For the first time, the government is considering the merits of a tariff policy to contain prices that could include allowing external agencies to import commodities and cultivating some essential crops overseas. An inter-departmental team from the ministries of finance, food and consumer affairs and commerce has been asked to work out a strategy to this effect.The finance ministry's department of economic affairs has submitted its views and a final paper is under preparation
'From the investor's point of view, a real change would happen only when business environment in all our states qualitatively improves,' says NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar.
Central government employees and pensioners will get an additional 6 per cent dearness allowance from next month, putting a burden of over Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) on the exchequer.
Finance Minister announced the approval of the scholarship scheme for students of minority communities. The scheme will be effective during 11th Five Year Plan.
In a bid to encourage the fertiliser industry to increase its production volumes, the government has extended the system of actual freight reimbursement to all types of fertilisers. Currently, only urea enjoys this concession.
Retail, telecom, media and a host of sectors in which foreign direct investment is restricted stand to gain from changes in FDI policy that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared on Wednesday linking approvals to the concept of control for the first time.
The government does not expect the stock markets to fall below the levels witnessed on Monday, which saw benchmark Sensex plunging by nearly 700 points during the intra-day trade.
The Centre's proposal to call for governance reform in the RBI could, however, take a back seat, a source privy to the development said.
"The prime minister asked the ministers to stay alert on the global financial situation," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
According to the revised borrowing schedule the government would raise Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion), while the earlier borrowing programme was for Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) in the last quarter. The Reserve Bank had revised its indicative calendar for the fourth quarter of 2008-09, superseding the borrowing programme announced on December 5.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the implementation of the national policy on biofuels.
Former economic affairs secretary E A S Sarma has written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India questioning the delay in investigating Satyam Computer even after he had alerted the regulator 'well in advance' about certain irregularities in the company's books of accounts after the Maytas deal was called off last month.
"I wrote nearly eight letters to Sebi alerting them about Satyam's fraudulent practices and the company's connivance with local politicians but none of the letters elicited any response from the regulator. Sebi remained silent about the issue even while I mentioned to them that MCA launched a fact-finding probe. But the fact is that the MCA probe too was very slow and only on paper," Sarma said.
According to sources, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Ministry of IT have supported the reserve price of Rs 2,020 crore (Rs 20.2 billion) as was originally recommended by DoT. Last week, the finance ministry had asked the DoT to double the reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum.
Pepsico India Holding need not divest 49 per cent equity in bottling firms to Indian companies, with the government today exempting it from the obligation following change in FDI rules for the food processing sector.
Roads account for the second largest amount of bad loans.
Aiming at bolstering the sagging economy as well as providing housing to all, the urban poor will get 5 per cent interest subsidy for home loans up to Rs 100,000, taken during the Eleventh Plan period.
While the government expects the new urea policy to bring more investment, the fertiliser industry is less than enthused. New capacities to make urea, industry representatives say, will come up only if adequate fuel and timely payment of subsidy dues is ensured.
Announcing this in New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said trial runs on the new third runway of IGI Airport would begin in ten days from now. Once operational, it would go a long way to ease the air traffic congestion over the Delhi airspace. The two airports, as per the recommendations of the respective state governments, would be developed by the state-owned AAI and not privatised.
In order to provide greater leeway to central government departments and ministries to finalise centrally-funded projects, the Department of Expenditure under the finance ministry has increased the financial limits of projects requiring approval from various cost-approving bodies.
A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs was specially convened this morning to consider OVL's Imperial bid, as Tuesday is the last date for making the offer to the target company's shareholders. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired the meeting that had just one agenda and lasted one-and-half hours, but no official word was available.
The introduction of 10 per cent mandatory blending of ethanol with petrol is unlikely to happen from this October, as decided by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in October 2007.
The Centre has also filed a caveat in the registry saying it should be heard if the bench agrees to hear and pass orders on any such plea
Banks have been reluctant to transmit the entire policy rate cut by RBI to borrowers.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath conveyed India's resentment to Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Vayrynen. He will also be taking up the issue with the Netherland's Minister for Economic Affairs M Vander Hoeven in New Delhi on Wednesday. The two sides have managed to keep these issues out of the proposed FTA despite pressure from some EU members like France, government officials said.
On his maiden foreign tour, Bhutan's first Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmi Y Thinley arrived in New Delhi on Monday for a visit, during which the two sides will look at ways to boost their friendly relations further.Thinley will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday on a wide range of issues, with particular focus on enhancing ties in economic and business fields.He will also meet President Pratibha Patil, Vice President Hamid Ansari.
The government on Thursday decided to sell 10 per cent shares in Nalco and Neyveli Lignite Corporation.
The $100-million fund, which has the option to raise a further $200 million, will benefit small and medium enterprises engaged in defence production.
The finance ministry is of the view that all interests -- direct and indirect -- should be taken into account and that there should not be any threshold for calculating total effective foreign shareholding in a company.
It is understood that the agency wanted to put a fresh set of questions to him regarding the deal and hence had asked him to appear.
The idea is to get the budget passed by Parliament along with Appropriations Bill and the Finance Bill by the end of March as this would ensure implementation of the Budget proposals from April 1.
UAE's promise of $50-bn investment in Indian infra won't be included.
Announcing the decision after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, Finance Minister P Chiadambaram said this is an ad-hoc measure and the recommendation of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has been referred to the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. The CACP had recommended the paddy MSP at Rs 1,000 per quintal for 2008-09 Kharif season.
RBI said more monetary transmission to support growth continues to be critical.
With shrinking employment opportunities in the state sector, the government on Thursday approved a Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion) scheme for incentivising private sector to employ 1,00,000 disabled people a year.
The Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs is expected to meet on Wednesday evening to take this decision, given the cheap crude prices in the global market. The government had last cut petrol prices on December by Rs 5, and diesel rates by Rs 2 a litre.
Now for the first time, the top team in North Block has the predominance of IAS officers.
Dismissing as 'statistically insignificant' the 0.04 per cent hike in inflation, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the prices of essential commodities had begun to come down and this would be reflected in the inflation index after some time. Talking to reporters after the weekly briefing on the decisions of the Cabinet and its Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), Chidambaram said the inflation figure released on Friday has come as a 'big relief'.
The government has enhanced the emoluments of the President, the Vice President and governors to Rs 1.5 lakh, Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 1.10 lakh respectively. The Cabinet secretary and defence chiefs too have been given substantial increments.
The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs is all set to announce the guidelines for FDI in commodity exchanges. Following this, the Forward Markets Commission is expected to submit the proposal for ownership structure of exchanges before the Union ministry of consumer affairs.
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