Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Wednesday, July 24, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:

The Indian market's benchmark indices reacted poorly to the Union Budget yesterday. Sensex fell during the day, but recovered by the time markets closed. It was down by 0.1 percent. Nifty dropped by 0.12 percent.

First things first — if you're looking for a quick primer to catch up on yesterday's announcements, we have you covered. Vivek Kaul lists out the Budget in 8 succinct points. Topics ranging from personal income tax to the stock market and even the added benefits to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are covered.

The Budget had some setbacks for investors: both short and longterm capital gains taxes were increased. In this new environment, how should you invest? Ram Sahgal spoke to market veterans, who said that the adverse reaction from the markets might not last too long. Some volatility in trading is expected in the next few trading sessions. However, investors must ride out this volatile period before chasing any dips, Ram writes.

There were also changes to the income tax brackets. Aprajita Sh arma writes that these changes to the new tax regime will attract a maximum benefit of 17,500 rupees. She analyses both old and new tax regimes, and presents a study of which one you should choose. While anyone earning less than 7 lakh rupees should choose the new regime, higher income brackets have some decisions to make. Aprajita also speaks to a chartered accountant to get additional inputs on this crucial decision.

The Union Budget had some raucous background noises every time the Finance Minister would talk about initiatives for the states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Nitish Kumar and N. Chandrababu Naidu cashed in on being good allies of the NDA government. Dhirendra Kumar writes that Bihar will be receiving nearly 60,000 crore rupees worth of assistance from the central government, while Andhra Pradesh is set to receive 15,000 crore rupees. Dhirendra explains the various schemes that will benefit the two states over the coming year.

This was a great budget if you were the founder of a startup or a large investor. The industry has received two big bonuses from this year's Budget: abolition of the angel tax, and reduction of long-term gains tax for unlisted securities. Ranjani Raghavan writes that this will boost domestic capital investment into the Indian startup ecosystem, at a time when funding for such companies has been stagnant.

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Show notes:

Mint Primer | Eight points to note from the Union budget

Let the dust settle on tax shocker, but MF investors can stick to SIP route

How to choose between the old and new tax regimes

The good allies: Bihar gets ₹47,400 cr for infra; AP ₹15,000 cr for capital

Startups, investors buoyed by twin tax wins in “dream budget”