The enduring legacy of trade routes lies in shared stories and religious diversity. Can the India-Middle East-Europe Economic corridor harness this legacy to empower nations, asks Arundhuti Dasgupta.
'If you see another 1000-point correction, people may start panicking.'
In the ancient world there is a great deal of give and take and reciprocal learning. India was an integral and important constituent of such interchanges of goods and ideas.
Domestic institutional investors pumped Rs 2.3 trillion into equities during H1 CY24. Of this, mutual funds contributed 80%.
The expectations of a borrowing cut by the government faded among bond-market participants after the general election results because they feel the compulsions of running a coalition may put pressure on the exchequer, according to dealers. The recent trend of moderate depreciation in the rupee's nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) might not persist if there are significant changes to the structural reform agenda.
India's decision to ban the export of non-basmati white rice has pushed up global prices, prompting multilateral lending agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to call for a reconsideration of the move. Though nothing has been spelled out yet officially, sources said, the government might consider requests for government-to-government sale of non-basmati white rice, especially to West African nations where India is a major supplier. Also, traders and exporters of specialty regional rice varieties like sona masuri or gobindo bhog feel that they have been short-changed.
'During times of adversity, a brick becomes better than a stone. That is how I look at the election season.'
The customary naadan or home-cooked meal is rather memorable fare.
An Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said a formal order for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the state was likely to be issued soon.
The show-cause notice dated February 8 by DCGI V G Somani cited a Delhi high court order dated December 12, 2018, which prohibits online sales of medicines without a licence.
The Opposition party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday said India's millions of family-owned traders must learn to work with large modern shops and online retailers, in comments that could signal a shift in thinking.
The other members of the interim government will be finalised after consultations with various political parties, the press secretary added.
Traders' body CAIT on Thursday said the ongoing farmers' agitation in Delhi-NCR has caused a business loss of nearly Rs 50,000 crore. Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) secretary-general Praveen Khandelwal said the government's fresh proposal to keep farm laws in abeyance for one-and-a-half year and constitute a joint committee with farmer leaders "is quite justified and reasonable which indicates its willingness to resolve the crisis".
Jeera July futures in NCDEX touched a record high of Rs. 58,085 per quintal on Monday, before coming down to around Rs. 55,500 on Tuesday. This was due to profit booking and extension of additional surveillance margin of 2.5 per cent till July 18, including on all contracts to be launched in the future. The softening, according to some reports, is also because of fears of regulatory action on jeera traders over allegations of excessive speculation.
India's largest traders' association CAIT on Tuesday said few multinational e-commerce giants with a heavy arsenal of funding are attempting to flout foreign investment guidelines for the sector and demanded strict enforcement action. Releasing a whitepaper on the e-commerce policy, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said e-commerce entities have "structured their relationship as marketplace with sellers in a such a way that they are in a position to control either seller on their platform or the inventory and also escape the scrutiny of the enforcement agencies." "Under the guise of such control or ownership over sellers, the issue also permeates from being a mere FDI policy violation to also being an anti-competitive conduct," it said.
Twelve of the 22 Indian diamond traders, detained in China on charges of smuggling, returned home early on Friday after they were let off following deportation orders by a Chinese court. "We are happy that 12 diamond traders held in China returned to India late last night. We are making all efforts to bring back the remaining traders," Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Rajiv Jain said.
Among the 30 Sensex companies, Larsen & Toubro, Power Grid, NTPC, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank were the biggest laggards. Sun Pharma and Nestle were the only gainers.
The total number of unique investors directly investing in the stock market has surged to 80 million for the first time, with the latest 10 million additions taking place in just eight months, according to data shared by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the country's largest bourse. "The 80 million unique PAN (permanent account number) investors correspond approximately to around 50 million unique households in India amounting to around 17 per cent households directly investing in the Indian stock market via NSE's extensive nationwide network of trading members," said the exchange. In 2021, the number of domestic households were pegged at 300 million.
The Centre has slapped as many as 148 notices on e-commerce players in the past three months for not complying with the mandatory display of the 'country of origin' tag on products sold. "Of the 148 notices, 56 have compounded it (the offence) and paid up around Rs 34 lakh," a senior official told Business Standard. "Every product has to display the country of origin, along with other basic information," the official added. In the case of e-commerce companies, these details have to be clearly displayed on their portals.
