Prasad said country's postal department is 150 years old and needs improvement and the government is trying its best to do the needful.
With economic growth slowing to a six-year low, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath says the government should undertake structural reforms such as bank clean-up and labour reforms to address the slowdown in domestic demand. She rooted for government policies focusing on managing a slowdown in domestic demand, and on boosting productivity growth and supporting employment creation in the medium term.
The real risk is that the core assumption -- that the votes for a candidate sponsored by an alliance will at least equal the sum total of its parts -- proves to be facile, observes T N Ninan.
Last year, the US assistance to Pakistan was $534 million.
The regulator is more carefully scrutinising applications by infrastructure investment vehicles that have a limited number of investors. They have been asked to broaden their investor base before application approval, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is concerned about the structure being used for getting around tax requirements, according to one of the sources.
Indian bond yields may not spike if the government opts to increase spending when it unveils its annual budget in late February.
'Health will continue to be at the centre of the government's attention as it underpins economic recovery and our collective well being.'
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.
During the 10-months of this financial year, the highest FDI came in services ($1.80 billion), followed by pharmaceuticals ($1.26 billion), automobiles ($1 billion) and construction development ($966 million).
Because of India's weak fiscal position, the plethora of debt-burdened infrastructure companies and the poor asset quality of public sector banks, economic growth in 2015-16 may be limited to about six per cent, say Shankar Acharya.
Mutual funds have launched a clutch of new fund offers in the silver ETF (exchange traded fund) category this year and collected Rs 1,400 crore in assets after the introduction of the newly-created investment asset class by market regulator Sebi in 2021. Further, fund houses including Kotak Asset Management Company have filed draft documents with the markets regulator to float silver ETF as well as silver ETF fund of funds for investors, information with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed. These NFOs (new fund offers) are providing an opportunity to the investors to digitally invest and own silver which is easily tradable during market hours.
The development of the Rih-Tiddim road and establishment of numerous rural "haat" (flee markets) along the Mizoram-Myanmar border would also increase the trade volume, Modi said while addressing a public meeting at the Assam Rifles ground here after inaugurating the 60-MW Tuirial hydro-electric power project.
The fiscal deficit of the Centre remains a worry, running at over 6.5 per cent of GDP in April-September 2014, mainly because of revenue shortfalls from exaggerated projections in the government's July Budget and despite the relief on subsidies from lower oil prices.
'We should expect a cold-blooded, transactional relation that requires a lot of engagement and mutual trust to sustain,' says Constantino Xavier, Fellow, foreign policy, Brookings India.
'We actually have a problem because there may be too much activity in India.' 'Markets don't like too much concentration. But we are very happy with our collaborations in India.'
India will welcome two trade missions in 2015 focused on meeting its infrastructure needs with US technology and services.
Prabhu was moved out of the important railway ministry and was handed over the commerce and industry portfolio in the Cabinet recast.
Modi is also scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Xi on Tuesday.
Unveiling his infrastructure conglomerate's green vision, billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday said his group will invest $20 billion over the next 10 years in renewable energy generation and component manufacturing and will produce the world's cheapest green electron. The port-to-energy conglomerate plans to triple its renewable power generation capacity over the next four years, foray into green hydrogen production, power all data centres with renewable energy, turn its ports into net carbon zero by 2025, and plans to spend over 75 per cent of capital expenditure until 2025 in green technologies, he said. Speaking at JP Morgan India Investor Summit, Adani Group chairman said the USD 20 billion investment will be in renewable energy generation, component manufacturing, transmission and distribution.
Modi said there were a slew of 'matching priorities' between the business council and that of his administration, including dismantling trade barriers, promoting skills development, establishing manufacturing supply chains and infrastructure development.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday announced a Rs 75,000 crore investment in new energy business over the next three years as the operator of the world's largest oil refinery pivots towards a greener and cleaner version. Reliance will build solar manufacturing units, a battery factory for energy storage, a fuel cell-making plant and an electrolyzer unit to produce green hydrogen as a part of the business, chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting with shareholders on Thursday. It will also set up 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by 2030 and invest in setting up a carbon fibre plant.
'Unemployment barely figures in the Budget except as a derived demand from the industry and infrastructure.' 'There is no effort at direct attack on unemployment.'
The World Bank on Tuesday projected India's economy to grow at 8.3 per cent in 2021 and 7.5 per cent in 2022, even as its recovery is being hampered by an unprecedented second wave of the COVID-19, the largest outbreak in the world since the beginning of the deadly pandemic. The Washington-based global lender, in its latest issue of Global Economic Prospects released here, noted that in India, an enormous second COVID-19 wave is undermining the sharper-than-expected rebound in activity seen during the second half of Fiscal Year 2020/21, especially in services.
There would be an increase in NRI investment in India post elections.
Prime Minster Narendra Modi's op-ed in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeines talks about development, New Age India and his 'Make in India' campaign. Here's the complete text of the column.
"I congratulate the people of Kochi on the proud moment," the PM said.
Around 55 per cent of land in the 36 operational special economic zones (SEZs) in Tamil Nadu is lying vacant owing to various reasons, including the recent economic slowdown.
'What stood out at these meetings between industry representatives and government leaders was how the equation between the ministers and industry had undergone a subtle and qualitative change,' points out A K Bhattacharya.
Observing that the turmoil in global capital should come as a wake-up call for South Asia, which was the second-fastest growing region in the world in the aftermath of the global crisis, the World Bank said on Wednesday its recent performance has been less stellar, and it has been sustained by potentially volatile portfolio inflows.
'That is not a democratic ideal obviously, but it is a practical reality.' 'It is a consistent feature of politicians in Pakistan that their rhetoric on the army softens the closer they get to the seat of power.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday night left for Australia on the second leg of his three-nation tour during which he will attend the annual summit of the Group of 20 of the world's developed and emerging economies.
Studies suggest net benefits of hydro-power, nuclear energy or natural gas as sources of electricity are greater than those of wind and solar.
'Anyone can string together a few alliterative words, but are they a substitute for serious thought?' 'And do they make for a strategy or plan for coherent action?' asks T N Ninan.
Modi govt is aiming to recast the urban landscape of the country by making cities more livable.
We dance on every small achievement and forget the long-term objectives: Ajit Gulabchand, MD, Hindustan Construction Company.
The immediate need is to put more money in the hands of agriculture-based and rural households to improve their purchasing power, says S Mahendra Dev.
'Such big falls are quite frequent these days, so do not try to time this market.' 'Use big dips to accumulate quality stocks.'
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Thursday said his logistics-to-energy conglomerate will invest $70 billion over the next decade to become the world's largest renewable energy company and produce world's cheapest hydrogen. Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), the world's largest solar power developer, is targeting 45 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and will invest $20 billion to develop a 2 GW per year solar manufacturing capacity by 2022-23. Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL), India's largest private sector power transmission and retail distribution company, is looking to increase the share of renewable power procurement from the current 3 per cent to 30 per cent by FY 2023 and to 70 per cent by FY 2030.
'India's manufacturing will take 10-15 years to catch up with China.'
