Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman used her first Budget speech on Friday to offer home buyers a further Rs 1.5 lakh off their taxable income for interest paid on affordable housing loans. With this, total interest deductions of around Rs 3.5 lakh can be claimed where the loan, of up to Rs 45 lakh, is taken by March 31, 2020. What was announced Sitharaman said the extra deduction was meant to give a further push to affordable housing. It applies to interest on loans taken until March 31, 2020 to buyRead More

Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday that the Budget 2019-20 maps out a path for India to return to high growth, and rests on the idea that countries which manage their finances prudently are rewarded over time, unlike those that take fiscal risks. Jaitley’s argument In a Facebook post titled ‘The Budget 2019-20’, written a day after the Budget was presented, Jaitley addressed the familiar question of whether governments must pick between sound economics and clever politics. He called that a false choice, saying any government needs bothRead More

A political crisis gripped Karnataka as 11 MLAs from the ruling Congress and JD(S) went to the Vidhana Soudha to resign from the assembly. The Speaker was not in his office, so after a long wait the legislators handed their letters to the secretary of the Speaker’s office. What happened The Speaker was away visiting a private hospital at the time. Several of the MLAs then went to Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor and brief him on their move. The letters had been handed in but not yet accepted.Read More

Congress leader Nana Patole on Friday went to the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court to challenge Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s election to the Lok Sabha from Nagpur, alleging that the electoral process was marred by illegalities. The petition Patole’s lawyer, Vaibhav Jagtap, confirmed that the petition had been filed that day. At a press conference in Nagpur, Patole claimed that election officials had not followed the prescribed procedures. He said the Election Commission of India, its chief officers and Gadkari had all been named as respondents. Background InRead More