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The Ministry of Finance concluded a two-day Conference on 'Financing India's Journey towards Viksit Bharat' in New Delhi, with Finance Ministers and Finance Secretaries of States and UTs with Legislature.
Described as the first of its kind, it moved past the usual question of sharing Union tax revenue to how India's development over the next two decades will be financed.
Day one covered macroeconomic priorities, savings and investment and fiscal resilience; day two covered agricultural transformation and the energy transition, with special sessions on GSDP measurement and new-age technology.
Working groups with State participation will carry the themes forward and identify sector-wise financing requirements.
The Chief Economic Adviser said the quality of the discussion made the case for holding the conference annually.
Make India a developed economy by 2047, the centenary of Independence.
Key: The organising frame for Union and State planning; the conference's premise was that Government budgets alone cannot finance it and private capital must carry a large share.
Push State capital expenditure by lending the Centre's fiscal space to States.
Key: Fifty-year interest-free loans to States and UTs with Legislature, administered by the Department of Expenditure; Rs 75,000 crore earmarked under Part-I for 2026-27, with State shares set in proportion to their share in central taxes.
Build a project-by-project pipeline of infrastructure investment for planning and financing.
Key: Announced in 2019 at Rs 111 lakh crore, spanning the Centre, the States and the private sector; the first attempt to size India's infrastructure requirement as a single list.
Channel domestic and foreign institutional capital into Indian infrastructure.
Key: Set up in 2015 with a Rs 40,000 crore corpus; the Government of India is anchor investor with a 49% share, the rest expected from private and sovereign investors. India's quasi-sovereign wealth fund for infrastructure.
Turn conference themes into sectoral financing estimates and actionable recommendations.
Key: Groups with State participation will take forward the agriculture, energy transition and fiscal resilience themes.
Recommends distribution of the net proceeds of taxes between the Union and the States, the inter-se shares of States, grants-in-aid, and a review of disaster management financing.
Recommends rates, exemptions, threshold limits and model laws for the Goods and Services Tax - the standing forum of Centre-State fiscal bargaining.
Sets the methodology for national and State income accounting, including GSDP estimation; presented the GSDP perspective on the Viksit Bharat journey at the conference.
Organiser of the conference; handles macroeconomic policy, Budget preparation, external assistance and infrastructure financing policy within the Ministry of Finance.
The Union's fiscal rule. As enacted it targeted a gross fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP. The FRBM Review Committee chaired by N.K. Singh, set up in 2016, proposed shifting the primary anchor from the annual deficit to the debt stock, recommending general government debt of 60% of GDP - 40% for the Centre and 20% for the States combined. Most States have their own FRBM legislation.
Requires the President to constitute a Finance Commission every fifth year to recommend the sharing of tax proceeds between the Union and the States.
Requires every Finance Commission report, with an explanatory memorandum on action taken, to be laid before each House of Parliament - which is why a Commission's recommendations become public only on tabling.
Creates the GST Council, the constitutional mechanism through which the Centre and the States jointly decide indirect tax policy.
GS Paper 2 > Polity > Centre-State Financial Relations; GS Paper 3 > Government Budgeting
General Awareness > Fiscal Policy, Finance Commission and Sovereign Ratings
With reference to 'National Investment and Infrastructure Fund', which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It is an organ of NITI Aayog. 2. It has a corpus of ₹4,00,000 crore at present. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer: Neither 1 nor 2
Along with the Budget, the Finance Minister also places other documents before the Parliament which include 'The Macro Economic Framework Statement'. The aforesaid document is presented because this is mandated by
Answer: Provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003
As per Article 279A of the Indian Constitution, the GST Council's decisions require what kind of majority of the weighted votes of the members present and voting?
Answer: Three-fourths majority
Gross State Domestic Product - the market value of all goods and services produced within a State in a financial year.
The share of Union tax revenue, net of cesses, surcharges and collection costs, that is divided with the States on the Finance Commission's recommendation.
The principle that government borrowing should fund capital investment rather than day-to-day revenue spending.