New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) The Press Information Bureau (PIB), under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, refuted the ‘microphone switched off’ claims of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the NITI Aayog meeting in the capital and termed it ‘misleading’.

“It is claimed that the microphone of CM, West Bengal was switched off during the 9th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog. This is not correct. The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it,” PIB said in a fact-check.

It also said that the Bengal Chief Minister was rather given ‘preferential treatment’ and was allowed to speak ‘out of turn’ else her turn would have come after lunch.

“Alphabetically, her turn would have come after lunch. She was accommodated as the 7th speaker on an official request of the West Bengal government as she had to return early,” PIB said further in its fact-check.

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee walked out of the NITI Aayog, alleging insult. She claimed that the Chief Ministers of other states like Andhra, and Chhattisgarh were given enough time to speak but her remarks were ‘cut short’ after just five minutes.

“This is insulting. I will not attend any further meetings,” said the TMC chief speaking to reporters after leaving the NITI Aayog meeting, mid-way.

Notably, she was the only chief minister from Opposition-ruled states to attend the NITI Aayog meet.

West Bengal Chief Minister said that she participated in the NITI Aayog meeting to strengthen the spirit of co-operative federalism but the government’s ‘partisan’ approach only worsened the matter.

She along with other INDIA bloc allies has already accused the latter of favouring allies-run states and giving unfair treatment to Opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget.

Meanwhile, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the West Bengal Chief Minister’s allegations are “completely false”.

“She attended the Niti Aayog meeting. We all heard her. Every Chief Minister was given the allotted time and that was displayed on the screen which was present before every table,” the Finance Minister said.

“She said in the media that her mic was put off. That is completely false. Every Chief Minister was given their due time to speak. It is unfortunate that the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has claimed that her mic was switched off which is not true. She should speak the truth behind this rather than again build a narrative based on falsehood,” the Finance Minister added.

The BJP also reacted to Mamata’s ‘microphone muted’ charge and accused the latter of attempting to build a narrative, based on falsehood.

BJP Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said that Mamata Banerjee was competing with the Congress in crying foul over any issue and also politicising every platform.

Notably, the West Bengal Chief Minister had earlier told scribes that she would leave the meeting if she would not be allowed to put across her point of view.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 26 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that Viksit Bharat@2047 is the ambition of every Indian and the states can play an active role to achieve this aim as they are directly connected to the people.

Addressing the 9th Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog here, PM Modi said, “This decade is of changes, technological and geopolitical, and also of opportunities. India should grab these opportunities and make our policies conducive to international investments. This is the stepping stone for progress to make India a developed nation.”

The theme of the NITI Aayog meeting is ‘Viksit Bharat@2047’, with a central focus on making India a developed nation, and fostering participative governance and collaboration between the Centre and the state governments, enhancing the quality of life for both rural and urban populations by strengthening the delivery mechanisms of government interventions.

The Governing Council meeting discussed the Approach Paper for the Vision Document on Viksit Bharat@2047. Detailed deliberations were also held on the role of the states in achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat@2047.

India is on track to become the world’s third-largest economy and aims to reach a $30 trillion economy by 2047.

Achieving the vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047 will require a collaborative approach between the Centre and the state governments. The 9th Governing Council Meeting was held to create a roadmap for this vision, fostering teamwork between the Centre and the states as ‘Team India’.

The Governing Council also took up the recommendations of the 3rd National Conference of Chief Secretaries held from December 27-29, 2023.

Under the overarching theme of ‘Ease of Living’, recommendations were made during the 3rd National Conference of Chief Secretaries on five key themes, namely drinking water, electricity, health, schooling, and land and property.

–IANS

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Mumbai, July 27 (IANS) Indian stock market witnessed a stellar rally in the Budget week. Last week, Sensex and Nifty surged by 728 points or 0.90 per cent and 303 points or 1.24 per cent respectively. This was the eighth consecutive week when the market closed with gains.