Maharashtra minister Dada Bhuse said the decision to impose export duty should have been taken with proper coordination.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have pulled out $3.5 billion from India's equity markets so far this month. The selling comes on the back of election-induced volatility and the rotation of flows from India to China, where stocks are available at half the valuations. If the selling pressure remains at the current level, this will be the highest FPI pullout since January 2023.
Infosys chairman and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani will join a panel set up by the central government, along with eight other members, to advise the government on designing and accelerating adoption of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), aimed at curbing digital monopolies. The larger idea is to give 'free and fair' choice to consumers to buy products on an online platform, a senior government official said.
Futures trading in natural rubber has always been a bone of contention for traders, growers and manufacturers for quite sometime in India.
'Shark fins are the most sought-after shark product.'
WhatsApp on Wednesday announced the expansion of its payments service in India to make it easier for people transacting with businesses to pay for purchases directly in the chat, with a choice of UPI apps, including rival digital payment options, as well as credit and debit cards. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted that India is leading the world in people and businesses embracing messaging. WhatsApp said it is working with partners Razorpay and PayU "to make paying for something as simple as sending a message", as the Meta-owned platform unveiled a host of new features to woo businesses in India's booming commerce market.
The government expects onion prices to fall below Rs 40 per kilogram by January from the current average price of Rs 57.02 per kilogram, Consumer Affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Monday. Last week, the government banned onion exports till March next year after the retail sales price of the kitchen staple crossed Rs 80 per kg in the national capital and the prices in mandis remained around Rs 60 per kg. To a query on when the onion prices are expected to fall below Rs 40 per kg, Singh said, "very soon... January"
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday said the Lok Sabha poll mandate is a "decisive rejection" of the politics of divisiveness and hate, and stressed that the INDIA bloc must continue functioning cohesively both inside and outside Parliament.
Going by the RBI directive and the overall narrative, Paytm may have lost the rigour of stress tests, audits and compliance.
Several candidates, including Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the BJP's Amritsar candidate, are promising resumption of India-Pakistan trade via the Attari-Wagah land route.
After an extremely stable 2023, the Indian rupee started 2024 on a promising note and has turned out to be the best-performing Asian currency so far in January, appreciating 0.1 per cent despite 2 per cent rise in the dollar index. All other Asian currencies depreciated by around 1.4-4 per cent during the month. The local currency regained its ground against the greenback on the back of foreign portfolio inflows, said market participants.
Describing the unrest among party members as just the "tip of the iceberg," the report shed light on the underlying discontent within the BJP.
Last November, a lawyer for Future Retail Limited (FRL) told Delhi high court that Amazon is interfering with its lawful business and thousands may lose their jobs and FRL may go bankrupt. Senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for FRL, likened Amazon to East India Company. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who represented Amazon, told the Future counsel to keep the "East India Company" rhetoric aside, as Amazon has invested $6.5 billion all over India and created 900,000 jobs. This drama played out in the case in which Amazon has challenged Future's $3.4-billion deal with Reliance, alleging the retailer's deal breached an agreement with the American e-commerce firm.
Debt mutual fund (MF) schemes, which witnessed relatively muted inflows in the past three years, saw a surge in investor interest in April amid election-induced volatility in the equity markets. Active debt funds garnered nearly Rs 66,000 crore net inflows in April, most at least since December 2020.
Non-resident Indians are bringing gold into the country by taking advantage of rules that allow each individual to carry 1 kg of the metal, helping traders cope with restrictions on imports during the peak wedding season.
'The situation in Nuh could have easily returned to normalcy if the trader class wished so, but they didn't.'
The Centre on Friday said it will sell 'Bharat Rice' in the retail market at Rs 29 per kg from next week to give relief to the common man and has also directed traders to disclose rice/paddy stock, as part of its efforts to control prices that have risen by around 15 per cent in the last one year. In a press conference, Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra exuded confidence that these two measures along with the various restrictions of exports will help in cooling down the prices. Seeking to dispel market rumours, he categorically said the government has no plans to lift restrictions on rice exports any time soon.
'The local support from our MP is nil. He never comes to see our farms.'
The Union government will soon make amendments to the foreign trade policy (FTP) to enable exporters to claim export benefits for settling trade in rupees. These benefits are, so far, available for export payments received in foreign currencies. After the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled a mechanism to settle international trade transactions in the local currency on Monday, exporters have been demanding that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry come up with a clarification on the matter.
India has imposed several restrictions on imports of gold, the biggest non-essential import item, to curb a record trade deficit.
PoK will become a part of India and this will be done under PM Modi only, Haryana Cabinet Minister Kamal Gupta said.
