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PM Switches on Rs 16kcr Scheme to Light Up Bharat Aim is to offer power to all households by Dec 2018, and free connections to poor Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a Rs 16,320-crore scheme to supply ` electricity to all households by December 2018, providing free connections to the poor and at very low cost to others. The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna, named `Saubhagya', which will be executed just before the next general elections, aims to improve the environment, public health, education and connectivity with the help of last-mile power connections across India. It will help reduce the use of kerosene lamps in non-electrified households. Modi said the scheme would bring “monumental change“ in the life of the poor, and this was possible after three years of reforms in the power sector.“In the working of this government, all you can see is Garib Kalyan (welfare of the poor). The aspirations of the poor determine the working of our government,“ the PM said.

PM forms Economic Advisory Council, Debroy will be chief Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday constituted a fivemember Economic Advisory Council (EAC) headed by Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy, at a time when concerns are being raised over the declining growth in India. The EAC also includes NITI Aayog’s Principal Advisor Ratan Watal as its member secretary. Economist Surjit Bhalla, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy director Rathin Roy and Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research professor Ashima Goyal will be part time members of the Council. “Addressing issues of macroeconomic importance and presenting views thereon to the Prime Minister.” “This could be either suo-motu or on reference from the Prime Minister or anyone else. The five-member council consists of economists of high repute and eminence,” according to an official statement. In the previous UPA government when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, EAC was headed by former RBI Governor C Rangaraja

Disqualified directors under banks’ scrutiny Lenders are scanning bank account details of the directors disqualified by the ministry of corporate affairs to analyse their links with shell companies and check whether they diverted funds Banks have started the process of scanning account details of directors disqualified by the ministry of corporate affairs to analyse their links with shell companies and check whether they diverted funds, according to senior executives of four public sector banks, who did not want to be named. “The exercise will take at least three weeks to complete because the list runs into several hundred pages. After shortlisting the names, we will prepare a report on the transactions conducted and submit to the government,” said one of the four officials, a banker with a large Mumbai-based bank. Shell companies, though not defined under the Companies Act, are those that adhere to basic company laws and are used to avoid taxes and launder black money. The Mint, N

Sebi gives more time to brokers for data on clients’ funds Stock brokers can submit monthly data on their clients’ funds to the exchanges within three trading days after the month-end, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said on Monday. Currently, brokers need to submit this data by the next trading day. Sebi received representations from the exchanges expressing operational difficulties faced by the brokers on uploading data of the clients. Accordingly, Sebi asked them to “submit the data as on the last trading day of every month to the stock exchanges on or before the next three trading days till March 31, 2018”. After that, the uploading of that data by the broker to the exchanges will be on weekly basis. BSE asks brokers to submit info on surplus, loss by Oct 31 To keep a check on the financial strength of brokers, the BSE has asked its members to submit details about surplus, accumulated loss in a prescribed format by October 31. Besides, they need to provide dat

FM: Govt addressing economic challenges On a day that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was expected to announce a stimulus for the economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government was in the process of addressing challenges. He termed the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) growth as “a little dip” in the last quarter. On Monday evening, Jaitley briefed the media about the PM´s speech at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive meeting. The PM´s speech to over 2,000 delegates from across the country focused on the themes of “welfare of the poor” and corruption. Modi said none caught for corruption would be spared. Earlier in the day, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government planned to address challenges facing the economy ona “war footing”. Briefing the media on the political resolution that the BJP national executive passed unanimously, Gadkari conceded that unemployment among the youth was a challenge. Gadkari also sai

GSTN tweaked features, handled robust August return filing: CEO GST Network (GSTN) has tweaked some of the features on its portal over the past month to make the system more robust and allow glitch-free tax payment facility to nearly 35 lakh assessees, its CEO Prakash Kumar said on Sunday. Of the total 87.33 lakh registered businesses on the GSTN, which manages the IT infrastructure of the new tax regime, 68 lakh were eligible to pay taxes in August. Of the total registered taxpayers, 24.56 lakh are new registrations, while 62.77 lakh have migrated from the earlier excise, service tax and VAT regime. Mr. Kumar said the GSTN portal has handled a humongous load of filing of 1.3 lakh tax returns filing and payment per hour on September 20 — the last day of filing of August tax returns. The Hindu, New Delhi, 25th September 2017

Ministers have to ensure new laws do not lead to litigation In future, if a central ministry plans to bring in a new law, it may have to declare whether its enactment will lead to a spurt in court cases. The ministries will also have to ensure that the new law or an amendment to an existing Act does not lead to a increase in litigations, a senior government functionary has said quoting a document. The note has been written by Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary to his senior minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and the Cabinet Secretariat. The functionary said proposed bills should also focus on alternative dispute resolution to ensure that disputes arising out of laws are settled out-of-court. If the government accepts the suggestion, then all future bills placed in Parliament would carry a “litigation assessment” clause and the ministry concern will have to explain whether it expects litigations once the legislation becomes a law. “The focus is to ensure that laws do not attract cour