Retail prices of pulses have shot up 25-30 per cent in the last one year, forcing the government to ban exports and ease imports of the commodity.
The widely-tracked wholesale price index (WPI), the cause of severe political pangs for the government every Friday, will be released on a monthly basis by the end of this year instead of weekly. In effect, instead of witnessing the release of inflation data for 52 consecutive weeks, the data will be made available only a dozen times a year.
STAR India, a wholly owned subsidiary of STAR Hong Kong, is exploring the possibilities of getting into the print media business in India. Last week, top STAR executives including STAR Hong Kong CEO Paul Aiello, STAR India CEO Uday Shankar and COO Jagdish Kumar were in Bangalore for meetings with possible joint venture partners for the print foray. The company is said to be in talks with Vijay Mallya's UB Group.
After 14 months of deliberation, the five-member Abhijit Sen Committee on futures trading has failed to reach a consensus on whether to support or oppose the ban on futures trading in all farm commodities. Earlier, the committee had planned to recommend continuation of the existing ban on futures trading in some farm commodities and had included it in its draft report. The government had suspended futures trading in tur, urad, wheat and rice last year.
Leading steel producers Tata Steel and state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd on Tuesday agreed to hold their prices for 2-3 months after the government's top economic managers spoke out against the rising cost of steel and cement. Essar Steel said it too could look at a similar assurance. Finance Minister P Chidambaram told Parliament that cement and steel producers were acting like a cartel and the govt was looking at legal and administrative measures to deal with them.
Qualcomm Incorporated, a developer of wireless technologies and data solutions, on Tuesday announced its plans to invest in Indian startup companies offering technologies and services that enhance the wireless communications and semiconductor ecosystems.
Karnataka has registered a lower rate of growth in its gross state domestic product (GSDP) compared to the national average in 2007-08. It logged a 7 per cent growth in its GSDP as against the national advance estimates of 8.7 per cent. Inflation was more or less the same as that of the country. The performance of secondary and tertiary sectors (comprising industry and services) has turned out to be a major disappointment unlike the agriculture sector, which has fared better.
The Indian biotech sector continues to face an acute shortage of specialists. But now there is a ray of hope, interestingly from a dark story being narrated in the pharma and biotech sectors in the United States and Europe. The sector is seeing downsizing there. This has made scientists of Indian origin explore opportunities in India. "The shortage and the noticeable gap is in terms of discovery-led drug development," said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon
M&S may hold a majority stake in the venture and the final contours of the partnership are being finalised. India allows 51 per cent foreign direct investment in single-brand retail and 100 per cent in cash-and-carry operations. Multi-brand retail is barred for foreign companies and investors. M&S may hold a majority stake in the venture and the final contours of the partnership are being finalised.
According to unconfirmed reports, North India has seen a Rs 3 hike. A Delhi-based dealer said the companies had told him that the price would go up by Rs 5 a bag in a day or two. "The companies raised wholesale prices and we passed on the burden to consumers," said a Mumbai-based dealer who did not want to be named. The present retail price in Mumbai is Rs 274 per bag. Market sources said Chennai had seen a hike of Rs 3.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the farmers' debt relief fund with an initial corpus of Rs 10,000 crore. The scheme, widely seen as a populist measure ahead of the general elections in 2009, will be implemented by June 30, 2008. The farmers will be entitled to fresh agricultural loans from banks after June 30. The CCEA also removed the ceiling of Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) for investment by power utility NTPC Ltd in joint ventures and subsidiaries in India & abroad.
The Rs 200,000 plus perks hike for regulators proposed in the Sixth Pay Commission is likely to attract good talent. It would be sufficient incentive for both private sector executives and serving bureaucrats to join as watchdogs. The Commission has recommended that the remuneration of chairpersons of regulatory agencies like the Sebi, Irda, Trai, CERC as well as the Competition Commission of India be hiked to Rs 300,000 if they do not avail of perks like cars and housing.
Since most of the States' coffers are depleting the hike in salaries in states is unlikely to match the central government. The payout is likely to be deferred levels. Besides, many states have their own pay commissions. However, state govt employees are assessing whether it is the central pay commission's recommendations that will be more beneficial for them or the state govt's own, as state commission's recommendations are reviewed every 5 years and centre's every 10 years.
Two years after the then JD(S)-BJP government announced the cart-and-bullock scheme for the farming community, the State Executive Committee headed by Governor Rameshwar Thakur gave a silent burial to the scheme last week after stopping short of branding it a 'complete failure'.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has received permission to offer CDMA services across the country (except Delhi and Mumbai) under the crossover technology policy. Under the policy, existing GSM operators are allowed to offer CDMA service and vice versa within the same licence after paying a fee.BSNL is the third company after Reliance Communications (which is in CDMA and wanted to operate GSM service) and Tata Teleservices (similar to Reliance) which has been given licences
Even states like Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh which were way behind, have now gone several notches up in their rankings. The survey has also exposed another southern state Andhra Pradesh which has fallen to number eight from the earlier fifth position. Politically-sensitive Gujarat has witnessed a major fall in its ranking by dropping 15 levels to occupy the 19th position.
There is a need to set up independent regulatory authorities on energy, transport and urban infrastructure at the state level to ensure smooth implementation of infrastructure projects, especially those which are taken up on the PPP (public private partnership) model, said Vinayak Chatterjee, co-chairman of the CII National Council on Infrastructure and chairman of Feedback Ventures Limited.
Barclays, a global financial services provider, announced the launch of 'Hello Money', a mobile banking service for its customers. The service will enable Barclays' customers access banking services anytime/anywhere on-the-move through mobile phones.Barclays customers can now perform account enquiries and financial transactions by simply dialling *598*1#. They can carry out secure banking transactions like fund transfers, bill payments, requests and other banking services.
At IIM-Indore, the highest domestic salary offer recorded this year was Rs 26 lakh compared with Rs 18 lakh last year an increase of Rs 44 per cent. At IIFT-Delhi, the highest domestic offer was Rs 25 lakh over Rs 19.20 lakh in 2007 an increase of 30 per cent. At IIM-Bangalore, for instance, consulting firms accounted for 37 per cent of total placements. At IIM -Ahmedabad, a total of 103 offers were made during lateral placements.
After having raised Rs 20,000 crore by selling NFOs, mutual funds are now likely to turn buyers. A slew of funds, including Morgan Stanley ACE Fund, Birla Sun Life Pure Value Fund, Mirae Asset India Opportunities Fund Standard Chartered Fund closed recently. Mutual funds launch NFOs to raise money since the mutual fund penetration in India is low. Most mutual funds expect redemptions on account of advance tax provisioning that corporate houses do at this time of the year.
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