It is mind-boggling to find our prime minister putting exports on the back-burner, says Jayanta Roy.
The output of eight core sectors grew 8.9 per cent in June, mainly due to a low base effect and uptick in production of natural gas, steel, coal and electricity, official data showed on Friday. The eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 12.4 per cent in June 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions imposed to control the spread of coronavirus infections. In May this year, these key sectors had recorded a growth of 16.3 per cent, while it was 60.9 per cent in April.
Among other things, the e-commerce players will have to display the total 'price' of goods and services offered for sale, mention the 'expiry date' of goods and the 'country of origin' of goods and services.
Tata Group-owned Air India has informed the Centre that aircraft lessors wish to set up their special purpose vehicles (SPVs) outside India since they aren't enthused about the Indian 'legal structure' and are loath to take risks. Indian airlines have a combined fleet of about 700 planes; over 85 per cent are on lease. A majority of lessors are based in Ireland due to its attractive tax policy, light-touch regulations, and swift legal system.
For manufactured products, the wholesale inflation was at (-)0.84 per cent in October 2019.
The annual rate of inflation based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) was 1.22 per cent in December as compared to 1.55 per cent in the previous month. It was 2.76 per cent in December 2019. The decline last month was mainly due to lower increase in food prices, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed on Thursday. The food inflation for December dropped to 0.92 per cent as compared to 4.27 per cent in the previous month.
CAIT had last month also filed a petition in National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India's decision to approve the deal.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government is planning to extend the suspension of fresh insolvency proceedings for another three months, a move which will provide major relief to corporate borrowers hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Addressing the Bangalore Chamber Of Industry And Commerce (BCIC), she said the government has taken several measures, including deferment of tax payment date, to help businesses and people.
The commerce ministry wants the stimulus packages for exporters to continue for some more time till the sector recovers completely.
The Union home ministry on May 13 had declared that these canteens will only sell indigenous or "swadeshi" products from June 1 in a bid to give fillip to domestic industries.
The key sectors that received the maximum foreign investment during the nine months of the fiscal include services, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, chemicals, and the automobile industry.
Ashok Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has never minced words while talking about the giant technology companies, referring to them on multiple occasions as "centres for entrenched and unchecked dominance". The anti-trust regulator has, in fact, been cracking down on big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and others, after they were hauled up by regulators and lawmakers in Europe and Australia. However, in several instances, existing regulations have prevented the CCI from going all out against these companies for anti-competitive activities.
The stimulus package announced by the government for the revival of the pandemic-hit economy has been found to be "inadequate", according to a Parliamentary panel report. The report of the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has noted that in the process of economic recovery post-first wave of the pandemic, the second wave has even more vigorously ripped the economy particularly the MSME sector. "The committee observes that the stimulus package announced by the government for the economic revival from the pandemic hit economy has been found to be inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering and long-term measures instead of improving the cash flow to generate demand as immediate relief," it said.
After assuming power in 2014 with a full majority of its own, the BJP-led NDA government started an ambitious process of reforming labour laws in the form of codes aimed at making the framework less cumbersome with a variety of alterations. It had planned four codes each for industrial relations, wages, social security and welfare, and occupational safety, health and working conditions. To this end, 35 central labour laws were to be converted into four codes that would have had the virtue of streamlining labour relations. But none of the proposed code Bills could be converted into a law principally because neither trade unions nor industry representatives came on board. They hold the key to India's low-growth-high unemployment paradigm but the government may struggle to push them through this time as well. Somesh Jha explains why
Currently, 100 per cent FDI in is permitted if the companies manufacture cigars or cigarettes or allied products.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will be meeting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to make a case for the extension of one of the most popular incentives to exporters, the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme (DEPB), which is slated for expiry on June 30. DEPB is a duty reimbursement scheme, launched 14 years earlier.
The commerce department has said that earnings through the new tax will equal the losses faced by Indian industry after the US tariffs on steel and aluminium.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry denied having imposed any blanket ban on the import of food products from Japan even as it has imposed some strict measures.
According to government statistics, Indian IT firms support 280,000 jobs in the US and have contributed about $15 billion to the US Treasury in the past five years.
Ahead of the visit, Chinese embassy officials briefed Indian scholars that investment promised would be $100 billion. How this figure came down to $20 billion is a mystery.
Department of Economic Affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty said that equity capital flows have been positive this year.
Going ahead with its festive sales as per schedule, companies such as Flipkart, Jabong, and Myntra are having week-long Valentines' Day sales, offering discounts of as much as 80 per cent. Amazon India is also offering discounts of almost 40 per cent.
We have a government with an extremely weak economic team advising a PM who hardly pays attention to their thoughts, says Jayanta Roy.
Sitharaman, who was holding the Commerce portfolio (Independent charge), was on Sunday promoted to the Cabinet rank as was Goyal.
'The equipment that you make for us must be the best in the world so that it complements the Indian soldier who is without doubt the very best in the world.'
As per commerce and industry ministry data, food inflation fell to 4.91 per cent in March from 7.79 per cent in the previous month.
Production of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity contracted. The record contraction in the growth rate of eight core sectors will affect the Index of Industrial Production.
The commerce ministry has sought a review of foreign direct investment policy in the pharmaceutical sector, in the light of recent takeovers of domestic companies by multinationals.
Every twist and turn in KMC's civil service career is attributed to serendipity, an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. He plays down his capabilities, which took him to the top of the civil service as the Cabinet Secretary or his misfortune in losing a daughter in her prime and suggests that his career was indeed serendipitous, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'The world over, everybody is asking for the same medicines, same APIs, same KSMs.' 'However, there is just one supplier -- China -- for the entire world.'
RBI in its policy review last month kept interest rates unchanged and said it sees an upside risk to inflation.
Sectors which attracted maximum foreign inflows during April-June 2019-20 include services (USD 2.8 billion), computer software and hardware (USD 2.24 billion), telecommunications (USD 4.22 billion), and trading (USD 1.13 billion), the commerce and industry ministry data showed.
Key sectors that received maximum FDI include services, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, trading, chemicals, and automobile.
In containment areas, movements of people is totally banned and essential services are delivered at the doorsteps.
India's economic image is not affected due to Adani Group's recent decision to pull out Rs 20,000 crore FPO (follow-on public offers) amid allegations of financial wrongdoings, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.
"We now realise that the so-called farmer agitation hardly remains a farmers' agitation. It has almost got infiltrated by Leftist and Maoist elements, a flavour of which we saw over the last two days when there were extraneous demands to release people who have been put behind bars for anti-national (and) who have been put behind bars for illegal activities," Goyal, the Minister for Railways, Commerce and Industry and Food and Consumers Affairs, said at FICCI's annual meeting.
However, the countries did not take up the issue of proposed withdrawal of export incentives by the US to Indian exporters under Generalized System of Preference.
Volatility in investments concern for RBI.
Calculators have been exported to India from China below the normal value