Budget may lower your income tax outgo, 3 in 4 Indians without a life cover, and more top news

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There’s good news for income tax payers: the government may double the exemption limit for the salaried to ?5 lakh in the interim budget. Besides, IANS reports, finance minister Arun Jaitley may reinstate tax-free status for medical expenses and transport allowance. But tinkering with IT slabs before the release of the Direct Tax Code Report on February 28 could prove contentious, the news agency points out. The government didn’t change IT rates in the last budget, saying it had provided enough “relief to the salaried class in the last three years.”

Three in four Indians don’t have a life cover. Citing official data, BloombergQuint reports the country had about 328 million life insurance policies in 2017. Assuming each cover corresponds to a unique individual, that leaves 988 million citizens – or 75% of the population – without coverage. Further, the average Indian worker’s life cover is woefully small – he or she is assured of only 8% of the sum required to help a family tide over the loss of an earning member. Meanwhile, Times of India reports that life insurance penetration increased to 2.8% in 2017-18 from 2.5% in the previous year.

The government will increase seats in universities and higher education institutes by 25%, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said. The objective: Ensuring the 10% reservation for economically weaker sections doesn’t affect the existing quota for SC, ST and other categories. "There are 40,000 colleges and 900 universities… and supernumerary quota will be provided in these," Javadekar said, adding the EWS quota will be implemented from the 2019-20 academic year. The Parliament last week approved 10% reservation for the general category poor in jobs and education.

Also: Primary schools are failing their students, Times of India reports, citing data from an annual education survey. Among Class VII students, 56% cannot divide a three-digit number by a single digit one while in Class III, 70% are unable to do subtraction.

Provident and pension funds holding savings of thousands of salaried people risk losing crores, thanks to their steep exposure to IL&FS and group companies. Economic Times reports that many of these funds either bought bonds from or gave loans to the troubled infrastructure lender, and the amount could be as high as ?20,000 crore. “Provident funds are now estimated to be holding 40% of total bond IL&FS group outstanding,” the publication quotes an unidentified I-banker as saying. Analysts expect lenders will have to take a 10-15% haircut on receivables, with UBS estimating the hit at ?11,300-28,500 crore in absolute terms.

White is the most preferred car colour among Indian buyers. A report by global paints major BASF shows 43% consumers opted for the tone in 2018, followed by grey and silver (15% each), red, blue and black. “Customers… may prefer white because white cars do not heat up so quickly,” BASF’s Chiharu Matsuhara said, adding the shade’s luxurious image also makes it popular. White and silver cars also enjoy a higher resale value than less popular colours like black, brown and golden. Besides, white cars are 12% less likely to get into an accident than black cars.

Idea of the Day: We all need to recognise when we are heading for burnout, advises author and women’s leadership coach, Dr Tanvi Gautam.

“Ask yourself daily - what is the cost of success for you? And are you willing to pay for it with your mental, physical and emotional well-being.”

This article was updated. From earlier: Bengaluru has emerged as the world’s most dynamic city in a survey conducted by property consultant JLL.

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Tuesday’s Rundown saw several comments around the glut at real estate firms and the impact of new e-commerce regulations. Top Commenter Kamya Jangbahadur said as long as there is competition among online merchants, ownership of goods shouldn't be an issue. Join the conversation here.