India may soon see a new set of oil barons with lesser-known companies venturing into crude oil and natural gas production. These new kids on the block have come up through a mix of entrepreneurial grit and backing from oil industry veterans. Nippon Power, South Asia Consultancy, PFH (Poddar Family Holdings) Resources and Chennai-based Adbhoot Estates could be the first ones to start production from blocks awarded during the first round of Discovered Small Field (DSF-1) auctions. Adbhoot is in a 50:50 joint venture with the Bombay Stock Exchange-listed Hindustan Oil Exploration Company that has some five oil producing assets and over 10 blocks across the country.
Leading property developers, such as Oberoi Realty, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, and Hiranandani, have turned to redevelopment of existing buildings in the expensive parts of Mumbai as a way of augmenting revenue. Experts estimate that Mumbai's redevelopment projects could be worth Rs 30,000 crore. As such, they are not new. What is new is that the big developers are interested in them. Leading the race is Oberoi Realty, which has set up a separate team for these projects.
'If you don't have children, that's also a problem.' 'There's no right way to live because everybody has an opinion about your personal life, and how you should live.' 'You have to listen to them, unless you can pick a fight with everyone.'
There was no announcement from the government on guaranteeing a minimum basic income, which is the need of the hour. The announcements on portability of ration cards and affordable rental housing to workers are for the long and medium terms. Migrant workers need immediate relief.
Subramanian was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Development in the US before joining the ministry.
From Covid-19 essentials, such as Vitamin C supplements and thermometers, to bicycles, laptops, and personal weighing scales, demand for certain items galloped during last financial year as the pandemic altered what Indians used on a day-to-day basis. Imports of outdoor sports equipment, handbags for women, and dentures, among others, plummeted. With outdoor activities coming to a halt last year and schools functioning virtually, imports of sports goods witnessed a decline, while inbound shipments of laptops and battery chargers saw a sharp uptick, according to the import data for the financial year 2020-21.
Government is framing a rule that will make it compulsory for regulators like Sebi, Irdai and PFRDA to deposit a significant portion of their reserves into the Consolidated Fund of India.
Some of the second-generation IITs have seen more job offers from the start of the first phase of final placements to date than compared to the previous year.
In the upcoming round of privatisation, unviable airports are likely to be clubbed with six main airports and a prospective bidder may be restricted to bid for two airports.
Following the outbreak, Iran has stopped Indian basmati shipments. This has led to exports already falling 18-20 per cent this fiscal year. Iran and the rest of West Asia account for the largest imports of Indian basmati, and comprise more than 30 per cent of the shipments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Australia will not be at the periphery of India's vision but at the centre of its thought, as he called for closer bilateral security cooperation and a comprehensive global strategy to tackle the menace of terrorism.
With an aggressive Opposition and unyielding government, important legislation could be the biggest casualty, as details of the helicopter contract surface.
'This is not without risk because extraordinary steps taken in exceptional times have the habit of becoming habits until the next crisis intervenes,' warns T N Ninan.
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.
A rise in petrol and diesel consumption can help the government cut cesses on the fuels by Rs 4.5 a litre without impacting revenue collections of FY21, and help cool off the pressure on inflation, domestic rating agency ICRA said on Friday. Petrol consumption is estimated to increase 14 per cent in 2021-22 and diesel by 10 per cent on the lower base, rise in mobility and economic recovery, ICRA said. The rating agency added that it will result in an additional Rs 40,000 crore in revenue for the government through higher collections of the cess.
Of the 4.10 crore to be shared through COVAX, 1.40 crore will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 1.60 crore to Asia.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who chose to skip the chief ministers' conference on internal security in New Delhi, on Monday voiced her dissent over the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre and asked the Centre to play an "effective coordinating role" to counter Naxalism.
The Union Cabinet also decided to promulgate an ordinance -- The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 -- to give reservation benefits to the people living along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, who often face shelling from across the border.
The turnaround of SAIL from several quarters of losses was one of the most challenging experience, said Anil Kumar Chaudhary, the outgoing chairman of the country's largest steel maker. The chairman said he also wants to see SAIL paying back at least 50 per cent of its debt in the near future. Chaudhary who had joined SAIL as a junior manager in 1984 would be superannuating from the top post on December 31, 2020 after serving the company for almost 36 years in various roles.
RRBs were formed under an Act to provide credit to small farmers, agricultural labourers and businesses in rural areas.
Unlike the regimes of Jayalalitha, Palaniswami and Karunanidhi, ministers are actually getting to make decisions on their own, with the unmentioned rider that they would be held responsible and accountable, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Throughout the nearly 20-year US-led war, State sponsorship from Pakistan has been a constant.'
Sinha, a former finance minister, hogged the limelight and started trending high on social media on Wednesday morning, after he criticised his own government for sinking the economy, in an article he penned for The Indian Express.
The 47-year-old Ganguly was officially entrusted with the task of heading Indian cricket for the next nine months at the BCCI's General Body meeting in Mumbai, ending a tumultuous 33-month reign of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA).
The investigation agency said during the custody, Suresh had disclosed that she had kept proceeds of the crime at the bank lockers and invested as deposits in various banks.
Inflation targeting has worked well and the government must stay with it, and the framework is going to work well in the period ahead also, former RBI Governor D Subbarao said on Thursday. He also said low inflation contributes to sustainable growth. Addressing the 'Times Network India Economic Conclave' virtually, Subbarao said the government's proposal to privatise some public sector units is not akin to selling family silver but it is a route for putting India on a sustainable growth path.
Punjab faces many mortal threats. For most of these the people of Punjab are themselves responsible. And unless they take a brutal hard look within, their future generations have to be resigned to continue living with this constant slide, warns Shekhar Gupta.
In India, it is not easy to fight it out with the large banks which are nimble-footed and technology-savvy and are continuously innovating on the retail turf with newer products for customer acquisition.
The ED case has been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the agency will record the statement of the accused. The central agency will investigate if proceeds of crime were generated by the accused by laundering of funds that were earned through the alleged gold smuggling racket.
In power, Mamata Banerjee has tried to bury the ghost of the past, but it might still be work-in-progress. Big-ticket and eye-grabbing (in terms of investment size) projects are still few and far between, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Bajaj Auto was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, tumbling around 6 per cent, followed by M&M, Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, SBI, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank. NSE Nifty tumbled 162.60 points or 1.36 per cent to 11,767.75.
The Bills adopted in 2017 for the same purpose during the AIADMK regime did not get the President's assent.
A business in India wanting access to maps and geospatial data would typically have to wait months before it got what it wanted. All this is set to change with the new guidelines on geospatial data, report Neha Alawadhi and Peerzada Abrar.
An initiative to fund the education of bright Indian youngsters undertaken by two Indian-Americans has now acquired a momentum of its own, discovers Anjuli Bhargava.
The Manipal Hospital where the 77-year-old leader is admitted said he was "doing well" and "clinically stable."
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'A strong foreign exchange reserve is the best safety net against global spillovers.'
Prime Minister Modi has certainly pulled back, and his political capital -- dependent as it is on an image that he knows best and never retreats -- may have taken a bit of a beating. But, equally, it is hard to say that the protesters have 'won', argues Mihir S Sharma.
The protests brought home the fact that the Sri Lankan public is in no mood for halfway measures, as voices against Rajapaksa 'family rule' and 'securitisation' of the civilian administration began sidestepping the more critical economic crisis, affecting the nation and afflicting the individual, observes Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy.
Contract finally given for Rs 2,400-cr project, with GIFT City-like features
