Service tax scope expansion: definitions broadened to tax additional insurance, training, club, legal, health and money changing services.
Service tax definitions are broadened to capture more activities: authorized service station services for most motor vehicles including repair and related services; life insurance services extended to investment management with options to tax either disclosed non invested premium or, absent disclosure, a simplified proportion; commercial coaching widened to include unrecognised education with limited exemptions; clubs' services to non members included; business support expanded to operational and administrative assistance; legal professional services extended in relation to business entities; clinical establishments and certain diagnostic and non employee doctor services taxed subject to exclusions and a partial exemption; money changing valuation and composition rules revised.

Banking inclusion: phased extension of banking facilities to rural habitations using technology and a public awareness campaign.
Expansion of rural banking access to habitations with populations exceeding two thousand will be completed in 2011-12 after initial coverage in 2010-11; implementation will rely on appropriate technologies and the "Swabhimaan" multimedia campaign to inform, educate and motivate residents to open bank accounts.

Financial inclusion measures expand capital support and dedicated funds to strengthen rural banks, microfinance and women's SHGs.
The budget proposes reinforcing capital adequacy for Regional Rural Banks and public sector banks through continued government capital infusion to meet minimum capital ratios, while establishing an India Microfinance Equity Fund with SIDBI to provide equity to smaller MFIs to support growth and scale and considering a regulatory framework to protect small borrowers. It also proposes a Women's SHG's Development Fund to empower women and promote self help groups.

Banking license reform: guidelines to enable additional private sector entrants and related legislative amendments forthcoming.
Proposed legislative measures and regulatory action aim to advance financial sector reform through multiple targeted amendments across banking, insurance, pension, and credit recovery frameworks, and to expand private sector participation by permitting additional banking licences under amendments to the Banking Regulation framework; the process has incorporated public consultation and the central bank intends to publish detailed banking licence guidelines within the current policy cycle.

India ASEAN trade expansion expected to accelerate, with a business fair to boost post FTA commercial integration and sectoral cooperation.
India ASEAN trade is projected to expand following the ASEAN India Free Trade Agreement, and the India ASEAN Business Fair & Business Conclave - coordinated by the Ministry of Commerce and FICCI with participation from ASEAN trade ministers and major Indian firms - is positioned as a facilitative mechanism to convert post FTA market access into concrete commercial linkages across sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, automotive, pharmaceuticals, textiles, IT, and logistics.

Foreign direct investment reporting: regional office wise inflows disclosed with caveat they may not reflect State level allocations.
Foreign direct investment equity inflows are reported on a Regional Office basis per Reserve Bank of India receipts with a caveat that these figures cannot be equated to State wise inflows because companies may operate across multiple States and some RBI regional offices cover more than one State. The release provides year wise aggregates for April 2007-December 2010, a regional breakout of receipts by RBI office and States covered, and notes a category for receipts with region not indicated.

Official development assistance commitment secures loan funding for three sectoral projects strengthening agriculture, forestry and urban environmental infrastructure.
An exchange of notes formalised Japan's JICA ODA loan commitments to three Indian projects-agriculture crop diversification in Himachal Pradesh, biodiversity conservation and greening in Tamil Nadu, and the Yamuna Action Plan in Delhi-detailing sectoral objectives, project level loan commitments and rupee equivalents, and noting the resulting increase in Japan's cumulative ODA commitments to India under their bilateral development partnership.

Price monitoring reform urges standardized procedures and early-warning systems to manage essential commodity inflation proactively.
The document urges a review of the system monitoring wholesale and retail prices of essential commodities, directing the Inter-Ministerial Group on inflation to evaluate data gaps and market intelligence, propose concrete implementable measures, and improve use of price information in policy design. It emphasizes creating standard operation procedures for sudden and anticipated price fluctuations and developing organizational structures and sectoral collation mechanisms to support early warning systems and proactive price management.

Holding companies may omit subsidiary accounts if consolidated audited financials, specified disclosures, and shareholder access requirements are met.
The government directs that Section 212 will not apply where the holding company's board has resolved to omit subsidiary accounts, the annual report includes consolidated financial statements audited by statutory auditors and prepared in strict compliance with applicable Accounting Standards and listing requirements, the consolidated balance sheet discloses aggregate capital, reserves, assets, liabilities, non subsidiary investments, turnover, profit before tax, tax provision, profit after tax and proposed dividend for each subsidiary, subsidiary accounts are available to shareholders on request and inspection, hard copies are provided on demand, regulatory filings are maintained, and foreign currency figures are shown in rupee equivalents with closing exchange rates.

Tax information exchange: agreement enables cross-border sharing of banking and ownership data with confidentiality safeguards.
A bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreement provides for exchange of information between competent authorities when reasonably relevant to administration or enforcement of domestic tax laws; the requesting State must justify foreseeable relevance. Exchanged information is secret and limited to specified tax authorities, though disclosure to others requires competent authority consent. The Agreement permits a requested Party to produce information even if not needed for its own tax purposes and requires provision of banking, ownership, and past criminal tax information.

Government securities auction using uniform-price method reissues dated stocks; non-competitive bids permitted and electronic bidding required.
Sale of central government dated securities is to be conducted by auction using the uniform price method with electronic bidding on NDS; reserved allotment for eligible individuals and institutions under the non competitive bidding facility applies, auction results and payment dates are specified, and the stocks are eligible for when issued trading per RBI guidelines.