Fast food chain McDonald's India is planning to continue with its expansion and will open 40 more restaurants across the country during 2009-10.
"We have already put up draft rules of the IT (Amendment) Act on the website and have also received comments ... We are trying to finalise the rules within a month," Department of Information Technology (DIT) Secretary R Chandrashekhar told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference in New Delhi on Monday.
"We had two meetings with the Sebi and couple of more is required (to decide on final guideline on IPO)," IRDA chairman J Hari Narayan said at a CII event.
The new Foreign Trade Policy announced a slew of tax concessions to boost exports, which have been on the downslide since October 2008.
The Cabinet's decision to auction 3G spectrum in January next year will give a fillip to investments in port, power, telecom and roads in the next 12-18 months, deputy Planning Commission chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
"If we continue with the polices in terms of assisting exporters . . . as long as we see those numbers climbing every month in an environment around the world where output and trade is shrinking, I think this is reassuring sign," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said on the sidelines of a CII function in New Delhi.
Infosys CEO S Kris Gopalakrishnan on Wednesday said that the IT major was looking at acquisitions in various geographies and has earmarked $450-500 million for the purpose.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to discuss the impact of global demand contraction on Indian economy with industry leaders in New Delhi on Saturday, ahead of the G-20 summit in London next week.
Unless we control the coronavirus, we are going to struggle to get our economy and country back on track. The spectre of the virus haunts recovery, warns Naushad Forbes.
American investments in West Bengal are likely to suffer to a certain extent due to the Singur issue.
I still believe that it is a good thing that think tanks are mushrooming in Delhi. They provide a platform for discussion, even if they shed more heat than light. With Parliament almost incapable of serious debate, informed discussion and civilised discourse, where does this nation get its intellectual churn, asks Mohan Guruswamy.
The Web is becoming an increasingly important resource to many aspects of life like education, employment, government, commerce, health care and recreation. It is used for receiving and providing information and interacting with society. Hence, it is essential that it be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. An accessible Web also benefits others, including people with changing abilities due to aging.
Three public sector companies are planning to set up 60-80 megawatt solar plants with an investment of Rs 1,000-1,200 crore (Rs 10-12 billion). The projects will come up in Rajasthan, Punjab and the Leh region of Jammu and Kashmir.
Industry bodies Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry have asked for cut in interest rates to spur the sagging economy while presenting 100-day action plans to the government on Friday. Faced with high borrowing rates and demand slowdown,industry chambers have presented separate 100-day action plans to the government asking for steps to restore the economy back on high growth trajectory.
The country's largest software exporter, Tata Consultancy Service, on Monday said some Satyam Computer clients have turned to the Tata company on their own, adding it would not approach the clients of the scam-tainted firm.
For achieving $30 billion, the country would need over $11 billion FDI in the last five months of the fiscal in the midst of a global credit freeze. Riding on the back of impressive inflows of $25 billion in 2007-08, the government had aimed at $35 billion FDI for the current fiscal.
The world's largest mobile operator by revenue, Vodafone, which operates in India with a joint venture with Essar Group, on Monday said it will invest more in India as it sees more opportunities in the country.
A day before the second meeting of the new Satyam Computer Services board, newly-appointed director Tarun Das said the priority of the six-member team would be to protect the interest of employees, customers and investors.
Former CII president R Sashsayee, Jamshed Godrej of the Godrej Group and Suresh Neotia, Chairman of the Gujarat Ambuja, will be among the small group of industrialists meeting the prime minister. Besides the Satyam saga, the World Bank has initiated action against five Indian entities, including Wipro Technologies, for violating the guidelines of the multilateral lending agency on checking fraud and corruption.
India Inc said the Foreign Trade Policy would give a significant push to manufactured goods and agriculture- and labour-intensive exports.
The private banks won laurels because they pulled the banking system out of a decades-long stupor, combining technology and aggressive marketing to win customers. Now the shoe is on the other foot
"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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
"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.
According to India Skills Report 2019, Andhra Pradesh offers equal space to both male and female workers.
Says Satyam is not a commodity. B K Modi of Spice had earlier pushed for e-auction, for its transparency.
The Indian automobiles and auto components industry is likely to create additional employment for 25 million people by 2016, said experts at an auto industry conference in in Ahmedabad.
However, in recent times, the clout that trader bodies such as CAIT and other organisations like Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharati has is steadily increasing. Earlier this year, trader bodies were able to convince the government not to extend the deadline for implementation of the new norms in FDI policy on e-commerce.
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.
'Instead of doing reforms and restructuring, the present government is busy with the perception that everything is fine and the economy is hunky-dory.' 'Such hollow perceptions are very dangerous for the Indian economy in the long run.' 'The real risk to India is the lack of decent employment opportunities for youth in general and educated youth in particular.'
While, projects, including Rs 23,000 crore Purvanchal Expressway, totalling Rs 60,000 crore have already been launched, the Yogi Adityanath government is fast paving the way for laying the foundation of the remaining projects before the general election dates are announced.
"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.
