Glimpses of the CWC meeting, which was meant to formulate a plan to revive the party from the death throes of electoral irrelevance, but...
Slowly but surely, the game of cricket is changing character. Just that we are unwilling to see the writing on the wall, observes Indrajit GuptaWhy does Indian cricket find itself on a slippery slope?, Indrajit Gupta asks.
The Reserve Bank on Friday retained the GDP forecast for the current financial year at 9.5 per cent and flagged global semiconductor shortages, elevated commodity prices and potential global financial market volatility as downside risks to economic growth. In his address after the three-day meeting of the rate-setting panel, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said recovery in aggregate demand gathered pace in August-September, and it is reflected in high-frequency indicators, like railway freight traffic; port cargo; cement production; electricity demand; e-way bills; GST and toll collections. "The ebbing of infections, together with improving consumer confidence, has been supporting private consumption," he said, and added the pent-up demand and the festival season should give further fillip to urban demand in the second half of the financial year.
India Ratings expects long products demand growth to be sharp, supported by a demand push from the government-led infrastructure investments in affordable housing, railways, rural electrification and road networks.
With the Jaypee acquisition, the Suraksha group, which made lenders an offer of Rs 7,736 crore, will be able to expand its footprint in north India after making inroads in Mumbai's real estate market over the past year. Sudhir Valia, the promoter, was a co-founder and executive director of India's biggest pharmaceutical firm, Sun Pharmaceuticals, and is a close relative of Dilip Shanghvi.
The high-level panel also asked the government to work towards re-orienting subsidies in a targeted manner from the crop sector to the non-crop sector and redesign the electronic National Agriculture Market.
'How low GDP would have been, we don't know.' 'It raises serious questions because so many indicators are pointing to such a sharp decline and GDP estimates are still showing 4 per cent growth.'
Seeking to reach out to the fishing community in poll-bound Kerala, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday interacted with the fishermen at Thangassery beach in the district.
Atanu Biswas explains the economics behind hosting a Games in pandemic times.
Tata Sons has emerged as the top bidder for the takeover of debt-laden State-run airline Air India but the bid is yet to be approved by a group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, sources said.
As an admirer of Japan for close to half a century, I care for Japan and expect Suga to respect the sentiment of his people and cancel the Olympics without further delay, says Rajaram Panda.
Banks feel happy shifting their toxic assets from loan books to investment books while the ARCs enjoy the management fees with a smile, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
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.
'The CEO will neither be able to guide the senior team in operational matters nor decide on their appointment, compensation or removal.' 'Yet, the CEO is responsible for the profit and loss of the bank!' 'Why would the senior executives listen to him?' 'Which self-respecting professional would want to be a CEO with these constraints?' asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
An exclusive white paper by the Jamestown Foundation claims that the powerful figures arraigned against the President include former Vice-President Zeng Qinghong and current Vice-President Wang Qishan, The Hong Kong Post reported.
India achieved record foodgrains production this year but the withdrawal of three agri-reform laws and spike in cooking oil prices cast a shadow on the country's resilient agriculture sector that is on course for better harvest in 2022 despite pandemic blues. While soaring production of foodgrains that also helped the government provide free additional rations for COVID-hit poor families for many months together came as a relief, the passing year will be remembered for the long drawn farmers' protest at Delhi borders against the three laws and subsequent repeal of the legislations. The Indian agriculture sector, which was among the few segments that remained robust amid the pandemic gales, is expected to register a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in the current financial year ending March 2022.
'Rather than cutting and pasting from advanced economies, we should use basic economic principles to think about what is right for India at the stage of development at which we are,' says Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
Many employers now use ATS (Application Tracking System) to sort out the hundreds of resumes they receive daily. ATS examines resume based on keywords and is automatically rejected if the software does not find them, reveals Vidur Gupta, co-founder and director, Spectrum Talent Management.
The problem of stressed assets needs to be addressed with effective recovery.
The lock-in requirement has been reduced from three years to one year for angel funds and their minimum investment threshold has been slashed from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.
The Cabinet on Wednesday gave in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment along with transfer of management control in IDBI Bank in line with the Budget announcement earlier this year. The central government and LIC together own more than 94 per cent equity of IDBI Bank. LIC, currently the promoter of IDBI Bank with management control, has a 49.21 per cent stake. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the strategic sale of IDBI Bank, an official statement said on Wednesday.
