New Delhi, Feb 29: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said that during next fiscal the IT exemption limit will be raised to 1.5 lakh rupees for men, for women it would be 1.8 lakh rupees and for senior citizens it would be 2.25 lakh rupees.

New Delhi, Feb 29: Stating that the United Progressive Alliance Government’s prime focus is to curb inflation rate, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday told Lok Sabha that he is confident that India would be able to maintain a Gross Domestic Growth (GDP) of 8 per cent.

While tabling the General Budget 2008-09, Chidambaram said that allocation to the education and health sector would be increased by 20 per cent each.

He said that 6, 000 new high quality schools and three new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will be opened during next fiscal.

The Finance Minister said that agriculture sector average annual growth is pegged at 2.6 per cent.

New Delhi, Feb 29 : Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will present the General Budget for the fiscal 2008-09 in the Lok Sabha today and will also address a Post-Budget press conference here.

Chidambaram will be presenting his fifth Budget in a row and his seventh budget overall at 11 this morning.

After a widely accepted Rail Budget, it is likely that Chidambaram will announce a please-all budget.

Mumbai, February 29: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by 189 points in early trade on Friday as funds and general investors reduced their holdings ahead of the Budget 2008-09.

Indiabulls Real Estate (IBREL) has decided to buy majority stake in the London-listed property fund Dev Property Developers (DPD) to gain majority control over two of its valued properties in Mumbai.

IBREL has acquired more than 90% in Dev for about Rs 1,100 crore. The stake has been purchased from the three major shareowners of Dev Property, which includes Fidelity, Government of Singapore and HSBC.