Falling private sector investment and farm distress are problems that call for immediate attention, says T N C Rajagopalan.
India imported goods worth $4.23 billion in June from sanctions-hit Russia, up 6.8 times as compared to last year, as demand for shipments of crude oil grew at the fastest pace during the month. Crude oil worth $3.02 billion was imported in June, which translates into a share of 71 per cent of the total imports from Russia, commerce and industry ministry data showed. Similarly, during the April-June quarter, India's imports from Russia were valued at $9.27 billion, up 369 per cent on year.
The ministry of home affairs has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications that pose a threat to the country's security, officials sources said on Monday.
Not displaying the mandatory information, including country of origin, on products sold on their platforms in India, draws government's attention.
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 country's exports declined marginally by 0.8 per cent to $26.89 billion in December 2020, due to contraction in sectors like petroleum, leather and marine products, according to preliminary data released by the commerce ministry on Saturday. The trade deficit in December widened to $15.71 billion, as imports grew by 7.6 per cent to $42.6 billion, the data showed. Export in December 2019 was $27.11 billion, while imports stood at $39.5 billion.
"Commerce ministry pushes for all these things. There is no proposal to devalue," a top finance ministry official said. "Exporters would have come to the commerce ministry with this issue. However, there is nothing to discuss from our side."
However, in recent times, the clout that trader bodies such as CAIT and other organisations like Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharati has is steadily increasing. Earlier this year, trader bodies were able to convince the government not to extend the deadline for implementation of the new norms in FDI policy on e-commerce.
"In principle, the ask in return is that India should not support the G7 (Group of Seven) proposal. "A decision on this issue will be taken later following talks with all the partners," an official with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.These "substantial discounts" will be steeper than those offered by Iraq in the past two months, officials said.
Stressing that the Apna Dal-S stands for social justice, Union minister Anupriya Patel on Monday dissociated her party from "Hindutva and all those issues" and said it is ideologically different from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Shipments from Russia rose nearly 33 per cent to $1.1 billion in March from $831.17 million in the previous month, which was when the country mounted aggression on Ukraine and faced sanctions from Western nations, the data accessed by Business Standard shows. Growth in imports was largely on account of oil, people aware of the matter said. The Department of Commerce is learnt to have written to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), seeking details of imports, including the payment mechanism, which India has not made public.
India's merchandise exports in November rose by 26.49 per cent to $29.88 billion on account of healthy growth in sectors such as engineering, petroleum, chemicals and marine products, according to provisional data released by the government on Wednesday. The exports stood at $23.62 billion in November 2020. Imports in November were at $53.15 billion, an increase of 57.18 per cent over $33.81 billion in the same month of 2020, leaving a trade deficit of $23.27 billion.
Over 1.4 lakh jobs are estimated to be created between March 2019 and March 2021 in various central government departments, according to the Union Budget presented on Monday. The strength of government establishments was 32,71,113 as on March 1, 2019, which is estimated to increase to 34,14,226 by the first day of next month - an increase of 1,43,113, it said. The budget documents have given a break-up of the jobs estimated to be created in central government departments between 2019 and March 2021.
The output of eight core sectors grew by 11.6 per cent in August, mainly due to an uptick in the production of cement, coal, and natural gas, official data showed on Thursday. The eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 6.9 per cent in August 2020 due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to control the spread of COVID-19. The eight core industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of almost 40 farmer organisations, wrote a letter to the ministry of agriculture and farmers' welfare accepting the Centre's offer for dialogue and proposed December 29 as the next date for the meeting.
On the back of rising crude oil purchases, India's bill for imports from sanctions-hit Russia jumped 3.5 times in a year in April to $2.3 billion, showed data from the commerce ministry. In April, India's crude oil imports from Russia were valued at $1.3 billion, 57 per cent of India's total inbound shipments from Russia. Other major imported items during the month included coal, soybean and sunflower oil, fertilisers, and non-industrial diamonds. That month, Russia was also the fourth-largest crude petroleum supplier to India, after Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The wholesale price-based inflation rose to 2.03 per cent in January, 2021, even as food prices cooled. The WPI inflation was 1.22 per cent in December, 2020 and 3.52 per cent in January last year. While food articles saw softening in inflation in January, manufactured items witnessed hardening of prices, as per data released by the Commerce and Industry ministry.
India's exports in January rose 25.28 per cent to $34.50 billion on account of healthy performance by mainly engineering, petroleum and gems and jewellery sectors, even as trade deficit widened to 17.43 billion, according to data released by the commerce ministry on Tuesday. Imports grew by 23.54 per cent to $51.93 billion during the month under review. Trade deficit, difference between imports and exports, stood at $14.50 bn in January 2021.
Samridhi Bhardwaj analyses the dynamics of duty-free liquor allowance in India.
Barring coal, electricity and steel, all sectors -- crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser and cement -- recorded negative growth in September 2020.
