The other sectors where inflows have declined include pharmaceuticals ( $680 million).
The government is believed to be working on a strategy to resolve the matter related to Wednesday's Supreme Court order asking Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee to appear within six weeks before the Ghaziabad trial court in a pending payment case.
Giving major relief to budding entrepreneurs, the government on Thursday allowed startups to avail tax concession only if total investment including funding from angel investors does not exceed Rs 10 crore.
Gold imports surged by nearly four-fold to $4.17 billion in October to meet the festival season demand.
The growth rate of eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity was 5.7 per cent in January 2016.
The government is working towards further review and simplification of the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to facilitate the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Anurag Jain said on Thursday. The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet. The industry department is working together with the finance ministry's department of financial services (DFS) and department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) towards a successful listing of the life insurer on the domestic bourses, which is expected to be the largest in India.
Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee - that launched in India only in December 2021 - has decided to close operations in the country. The official reason given by Shopee, which is controlled by NYSE-listed Sea Ltd, is changing global sentiments. In a statement, it said, "In view of the global market uncertainties, we have decided to close risks of our early-stage Shopee India initiative." The e-commerce platform has been hit by growing opposition from trade associations led by Praveen Khandelwal as well as homegrown social commerce start-ups.
The Reserve Bank of India is expected to hold interest rate at 8 per cent in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review on Tuesday.
HCL Tech was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 3 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Wipro, NTPC and Titan. Nifty advanced 187.05 points to 16,801.25.
In the draft rules, among 681 listed professions, armed security guards, supervisors, surveyors, and carpenters (class I) are proposed to be treated as highly skilled professionals; electricians, tailors and drivers are skilled; cooks and cobblers as semi-skilled and dairy coolies, office peons and sweepers as unskilled.
The prime minister, who is visiting the US at the invitation of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, will join them for the state banquet along with a number of dignitaries on Thursday.
Violation of the provisions entails a punishment of a jail term up to five years or with fine up to Rs 1 crore or with both, the ordinance released by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Thursday said.
The probe is being conducted under various sections of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) after the central probe agency recently received a communication from the commerce ministry seeking "necessary action" against e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart pertaining to certain multi-brand retail businesses and an observation made by the Delhi High Court in relation to Amazon.
The apex body for liquor firms Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies has urged the government to gradually reduce customs duties on British alcoholic beverages under the proposed India-UK free trade agreement to support domestic players. India and the UK have formally launched negotiations for an FTA, under which duties would be reduced or eliminated on several goods traded between the two countries. The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has also suggested the government to ensure that the UK allows the selling of domestic whiskies as 'Indian Whisky', irrespective of whether they are made from malt, grain spirits or molasses-based spirits.
The central government and the Reserve Bank of India have devised a country-specific plan towards implementation of overseas trade in rupee, people aware of the matter said. To start with, a small number of banks will be allowed to manage cross-border transactions in domestic currency with a particular country. "Small countries that are dollar-deficient have shown interest in doing trade in rupee.
Growth in output of coal, cement and electricity slowed to 0.3%.
The government on Thursday tweaked curbs on imports of laptops and computers as it allowed importers to bring in shipments of IT hardware from overseas on a mere 'authorisation' upon detailing quantity and value. The new 'import management system' is aimed at monitoring shipments of laptops, tablets and computers into the country without hurting market supply or creating a cumbersome licensing regime. The announcement is likely to provide relief to companies in the IT hardware segment in India as they had flagged concerns over the imposition of a strict licensing regime for importers.
Automobile dealers' body FADA has urged the government to formulate a task force to monitor the compensation structure being worked out by Ford India for its dealer partners across the country. In a letter to Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, FADA president Vinkesh Gulati also requested the government to instruct Ford India to keep the industry body in the loop regarding the compensation structure for the dealerships. "We humbly request your Ministry's intervention... Create a task force which takes day-to-day updates from Ford India to monitor the compensation plan for automobile dealers and dealership employees," Gulati said in the letter.
The report suggests that one of the major impacts of COVID-19 on the media and entertainment industry is the instability caused and the downfall in the advertising revenues across all media segments
Exports rise for 8th month, albeit at lower pace
The country's exports for the first time crossed the $400 billion mark in a fiscal on healthy performance by sectors such as petroleum products, engineering, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, according to the commerce ministry's data released on Wednesday. The merchandise exports rose by by 37 per cent to $400.8 billion in 2021-22 until March 21 against $292 billion in 2020-21. Previously, the outbound shipments had touched a record of $330.07 billion in 2018-19.
