A fresh study by the IMF's India office, however, suggests the battle against inflation may already have been won as far back as last month. Official inflation is measured by the change in the price index (Wholesale or Consumer) over that a month ago (year-on-year). What the IMF has done is to measure the monthly change in this index, and then removed the impact of the change that takes place due to seasonal factors such as the crop coming in.
Move to ensure deals do not hit govt licence fees, revenue share.
Aviation Minister Praful Patel's outburst against Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is perhaps not difficult to understand since most people think it was actually Patel who should have been keeping an eye on the delays at the Delhi airport.
That panic has set in among policy makers is suggestive of the worst being over in global inflation.
The world financial markets were close to breakdown just a month or so ago. While the rest of the world's central banks missed the big picture, not so the US Fed led by Prof. Ben Bernanke. His timely interventions, and a worldview of what works and what does not, has most likely helped avert a global financial meltdown; if such a meltdown had occurred, it would have affected all of us quite severely.
Data for more than 100 countries over 47 years shows little sign that currency appreciation causes a dent in inflation levels.
We've witnessed the first phase of the mess in the country's public sector-driven aviation sector. In the absence of properly-thought-out rules, the next, a privately-driven one, awaits us.
Everyone, from investment banks to economists, are speculating about the GDP growth rate. Such speculation is often followed by herd mentality. Everybody is a big bear these days. Everyone is predicting a US recession that will last much more than six months. But large parts of the world are yet to show any significant deceleration in GDP growth in response to the US slowdown. Another useful statistic is the changing share in world GDP growth, in US dollars, of India & China.
Arun Shourie had legitimised Reliance Communications' CDMA-mobile phone offerings on its fixed line licence in 2002 and Telecom Minister A Raja decided to treat its CDMA-licence as a GSM-mobile one to award it GSM spectrum. With such things falling in place for RCom, the firm asked the ministry to allow it to use the 880-890 MHz band. Such incidents indicate that favourable spectrum allotment for RCom & its smooth sailing in the current spectrum issue is not mere coincidence.
The amount of loans to small and marginal farmers that commercial banks, cooperatives and regional rural banks have been asked to waive is likely to be slightly over Rs 23,000 crore (Rs 230 billion), less than half that estimated by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget speech. The share of this due to commercial banks is probably around Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) the total overdue from all farmers to commercial banks is around Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion).
PricewaterhouseCoopers Executive Director Shyamal Mukherjee tells Business Standard that the real changes in the Budget, from the taxation point of view, will be evident in the new tax code the finance minister is developing.
Given the existing airport is in the centre of town and there's no UDF, it's easy to see why passengers are up in arms. Indeed, if you think the goings on in the Delhi airport are a scandal, what's happening in Hyderabad is a lot worse.
For good policy, and good governance, it is necessary to provide full independence to the Reserve Bank of India.
India's policy of rupee appreciation has had the unfortunate, and predictable, effects of not only hurting the Indian economy but also benefiting the Chinese economy.
The Delhi International Airport Limited's (DIAL) ongoing tussle with the Airports Authority of India/Ministry of Civil Aviation (AAI/MoCA) isn't likely to get resolved in a hurry, though things appeared settled when, a few weeks ago, Aviation Minister Praful Patel said at a press conference that the government would go by the Attorney General's (AG) opinion on the dispute.
TDSAT lifted the stay on distributing spectrum within about 30 minutes, instead of hearing detailed arguments on merits. Perhaps things would have been different if the hearing had come up after the Chief Justice made it clear the courts could interfere in government policy.
Opportunity beckons about once every 10 years - sense and profit favour going long on the US dollar against the majors, and short against China and East Asia.
What's happening in the telecom sector are classic bullying tactics - do the wrong thing, threaten to do worse, get the threatened party to sue for peace, and walk away smelling of roses after a "compromise".
The Reliance decision was challenged by various GSM-mobile phone firms and there is an attempt to create a split in their ranks -- Maxis Aircel has already withdrawn from the court case, and it is likely another one or two firms will follow as they've been made to believe this improves their chances of getting spectrum.
Implementing two simple policies - registration, not licensing, of foreign portfolio investors, and reduction of interest rates - will make capital inflows non-copious.
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