French auction was tried for two issues - NTPC Ltd and Rural Electrification Corporation - in 2009-10.
Says it is worried a general pardon will send wrong signal
India ranked 52 in 2011 index against its position at 53rd among 125 nations a year ago.
It is now clear that the revised takeover code and the Bimal Jalan committee report will not be implemented soon and in the same form, since the finance ministry wants to seek industry views on these two sets of recommendations this month, before the market regulator could take a decision.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
In an environment vitiated by strong arm tactics of some microfinancial institutions, financial inclusion could be a business opportunity.
Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor in the finance ministry, said, "All I can say is, we are very serious about fiscal consolidation, and intend holding on to our fiscal targets, even if the crude price rises on a sustained basis."
This activity will allow us to identify those jurisdictions where either the legal framework is not good enough or practices are not good enough and, therefore, information is not flowing.
As India's investment rate is estimated to decline this financial year, industry chamber CII has asked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to give a boost to investments in the forthcoming Budget, but economists believe a rollback of stimulus may continue.
G-20, the grouping of developed and emerging market economies, will focus on food security but issues concerning India like rising prices of vegetables may not come up for discussions at a meeting in Paris next week.
The finance ministry said it would wait for RBI guidelines, a development which will provide much relief to ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. Both are already known as Foreign Owned Indians Controlled entities, after foreign investment in them rose much above 50 per cent, following new norms of calculations by the commerce ministry.
The finance ministry seems to be gung ho about economic growth next financial year. It may peg this at nine per cent for 2011-12 in the Economic Survey, likely to be tabled in Parliament on February 25, even as the Reserve bank of India (RBI) hinted at a lower figure.
As the debate on revealing names of those who had stashed money abroad was hotting up, a Parliamentary panel grilled finance ministry officials on why the confidentiality clause was put in tax treaties in the first place.
Amid decelerating manufacturing growth, the Reserve Bank wants the government to come out with measures in the Budget to give a boost to the sector, which can employ surplus labour from agriculture.
The revised bill will give statutory powers to interim regulator Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority to make it on par with other financial regulators -- Securities and Exchange Board of India, Reserve Bank of India and IRDA.
Divestment of public sector companies gathered steam in the first year of UPA-II that saw two PSUs-- Oil India and NHPC-- raising around Rs 8,600 crore (Rs 86 billion) from IPOs and the way was cleared for divestment in three more state-run power companies in the new year.
India has attracted investment worth $1.6 billion for projects in the fields of power, steel, construction and engineering special economic zones from Japanese companies.
The Hinduja Group chairman, who was in Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum, however, noted that the incident might not have much impact on the reputation of India Inc in the eyes of foreigners, who are more used to such scams. Raju's confession not only shocked India Inc, but investors all over the world. Such type of wrongdoings are more prevalent in the western world and foreigners are used to this kind of happenings, Hinduja said.
India has exuded optimism that it would continue to maintain economic growth rate of 7-7.5 per cent next fiscal, the same level it is expected to register in the current fiscal, even as its neighbour China termed its lower growth projection of 8 per cent in 2009 as a tall order.
Under attack from the international community for not reining in terrorist outfits, Pakistan on Thursday said that it will not allow use of its territory for terror activities."I assure you and I assure the House that I will never ever allow my soil, Pakistani soil to be used for terror activities," Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.Terming the Mumbai incident as 'unfortunate', Gilani said, "We condemn terrorism."