'The outlook for private investment, which has been such a weak link for India for so long, remains challenging.'
"The Monetary Policy Committee recognises that there is monetary policy space for future action. However, given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to take a pause at this juncture," the RBI said in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy for this fiscal.
Modi had clearly not come to terms with the limits to a prime minister's powers, any prime minister's powers however strong numbers he may have in Parliament, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday pitched for using the USO Fund to subsidise smartphones for select groups to help penetrate the digital revolution and said India should make the rollout of 5G or the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks a national priority. As much as 5 per cent of the licence fee paid by telecom operators goes to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund, which was set up in April 2002 for achieving universal service objectives by providing access to telephone services in rural and remote areas and creation of infrastructure for mobile services and broadband in these areas. However, according to the CAG, less than half of the funds so collected are transferred for the said purpose.
After 3 weeks of consecutive rally, this week was a breather for the index, which corrected by almost 1.5%.
Reiterating his earlier stance, BJP's Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to sack RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.
'Right now, we are increasing production in anticipation of the demand during the festive season.' 'If the demand doesn't come back, all the production will languish in the factories.'
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, ONGC, UltraTech Cement, NTPC and PowerGrid.
Gota has to decide if he could order elder brother Mahinda's arrest as the agent provocateur of Monday's violence. Then he has to prepare for an interim government, in which no one would now want to become a cabinet minister leave alone prime minister, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
Delhi has come to accept the Taliban takeover in Kabul as a reality and seems increasingly unsure of its dogmatic view of the Taliban as a mere proxy of the Pakistani military and security establishment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Budget for 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha that is expected to provide relief to the pandemic-hit common man as well as focus more on driving economic recovery through higher spending on healthcare, infrastructure and defence amid rising tensions with neighbours, As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth Budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
The ones who came more recently were clutching the green cards that gave them an escape hatch through which to return to green pastures: Arvind Panagariya, Raghuram Rajan, Arvind Subramanian and other perfectly honourable gentlemen like them, points out T N Ninan.
This was the one Budget that required radical departures on all these fronts, when it had none, asserts, Shreekant Sambrani.
By any economic theory or doctrine, this is no Budget that supports economic recovery, whether through supporting aggregate demand, or through expansionary stimulus, declares Rathin Roy.
If international crude oil prices zoom past the current level of about $90 per barrel and move towards $100 and beyond, middle-class consumers are not going to keep quiet about their discomfort, points out Arun Balakrishnan, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum.
The Centre on Monday earmarked a separate Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres to tackle air pollution and announced the much-awaited voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and polluting vehicles, even as it shrunk the budgetary allocation for the environment ministry from the last fiscal by nearly eight percent. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech for 2021-22, announced a total of Rs 2869.93 crore for the ministry, Rs 230 crore less than the last fiscal. Officials said the outlay has been lesser this time as the economy is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reliance has a 24 per cent conversion rate of 'oil-to-chemicals' at present and may be targeting 70 per cent conversion.
Prakash Javadekar said the forest cover in the national capital has increased since then and public transport system has also improved.
A greater payment security mechanism for power generation companies to ensure timely payouts for supply of electricity will be in focus in 2022 as stricter rules are on the anvil for 24x7 power supply amid discoms' outstanding dues at a whopping Rs 1.56 lakh crore. Mounting outstanding dues of distribution companies (discoms) to electricity generation companies (gencos) have been a perennial issue affecting the entire value chain in the power sector and are also a hindrance for the ambitious goal of 24x7 power supply across the country even when the payment for coal is made in advance. The situation persists despite the fact that discoms' dues become overdue after 45 days of generating bills and they also have to pay penal interest on the overdue amount in most of the cases to gencos.
'To keep the next catastrophe at bay, a carbon free economy will be an imperative. 'Our 2000 cc internal combustion engine powered personal cars and public transport may have to give way to electric and hydrogen powered fuel cells. 'The oil refineries which were so much part of my professional life may have to be dismantled and trees planted in its place. 'The smokestacks, which once upon a time represented growth and prosperity, will now be gory symbols of a polluting past,' notes former Hindustan Petroleum chairman Arun Balakrishnan.
The focus will definitely shift towards more meaningful trips than the kind of micro trips we were into before, says Varun Arora.
'We still don't know how viruses that we ingest are killed inside our bodies.'
'When you don't have food to eat, will you be worried about the virus or the next meal?'
The 69 retired bureaucrats claimed that the country's public health infrastructure was crying out for investment
German states are also set to allow the Bundesliga soccer league to resume matches, probably from May 15, under strict conditions without fans in stadiums, the sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga met in Washington, DC, on Thursday to discuss ways to further cement the bilateral strategic ties ahead of the first in-person Quad meeting to be hosted by US President Joe Biden.
As and when the pandemic recedes from these shores, rebuilding the economy will be the biggest challenge for Modi in the remaining three years of his term, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Going forward, the February factory output may be impacted as several industries such as automobiles, technology, pharma and fashion have some exposure to imports of raw and intermediate materials from China.
Describing it as 'a very powerful order' Trump told reporters during his daily news briefing at the White House on Wednesday that he signed the order to protect American workers' jobs in an economy pummelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
India's public debt ratio, which remarkably remained stable at around 70 per cent of the GDP since 1991, is projected to jump by 17 percentage points to nearly 90 per cent because of increase in public spending due to COVID-19, the IMF said.
India's real estate industry staged a rebound from 2020's downturn, with housing sales seen rising by over 50 per cent. The performance, though short of pre-COVID levels, has property developers hoping for stronger gains in the New Year and the beginning of a long upcycle. A strong foundation has been laid this year for revival in the Indian real estate sector, which is projected to reach $1 trillion mark by 2030 from $200 billion in the pre-pandemic year.
The RBI has shelved its plan for polymer notes more than a decade after it invited interest from global manufacturers for one billion pieces of Rs 10 denomination polymer banknotes, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The value of P-note investments in Indian markets - equity, debt, hybrid securities and derivatives - stood at Rs 74,027 crore till August-end.
Tata Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, sinking over 5 per cent, followed by SBI, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and NTPC. NSE Nifty tanked 371 points to 16,614.20.
'We first need to acknowledge the truth.' 'We are trying to diminish the problem and say, everything is okay and green shoots are emerging.' 'Imagine you are a doctor and not getting accurate medical reports, how do you diagnose and treat the illness?' 'We are not dealing with a terminal illness here, we are dealing with BP and cholesterol, which are imminently curable.'
India and the US are among the countries excluded from the list of nearly 60 low-risk countries.
India has voiced its strong opposition to China's Belt and Road Initiative and its flagship project -- the CPEC -- at the just concluded second UN Sustainable Transport Conference where the Indian diplomat's mike curiously went silent while she was highlighting New Delhi's objection to the controversial projects.
India's curve, yet to flatten vis-a-vis countries with similar or more conservative plans to ease restrictions, still points to 'exponential growth', despite India having tested much fewer people.
It's not just wrong. It's dumb. Mr President, would America really be greater without us?" he asked in a tweet.
'I knew there was a huge business opportunity, but it was Dr Kalam who made me jump into it as an entrepreneur.'
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