The finance ministry on Wednesday said the government will borrow Rs 4.34 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal to meet its expenditure requirement amid COVID-19 crisis afflicting the country's economy.
The sluggish market situation notwithstanding, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday clarified to ministry officials he wouldn't accept any slippage in the government's Budget divestment target of Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) for this financial year.
India's foreign investment panel has approved Swedish retailer IKEA's Rs 10,000 crore plan to set up shop in the country, the trade minister said.
The rupee has lost over 2.5 per cent in the two trading days of this week and nearly 10 per cent in the past six weeks on concerns of scaling down of stimulus packages by the US.
DEA official writes to DIPP suggesting that govt needs to understand what has been left out, and why, in the revised application of the retailer.
The foreign investment proposal by Italian jewellery brand Damiani to set up a 51:49 joint venture with Mehta's Pvt Ltd also got the government's approval, sources said.
Chidambaram and his son Karti were named in the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case on July 19.
Subhash Chandra Garg, the former finance secretary who was shunted out of the finance ministry within three weeks of Modi-2.0 government's first budget last year, on Saturday alleged that new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman got him transferred out.
The price would increase from $4.2/mbtu to $10/mbtu if Rangarajan formula is accepted.
Industry is demanding a cut in repo rate to help revive India's sagging GDP growth that hit decade's low of 4.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2012-13.
In a note for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the ministry has proposed raising gas price for state-run firms immediately and that for RIL from April 2014, sources privy to the development said.
Rajiv Kumar will continue as vice-chairman of the body, along with other full-time members V K Saraswat, Ramesh Chand and V K Paul.
Mandatory pvt participation, annual tariff hikes, conforming to FRBM limits seen difficult.
The call for rate cut comes ahead of the annual monetary policy announcement scheduled for Friday, wherein it is widely expected that the apex bank will cut lending rates by 0.25 per cent as inflationary pressures have eased much more than its projected levels.
Traditionally, the Budget making exercise begins from mid-October.
'With the deaths of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi, the BJP and Congress thought that they had a chance.' 'They have conceded that power is with the Dravidian parties.'
It is more than certain that coal supply is a major constraint on power production; and power is a major constraint on industrial growth.
He laid stress on workers' connection with the ground and cited his own example when he was party in-charge for various assembly elections in the past.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has long been demanding special category status for his state.
Chidambaram said it was a 'despicable slur' on the six secretaries of the government.
The move comes after CBI gets sanction to prosecute him in Aircel-Maxis case
The Department of Disinvestment proposes to begin the stake sale process in September.
Rajan has shifted from the conventional ground floor room occupied by CEAs to a room on the first floor, adjacent to Chidambaram's office.
The move is part of a larger initiative by the government to speed up work in the highway sector.
Tech giant allowed to set up fully owned shops, with 30% local sourcing like everyone else.
"Historically, all possible combinations have occurred: inflation with and without [economic] development, no inflation with and without [economic] development".
Foreign airlines can now pick up 49 per cent stake in India's domestic carriers, a step that is expected to give a boost to cash-strapped aviation industry.
A direction is this regard was given on Wednesday after Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal met in the presence of the secretaries of the Department of Economic Affairs and Coal Ministry
The Finance Ministry on Saturday said there is no dilution of the permission granted to the Swedish furniture major Ikea to set up its business in India, as the Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 105 billion) investment proposal is limited to only single brand retailing.
Even as the rupee plunged to a 10-week low against US dollar on Friday erasing almost the entire gains it made since the recent reform waves, the Finance Ministry on Saturday expressed optimism of a recovery before the fiscal-end and ruled out any intervention by RBI.
In a bid to sort out some thorny issues between India and Bangladesh -- including the delay in implementation of the land boundary agreement, signing of a deal to share water of the Teesta river, the Tipaimukh barrage project etc -- two advisers to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are currently visiting New Delhi.
North Block and Mint Road seem likely to now stick to the earlier convention of the RBI governor coming to Delhi and being the only MPC member meeting the finance minister and senior bureaucrats on pre-policy meetings
The government is committed to restricting fiscal deficit at 5.3 per cent of GDP this financial year and has no immediate plans to go for additional market borrowings, a senior government official said.
Major gainers in the Sensex pack were Hero Motocorp, which rallied 7.01 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel (6.69 per cent), Yes Bank (5.30 per cent), Adani Ports (4.90 per cent), Tata Steel (3.75 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (3.70 per cent).
The sources said the matter should have been referred to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs as foreign investments above Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) can only be cleared by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by the Prime Minister.
A 10-hour RBI central board meeting, on November 19, decides to set up a panel on the economic capital framework for the central bank and directs it to give forbearances to small businesses.
Claiming that the fundamentals of the economy are 'very strong', the newly-appointed economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram said, 'we already have a roadmap to be followed for fiscal consolidation.
The finance ministry has already raised the fiscal deficit target to a more acceptable level of 5.3 per cent.
The broader NSE Nifty, in a volatile session, recaptured the key 11,300-mark. It ended at 11,369.90, up 82.40 points or 0.73 per cent.
