"Overall we are beginning to see some hopeful signs. . . in a number of sectors we have seen some changes... cement, steel, capital goods... I don't think 5.1 per cent is what we are going to achieve," Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar said here at the CII Annual session in New Delhi.
The Reserve Bank is in touch with various banks to understand why lending rates are not coming down despite the central bank cutting policy rates, even as the bankers expressed inability to lower the rates when bond yields remain high.
The delegation held meetings with the state department and the White House, besides meeting the US corporate leadership, policy makers and think tanks. Prominent among those the delegation met included Jim Steinberg, the Deputy Secretary of State at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of state department.
Infosys, one of the biggest employers in the country, has said that all general hiring in the company has come to a standstill as business has slowed down considerably. Though Nilekani did not give out any numbers, it is understood that the Nasdaq-listed company is resorting to need-based recruitment, had made offers to 18,000 students of the 2009-10 batch from different campuses.
Speaking on the sidelines of CII annual regional meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday, Tata Steel group CFO Koushik Chatterjee confirmed that production cut continues to be around 40 per cent. Exuding confidence that the company will be able to save 600 million pounds by March as envisaged, Chatterjee said, "The cost saving measures are on track at Corus in line with the target."
Enthused by government's commitment to act proactively and ensure more liquidity to promote economic growth, ICICI Bank managing director K V Kamath on Monday promised to review interest rate in the next few days.
"We two sides support free trade. . . this (easing of ban) is a very concrete sign to show that China and India like to work together to tackle the financial crisis and to achieve common development," Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan told reporters in New Delhi at a CII function.
The country needed to focus on applications for education, e-governance, health, food and developing local applications in future, he said in his keynote address through tele-conferencing at the CII organised `Comtel 2008' on the theme `Breaking Barriers, Bridging the Divide' in Bangalore on Wednesday.
He underlined that Lok Sabha election results in India show that the Modi government kept alive and strengthened the 'expectation of change' in the country.
An 80-member strong Indian delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry will participate in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, from 23-27 January 2008.
Says Satyam is not a commodity. B K Modi of Spice had earlier pushed for e-auction, for its transparency.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday asked the industry to hold the price line, failing which the government may take administrative measures to control the soaring inflation, hovering above seven per cent mark now. However, he said the government feels that fiscal and monetary measures to control inflation are sufficient at present. Among the monetary measures to control prices, the Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced a hike in CRR by 25 basis to 8.25 per cent.
"It defies logic, one is not sure whether there is much more to it than is written in the letter and whether the letter contains all the facts," KPMG chief operating officer Richard Rekhy said on the sidelines of a CII function in New Delhi. It is too simplistic at the moment to believe that the kind of thing that has happened in the company is done by Raju alone, he said.
Stressing the need for the government to take more steps for boosting growth, noted industrialist and Godrej Group chief Adi Godrej on Thursday said the Indian economy needs a lot more liquidity to sustain its growth momentum.
There is a need to set up independent regulatory authorities on energy, transport and urban infrastructure at the state level to ensure smooth implementation of infrastructure projects, especially those which are taken up on the PPP (public private partnership) model, said Vinayak Chatterjee, co-chairman of the CII National Council on Infrastructure and chairman of Feedback Ventures Limited.
Allocations for new projects have diminished in relative importance, but policy pronouncements continue to have an impact. To come straight to the point on outlays, the table shows that against the country's requirement of $100 million per annum (as per the 11th Five-Year Plan), the Union Budget is able to provide only about 5-6 per cent of the requirement in 2008-09. How does this 5-6 per cent come about?
India's economic condition is expected to improve by 2022 though the gap between the rich and the poor would widen, said C K Prahalad, management consultant and author of corporate strategy, including The Core Competence of the Corporation, said on the sidelines of the CII press conference.
The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, on Thursday said that "Tata Nano" may have a marginal impact on the sales of its entry level small car Maruti 800 but ruled out cutting its price.
The country's largest bike maker, Hero Honda, on Thursday said the launch of the Rs 1 lakh car 'Nano' will not have any impact on the two-wheeler industry.
Ashok Soota has cited 4 challenges that India Inc is facing. He stressed on a robust risk management strategy for Indian companies. He also stated responding to changes in market environment, resolving legal and regulatory differences and encouraging leadership and accepting cultural diversity as other challenges. Highlighting the challenges faced by the India Inc, experts said globalisation is essential to pursue growth opportunities and leverage comparative advantage.
'RBI and the economy will gain tremendously from Urjit Patel's experience in both private and public sectors'
The removal of tariffs would result in health insurance becoming the second-largest business for general insurance companies over the next three years.The health insurance premium which stood at Rs 675 crore in 2001-2002 has risen to Rs 3,200 crore by March 31, 2007.
According to sources the proposal has been scuppered by the British commerce ministry, which was not consulted, and which is the sectoral ministry for trade and investment.
Indian clean technology businesses are finally catching the attention of investor community. New Ventures India - founded by World Resources Institute and CII-Godrej Green Business Centre - aims to fund 50 entrepreneurs in this segment by 2010 with a target investment of $250 million
"Higher the number of creative minds, the faster India will transform into a developed nation," the former President told participants of "Imagine and Innovate", a contest for teens organised by the CII in Chennai.
RBI has cut the rates thrice so far in 2015 by 25 bps each.
The DMK parliamentary party appears to be a house divided, reports R Rajagopalan.
The government on Monday said it has no plans to ban more farm commodities from futures market and hoped that suspension of trading in soya oil, chana, potato and rubber would not be extended beyond four months.
The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), have opened nominations for India's 'Social Entrepren
The country's largest private lender ICICI Bank on Monday said that interest rates are expected to come down in the next one-and-a-half months.
Ruling out any price band, the government on Friday said domestic steel prices should come downfollowing the softening global trend.
Terming inflation as a key challenge, the Confederation of Indian Industry on Thursday said the government is worried, but not panicked, that rising prices may go to levels where controlling it could become difficult.
Kotak Mahindra Group MD Uday Kotak on Friday said it will be tough for stock exchanges to decide whether to stop trading in the Satyam scrip, which has fallen by over 95 per cent in a matter of two days' trading on the NSE.
Bharti Airtel boss Sunil Mittal already heads the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Former BPL Mobile boss Rajeev Chandrasekhar is slated to take over as Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) president.
According to a study more than one-fifth of India's product start-ups are from the city.
ICICI Bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive K V Kamath is of the opinion that inspite of the marginal dip in growth India's long-term economic growth potential remains sustainable. However, he said the growth may slip from the previous 10 per cent level to around 8 per cent this fiscal. The services sector, contributing 60% to GDP, will help sustain the growth path. He said present inflation is a supply-side phenomenon and is not due to any over-heating in the economy.
Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said introduction of mobile number portability is unlikely to affect the company's margins as it expects a major churn out of subscribers in favour of GSM operators.
'Let the high price of onions clear the market, matching supply with demand.' 'Let onion growers keep exporting -- we are the world's largest onion exporter, export 10% of our production,' advises Naushad Forbes.
It is the six per cent target RBI is more concerned about.
It includes a session with Gadkari on analysing the initiatives needed to bridge the $1 trillion infrastructure deficit in the country.
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