Power and money are at the heart of the sordid story -- and it isn't over yet.
The size of the Reserve Bank's balance sheet, which is reflective of activities carried out by it in pursuance of currency issue function as well as monetary policy and reserve management, has increased by 6.99 per cent during the nine-month period ended March 31, 2021. While income for the year decreased by 10.96 per cent, the expenditure decreased by 63.10 per cent, as per the RBI's Annual Report for 2020-21. The year ended with an overall surplus of Rs 99,122 crore as against Rs 57,127.53 crore in the previous year, representing an increase of 73.51 per cent, it added.
Fortis Healthcare has already received binding offers from four entities - KKR-backed Radiant Life Care, IHH Healthcare, Manipal/TPG consortium, and Munjal and Burman family offices.
Work is underway in identifying global companies in sectors ranging from electronics, auto components and medical equipment to shift part of their existing or incremental manufacturing to India.
The Congress also alleged that Facebook was acting as an ally of the ruling BJP and pushing its agenda.
'The AMs are a different beast and reflect the political play within the government.' 'Prime Minister Modi does not need to assuage any interest group to take the final call on any decision that belongs rightfully to the Cabinet,' points out Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
If banks cannot charge interest from borrowers during the moratorium, who will bear that cost? Should the depositors subsidise the borrowers by foregoing interest on deposits? In that case, we will turn banking on its head! notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Banking is a business of trust.'
Does IAS officers' work go unappreciated, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
The country's largest stock bourse NSE on Friday said it stuck to the primary site for carrying out trading on Wednesday and did not switch to the disaster recovery site after a considered view while dealing with telecom connectivity issues which led to the nearly four-hour halt in trading earlier this week. It can be noted that Sebi had asked the exchange, which also trades the highest derivative volumes in the world, as to why it did not switch to the Disaster Recovery (DR) site. "Post shut down of trading on NSE, we considered all the available alternatives on hand including invocation of DR to decide on the course of action that would bring up the market at the earliest with least disruption to market participants and post evaluation, a decision was taken to bring up the systems at the primary site," a statement from NSE said.
Kejriwal's centralised way of governance might work in Delhi, but Punjab will call for delegation, observes Sanjeev Nayyar.
The country was, in February, put on the list of jurisdictions that require increased monitoring. These are done to counter money-laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing in a more efficient manner.
Though the ministry is considering 2017-18 as the new base year, no decision has been taken as the committees of experts are awaiting some more data before finalising their opinion.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the resolution plan of Twin Star Technologies -- a promoter entity of the Vedanta Resources group -- for the Videocon group. But it has pointed out that the successful resolution applicant is "paying almost nothing" as the amount offered is only 4.15 per cent of total outstanding claim. It noted the hair cut for all the creditors is 95.85 per cent and suggested to both committee of creditors (CoC) and the successful applicant an increase in the payout.
'That would be very bad for them and suicidal for both the Gandhis and the Congress party.'
India has to put in place legislation and rules which seek more clarity and transparency from technology companies. Domestic and global companies that use consumer behaviour data to enhance addictive behaviour must be scrutinised and controlled. Currently the intermediary guidelines focus mostly on content management and grievance redressal. However, the underlying software engines that influence online consumer behaviour need oversight, too.
Lenders to Venugopal Dhoot-founded Videocon Group will eventually take 50-55 per cent haircut and not 95 per cent as is being reported after considering about Rs 15,000 crore expected from the sale of the group's overseas oil and gas assets, its former CFO Rajneesh Gupta claimed. Videocon Industries Ltd, which is comprised of its consumer electronics business and interest in the Ravva oil and gas field, and its overseas oil and gas assets, mainly comprising of oil blocks in Brazil, are being auctioned separately to recover unpaid loans. While Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group has picked up Videocon Industries for Rs 2,962 crore, the bids for overseas assets are yet to be decided.
The IHS Markit India Manufacturing PMI rose from 51.2 in November to 52.7 in December. Factories benefited from a rebound in demand, and responded by scaling up production to the greatest extent since May. As per the survey, new work orders witnessed marked improvement, with the pace of expansion picking up to the fastest since July.
FY22 will be the year to rebuild with the IMF projecting output growth at 11.5 per cent, economic survey at 11.0 per cent and the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee at 10.5 per cent.
