New Delhi, Feb.

New Delhi, Feb 29 : To strengthen United Nations peacekeeping operations, India has a

New Delhi, Feb 29 : Following are the key points of Union Budget 2008-09 tabled by P Chidambaram.

Revenue Deficit will be 1.4 per cent Budget Estimate of 1.5 per cent

Sixth central pay commission to submit report by March

Rs 50 crores to be spent on tiger conservation

Rs 75 crores to ICCR for cultural development

Defence allocation hiked by 10% to Rs 1,05,600 crores

Rs 32,676 crore as subsidy to Public Distribution System (PDS)

Smart-card based PDS system in Haryana, Chandigarh

New Delhi, Feb 29: Finance Minister P Chidambaram Union Budget proposals for 2008-09 has got the thumbs up from the industry and investment bankers, who described it as a "fantastic" job.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Sunil Mittal described the Budget as being on expected lines, “Although we are disappointed that the corporate tax has not been changed.”

"Corporate taxes are at fair levels. An increase of five per cent on short-term capital gains will make people hold for medium term," Kotak Mahidra Bank Managing Director Uday Kotak said.

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.