As many as 14 central government services have already been integrated with the e-biz portal.
Two years ago, India was touted as a rare bright spot in a gloomy global economy with GDP growth outpacing a slowing China.
The country's exports grew by 47.19 per cent to $35.17 billion on account of healthy growth in the outbound shipments of petroleum, engineering, and gems and jewellery, according to the provisional data of the commerce ministry. Imports during the month also rose by 59.38 per cent to $46.40 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $11.23 billion. Exports of petroleum, engineering, and gems and jewellery in July increased to $3.82 billion, $2.82 billion and $1.95 billion respectively, the data showed.
Gogoi and Sarma have been locked in a war of words on 'X' since Wednesday on the issue of the chief minister's wife's company allegedly being given a credit subsidy of Rs 10 crore.
FDI in drugs and pharmaceuticals was $487 million during April-August 2012, according to the latest data of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
West Bengal's industry minister Partha Chatterjee, arrested in the SSC scam, should be removed immediately from his post and expelled from the Trinamool Congress, the party's state general secretary Kunal Ghosh demanded on Thursday.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State were sworn-in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening.
It is a 'Make in India' lounge here at Davos for this year's WEF annual summit, in place of the famous 'India Adda' that has been frequented by Indian and other leaders to savour desi delicacies and do some networking.
16 national and regional industry bodies and sectoral business lobbies video-conferenced with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday and raised key concerns facing Indian industry in the wake of the 21-day lockdown over coronavirus.
Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs. In a pre-budget virtual meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector," the exporter's body said.
Last year in January at Amazon's flagship event Smbhav, Infosys Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy had to shorten his keynote speech from 20 minutes to about five because the event was delayed by 1.5 hours. "I will try to finish it in five minutes, because I am not used to delays," said Murthy, while addressing hundreds of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) about building businesses that last. In the audience was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Murthy referred to Bezos' prediction that the 21st century will be the Indian century. "That confidence enhances our enthusiasm," said Murthy. The relationship between Murthy and Bezos dates to 2014, when Prione, a 49:51 joint venture (JV) between Amazon and Murthy's venture capital company Catamaran, was formed.
The war in Ukraine has made its presence felt at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. As political and business leaders' debate, they remain fearful of Europe's economic future. There is a sense of gloom among many business leaders as energy shortage and economic recession rear their heads. Global investors are keenly assessing the presence of Indian delegation at Davos.
The country's exports rose by about 6 per cent to a "record" $447 billion during 2022-23 on account of healthy growth in the outbound shipments of sectors such as petroleum, pharma and chemicals and marine, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. The country's imports also grew by 16.5 per cent to $714 billion in 2022-23 as against $613 billion in 2021-22. He said that the exports of goods and services together scaled "new heights" and has increased by 14 per cent to $770 billion in 2022-23 as against 676 billion in 2021-22.
Drones are being sold by e-retailers like Flipkart and Snapdeal for less than Rs 40,000 apiece.
The government is considering to tweak FDI policy in retail sector so as to allow global chains like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco to open multi-brand stores in non-hilly cities with population less than one million.
Commerce ministry suggests easy conditions for availing capital gains tax exemptions
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail on Thursday told the government that complex legal structures have been used by some firms to bypass the country's e-commerce rules which from the very beginning do not allow foreign capital in the inventory-based model. At a meeting called by the commerce ministry on allegations that foreign online retailers created complex structures to bypass foreign investment rules and damage small traders, Amazon urged the government not to issue any clarification until investigations into its business practices had been concluded, sources said. At the meeting, Reliance Retail's representatives said the Indian e-commerce policy does not allow foreign capital in the inventory-based model and foreign investment is allowed only in pure technical infrastructure/ platform that facilitates the meeting of buyer with sellers.
The Customs clearance required for moving equipment like laptops, desktops, etc out of SEZ units was delaying things as the clearance had to be taken in person after a first level of approval online.
On Friday, Putin formally announced the annexation of four regions -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia -- and claimed that "this is the will of millions of people".
