'Instead of wailing about the absence of tax benefits, the private sector should press for an early implementation of the package of measures,' advises A K Bhattacharya.
The government has merged the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with the finance ministry to give it a better control over state-owned firms and facilitate its ambitious privatisation programme. Finance ministry will now have six departments while DPE's hereto parent ministry, the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises will now be called the ministry of heavy industries. Previously, the disinvestment ministry - created under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government - was merged with the finance ministry and is now a department under it. Also, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was abolished and administration of foreign investments was given to the finance ministry (FinMin).
For years it has been evident that fibre and DTH would give tough competition to cable in India where regulatory overload has mutilated an already warped industry structure. OTT added fuel to the fire. From Rs 27,000 crore in 2010, cable's share of subscription revenues is now estimated at Rs 13,000 crore.
Processes are at an advanced stage for a number of assets of the Centre and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to be monetised. The assets include office space, apartments, factories, land, power transmission assets, sports stadia, gas pipelines, and telecom assets.
Strict norms for arriving international passengers, especially from 'at-risk' countries, will come into effect from Tuesday midnight and authorities are stepping their vigil for effective surveillance amid mounting concerns over the emergence of the coronavirus variant Omicron.
Though the NDA government had been trying to privatise 20 companies, a decision for which was taken in 2017, and included national carrier Air India, the investor community evinced little enthusiasm for any of them. Now, with an in-principle approval for privatisation of BPCL, CCI and SCI, the government has taken the plunge again.
While presenting her 2021-22 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had set a fiscal deficit target of 6.8 per cent of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) against the 2020-21 Revised Estimate of 9.5 per cent. The fiscal correction in the upcoming 2022-23 Union Budget is unlikely to be that steep. Even as discussions among top Budget-makers are ongoing, the fiscal deficit target for 2022-23 may likely be in the range of 6.5-6.8 per cent.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the much-awaited 2022-23 Union Budget on February 1. While there has been strong recovery in some sectors, touch services like hospitality, tourism and leisure continue to suffer after two Covid-19 waves. Household savings have been hit due to increased spending on health care. Consumption has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and state-owned NACIL owe public sector oil companies over Rs 2,241 crore (Rs 22.41 billion) as payment for jet fuel, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said on Tuesday.
The complaint was lodged by Mumbai-based Express Industry Council of India, which represented major express courier and cargo companies such as DTDC, Aramex India, Blue Dart, DHL Express, GATI and First Flight.
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as angry protesters stormed the prime minister's office in Colombo, hours after president Gotabaya Rajapksa fled to the Maldives on a military jet, amid the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
Experts expect a net loss of Rs 26.7 billion for IndiGo and Rs 10.1 billion for SpiceJet in Q1FY21 driven by low traffic volume, low fleet utilisation and poor coverage of fixed costs.
Out of nearly 30 public sector undertakings and assets under 'strategic sale' plan, only the ONGC-HPCL plan has been completed
Even though the two state-owned airlines, Indian Airlines and Air India, have announced a merger, the country is on its way to once again have two scheduled airlines controlled by the government.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Air India will have till March to settle the Rs 2,900-crore fuel bill they owe the state-owned refiners even as the oil companies today agreed to increase the credit limit for the airlines to 90 days.
Fitch reaffirmed India's rating at 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook saying the rating balances a still strong medium-term growth outlook compared with similar category peers and relative external resilience stemming from solid foreign-reserve buffers against high public debt, a weak financial sector and some lagging structural factors, including governance indicators and GDP per capita.
'Fiscal purists would quarrel with the idea of selling assets to pay for current expenditure -- such as the payout to farmers and the health insurance programme -- for the obvious reason that the process cannot go on forever.' 'At some point, the list of assets available for sale will run out,' notes T N Ninan.consultations -- something already aired in connection with the lease of airports to the Adani group, says T N Ninan.
In a mega-contract worth over $1.6 billion, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries will provide advanced medium-range surface-to-air missile systems to the Indian Army.
The civil aviation ministry assured employees of state-owned carriers Air-India and Indian on Wednesday that the planned merger of the two would not involve retrenchment, cuts or losses in pay scale, perks or allowances.
The levy will come into effect from December 1, 2016
With Air India's Gulf monopoly under threat and likely to end very soon if the civil aviation ministry has its way, the state-owned airline is now pitching aggressively for direct flights to the US and Australia to make up for the loss.
The proposed merger of state-owned carriers Air-India and Indian is expected to be completed in the current financial year, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Monday.
The issues of brand name, mascot and logo of the merged entity would also be finalised "in two weeks".
For the first time in its history, state-run carrier Air-India will sell its six Airbus A310-300 aircraft to a European bank and lease them back to its fleet for operations, in a sale-and-lease back deal.
The AirAsia aircraft that went missing after taking off from Indonesia with 162 people on board may be at the bottom of the sea, a top Indonesian official said on Monday, as the multinational search for the Airbus continued amid fading hopes of finding any survivors.
India will approve plans by two state-owned airlines to buy new planes only after it decides whether or not to sell part of its stakes in the carriers, the civil aviation minister said on Tuesday.
India's fuel sales fell in the first half of April as a record rise in prices in a short 16-day period dented demand, preliminary industry data showed on Saturday. Petrol sales fell almost 10 per cent in the first half of April when compared with the same period in the preceding month, while diesel demand slid 15.6 per cent. Even cooking gas LPG, which had consistently shown growth even during the pandemic period, saw a 1.7 per cent month-on-month fall in consumption during April 1-15.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday did an hour-long session of yoga exercises in the open air as he led corporate India to join the International Day of Yoga celebrations. Several public and private sector companies held yoga sessions at their offices to promote the adoption of exercise in daily routines to stay fit and healthy. Adani, chairman of logistics-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, and his wife Priti, who heads the Adani Foundation, "participated with more than 1,000 members of the Adani Parivaar team to celebrate health, mindfulness and meditation," the group said in a statement. The session was held at a football ground at Adani Shantigram in Ahmedabad. Several other business leaders tweeted pictures of their yoga sessions.
Air-India will appoint an advisor for laying out the roadmap for its initial public offer by this month-end and plans to hit the capital market by December 2005.
It is estimating that this would help monetise assets worth Rs 10,000 crore.
The first set of routes that it will launch internationally will be the routes that can be flown by its existing aircraft, the A320s, which will be routes within three, three-and-a-half hours of India
Currency depreciation also hits earnings of all domestic carriers
Revenue from divestment has fetched Rs 40,000-50,000 crore against target of Rs 2.10 trillion.
'Civil matters like loan recovery are being connected with criminal allegations, without any basis.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances