Bullets

Answered by Kirti
Hello Bhavesh,

Whether or not the rebate of ₹7 Lakh is good for you, depends on which tax regime you opt for. Because it’s only limited to the new tax regime. Moreover, there are several tax benefits that the New Tax Regime does not include. 

So, make sure to analyse which tax regime align better with aspects such as your salary structure and investments.

Answered by Varsha
Hello, Anand & Nikhar!

While there are absolutely no changes in the old tax regime, the rebate has increased from ₹5 Lakh to ₹7 Lakh under the new tax regime. The new tax slabs (under the new tax regime)  are:

Watch this space for a detailed explanation on the new tax regime's tax slab application.

Answered by Deb
Hello, Romji! 

The Indian Government is looking to push the Indian economy away from fossil fuels with constant renewable energy improvements. Another focus will be on the highly popular mobile phone production.

The budget has proposed the exemption of compressed natural gas from the levy of GST.

The levy of customs duty on li-ion batteries for EVs and mobile phones is also proposed to be reduced.

Answered by Varsha
Hello Mohit,

National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme as stipend support for 47 lakhs youth in 3 Years.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 to upskill youths within the next 3 Years.
30 Skill India Centres to be established.

Mahila Samman Savings Certificate launched at 7.5% interest for 2 years tenure with a 2 Lakh limit.

Senior Citizen Savings Scheme deposit limit increased from 15 Lakh to 30 Lakh.

The FM announces that the Digilocker platform will be available for MSME industries to store and share documents. This will be one of the steps to make conducting business easier for MSMEs in India.

MSME sectors will be one of the primary points of focus for budget 2023-24 to increase employment and national output.

Answered by Abhishek and Varsha
Hello VSPA TMX!
We’re sure your question will provide answers to a lot of retail investors out there! The sectors that have the potential to benefit the most from the Union Budget 2023-24 are: 
Renewables & Green Energy, Infrastructure, Financial Sector, Agriculture & allied, Dairy & Fishery, Railways, Research and Development (Pharmaceuticals, CRAMS, CDMO), and Medical Devices Industry.

Answered by Deb

Hello Mohit,

In the budget speech, the finance minister declared that the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) saw a doubling in membership. The total membership doubled to 7 crores, highlighting an increase in employment.

The Budget 2022-23 set a goal of 60 lakh employments in the next 5 years. This change in number sets the direction in a positive tone for the same.

With the Union Budget approaching, emotions are at an all-time high. The investor environment turns into a speculator's playground where emotions are involved.

Owing to the same, the indices are bound to turn into a rollercoaster ride. We suggest you believe in the company and not market sentiments.

Just as a "told you so", the Sensex and Nifty rose by 565 points and 153 points to reach 60,113 points and 17,809 points so far. Let's see where things end up by day end with market emotions being on a spin!

Adani Entreprises seems to have found a fast friend in LIC during its tough times, as the Indian insurance giant has increased its holding in AEL by ₹300 crore. This comes as a "light at the end of the tunnel" moment for the group as all 7 of the group's shares saw red this week. LIC bought 9,15,748 shares or 5% of the company's stake.

LIC: Kharab report ke saath bhi, kharab report ke baad bhi!

RBI's foreign exchange reserves rose by $1.7 billion in a week to reach $573.73 billion by January 20. During the same period, Rupee rose by 0.3% against the dollar. The rises come as a relief after the $100 billion decline in reserves from February to September 2022.

The appreciation of the Rupee and the Union Budget approaching might really make Amrit Kaal a reality after all (provided the growth is sustained and real)!

The Indian government has set out to pay ₹4,000 crore to various industries by March 2023 through PLI schemes. Sectors such as pharma, automobiles, renewable energy, and more already received benefits during 2021-22. This instalment is set to be directed towards industries like, bicycle components, leather, furniture, home textile and more.

These payouts are a part of a larger sum of ₹1.97 lakh crore planned for five years.

Watch out for Insider's take on the budget's effect on various industries.

Amazon has started its pharmacy delivery service called RxPass. Amazon Prime users will be able to get their prescriptions refilled on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on their needs, at just $5 a month.

RxPass will be Amazon's next foray into diversifying businesses with Basics and Fresh. The additional $5 will be added to users' Prime subscription fees.

The drugs supplied will be off-patent and sourced from over 60,000 pharmacies.

Great, Amazon's a step closer to world domination!

As the global economy edges ever closer to a recession, Microsoft has begun executing its 10,000-employee layoff. As per reports, 1,000 out of these 10k have already received notification regarding the end of their employment.

There are also reports that the number of employees to be laid off might go up as well, especially from engineering divisions.

Microsoft also faced a fall in the value of its shares, experiencing a 22% fall over the year to reach $235 from $303.

The American recession is starting to take its toll as another western giant falls to trying times. Amidst a mass layoff of 3,000 employees, the finance giant also reported a revenue drop of over 65%!

The fall in revenue comes as a result of a reduction in the number of IPOs in the American market. The revenues in the previous year fell by 16% to reach $10.2 billion before further falling to $1.2 billion for this year.

Adani Enterprises is planning to bring a ₹20,000 crore FPO, making it the biggest yet in India, beating Yes Bank's ₹15,000 crore July 2022 FPO. ICICI Securities and Jefferies are the first among the consortium of investment banks reportedly engaged in the FPO.

Adani Enterprises filed for SEBI's fast-track FPO procedure, allowing a listing company to skip the preparation and filing procedure of listing documents.

Based on recent developments, the FPO is likely to be published before the Union Budget.

Microsoft has been reported to be in talks to acquire OpenAI's chatbot software, ChatGPT. The Nadella-owned software giant had already invested $1 billion in the AI company in 2019.

The acquisition is valued at $10 billion while OpenAI is valued at $29 billion in an attempt to compete against Google.

If I had a browser like Bing as my offering, I'd try to adopt a "new kid", too.

Remember 2016 when everyone and their dog wanted a Jio sim? Well, best get ready for Reliance as it launches its "True 5G" network.

The 10 cities where the pilot phase will begin include Agra, Kanpur, Meerut, Prayagraj, Tirupati, Nellore, Kozhikode, Thrissur, Nagpur, and Ahmednagar. The company plans to release a "Jio Welcome Offer", wherein users will get unlimited data at 1GBPS+ speeds in these cities.

How many of the little to non-existent telecom companies will be eliminated this time?

 Amazon becomes the next tech company to begin laying off employees amidst the worsening American economy. A total of 18,000 employees, equal to 6% of the 3,00,000-strong Amazon workforce, will be let go in this round of layoffs.

The exact number pertaining to the layoff was previously unknown. However, it was soon brought to light through a memo by the CEO that was published thanks to an employee leaking the aforementioned information externally.

From smiles to severance cheques, Amazon delivers!😁

Yet December saw nearly 250 firings across various departments. To put that number into a bit of perspective, that's 5% of the delivery company's self-acclaimed workforce.

To add insult to injury, the 2.3x revenue growth was coupled with a 2.2x increase in losses. The losses for the year amounted to ₹3,628.9 crore compared to last year's ₹1,616.9 crore.

With such poor numbers, the IPO-bound company might want to "pull an OYO" and either lay off more or delay the IPO.