The high-level meeting saw participation from several prominent leaders, including the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress’ deputy leaders in both houses Pramod Tiwari and Gaurav Gogoi, NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, TMC’s Derek O’Brien and Kalyan Banerjee, DMK’s TR Baalu, JMM’s Mahua Maji, AAP’s Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh, and CPI(M)’s John Brittas. Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh were also present.
“The concept of a budget has already been destroyed by this year’s Union Budget. They have completely discriminated against most of the states. So, the general sentiment of the INDIA bloc meeting was we have to protest against this,” said Mr Venugopal claimed following the meeting. He later expressed on social media that the budget was “extremely discriminatory and dangerous,” going against the principles of federalism and fairness.
As part of their protest, Congress chief ministers will also boycott the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27. “This government’s attitude is completely antithetical to Constitutional principles. We will not participate in an event that is solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colors of this regime,” Mr Venugopal alleged.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget for 2024-25, marking her seventh consecutive budget presentation, surpassing former Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s record. This budget is the first under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term in office. During her speech, Ms Sitharaman said that the country’s inflation remains stable and is moving towards 4 per cent, with core inflation at 3.1 per cent.
“The ‘#BudgetForViksitBharat’ ensures inclusive growth, benefiting every segment of society and paving the way for a developed India,” wrote Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media. 
Speaking exclusively with NDTV, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju claimed that “no one with a sane mind” will criticise the 2024 Union Budget. “I feel this Budget lays the strongest-ever foundation for ‘atmanirbhar’ Bharat because the Prime Minister has already given a clear-cut vision to make India a developed nation by 2047,” he said. 
Ms Sitharaman highlighted several key points in the budget, including rewards for key NDA allies, tax relief for new taxpayers, and a focus on job creation for youth. 
The budget introduced several changes to the tax regime, increasing the standard deduction in the new tax regime from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 and revising tax slabs to benefit a broader range of income groups. Salaried employees can now save up to Rs 17,500 in income tax under the new slabs.
Additionally, the budget included a major announcement for professionals entering the workforce. The government will provide one month’s salary as a Provident Fund contribution for first-time employees, benefiting an estimated 210 lakh youngsters. Additional measures include raising the exemption limit for capital gains on some financial assets to Rs 1.25 lakh per year and abolishing angel tax for all classes of investors.
The budget also earmarked significant projects for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, states whose political leaders recently aligned with the BJP to secure a parliamentary majority. For Bihar, the budget outlines the development of expressways and a power plant, while Andhra Pradesh will see infrastructure projects prioritised, including substantial financial support for capital development.

US President Joe Biden was seen in public for the first time since he dropped out of the Presidential race and tested positive for COVID-19. His absence sparked rumours on social media with several users claiming the 81-year-old leader’s health was deteriorating, even claiming he was in “hospice care” and was “unlikely to survive the night”.

“Where’s Joe” became a top trend on X globally after the US President was out of public eye for five days as he was isolating while recovering from COVID-19 at his Delaware home.

On Wednesday, the Democratic leader returned to the White House after his doctors said his symptoms of COVID-19 have been resolved and a rapid antigen test showed he was negative for COVID-19. “I am feeling well,” he said.

🚨 UPDATE: President Biden just boarded Air Force One and is on his way back to the White House. pic.twitter.com/k2wNDleGa3

— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) July 23, 2024

The US President boarded a plane to White House even as reporters shouted questions at him asking him how he felt, why he dropped out of the race and whether his deputy Vice President Kamala Harris could beat the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Biden did not respond to the questions and just gave a quick thumbs up. “It’s great to be back at the White House. This afternoon, I arrived back at the Oval Office and sat down with my national security team for my daily intelligence briefing. Serving as your Commander-in-Chief continues to be the greatest honor of my life,” he wrote on X.

While quarantining, the US President announced the sudden withdrawal from his re-election bid after months of staying defiant and insisting he would not drop out of the Presidential race, even as pressure mounted from his party to step aside.

Taking to social media, he announced that he would not be accepting the Democrat nomination and instead “focus all his energies on his duties as president for the remainder of his term”. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic candidate to take on rival Donald Trump in the elections later this year.

