Kaushik Basu, till recently the chief economic adviser of the government of India, who created a political firestorm in April when he said here on the sidelines of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings that no economic reforms were likely in India before 2014 when parliamentary elections are due, has been appointed the World Bank's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President.
In a statement, the world body said policy measures to stimulate Indian economy and a good harvest should support domestic demand. After last year's record of 9.2 per cent of GDP, the IMF said the capital inflows are expected to decline this fiscal year. Till December 2008 portfolio investment recorded a $11 billion outflow.
Rajan, who will be a key member of Finance Minister P Chidambaram's team, was also honorary economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Rediff.com spoke to Raghuram Rajan about his book, what enthuses him about the Indian economy, and what are the concerns he has with India's chaotic progress . . .
A national religious council should manage temples and places of historical and cultural relevance to the followers of all Indian religions, says Pramod Kumar Buravalli.
I think it is a clear objective in India to bring the fiscal deficit down as part of its fiscal consolidation, says Anoop Singh.
Method will be part of this year's Economic Survey; will help investors in relative comparison.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde on Tuesday became the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund after its executive board chose her over Mexican central bank governor Agustin Carstens.
In a statement, the IMF said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and the Mexican economist Agustin Carstens were interviewed by its Executive Board this week.
The IMF targets to sell about 403.3 metric tonnes of gold to shore up its finances so that it can lend money to the poorest countries at concessional rates.
International Monetary Fund and World Bank are top global financial institutions.
Even as the chorus against black money and corruption is getting louder in India, hacktivism, a coinage created of activism and hacking, is creating mayhem in the virtual world.
The US' influence on a European CEO-headed multilateral institution is out of sync.
While maintaining that merit and not nationality should guide selection of the new International Monetary Fund chief, India will in all likelihood support French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde for the job.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said India supports the "best" available candidate, regardless of nationality, as the next International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief.
Massive default, together with a very large sustained cut in the annual budget deficit, is, in fact, needed to restore Greek's fiscal sustainability.
The paper says the rate of price rise in food items leads to lower income inequality in rural India.
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday retained its projection for Indian economic growth at 5.4 per cent in 2009, implying a slower growth in the second half of this calendar year.
"Tests matched a DNA sample submitted by Strauss-Kahn and semen found on the shirt of the hotel maid," the Wall Street Journal reported quoting law-enforcement officials.
Gold reserves remained unchanged at $19.943 billion.
Battling damaging allegations of sexual assault, Strauss-Kahn tendered his resignation from the top post of the IMF on Wednesday, while maintaining that he was innocent.
It was during his stay at this Sofitel hotel that Kahn, who was appointed IMF managing director in 2007 with a salary in excess of $5,00,000 per year, was accused of indulging in sexual assault on a chambermaid.
Has Vijay Shekhar Sharma given up on the bank? For now, he seems to be on a save-OCL mission. The bank will face its logical end, observes Tamal Bandopadhyay.
The report titled 'what really happened to Strauss-Kahn?' published in the New York Review of Books states that Strauss-Kahn's Blackberry, which the IMF chief referred to as his 'IMF BlackBerry' had been 'hacked' and later went missing.
The wait for India to become a $5-trillion economic powerhouse by 2024-25 (FY25) is going to take longer than what the finance ministry had originally intended, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The vision will instead be achieved in 2028-29 (FY29), reveals the IMF data, illustrating a four-year delay. Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran had in February said India would become a $5-trillion economy by 2025-26 or the following year, on the back of 8-9 per cent sustained growth rate in real gross domestic product (GDP). However, the IMF data conveys that the economy will be $4.92 trillion in FY28, clearly alluding to the fact that the target will be realised in FY29.
"Global rebalancing will require deficit economies to save more and consume less, while depending more on external demand relative to domestic demand for sustaining growth. Surplus economies will need to mirror these efforts - save less and spend more, and shift from external to domestic demand," Subbarao said during his intervention in the ongoing Spring meeting of the IMF in Washington.
From the Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, PowerGrid and Bajaj Finserve gained up to 2.01 per cent. On the other hand, bellwether stocks such as ITC, Kotak Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and Reliance were the laggards. ITC shares closed the session with a loss of 3.87 per cent lower and Reliance ended 1.92 per cent lower.
Global goods trade will grow by 3.3 per cent this year, says WTO.
The multilateral body has also asked the policymakers to take action to reduce risks arising from increased scarcity of oil resources.
Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide US$ 4.2 billion worth of assistance to cash-strapped Pakistan to support its economy, it emerged on Wednesday after Prime Minister Imran Khan held talks with Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Riyadh this week.
The silver lining for India's presidency is likely to be the support by almost all G20 countries to its proposal to include the African Union as a permanent member of the bloc that has emerged as perhaps the most influential multilateral forum after the United Nations.
The World Bank has announced that it will stop all its programmes in Russia and Belarus with "immediate effect" in response to Moscow's military operations in Ukraine and "hostilities" against the people of the war-torn country. On February 24, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities. The decision comes as a large number of countries, organisations and businesses are severing ties and have imposed sanctions on Russia over the country's invasion of Ukraine, and with Belarus for its support and cooperation with Moscow.
The Cabinet's approval to increase India's quota in the International Monetary Fund follows Fourteenth General Review of Quotas of the agency.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday warned that there are significant risks of the crisis recurring, as long as global banking system remains strained.
Fintech companies believe that the impact of Reserve Bank of India's order last week on unsecured loans will be visible in six to 12 months and prompt them to diversify and strengthen their secured portfolio. Fintechs which source funds through banks or non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are looking at quickly building their secured portfolio options to at least 40 per cent of their total portfolio. "Over the medium to long term, as part of our product strategy, we are evaluating secured products which can be enabled over a digital platform" said Yogi Sadana, the founder of Zype, a lending-focussed fintech.
Indian policymakers are almost alone, alongside the United States, in seeking a hard and multi-sectoral global decoupling from China in the expectation that it will boost their economies, observes Mihir S Sharma.
After Urjit Patel's appointment as RBI governor-designate, the bond market witnessed a sell-off, as it became evident that there won't be any significant change in stance
In a statement issued after its Article IV Consultation with India, the IMF said that Reserve Bank of India should be ready to increase rates to check any further rise in inflation.