India's merchandise exports jumped 27.16 per cent to $30.04 billion in November on the back of good performance by sectors like petroleum products, engineering goods and electronic items, official data showed on Tuesday. The exports stood at $23.62 billion in November 2020. Imports in November were at $52.94 billion, showing an increase of 56.58 per cent over inbound shipments of $33.81 billion in the year-ago month.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India has increased by 16 per cent year-on-year to $27.1 billion during April-August this year, the Commerce and Industry Ministry said on Tuesday. During April-August last year, India had received FDI worth $23.35 billion. The ministry said that the total FDI, which includes reinvested earnings, grew by 13 per cent to $35.73 billion.
However, WPI inflation remained in double digit for the third consecutive month in July, mainly due to a low base of last year. WPI inflation was (-) 0.25 per cent, in July 2020. "The high rate of inflation in July 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas; mineral oils; manufactured products like basic metals; food products; textiles; chemicals and chemical products etc as compared the corresponding month of the previous year," the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
Snapping the two-month easing trend, WPI inflation rose in August and remained in double-digit for the fifth consecutive month. In July 2021, WPI inflation stood at 11.16 per cent. In August 2020, WPI inflation was at 0.41 per cent. "The high rate of inflation in August 2021 is primarily due to rise in prices of non-food articles, mineral oils; crude petroleum and natural gas; manufactured products like basic metals; food products; textiles; chemicals and chemical products etc as compared the corresponding month of the previous year," the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
E-commerce companies that fall within the scope of the equalisation levy include Adobe, Uber, Udemy, Zoom.us, Expedia, Alibaba, Ikea, LinkedIn, Spotify, and eBay.
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.
'I just want to keep on working till they have to shoot me down.'
Even as the bilateral relationship between the two neighbouring countries remains hostile, there is growing coordination between India and Pakistan on one multilateral forum - the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both countries have made two joint submissions at the WTO as co-sponsors in the past two months. In June, Pakistan joined India, Cuba, and 44 African countries, seeking sufficient flexibility in intellectual property rights for developing countries to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Automobile dealers' body FADA has urged the government to formulate a task force to monitor the compensation structure being worked out by Ford India for its dealer partners across the country. In a letter to Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, FADA president Vinkesh Gulati also requested the government to instruct Ford India to keep the industry body in the loop regarding the compensation structure for the dealerships. "We humbly request your Ministry's intervention... Create a task force which takes day-to-day updates from Ford India to monitor the compensation plan for automobile dealers and dealership employees," Gulati said in the letter.
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.
We have a government with an extremely weak economic team advising a PM who hardly pays attention to their thoughts, says Jayanta Roy.
The output of eight core sectors jumped by 56.1 per cent in April mainly due to a low base effect and uptick in production of natural gas, refinery products, steel, cement and electricity, official data released on Monday showed. The eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 37.9 per cent in April 2020 due to lockdown restrictions imposed to control the spread of coronavirus infection. In March this year, the eight sectors had recorded a growth rate of 11.4 per cent.
Foreign direct investment into India increased by 60 per cent to $4.44 billion in April as against $2.77 billion in the same month last year, government data showed on Wednesday. Total FDI, including equity, re-invested earnings and capital, rose 38 per cent to $6.24 billion in April this year, as against $4.53 billion in April 2020, as per the data. "During April, 2021 FDI equity inflows amounting to $4.44 billion were reported in the country which is an increase of 60 per cent over the FDI equity inflow of April, 2020 ($2.77 billion)," the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
Gold imports, which have a bearing on the current account deficit, declined 47.42 per cent to $9.28 billion during April-October due to fall in demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the commerce ministry. Imports of the yellow metal stood at $17.64 billion in the corresponding period of 2019-20. The imports, however, recorded a growth of about 36 per cent in October.
The apex body for liquor firms Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies has urged the government to gradually reduce customs duties on British alcoholic beverages under the proposed India-UK free trade agreement to support domestic players. India and the UK have formally launched negotiations for an FTA, under which duties would be reduced or eliminated on several goods traded between the two countries. The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has also suggested the government to ensure that the UK allows the selling of domestic whiskies as 'Indian Whisky', irrespective of whether they are made from malt, grain spirits or molasses-based spirits.
The CAIT has complained to the Commerce Ministry to take action against these companies.
The production of eight infrastructure sectors rose by 7.5 per cent in October on healthy performance by the segments of coal, natural gas, refinery products and cement, official data released on Tuesday showed. The output of eight core sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 0.5 per cent in October 2020, according to the data released by the commerce and industry ministry. Core sectors' growth stood at 4.5 per cent in September this year.
The output of eight core sectors grew by 16.8 per cent in May, mainly due to a low base effect and uptick in production of natural gas, refinery products, steel, cement and electricity, official data released on Wednesday showed. The eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 21.4 per cent in May 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions imposed to control the spread of the COVID-19 infections. In March this year, these key sectors had recorded a growth of 11.4 per cent, and 60.9 per cent in April.
Agriculture, social services, education, defence and so on will be brought into the digital fold and every gram panchayat will be connected to the internet.
At the heart of the issue is the way e-commerce is defined in the current draft policy.
