Raising hopes of a sovereign credit upgrade, global rating agency Moody's on Monday applauded Finance Minister P Chidambaram's Budget saying that it pursues realistic fiscal consolidation path and is 'credit positive'.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday presented his eighth annual budget in Parliament, the second highest by anyone in the country after a record ten by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday presented the most highly   anticipated budgets of recent years in the Parliament. Here are the highlights of what the budget carried for the common man.

As the common man is finding it difficult to manage household budget given the skyrocketing price rise, they were eagerly awaiting the General Budget. The common people were expecting good announcements from Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Anand Sinha on Thursday said the proposed all-Women bank may not take much time to come up as this would fall under the ambit of the already existing public sector bank guidelines.

The Reserve Bank on Thursday welcomed the General Budget, saying it has laid the foundation for lowering fiscal and current account deficits, apart from supporting both domestic and foreign investments.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram Thursday allocated Rs.1,000 crore to develop job-oriented skills among youth. "Assuming that 10 lakh (one million) youth can be motivated in one year, skill trained youth will give enormous boost in employment and productivity," Chidambaram said while presenting the federal 2013-14 budget to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.

India will implement the modified General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) aimed at checking tax avoidance by overseas investors from Apr 1, 2016, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday.

The Reserve Bank on Thursday said the government's cash balance with it will cross Rs 1 trillion-mark this fiscal, with the Finance Ministry likely to save an additional Rs 5,000 crore through the remaining part of this financial year.

India must make tough spending choices, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday, even as he unveiled a bigger-than-expected outlay for the coming fiscal year in one of the most highly anticipated Indian budgets of recent years.