A senior income tax department official in the know of the discussions to have taken place in the finance ministry said the ministry was looking into the issue as a possible option.
For instance, a pack of 20 Classic branded cigarettes (from ITC) now costs Rs 120.
In absolute terms, close to 9.2 million customers (almost equal to Mumbai's suburban population) have defaulted on loan repayment. Microfinance institutions currently have around 32 million clients in the country.
Disinvestment Secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan told Business Standard that till now, public sector companies were only allowed to invest in mutual funds, apart from putting money in bank fixed deposits, but the Cabinet had now approved the proposal to allow these companies to buy equities of other CPSEs.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will likely encapsulate this thinking in his Budget speech, to be finalised by March 13.
The requirement of one million units would entail a huge market for firms such as HCL Infosystems, Geodesic, VeriFone, Visiontek and others manufacturing micro-ATMs.
Move to allow the FDI in domestic airlines is expected to benefit Kingfisher Airlines.
The Unique Identifiaction Authority of India is expediting creation of platforms for implementing the model, likely to include coverage of the Public Distribution System and other areas of subsidy, and also government's social sector schemes.
Before joining IndusInd Bank, he was the regional head of RBS' corporate solutions business in Asia Pacific region and was based in Singapore.
Kotak Mahindra Bank has acquired the non-performing portfolio of Barclays Bank's credit card business in India. The deal, experts said, gives momentum to the sale of stressed loan market in the country which has been having a dry run following stringent regulatory norms introduced in 2007.
Bailout packages for fiscally stressed states are in the works, as the government seeks to garner political backing for the key policy reforms it plans to fast-track after the five state elections. A senior finance ministry official involved in the process said a high-level committee under expenditure secretary Sumit Bose had held consultations to identify measures to help West Bengal, Punjab and Kerala.
Provident fund body may get support to ensure interest rate comparable with other savings instruments.
The authority is set to cross the target by the end of this month, with a million enrolments every day. It has already allotted 116.3 million Aadhar numbers.
A senior government official says the idea is to facilitate mutually beneficial ways to keep the supply going.
Bankers and industry analysts say a number of public and private sector banks have expressed willingness to offer fresh loans to Indian companies to help them repay their overseas dues maturing in the near term.
The strategy is aimed at putting critical economic policy initiatives in top gear immediately after the completion of Assembly polls in the five states in early March.
Barclays Finance, the non-banking finance arm of Barclays Corporate in India, plans to close the majority of its branches here, as part of the lender's plan to scale down retail operations in the country.
Bank will charge floating rates of interest from January.
The investment to the country from India, which has been at the top of the 2009-10 list of the destinations to which Indian investment is flowing, was $3798.5 million.
Recent slide in inflation no consolation amid exceptional shrinkage in industrial growth.
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