Costlier onion and other vegetables pushed up inflation for the third month in a row to 6.1 per cent in August, making it difficult for the RBI to cut rate in the monetary policy review due later this week.
The minister said that the priority for him will be "rolling out all stuck highway projects that include many of the IL&FS projects within 100 days".
Here are the key decisions announced by the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday.
Reserve Bank will hold its first bi-monthly monetary policy review for 2016-17 on Tuesday.
.jpg)
According to the global financial services major, the primary concern for the RBI at the moment has to be anchoring elevated inflation expectations and stabilising the currency, which could face renewed pressures if the Fed begins QE tapering this week, as widely expected.
One incident should not be used to generalise the health of all cooperative banks, says RBI governor Shaktikanta Das.
'I have no problems with the finance ministry or with state governments treating petrol pump prices as the last resort for meeting their ambitious spending targets with very limited revenue resources.' 'But let's do away with this smokescreen of free pricing of petrol and diesel and go back to administered pricing regime,' says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is regarded as credible by global financiers.
While the situation Sitharaman finds herself in may not be that good, how does it stack up against her three immediate predecessors Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and the late Arun Jaitley?
Many officials had been talking of taking the baton of global growth.
The central bank has lowered its policy rate twice so far in 2015.
The government has formed a four-member panel of secretaries to suggest a new gas pricing mechanism.
Food prices probably fueled a sharp rise in India's retail inflation in December after the record low struck the previous month.
A government panel examined the records of employees surveyed by Labour Bureau's quarterly enterprises surveys and mapped it with the EPFO's subscribers and found "unexplained variations" between the two.
Adani's $15-billion Carmichael coal mine is stuck since 2010.
Cabinet secretary calls meeting to review the impact of inflation on essential commodities.
Among the current FTAs with significant trade deficits for India, five are with countries from the 10-nation Asean bloc. Exports to the 10 economies stood at $ 37.4 billion in 2018-19, up by 9% year on year. On the other hand, imports were higher at $ 59.31 billion, up by 25% from the previous year's $ 47.13 billion.
The French president said that peace should be maintained in the region and peoples' rights should be protected.
India Inc has pitched for rate cut to boost economic activities.
The RBI expects change, presumably commencing in the next Budget, but must hold its current view until this actually happens.
The BSE Mid-cap index gained 1.1% while the Small-cap index surged 1.3%, outperforming the benchmark indices
By no means do economists see the Reserve Bank of India stop at just a 25-bp cut. Some of the economists such as Soumyakanti Ghosh of State Bank of India are of the firm view that rates have room to fall by a total of 75 bps in the current financial year, starting with 25 bps in the August 7 policy.
The Congress, Left parties, Trinamool Congress and some others were in the forefront of this attack on the government, which is set to garner around Rs 7,900 crore through the decision.
On the sectoral front, rate-sensitive sectors such as Bankex and Auto gained by 1% and 0.7% respectively while BSE Consumer Durables gained 1.4%.
'Does it mean that we are witnessing the end of an era?' 'Probably not, but the post-Trump trade war has certainly brought a lot of instability in China,' notes Claude Arpi.
It is the six per cent target RBI is more concerned about.
Adopting a wait- and-watch approach ahead of US Fed meeting
'Scientists around the world are focused on very quickly doing work to help us better understand what we are facing.' 'I am inspired by what scientists have found in such a short amount of time since the virus emerged.'
The index has posted below the 50 mark, which marks contraction, for the third consecutive month.
A tax reforms panel, headed by finance minister's advisor Parthasarathi Shome, is considering moving away from setting fixed tax-collection targets and linking these with the changing economic scenario during the year.
A robust dispute settlement system would help the government unlock tax revenues, and also aid ease of doing business.
Authorities also said the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients was improving consistently in India and it was in a much better position in handling the pandemic, which has seen more than 63 lakh people testing positive for this virus since its emergence in China last December and over 3.7 lakh having lost their lives.
Benchmark 10-year bond yields hit a 13-month peak as bond traders priced in more aggressive monetary easing next year.
The RBI has made serious attempts to improve fiscal deficit.
A higher opening in the domestic equity market influenced uptrend.
'The issue is not whether the farm laws are beneficial for the farmers or not.' 'The farmers have taken a stand that they do not want these laws.' 'Why do you want to thrust these laws down their throat?'
'It could have moved from the use of small arms to artillery fire.' 'Anything could have happened like what happens on the LoC.'
Since January 1, the rupee value has fallen by 5.5 per cent against the US dollar and touched life-time low of 58.98 on Tuesday.
Making water available is always a serious challenge in the summer for all public authorities. This year, the challenge is higher when hand-washing at every opportunity has become a necessity. So keeping potable water lines running without a glitch has become most necessary.
'In countries like Japan, one out of 11.7 tests turns out to be positive, which is among the highest in the world. Italy tests 6.7 persons for one positive test while the USA tests 5.3 persons and the United Kingdom 3.4'