This is the first time since January 22, 2018 that the market has continued to rise for such a long period.

On a weekly basis, Tata Motors (13 per cent), HDFC Life Insurance (10.6 per cent), Sun Pharma (9.3 per cent), NTPC (8.7 per cent), BPCL (8.2 per cent), Titan (7.2 per cent), SBI Life Insurance (6.3 per cent) and Cipla (6 per cent) were the top gainers in the Nifty pack.

During this period, no Nifty stock posted negative returns.

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Pharma soared by 5.77 per cent, Nifty Media saw a gain of over 5.5 per cent, Nifty Auto surged by 5.16 per cent, Nifty Energy climbed by 2.79 per cent and Nifty FMCG posted 2.69 per cent weekly gains.

However, Nifty Bank (1.86 per cent), Nifty Realty (1.69 per cent), Nifty Finance (1.19 per cent) and Nifty PSU Bank (0.44 per cent) were the major laggards.

Nifty made a new all-time high of 24,861 and Sensex closed near its lifetime high on Friday. Sensex closed at 81,332, up 1,292 points or 1.62 per cent, and Nifty closed at 24,834, up 428 points or 1.76 per cent.

According to market experts, “The market has now recovered its losses from budget day, driven by positive US GDP data and expectations of improved global demand. Moving forward, the direction of the domestic market will likely be influenced by the progress of the earnings season.”

“DIIs continue to employ a ‘buy on dips’ strategy, which contributed to market gains on the week’s last trading day, particularly in the pharma, auto, metal, IT, and FMCG sectors,” they added.

–IANS

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Rio De Janeiro, July 27 (IANS) Finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of Twenty (G20) concluded their third meeting in Rio de Janeiro, adopting a joint communique that calls for a more just, stable, and efficient international tax system.

“We acknowledge the urgency and importance of realignment in quota shares to better reflect members’ relative positions in the world economy, while protecting the quota shares of the poorest members,” the communique states, also addressing the development needs and priorities of low- and middle-income countries.

On top of that, it urges reforms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the strengthening of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), Xinhua news agency reported.

The G20 Ministerial Declaration on International Tax Cooperation was issued at the meeting and calls for strengthening tax transparency, preventing base erosion and profit shifting, as well as applying progressive taxation to ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, the coordinator of the meeting, said that the release of the joint communique is a victory for the international community after several years.

“The G20 needs to take advantage of the Financial Track to strengthen cooperation mechanisms,” Haddad added.

Brazil has held the rotating presidency of the G20 since last December. During its one-year term, the Brazilian government focuses on three priorities: combating hunger, poverty, and inequality; sustainable development; and global governance reform.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) India’s unique Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which has transformed millions of lives, is now being replicated in several countries, the Centre has informed.

Aadhaar, which is the world’s largest digital identity programme that provides biometric and demographic-based unique digital identity, has generated 138.04 crore IDs to date.

More than 30 crore users have been facilitated and 675 crore issued documents made available by DigiLocker, according to Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Electronic and IT.

The minister said in the Rajya Sabha that more than 1,388 crore financial transactions were processed through unified payments interface (UPI) in June alone.

Moreover, India has signed MoUs on cooperation in the field of sharing successful digital solutions implemented at population scale with 10 countries.

These are Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, Kenya, Cuba and Colombia.

DPI has been developed across various domains, aimed at enhancing accessibility, efficiency, and inclusivity.

“India Stack Global has been developed and rolled out with the aim to share the success of Indian DPIs with the global community and to facilitate replication in friendly countries,” informed the minister.

Under the Indian Presidency of G20 in 2023, Global DPI Repository (GDPIR) portal was designed, developed and rolled out.

Meanwhile, an RBI report on Friday stated that digital payments in the country have registered a 12.6 per cent increase year-on-year with the RBI’s Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI).

It rose to 445.5 at the end of March 2024 compared to 418.77 in September 2023 and 395.57 in March 2023, informed the Central Bank.

–IANS

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