Budget speech expected to begin at 11 am

Cabinet meeting FM in progress

The much awaited Union budget is expected in a few minutes from now. The Finance Minister is expected to begin his budget speech at around 11 am.

The stock market has opened on an optimistic note with expectations running high ahead of the budget.

FM likely to lay down roadmap for GST roll-out

Report said that the minister will set deadlines for the government of implementation of the GST by April 1, 2016. 

Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his maiden budget speech , is expected to list out the roadmap for rolling out goods and services tax (GST).

Report said that the minister will set deadlines for the government of implementation of the GST by April 1, 2016. 

This would be the major challenge for the government as it will have to get the Constitution Amendment Bill passed in Lok Sabha 

Sensex, Nifty in green ahead of Union Budget

Auto, consumer Durables, power, banking, capital goods, metal, realty, FMCG, Oil and gas indices are the gainers, while healthcare indices is only the loser.

At 10:25AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 29,450 up 230 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,908 up 63 points.

The BSE Mid-cap Index and BSE Small-cap Index was trading up at 1%.

Among sectors, the BSE IT index has bucked the trend, and is now down 0.3 per cent at 11,837 dragged by MindTree, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra.

The Realty index continues to trade with a gain of over 2 per cent at 1,879. The Capital Goods index has climbed almost 2 per cent at 18,168. The Power, Metal and Bankex indices have also spurted over a per cent each.

On the BSE, the breadth is fairly positive in morning session - out of 2,128 stocks traded 1,344 stocks are advancing, while 692 stocks are declining.

Among Sensex-30 stocks - Tata Steel has soared around 3 per cent to Rs. 360. BHEL, HDFC and ICICI bank have jumped over 2 per cent each at Rs. 277, Rs. 1,376 and Rs. 342, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro, SBI, Gail India, Axis Bank, Tata Power and ONGC are the other significant gainers.

On the losing side, Cipla has declined 0.5 per cent at Rs. 666 and Hero MotoCorp and Infosys are also down 0.3 per cent each at Rs. 2,662 and Rs. 2,260, respectively.

Pidilite Industries appoints Bharat Puri as Managing Director

Pidilite has inducted several senior professionals to strengthen its management structure and reduce operational responsibilities of promoter family members.

Over the last seven years, Pidilite has inducted several senior professionals to strengthen its management structure and reduce operational responsibilities of promoter family members. As a continuation of this process, the Board of Directors of Pidilite Industries Limited, at its Board meeting on 27th February 2015 has approved the appointment of Bharat Puri as Managing Director, effective 10th April 2015.

M B Parekh, Chairman and Managing Director, will step down from position of Managing Director on 10th April 2015 and will become Executive Chairman. N K Parekh, Jt. Managing Director, will step down as Jt. Managing Director on 1st April 2015 and will become Non-Executive Vice Chairman. Ajay Parekh, Executive Director, and Apurva Parekh, Executive Director, will continue to play a significant role in the company and will work with Bharat on key strategic matters and also help oversee & strengthen various business divisions & functions.

Bharat Puri has been closely associated with the Company since his appointment as an Independent Director of the company in 2008. Bharat has had a very successful career with leading Indian and Global companies. In his last assignment, Bharat has been President - Global Chocolate, Gum and Candy Categories at Mondelēz International, based in Zurich and with worldwide responsibilities for these categories.

He started his career with Asian Paints in 1982 and rose to the position of General Manager - Sales & Marketing. He then moved to Cadbury in 1998 as Director of Sales and Marketing for Cadbury India. In 2002 he was appointed as Managing Director South Asia for Cadbury. After a successful stint in this role, Bharat moved to Singapore in 2006 where he was responsible for Strategy, Marketing and Sales for the Asia Pacific region. Since that time he has held senior leadership positions at the country, region and global level. Bharat completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Commenting on his appointment, Bharat Puri said, “It is indeed an honour to lead Pidilite, an iconic home grown Indian multinational in its next phase of growth. I look forward to working with and learning from the talented and committed team at Pidilite, MB Parekh and the Board.

