Indian economy is expected to grow between 7 and 7.4 per cent in the three months up to September 2008, as against 9.3 per cent in the year-ago quarter, five top economists of the country told Business Standard. The government is slated to release the quarterly numbers on Friday.
'We have discontinued or replaced certain contractual staff, total number not exceeding double digits, in the north India operations involved in activities under the discretionary cost head,' a Reliance Industries spokesperson said in reply to an e-mailed query sent by Business Standard. According to some employees, who claimed to have been retrenched, the number of laid-off people is much higher. However, the company denies this.
The rate cuts are expected to infuse Rs 80,000 crore into the banking system.
Data with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion reveals that between April 2005 and July 2008, Japan Inc pumped in 50 per cent of the total investments inflows between April 2000 and July 2008. In fact, between June and October this year, Japanese companies said they would pump in $8 billion. Experts say this is not a knee-jerk reaction by the Japanese, who are known to be very meticulous with their investments.
Interest charged by government lower than bank rates.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads an Empowered Group of Ministers on Special Economic Zones, is likely to consult Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the dispute between finance and commerce ministries over tax exemption for export profits from the zones.
A department committee, set up to look at ways to expand the TDS net, is scheduled to meet in Hyderabad to discuss the proposal. hile some services like contracts, construction and rentals are under the TDS net, a large number of services like beauty treatment, connectivity between mobile operators, event management, credit rating agencies, market research firms and authorised automobile service stations are not.
The implementation of the ambitious India-Asean Free Trade Agreement is likely to miss the target date of January 1, 2009. Negotiators from both the countries had closed talks this August, after six years of painstaking dialogue.
This decision will come as a relief to Essar's multi-product port-based SEZ project in Hazira as well as of Adani Group's zone in Mundra, which the revenue department felt was not built on vacant land when it was notified, and hence it had violated the law. Both the zones are in Gujarat.
With the global financial crisis hurting more companies in developed countries, Indian insurance firms have hiked premium rates by 25-30 per cent for export credit insurance covers and have imposed a host of restrictions such as maximum liability and credit limit in case of single buyers.
According to sources, last week's talks between the two countries had hit a roadblock as Japanese trade envoys were unwilling to grant market access to Indian pharmaceuticals and allow professionals, including nurses, to work in the island nation. The talks were held in Tokyo.
In a move to boost liquidity, the government and the Reserve Bank of India are considering a special window to enable banks with farm loan relief scheme arrears, a major factor impacting liquidity, to raise funds. The move will help inject liquidity into the system till Parliament approves the Rs 25,000-crore reimbursement.
Commerce Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai speaks to Business Standard on the impact the Tata Motors decision to pull out of Singur will have on the investment climate in the state.
With the government and the Reserve Bank of India taking steps to ease the liquidity crunch, home borrowers and small enterprises may get 25-50 basis points relief from high interest rates in the short term.
In effect, the government proposes to relax the norms with regard to foreign participation in multi-brand retail by opening up these specialised sectors, while keeping grocery and consumer goods retail out of bounds. The move comes months after the Left parties, which were opposed to any relaxation of FDI norms for the retail sector, pulled out of the United Progressive Alliance government.
The finance ministry is likely to float a discussion paper next month on the proposed new income tax law, which aims to simplify the existing law and phase out tax exemptions.
Move to make investing in sectors with FDI cap easier.
The decision by India and Pakistan to scale up the number of freight trains between the two countries to five a day has not yet materialised due to lack of sufficient freight traffic between the two countries. At present, two freight trains each from Pakistan and India cross the border post at Attari and Wagah every day.
The relaxation will apply to those sectors that have composite caps (foreign direct investment or FDI plus FII). "The move will not impact sectors like banking and insurance which are governed by Acts of Parliament. However, sectors with composite caps which see administrative control like telecommunication services, broadcast services like direct-to-home and FM radio will benefit," a Delhi based FDI policy expert told Business Standard.
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