New Delhi, 24 December: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with renowned economists and experts in New Delhi on Tuesday to know their views and suggestions on the upcoming Union Budget 2025-26. In fact, before the budget, the opinion of experts from every field is always sought.
This meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Modi, was attended by renowned economists and experts as well as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Beri, NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer BVR Subramaniam, Chief Economic Advisor of the country Anant Nageshwaran, economist Surjit Bhalla, DK Joshi and other experts.
It is worth mentioning that this meeting was organized to know the views and suggestions of economic experts in the context of the upcoming Union Budget. Finance Minister Sitharaman will present the budget for the financial year 2025-26 in the Lok Sabha on February 1, 2025.
15th Finance Commission allocates Rs 1599 crore to UP and Rs 446 crore to Andhra for rural development
New Delhi, 24 December: The Central Government on Tuesday released funds under the Fifteenth Finance Commission (15th Finance Commission) grants for rural local bodies in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh for the financial year 2024-25. The 15th Finance Commission has given a grant of Rs 1598.80 crore to Uttar Pradesh and Rs 446.49 crore to Andhra Pradesh for rural development.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj said in a statement that the second installment of unrelated grants of Rs 1,598.80 crore has been released to Uttar Pradesh.
According to the ministry, this amount is for all the eligible 75 district panchayats, all eligible 826 block panchayats and all eligible 57691 gram panchayats of the state.
The ministry said that the second installment of unrelated grants for the financial year 2024-25 of Rs 420.9989 crore has been released to Andhra Pradesh as well as the first installment of unrelated grants of Rs 25.4898 crore. Similarly, this amount of Rs 446.49 crore has been allocated to Andhra Pradesh for 13097 duly elected Gram Panchayats, 650 duly elected Block Panchayats and all 13 eligible District Panchayats of the state.
It is worth mentioning that the grants recommended by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Ministry of Jal Shakti are released in two installments annually. They aim to address location-specific needs under 29 subjects mentioned in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution, which is an important step towards strengthening governance and rural development at the grassroots level.