M B Parekh, Chairman and Managing Director of Pidilite said“I am delighted with appointment of Bharat Puri as Managing Director. There is a strong familiarity between Bharat and the Company as he has been an Independent Director of the Company since 2008. Bharat has outstanding local and global experience and a great track record. His vision and value system closely matches that of the Company. We are confident that Bharat will build on Pidilite’s strong foundations and steer it to its next phase of growth and development ".

Budget: Govt to raise public health spend to 2.5% of GDP

The health minister said that the draft policy has been circulated among all state governments and central government ministries for their comments and suggestion 

The draft National Health Policy (NHP) proposes to raise public health expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP, Health Minister JP Nadda said.
"The draft NHP proposes raising public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the GDP and the major source of financing for the health sector is envisaged to be general taxation," Nadda said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

"It (NHP) proposes comprehensive primary care as an entitlement and healthcare for every family that links them to a primary care facility to be eligible for this package service," Nadda said.

To ensure the quality of medical education, a common entrance examination has been mooted on the pattern of NEET for entry into UG courses at all-India level institutes, Nadda said.

The minister added that the draft policy has been circulated among all state governments and central government ministries for their comments and suggestion 

Tentative start to Budget day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s target of achieving a 4.1% fiscal deficit target is achievable, said Economic Survey for the year 2014-2015. 

There are not many doubts from a long term perspective but many who await a big bang budget like that of 1991 will be left disappointed. The historic mandate to this government not seen in over 30 years, creeping acquisition of power at the state level offer immense hope that unified and rapid action on reforms will take shape. Coupled with building of macro-economic tailwinds, we remain confident that bull market is here to stay.

For the day, the outlook is a positive start. With most global markets shut, the indices have enough reason to decide their own direction. Of course a lot will depend on what the budget has in store and how it is interpreted by the market.  US indices ended lower. US economy grew much slower than expected in the fourth quarter.  The Dow fell 0.45% while the S&P 500 ended flat. Nasdaq shed half a percent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s target of achieving a 4.1% fiscal deficit target is achievable, said Economic Survey for the year 2014-2015.  The Economic Survey 2014-15 presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to the Parliament indicates that a clear political mandate for reform and a benign external environment now is expected to propel India on to a double digit trajectory.

It states that Indian economy appears to have now gone past the economic slowdown, persistent inflation, elevated fiscal deficit, slackening domestic demand, external account imbalances and oscillating value of the rupee.

According to the Economic Survey 2014-15, the Average Wholesale Price Index (WPI) (base year 2004-05 = 100) inflation declined to 3.4% in 2014-15 (April-December) as compared to an average of 6% during 2013-14. During the first quarter of 2014-15, WPI headline inflation stood at 5.8% as mainly food and fuel prices were high. 

The Economic Survey 2014-15 says the IT and ITeS sector including Business Process Management (BPM), continues to be one of the largest employers in the country, directly employing nearly 35 lakh people. NASSCOM estimates the revenue of the IT-BPM industry at US$119 billion grew by 12 per cent in 2014-15 with export market alone making up almost $100 billion. The year witnessed hyper-growth in the technology start-up and software product landscape, India ranking as the fourth largest start-up hub in the world with over 3,100 start-ups in the country. Software products and services revenues for 2015-16 is projected to grow at 12-14 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Lok Sabha saying we are trying to find out solutions to Problems existing for years. Corruption remains an issue of concern,  he said adding that the issue is about development and not about names of schemes.

The CNX Realty index gained 4.5% at 241.10 on hopes of sops for the housing sector. Shares of Unitech zoomed over 16% at Rs. 21.50, while HDIL soared 6% to Rs. 120, and Indiabulls Real Estate rallied 5.5 % to Rs. 83.

Railway stocks were higher. Titagarh Wagons was locked at the 10% upper circuit at Rs. 640. Texmaco Rail soared 10.5% to Rs. 150. Stone India has gained 3.5% at Rs. 82.50