Page 71 - Video Gallery

FM talks to NDTV/BS - 1

Finance Minister P Chidambaram in conversation with NDV/BS Mr Chidambaram, your Budget numbers seem to assume slower economic growth next year.

The nominal GDP growth is about 13 per cent. Thats not slow. Please remember, Budgets are based on BE (Budget Estimates) to BE. What happens during the year could be a one-off, could be because of certain unanticipated developments. But year after year, Budgets are made on BE to BE. And BE to BE, we have assumed a 13% growth rate.

FM talks to NDTV/BS-2

The economic growth is an average of 9 per cent in the last two years; do you expect a 9 per cent GDP growth next year as well? We are assuming a nominal growth rate of about 13 per cent of GDPLast year we assumed 12 per cent of GDP. Taxes are not predictable. I cannot say I will collect this much this year. In the exercise of tax collection and tax administration anything could happen in one sector of industry or another. Monsoons could fail. There are so many imponderables. We are assuming BE to BE 13 per cent this year, which is more than last year.

FM talks to NDTV/BS - 3

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in an exclusive interview one day after presenting Budget 2007, said the big message is that there has to be growth before its gains can be redistributed. Talking on inflation, Chidambaram said: "Inflation can only be moderated, it cant be targeted. We moderated it when we came to office, well do it again. The duty cuts are disinflationary."

No scheme left behind...

Sunil Jain: No scheme left behind The initial reaction has to be a very negative one. The budget harks back to the 70s and the 80s where there was a huge list of exemptions targeted at individual groups of people.

T N Ninan: Smoke & mirrors...

T N Ninan, Editor, Business Standard, said Budget 2007 is a smoke & mirrors exercise - the government is appearing to be spending money without actually doing it...

T N Ninan:We can live with it

T N Ninan, Editor, Business Standard, reacting to Budget 2007, said we can live with it without any major grouse...

Max New York-NCAER Survey

'96% not sure of survival on savings'

96% of Indian households feel that they cannot survive for more than one year on their current savings in case of loss of major source of household income.

54% households are confident about their current and future financial stability, while 78% of Indian households are aware of life insurance, however only one fourth of households own a life insurance policy.

These are some of the key findings of Max New York Life- National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)-India Financial Protection Survey.

Which Car! Zen Estilo

Which Car! Zen Estilo

Bijoy Kumar Y is the founder editor of Business Standard Motoring. He loves his cars, enjoys bikes and is living out his dream.

In the first of the Which Car! series, Bijoy takes us on a drive-through Maruti's latest offering - the Zen Estilo. According to him, while the Estilo has small car virtues, its not a car that you're excited to drive. All in all it's pretty handy for in-city driving.

You may email all your motoring related queries to bijoy@business-standard.com.

Leslie on MS Windows Vista

3 Questions on MS Windows Vista

Windows Vista will be launched this month - a full five years after Microsoft launched Windows XP. If you're wondering what it's all about, here's a lowdown. We take a look at its features like the stunning Aero interface, graphics' capability (Avalon) and it's not so flattering price and hardware requirements.

This marks the start of our series 'Three Questions with Leslie', wherein Leslie D'Monte will speak on gadgets & software. Currently associate editor of Business Standard, he was the editor of ZDNet India earlier.