The government is discussing a number of policy measures to insulate India from the impact of the global financial crisis including further banking reform, industrial de-control, auctioning all loss-making public sector units, foreign investment in retail, amending labour laws and notifying important pending legislation like the Delhi Rent Control Act.
Having made no headway to amend a 26-year-old double taxation avoidance agreement with Mauritius, the finance ministry has hardened its stance against broadening India's economic engagement with the island nation.
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.
So far, most of those horrified by the dramatic evidence that surfaced last week of Telecom Minister A Raja's largesse on 2G spectrum costing the nation $10bn (that on 3G will probably cost another $5bn) have comforted themselves with one thought: maybe the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, which is hearing the case, will conclude the policy changes were illegal and smacked of favouritism.
Move to make investing in sectors with FDI cap easier.
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.
Mobile telecom service providers are up against a new problem -- unidentified operators have been found to take out subsidised handsets from their 'bundled' connections and ship them to overseas markets at significantly higher prices.
The government may liberalise external commercial borrowing rules in the next few days, especially for the infrastructure sector including capital-intensive ones like telecom, a Finance Ministry official said on Friday.
An article in the latest The McKinsey Quarterly argues that thanks to rising wages in countries like China and Malaysia (favoured offshoring locations for manufacturing) and high costs of oil, the advantages of offshoring are rapidly eroding.
More than nuclear power, India stands to gain access to a wide range of dual-use goods and technologies, from which it was barred, as a result of the waiver by the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
It has been nearly four months since Sidharth Punshi, 34, former executive director at Goldman Sachs, joined Jefferies International, a global investment bank and institutional securities firm, as the managing director and country head for India. In a recent interview, Punshi told Business Standard that despite the tight liquidity scenario and a challenging global situation, Indian companies continue to chase merger and acquisition deals abroad.
Promoters of Rajasthan Royals look to spin off team's success for better valuations.
The latest NCAER annual household survey, to use other data, points out that around 33 per cent of the bottom 40 per cent of households had a television set and another 12 per cent a two-wheeler in 2005 -- how they can all be poor is anyone's guess, says Sunil Jain.
The notification with regard to the Sixth Pay Commission award is ready and is currently being approved by statutory authorities. Sources said the dearness allowance effective this July is also likely to be announced the same day.
A separate law for faster enforcement of high-value business contracts is on the anvil. The aim is to boost the business and investment climate in India, a country that many perceive is bedevilled by difficulties in doing business.
In the last two years, there have been at least three instances of the government actively stepping in on Mukesh Ambani's side.
In another instance of Indian tax authorities adopting a hard-nosed stance to prevent abuse of tax avoidance treaties, the revenue department recently opposed a proposal of a Cyprus-based company to increase its stake in an Indian telecom services company from 40 per cent to nearly 74 per cent.
The wholesale price index based inflation rose to 12.44 per cent for the week ended August 2. Wheat has a weight of 1.38 per cent in the index. The department of economic affairs and the department of food and public distribution are in favour of selling 4 million tonnes wheat.
Pensioners to get 40% raise, more gains for octogenarians. The Union Cabinet has accepted this proposal, along with other recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on pension benefits for the estimated 3.84 million central government pensioners at a meeting here on Thursday.
while Mumbaikars spend a smaller proportion of their incomes on food, beverages and tobacco (33.2 per cent) than Surat-ites (37.5 per cent), the total market for food, beverages and tobacco products in Mumbai in 2007-08 was Rs 28,590 crore (Rs 285.90 billion) as compared to a much smaller Rs 6,600 crore (Rs 66 billion) in Surat.
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