The movie "Uri: The Surgical Strike" is based on the 2016 surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on terror launch pads across the border after the attack on an Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir.
From reference to "josh" of Bollywood flick 'Uri', jeering by opposition members to chants of "Modi, Modi" from the BJP, there were varied reactions in Lok Sabha as Finance Minister Piyush Goyal gave his interim budget speech on Friday.
Goyal announced various populist measures, including direct cash transfer to farmers and income tax exemptions, all of which were welcomed by thumping of desks by the ruling side.
Attired in a grey jacket and black kurta, Goyal also made it a point to explain some of the key announcements, including those related to income tax sops, in Hindi.
Traditionally, finance ministers stick to their written Budget speech.
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Goyal paused for almost a minute as the ruling party members continued to cheer and chant "Modi, Modi" and thumped their desks after he announced doubling of income tax exemption limit to Rs 5 lakh from the next fiscal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior ministers were also seen thumping their desks.
"It was fun watching Uri. There was a lot of josh (energy) in the movie (Uri movie mein jo maza aaya. Jo Josh tha)," Goyal said while mentioning the future agenda.
This prompted many members, including Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to deliver the movie's dialogue "How is the josh".
Read: How Twitter reacted
Several BJP leader and ministers have watched the movie.
Dear @RahulGandhi ji, how’s is the josh pic.twitter.com/tdanXiZs6k
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) February 1, 2019
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also referred to the film's dialogue in his public speeches in recent days.
As some opposition members tried to disturb Goyal's speech, the laughter of TMC members -- Idris Ali and Kalyan Banerjee -- rang out aloud in the House prompting the minister to say it reminded him of the Ram Lila.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has referred to... probably it reminded of the Ram Lila," Goyal said.
He was apparently referring to Modi's swipe at the then Congress MP Renuka Chowdhary after her loud laughter during his speech in Rajya Sabha last year.
The finance minister, who entered the House around five to seven minutes before the proceedings began, touched the feet of Cabinet colleagues Nitin Gadkari and Uma Bharti, and BJP veteran Shanta Kumar.
Goyal, who is the interim finance minister as Arun Jaitley is in the US for treatment, mentioned him in the beginning of the speech, saying he was "deeply conscious of the absence of Shri Arun Jaitley today".
After finishing the speech, many MPs congratulated Goyal, and as he was walking, he waved at his family members, including wife Seema Goyal, standing in the visitors' gallery.
The family members waved back and one of gave the thumbs up.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi was away from the House for a brief period during the Budget presentation. This prompted some BJP members to remark that 'Rahul Baba bhag gaye (Rahul ran away)'.
The visitors' gallery was almost full and Rajya Sabha members, including Rajeev Chandrashekhar (BJP), Y S Chowdary (TDP) and Majeed Memon (NCP), were present there.
Former Union Minister M J Akbar and former RBI Deputy Governor Narendra Jadhav, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, were also present.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress' Chief Whip in the House Jyotiraditya Scindia and Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai were not in the House.
1. Smart Villages
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The government will start a national centre for artificial intelligence (AI) and turn one lakh villages into 'digital villages' in a bid to harness new age-technologies for citizens' benefit, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said Friday.
Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Goyal highlighted that India has become the second largest hub for startups and offers possibly the lowest rates for data and voice calls globally.
"Digital Infrastructure and digital economy of 2030 will be built upon the successes achieved in recent years in digitisation of Government processes and private transactions. Our youth will lead us in this endeavour with innumerable start-ups creating digital India, and millions of jobs in this eco-system," he said.
2. National Program for AI
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The minister said in order to reap the benefits of AI and advanced technologies, a national programme on AI has been envisaged by the government.
"This would be catalysed by the establishment of the National Centre on AI as a hub along with Centres of Excellence. Nine priority areas have been identified. A national AI portal will also be developed soon," he promised.
AI technology helps in analysing data in various technologies to improve the efficiency of the system like power management in cars, mobile devices, weather predictions, video and image analysis etc.
"India is now leading the world in the consumption of mobile data. Monthly consumption of mobile data increased by over 50 times in the last five years. The cost of data and voice calls in India is now possibly the lowest in the world," he said.
Goyal added that under the 'Make in India' programme, the number of mobile and parts manufacturing companies have increased from 2 to over 268, providing huge job opportunities.
"India is now on the way to becoming a global manufacturing hub in various sectors, including automobiles and electronics, defence and medical devices," he added.
3. Three lakh CSCs
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Over three lakh Common Service Centres (CSCs) employing about 12 lakh people, are digitally delivering several services to the citizens, he noted.
"The CSCs are expanding their services and also creating digital infrastructure in the villages, including connectivity, to convert the villages into Digital Villages. The Government will make one lakh villages into Digital Villages over next five years," he said.
Stating that the concept of employment is changing globally, Goyal said job creation is no more confined merely to government services or factories.
"With job seekers becoming job creators, India has become the world's second largest start-up hub," he added.
4. On inflation
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Asserting that inflation is a hidden and unfair tax on the poor and middle class, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the government has restrained the "back-breaking" inflation and brought it down to an average of 4.6 per cent.
The average rate of inflation during 2009-2014 was a back-breaking 10.1 per cent, Goyal said while presenting the Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha.
The then Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) admitted as much when he had said, "We have also not been as successful in controlling persistent inflation as we would have wished. This is primarily because food inflation has increased," Goyal said.
"In contrast, our government broke the back of back-breaking inflation. We brought down average inflation to 4.6 per cent which is lower than the inflation during the tenure of any other government. In fact inflation in December 2018 was down to 2.19 per cent only," the finance minister said.
He added that if his government had not controlled the inflation, Indian families would have ended up paying around 35-40 per cent more on daily basic needs such as food, travel, consumer durables and housing.
5. Sixth largest economy in the world
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The minister said India has contained the double-digit inflation despite generating a high growth rate.
"From being the 11th largest economy in the world in 2013-14, we are today the 6th largest in the world," he noted.
The Reserve Bank (RBI) has cut the retail inflation target (a key input to decide monetary policy) to 2.7-3.2 per cent for the second half of the current fiscal ending March 2019 on expectations of a normal monsoon and moderate food prices.
RBI's six-member Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet between February 4-6 to announce its concluding bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal.
6. Tax rebate
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Individual taxpayers having taxable annual income up to Rs.5 lakhs will get full tax rebate and therefore will not be required to pay any income tax. While presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 in Parliament today the Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs, Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal said “Because of major tax reforms undertaken by us during last four and half years, both tax collections as well as tax base have shown significant increase, achieving a moderate taxation- high compliance regime. It is, therefore, just and fair that some benefits from the tax reforms must also be passed on to the middle class taxpayers”
As a result, the Finance Minister added that even persons having gross income up to Rs. 6.50 lakhs may not be required to pay any income tax if they make investments in provident funds, specified savings, insurance etc. In fact, with additional deductions such as interest on home loan up to Rs.2 lakh, interest on education loans, National Pension Scheme contributions, medical insurance, medical expenditure on senior citizens etc, persons having even higher income will not have to pay any tax. This will provide tax benefit of Rs.18,500 crore to an estimated 3 crore middle class taxpayers comprising self employed, small business, small traders, salary earners, pensioners and senior citizens.
STANDARD DEDUCTIONS RAISED
For salaried persons, Standard Deduction is being raised from the current Rs.40,000 to Rs.50,000. “This will provide additional tax benefit of Rs.4,700 crore to more than 3 crore salary earners and pensioners”, the Finance Minister informed.
