If implemented, the central government's proposal to hike the age of retirement of its employees from 60 to 62 will defer by two years its pension liabilities of around Rs 14,749 crore (Rs 147.49 billion), according to the Invest India Economic Foundation (IIEF).
In a move that will benefit over 10 million central and state government employees, besides those in the defence services, the ministry of personnel is finalising a proposal to raise the retirement age of central government officials from 60 to 62 years. If approved by the Cabinet, this will be the second time in nine years that the retirement age will be raised.
The communications ministry is of the view that telecom tariffs in India can fall further to almost half their current levels - with local intra-circle calls for 25 paise and nationwide long distance calls for 50 paise - provided new operators are allowed to start services.
Experts say this is a landmark deal that tackles a long-pending issue and will boost Russian investment in India's energy, minerals and defence sectors. The debt, accumulated over several years till April 15, 2007, is parked with the Reserve Bank of India. Explaining the agreement, Indian officials said a Russian company planning to invest in India would deposit rouble funds equivalent to their proposed investment with the Russian central bank.
In order to provide greater leeway to central government departments and ministries to finalise centrally-funded projects, the Department of Expenditure under the finance ministry has increased the financial limits of projects requiring approval from various cost-approving bodies.
Bharti Airtel and United Breweries have expressed interest in acquiring, respectively, the Delhi and Bangalore or Mumbai teams in the impending Indian Premier League for Twenty20 cricket matches.
Faced with huge cost overruns due to a delay in building the rural roads under Bharat Nirman, the Planning Commission is now looking at alternative ways to fund the ambitious rural development project of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.The rural road project, christened the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), has seen tardy performance on the target of constructing 146,185 km of rural roads by 2009.
The view follows a detailed review of the matter by DoT since March this year, after Dayanidhi Maran, then communications minister, asked officials to provide details about the possibility of the Tata-owned VSNL being allowed to retain the land. This latest recommendation, made in September, comes despite the fact that the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs had, in December 2005, approved hiving off the land bank into a separate company.
Some new sectors in which the commerce ministry has proposed to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) are credit information companies and commodity exchanges. The ministry is in favour of allowing up to 49 per cent FDI proposed in both these sectors. In proposing to open up the commodity sector, the ministry has said that FII investment be limited to 24 per cent, with a condition that a foreign investor cannot hold more than 10 per cent equity in the investing companies
As foreign fund flows have lifted the rupee to record highs against the dollar, the commerce ministry has started telling exporters to prepare for the Indian currency rising further to 38 against the dollar by December. The strong rupee is already hurting India's exporters, with companies cutting jobs and scaling back expansions. A further appreciation may have even worse consequences for sectors like textile, infotech and automobile.
Even as record foreign fund flows lifted the rupee to 39.43 against the US dollar today, the highest since 1999, the commerce ministry has started telling exporters to prepare for the rupee rising even further to 38 against the US dollar by December. The strong rupee is already hurting India's exporters, with companies cutting jobs and scaling back expansion. A further appreciation may have even worse consequences for sectors like textiles, infotech and automobiles.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) is in talks with the Department of Posts to take the help of its staff in collecting sample data for the proposed Consumer Price Index for Rural India (CPI-R). The data for the index would be collected from 1,000 villages, Chief Statistician of India Pronab Sen said on the sidelines of a national seminar on the results of the 61st round of the National Sample Survey.
The finance ministry has opposed the proposed airport at Greater Noida, and has instead favoured upgrading infrastructure at Delhi airport, which it says makes more economic sense. This has come as a shot in the arm for the GMR group, the private sector developer of Delhi airport, which has been opposing another airport so close to the existing one.
Ashok Kumar Jha will step into a role that BVR Subbu, a powerful and seasoned corporate campaigner, had demitted over a year ago.
A US resident has advertised to sell land in that country to Indians here. In the process, the seller may have started a trend of US owners turning to overseas buyers as local demand for housing dries up following the serial bankruptcies from the sub-prime mortgage, or high-risk home loan, crisis.
Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers' quest for a mobile licence seems to have hit a roadblock at the Department of Telecom (DoT). Parsvnath, which is one of the seven realty firms in the fray for mobile licences, hasn't mentioned the business of "telecommunications" in its memorandum of association (MoA).
The Sixth Pay Commission is likely to significantly raise basic salaries for an estimated 4.5 million central government employees. The recommendations are expected to be submitted in January, a few months ahead of schedule, and the award is likely to come into effect from January 2006.
Going by application dates, companies like Spice, Birla-promoted Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications (through Swan and Cheetah) and Hindustan Futuristic are in the lead for licences in different circles. The only new player in the list is the little-known ByCell.Several incumbents like Idea Cellular, Maxis-Aircell, owned by a Malaysian promoter, and Vodafone-Essar lead the list of applicants for initial spectrum allocation since they already hold licences.
Officers of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) want their pay scales to be determined on the basis of prevailing market rates. However, they are not ready to give up the substantial perks they enjoy, like palatial bungalows in city centres, number of attendants, guards, drivers and other assorted facilities.
The rush to enter the world's fastest-growing mobile services market has attracted a wide range of applicants for telecom licences with the Department of Telecommunications.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances