Experts believe FPIs will keep a close watch on coronavirus pandemic, its spread and likely impact on the economy while making decisions about investment into India.
Shringla began his two-day official visit to Nepal on Thursday. He was accorded a warm welcome on his maiden visit to Nepal which is happening at the invitation of Nepal Foreign Secretary Paudyal, amid a strain in bilateral ties following a bitter border row between the two countries.
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday decided to leave benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 per cent but maintained an accommodative stance as the economy faces heat of the second Covid wave.
NCAER said the monetary policy measures are unlikely to revive growth at this juncture and suggested providing fiscal stimulus, which too can be challenging unless it can be financed through better revenue generation.
Das said banks have passed only 0.29 per cent in rate cuts to their borrowers as against 0.75 per cent cuts in interest rates by the Reserve Bank till June.
The preliminary processing of tax returns is already undertaken with the help of technology. There is now greater scope of using more technology to reduce the human interface even further, notes A K Bhattacharya.
The RBI is understood to be dithering since it would want more clarity on the cost of the fiscal policies the new government would undertake before it decides to cut rates, even though it has pencilled in a lower gross domestic product growth rate for this fiscal year.
The Reserve Bank will go for a "dovish pause" at Wednesday's policy review announcement amid developments such as a rise in inflation, government maintaining the inflation target band and a likely impact on growth due to local lockdowns on rising COVID-19 infections, analysts said on Monday. Economists at American brokerage Bofa Securities said price stability, growth and financial stability will become the prime focus areas for the central bank going forward. "The RBI MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) should deliver another dovish pause on Wednesday," it said. The policy announcement, the first for the fiscal, will come days after the government maintained the RBI's target to ensure inflation to be within 2-6 per cent band for five more years.
Retail inflation during the first month of the current fiscal stood at 2.9 per cent, down from 4.6 per cent a year ago. Food inflation based on Consumer Food Price Index declined to a low of 0.1 per cent during the financial year 2018-19, the survey said.
India and China achieved a major milestone this year when their bilateral trade crossed the landmark figure of $100 billion but it did not generate any fanfare in both capitals as the two Asian giants are going through a "particularly bad patch" in their relations due to a set of actions by Beijing in violation of agreements that led to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh. Starting with a modest $1.83 billion in 2001, the bilateral trade crossed $100 billion-mark in the first 11 months this year, a significant milestone for which the two countries carried out campaigns to boost trade and build it as a major stakeholder to improve the relations between two nations, whose ties otherwise remained frosty over the festering boundary dispute and strategic rivalry. According to last month's data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC), the India-China bilateral trade totalled $114.263 billion, up 46.4 per cent year-on-year from January to November 2021.
It was women who unambiguously bore the brunt of the lockdown joblessness, says Kanika Datta.
The record contraction in the growth rate of eight core sectors will have its impact on IIP.
A greater payment security mechanism for power generation companies to ensure timely payouts for supply of electricity will be in focus in 2022 as stricter rules are on the anvil for 24x7 power supply amid discoms' outstanding dues at a whopping Rs 1.56 lakh crore. Mounting outstanding dues of distribution companies (discoms) to electricity generation companies (gencos) have been a perennial issue affecting the entire value chain in the power sector and are also a hindrance for the ambitious goal of 24x7 power supply across the country even when the payment for coal is made in advance. The situation persists despite the fact that discoms' dues become overdue after 45 days of generating bills and they also have to pay penal interest on the overdue amount in most of the cases to gencos.
Investment trend by foreign investors will also be closely watched for stock movement
The reason is that because of the hybrid immunity after three waves of natural infection and a large proportion of adults receiving both doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the susceptible pool has come down drastically, Lahariya said.
Taliban failed to honour Doha accord, never renounced Al-Qaeda: US general Mark Milley
Cricket West Indies (CWI) said on Friday it will halve salaries for staff and players for up to six months as it struggles to deal with the "debilitating economic challenges" caused by the coronavirus pandemic. CWI said it had delayed the 50% salary cut for staff, players, umpires and coaches, to take effect from July 1, as long as possible and hoped the temporary measure would not last more than three to six months.
Tata Motors drove the Sensex rally for the second session in a row, surging over 8 per cent. Other top gainers were Bharti Airtel, TCS, Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India -- rising as much as 5 per cent.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.
Relations between the Mint Road and North Block have often been frosty, with the former's calls for lowering rates being the biggest point of difference
Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda Cars and Tata Motors posted single digit growth during the period under review while M&M reported decline in sales.
Top laggards in the Sensex pack included Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, SBI, Tata Steel and Axis Bank, falling up to 3.46 per cent.
Tokyo Olympics organisers added that they are working on more than 200 ideas to simplify and reduce costs for the rescheduled Games.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2 per cent compared to a build up rate of 4.56 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year. Inflation in food articles as a group rose to 11.08 per cent during the month as against 9.80 per cent in the previous month, mainly driven by exorbitantly high onion prices, the rates of which spiked by over 172 per cent from a year-ago. The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index was at 0.16 per cent in October.
The meeting, which comes just days before the next bi-monthly monetary policy review on June 3, lasted for about 50 minutes.
The apex court said the Annual Confidential Report evaluation criteria for grant of permanent commission to women officers ignored the achievement and laurels brought by them to the Indian Army.
Officials have said the national capital lacked a convention centre big enough to seat so many MPs and adhere to social distancing norms. Additionally, holding a 'virtual session' looks slims as any change in the rules requires a motion to be carried in both the Houses of Parliament.
Top Sensex gainers include Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank, HUL, and Maruti, rallying up to 5.87 per cent. While, ICICI Bank, NTPC and ITC slipped up to 0.13 per cent.
The relaxation would be available only to those beneficiaries who have been credited with the advance for buying the cylinder but have not been able to purchase the refill.
If Nirmala Sitharaman does indeed present a 'never-before' like Budget on February 1, going by her promise, she would create a new benchmark for post-contraction Budgets, observes A K Bhattacharya.
'For a responsible person like him to utter such nonsense is shameful.' 'He is not fit to be a director on the RBI central board.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that One Rank-One Pension (OROP) in Armed forces is a policy decision and suffers from no constitutional infirmity.
The party released its manifesto -- Samajwadi Vachan Patra -- for the coming assembly elections, shortly after the BJP released its own.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
The government on Wednesday asked the Reserve Bank to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five-year period ending March 2026. To control the price rise, the government in 2016 gave a mandate to the RBI to keep the retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for a five-year period ending March 31, 2021.
Economic growth has slipped to a six-year low of 5 per cent for the June quarter and is expected to turn in lower than that in the September quarter. Lack of consumption is seen as one of the key factors pulling down growth.
Experts said a dip in consumption expenditure indicated an increasing prevalence of poverty in the country.
At the meeting the Sharif said that all concerned ministries should ensure 'seamless coordination' to ensure steady supply of petrol in all parts of the country.
RBI is scheduled to announce mid-quarter review of monetary policy for 2013-14 on June 17.
