As many as 36 websites of ministries and departments under the central and various state governments faced hacking incidents in the first six months of 2023, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Cyber security watchdog CERT-In tracked these incidents. According to data shared by Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Lok Sabha, a total of 1,12,474 cyber security incidents have been tracked by CERT-In. "The government is continuously engaged in formulating policies and setting technical standards in the cyberspace to holistically ensure accessible internet and to mitigate threats & vulnerabilities in the cyberspace," Chandrasekhar said in a written reply. As per the data, 36 websites of ministries and departments under the central and various state governments faced hacking incidents. The minister also shared that over 4.29 lakh cyber security incidents pertaining to financial institutions occurred in the first half of 2023.
Only nine states and union territories had more than a million non-zero returns
The fund is the primary fund available with state governments for responses to notified disasters
GST Network on Friday said it has geocoded 1.8 crore addresses of registered businesses and the functionality is now live for all states and UTs. Geocoding will help in finding out the exact location of the registered entity and check bogus registrations. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has already conducted a pilot for geocoding in a couple of states. In an update to businesses, GSTN said the functionality for geocoding the principal place of business address is now live for all States and Union territories. This feature, which converts an address or description of a location into geographic coordinates, has been introduced to ensure the accuracy of address details in GSTN records and streamline the address location and verification process. "GSTN has successfully geocoded more than 1.8 crore addresses of principal places of business. Furthermore, all new addresses post-March 2022 are geocoded at the time of registration itself, ensuring the accuracy and ..
NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam on Monday emphasised on the need to focus on transparency with regard to states' finances as greater transparency will help states raise resources from market at competitive rates. Participating in a seminar organised by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), he also made a case for having a fiscal council like institution to better manage the debt trajectory of the Centre and states. Transparency is more important than uniformity and states should ensure that everything gets reported in some form or the other because the market values transparency, he said. Citing an example, he said, five southern states accounted for 93 per cent of off- budget borrowing last year while all the high deficit states like West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan have low off-budget borrowing. "It is all because of market discipline...people are more willing to lend to these five states as compared to West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan," he said, adding, there a
The highest amount of assistance totalling Rs 9,640 crore will be given to Bihar
Yields on 10-year state paper harden further
The government is releasing an additional advance installment to the states in this month
Despite larger than notified supplies, the average cost for the states that hit the market on Tuesday will be less in terms of coupons, which slipped by 3 bps to 7.32 per cent. Twelve states have raised Rs 17,300 crore through state government securities in the auction held on Tuesday, which is a sharp 47 per cent higher than the indicated Rs 11,800 crore for this week in the auction calendar. In spite of that, the weighted average cut-off eased by 3 bps to 7.32 per cent from the last auction. The fall is also regardless of the fact that there was a mild rise in the weighted average tenor to 16 years from 15 years, Icra Ratings said in a note. The spread between the 10-year SGS and 10-year Central government security yield remained stable at 35 bps relative to the past week, Aditi Nayar, the chief economist and the head of research & outreach at the agency, said in the note.
So far, only 15 states have revealed their projections for the gross state domestic product for 2022-23
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is carrying out raids at over 100 places in six states in connection with cases related to narco-terror-gangster nexus, officials said. The raids were underway in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The NIA had registered three cases last year following information suggesting that terrorist outfits and their sympathisers abroad were operating as members of organized criminal gangs active in the northern states of India for targeted killings and violent criminal acts. It has also emerged that the terror-gangster-drug smuggler network was also engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware such as arms, ammunition explosives and IEDs among others across borders through a widespread interstate network of gun runners, illegal arms and ammunition manufacturers and suppliers and explosive traffickers. The NIA has already arrested 19 members of various criminal gangs, two arms suppliers and one financier connected wit
11% of their total expenditure was on infrastructure and 2% was on research, development, and studies
It has come to the notice of Government of lndia (Gol) that some state governments have imposed taxes / duties on generation of electricity. This is illegal and unconstitutional
The Union Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, has written to the states and Union Territories to develop 100 food streets in 100 districts across the country. The initiative is being taken up as a pilot project to create an example for other such streets to come up across the country to ensure safe and hygienic food practices. The project aims to encourage safe and healthy practices among food businesses and community members, thus reducing foodborne illnesses and improving overall health outcomes, the Union Health Ministry said in a statement. In a letter to the states, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Manoj Joshi highlighted that "easy access to safe and hygienic food is vital for the good health of citizens". "Safe food practices not only promote the 'eat right campaign' and food safety but will improve hygiene credibility of local food businesses, boost local employment,
The Supreme Court on Thursday granted another three months to all States and Union Territories to provide rations cards to migrant labourers registered on the e-shram portal for availing benefits of "benevolent schemes" of the government. A bench of Justices MR Shah and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said granting of ration cards to migrant labourers registered on the portal of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment be given wide publicity so that they can avail benefits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The top court's order came on an application filed by petitioners Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander and Jagdeep Chhokkar who had sought that ration to the migrant labourers be given irrespective of the quota of ration under the NFSA. On April 17, the top court had said the Centre and state governments cannot deny ration cards to migrant workers solely on the ground that population ratio under the NFSA has not been properly maintained. Observing that every citizen should benefit f
The Centre has asked states to incorporate certain provisions in the contracts of outsourced workers to protect their rights amid concerns about underpayment of wages and other benefits. The Ministry of Labour and Employment recently incorporated six statutory obligations on GeM (Government e Marketing) portal in the contract of hiring manpower through outsourcing agencies in Government of India offices in order to protect the interest of the contractual workers, a labour ministry statement said. Of late in a letter addressed to Chief Secretaries/Administrators of all States/UTs, Union Labour Secretary Arti Ahuja has expressed concern about the underpayment of contractual workers engaged in State/UT offices through outsourcing agencies due to unauthorized deduction in wages of such workers made by the manpower hiring agencies. Further, she also expressed concern of the delayed payment of monthly wages to such workers by the agencies and low deposit of EPF (Employees Provident Fund
The Centre on Wednesday directed state governments to take strict action against traders, millers and importers and stockists, who have not provided full disclosure about their tur dal stocks. In a review meeting on status of stock disclosure of tur and urad with major pulses producing and consuming states, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said that the quantity of tur dal stocks disclosed as compared to its production and consumption has also been found to be "low" in certain states. While the number of entities registered in the stock disclosure portal has increased, it was observed that the actual number of stakeholders in certain states could be higher, he said in a statement. "The states were directed to conduct verification of stocks held by various entities and take strict action on undisclosed stocks under relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980,"
The states - including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat - are estimating expenditure to have risen 21.5% in 2022-23, and plan to increase it further by 11% in 2023-24
In the largest-ever state government securities auction so far this fiscal, 12 states on Tuesday raised Rs 35,800 crore at an average annualised price of 7.74 per cent. The current drawdown is 15 per cent higher than the amount indicated for the week in the auction calendar and 66 per cent higher than the year-ago period. This is the penultimate week in the borrowing calendar for the states this fiscal. Despite increased supply, the states were forced to offer better yields to investors as the weighted average cut-off rose by 7 bps to 7.74 per cent over the past week's auction, according to an analysis by ratings agency Icra. The agency also noted that the weighted average cut-off rose by 7 bps in spite of the weighted average tenor declining mildly to 14 years from 15 years. This also had the spread between the 10-year state bonds and the yield on the 10-year gilt widening to 43 bps today from 34 bps last week.
If target missed, part of loans to be deducted in 2024-25