production
§  Rs 500crore estimated requirement for implementing onerankonepay scheme for armed forces in 201415
§  Rs 6000crore to rural housing fund, Rs 2000 crore for urban housing fund
§  Rs 3711 crore for minority affairs; housing and urban poverty alleviation gets Rs 6000 crore
§  Fiscal deficit target of 3% to be achieved by 2017
§  CAD will be $45 billion in 2013-14
§  Foreign exchange reserves up by $15 billion
§  Foodgrain production estimated at 263 million tons in 201314
§  3 more industrial corridors — Chennai Bangalore, BangaloreMumbai, Amritsar Kolkata — under various stages of
§  implementation
§  GDP growth rate in Q3 and Q4 of 201314 will be at least 5.2%
FDI Limits
Sr. No.
List of Limits in various sectors (in %)

1
Defence
26
2.
Pension
49
3.
Insurance
49
4.
Print media
26
5.
Civil aviation
49
6.
Public sec. banks
20
7.
Private sec. banks
74
8.
Multi brand
51
9.
Single brand
 100
10.
Tourism
100
India GDP Forecast:
RBI pegged 201415 GDP growth at a central estimate of 5.5 %
World Bank lowers India’s GDP growth forecast for 201415 at 5.7 %
ADB pegs India GDP growth rate for 201415 at 5.5 %
IMF projected GDP growth for India in 201415 at 5.4 %
India ranking in different Indexes for 2013 14:
1. Global Environment Performance Index 2014 – 155
2. Intellectual property (IP) environment 2014 25 (US ranked on the top followed by UK and France)
3. World Press Freedom Index 2014 140 in the list of 180 countriess
4. Nuclear material security index 2014 23rd out of 25 countries
5. World's best countries for doing business 2014 98th (Ireland topped the list).
6. Social Progress Index 2014: 102 out of 132
7. Global Hunger Index 2013 63
8. World Prosperity Index 2013 – 106. Norway tops the list.
9. Global Gender Gap Report 2013 101. Iceland tops the list.
10. Global Peace Index 2013 – 141
11. Human Development Report 2013 – 136
12. Global Corruption Index 2013 – 94
13. Global Competitiveness Index 2013 60 for 2013 (Switzerland top in this report)

14. Gender Inequality Index 2013 132nd (UN Human Development (Index) Report)