The leader also announced that he will be addressing the nation on Friday morning, probably to explain his decision to withdraw from the presidential race.

“Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people,” he said in a post on X.

India struck a balance between greater spending on jobs and rural development as well as transferring more funds to states, while narrowing the fiscal deficit, the 2024-25 budget unveiled on Tuesday showed. It though appeared largely silent on big-ticket announcements for Railways.

The word Railways was mentioned just once during Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s 83-minute long Budget speech.

The Economic Survey 2023-24 on Monday said the capital expenditure on the Railways has increased by 77 per cent over the past five years with significant investments in the construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling.

According to the survey tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister, in the financial year 2019-2020, the capital expenditure was 1.48 lakh crore which was increased to Rs 2.62 lakh crore in 2023-24.

“Before 2014, the investment on the capex for Railways used to be of the order of Rs 35,000 crore. Today it is 2.62 lakh crore. It is a record capex for Railways. I am very grateful to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister for this kind of investment in Railways. If we look at 60 years before 2014, new trains were announced without making sure that tracks will have the capacity or not. Absolutely populist measures were taken which had no connection with the infrastructure condition of the railways. Last 10 years, the PM has focused in a big way on making sure that the foundation is properly prepared,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Railway Minister, told NDTV.

The Minister underlined that there has been expansion in terms of railway tracks, electrification and shows vast improvement compared to the previous governments.

“40,000 km of railway tracks have been electrified. 31,000 km of new railway tracks have been constructed. If you look at electrification before 2014, in 60 years 20,000 km were electrified. In 10 years, 40,000 km have been electrified. If you look at pace of track construction, 2014 it was just 4 km a day, last fiscal it was 14.5 km a day, 5300 km of new tracks have been constructed. Huge focus on safety. Last year investment in safety related activities was Rs 98,000 crore, this year the allocation for safety related activities is Rs 1, 08,000 crore. So that tracks which are old can be replaced, new signalling system can be installed. Kavach 4.0 is now already approved, so now it can be installed in a very big way,” he said.

Asked if the Railways’ focus is on Vande Bharat, the flagship trains, and not on trains for the poor, the Minister clarified, “Approach is we have a large low-income base and that base we are addressing and then there is an aspirational class which is coming up. That aspirational class also needs to be addressed. So we are addressing both.”

The Vande Bharat lists a number of features such as Kavach protection, faster acceleration and semi-high speed operation up to 160 kmph, fully sealed gangway for free passenger movement, automatic plug doors, reclining ergonomic seats and comfortable seating with revolving seats in executive class, better ride comfort among others.

“The way railways are structured every train has a standard composition. That standard composition has a particular number of air-conditioned coaches and a particular number of non-air-conditioned coaches. That standard composition remains the same. The ratio of a/c and non a/c coaches has generally been 1/3rd and 2/3rd. That ratio has been maintained. The demand for non a/c travel has increased now. More and more people are travelling, more and more people are demanding travel services for the non a/c segment. So we have taken up a special drive. We are manufacturing 2,500 non a/c coaches and in the coming three years we will be manufacturing another 10,000 extra non-ac coaches over and above the regular production programme. The prime aim of railways is to make sure that low income families and middle income families will be able to travel safely at an affordable cost. These trains are providing world class facilities at a cost of about Rs 450 for a 1000 km journey,” said Mr Vaishnaw.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge accused the NDA government of presenting a very weak railway budget, adding Railways has become “na idhar ka na udhar ka (neither here not there)”.

“Railway accidents are happening every day, trains have been stopped, the number of coaches has been reduced, ordinary passengers are troubled, but nothing has been said about the railways in the budget, there is no accountability,” Mr Kharge complained.

The Minister stressed that there is greater focus on safety and the government is making all efforts to make rail travel safe and secure.

“Every unfortunate incident that happens, we have a very strong mechanism for analysing it. There is a statutory mechanism of commissioner rail safety. We take it very seriously. Every such incident is a sad incident and we must make sure that that kind of thing is not repeated again. It is a humongous network and we are making all efforts and we will continue to do so,” he said.

In the wake of the recent train accidents, it was expected that the Finance Minister will allocate more funds which would in turn be used to protect people.