The Venezuelan President and his wife Cilia Flores were earlier captured from Caracas after US President Donald Trump unilaterally sanctioned a military operation on Venezuelan soil.
I am inclined to believe that the Venezuela adventure is not an indication of American strength, alas, but rather of American weakness, points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
Noting that recent uncertainties created by global tariffs have not impacted the Indian economy severely, Anuradha Thakur, secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, said the central government is hopeful that the recent goods and services tax (GST) rationalisation will ignite the much needed animal spirits in the financial sector.
New Delhi will substantially reduce tariffs on industrial and agricultural goods while continuing to protect sensitive sectors. Tariffs on some agricultural products that are not traditionally considered sensitive will be brought down to zero, while in the case of relatively sensitive items, duties will be reduced in a graded manner and quotas will be imposed.
The UK has called for a safe and peaceful transition of power in Venezuela following a US operation that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated support for international law and said the UK government will discuss the situation with US counterparts.
'If the near-term economic pain is absorbed more by those who have the ability and the financial strength to do so, then small and medium enterprises in downstream industries will emerge stronger from the trade imbroglio.'
The co-operative banking sector is well regulated, and a few cases of restrictions being imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should not paint a negative picture of the entire sector, said Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) secretary Ajay Seth on Monday. "Co-operative banks in the country are generally quite robust, and the RBI takes regulatory action whenever issues arise.
The government may save over Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) on capital and revenue expenditure allocated towards new schemes in the FY25 Budget that are yet to be implemented.
A 20-year-old Indian student, Sudiksha Konanki, has gone missing while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. US federal law enforcement agencies are working with Dominican authorities to investigate her disappearance. Konanki, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, was reported missing on March 6 while vacationing with friends in Punta Cana. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) is assisting in the investigation, which includes a review of surveillance video, telephone records, and interviews with anyone who may have seen Konanki. The LCSO has filed for a Yellow Notice (worldwide police alert for a missing person) to be issued by INTERPOL. While Dominican officials believe Konanki may have drowned in the ocean, the LCSO cautions against drawing any unsubstantiated conclusions. The investigation is ongoing.
The government is confident of meeting the fiscal deficit target of 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and the nominal GDP target of 10.5 per cent despite pressure in the initial months of FY24, Economic Affairs secretary Ajay Seth told Business Standard. Normally the initial months of any financial year see proportionally a higher fiscal deficit because the expenditure is evenly paced while revenue picks up in the later months, he said. "This year the proportional fiscal deficit so far is much closer to the target than in most other years.
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
DEA Secretary Arvind Mayaram is also expected to attend the event.
The government is planning to introduce legislative changes to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) regulations, with a focus on easing the pathway for inflows from a foreign portfolio investor to transition seamlessly into foreign direct investments (FDI) once the FPI surpasses the 10 per cent ownership threshold in a company. This move stems from multiple requests by foreign investors seeking to streamline the reporting requirements that arise when their stakes in Indian firms cross the 10 per cent mark.
Canada's foreign direct investment (FDI) into India doubled after the pandemic years even as India's own investments into Canada show signs of slackening in recent years. The cumulative equity FDI inflows from Canada rose from $1.8 billion in March 2019 to $3.9 billion in March 2024, shows data from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The overall share is up from 0.42 per cent to 0.57 per cent during the same period, suggesting that Canadian FDI grew faster than overall FDI during this period
Another Indian, Arjun Erigaisi could not crack the solid defences of Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran and had to settle for a draw.
In view of the foreign investment that would come into Bharti Airtel via the proposed share-swap and cash transaction arrangement, the finance ministry has asked DoT to ascertain more specific contents of the deal and advise the ministry on the same. In its letter, DEA has also said that the transaction would need to adhere to the sectoral cap as per the FDI policy as also specific telecom sector regulations.
DEA is currently headed on an interim basis by Corporate Affairs Secretary Tapan Ray
The size of Reserve Bank's balance sheet increased by 11.08 per cent to Rs 70.47 lakh crore as on March 2024, leading to the highest-ever dividend payout to the government, according to the central bank's annual report. In actual terms, the increase was Rs 7,02,946.97 crore over Rs 63.45 lakh crore as on March 2023.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday said it has arrested Jaffer Sadiq, a Tamil Nadu-based alleged dealer of narcotics, in connection with an international drugs trafficking investigation case.
While the trailer gives away a major chunk of the film's plot, it still intrigues us.
Internship Programme, 2008 formulated by the Department of Economic Affairs.
Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said a centralised portal would be ready in three to four months wherein depositors and beneficiaries can access details of unclaimed deposits across various banks. As of February this year, about Rs 35,000 crore of unclaimed deposits were transferred to RBI by public sector banks in respect of deposits which were not operated for 10 years or more. "In order to improve and widen the access of depositors/beneficiaries to such data, RBI has decided to develop a web portal to enable search across multiple banks for possible unclaimed deposits based on user inputs," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current financial year.
Senior bureaucrat Tarun Bajaj was appointed revenue secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle by the Centre on Tuesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been trying to have the prosecution of David Coleman Headley, the Chicago-based US citizen of Pakistani origin, who allegedly helped the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in carrying out the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, conducted in such a manner as to avoid any focus on his alleged links with the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
Prodipto Ghosh, presently additional secretary to the prime minister, has been appointed additional secretary, department of economic affairs, an official spokesman said on Friday.
For the second time since Press Note 2 and 4 were issued in February 2009, the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry has raised questions on their implementation, this time over an application before the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
Currently, most crowdfunding platforms neither operate with proper authorisation nor are governed under any law.
The news of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran's death has created ripples across the world, but it makes no difference to Muniyamma, the milk vendor who tipped off the Bangalore police about Rajiv Gandhi's assassins in 1991.What really matters to Muniyamma, 55, is that she is yet to receive the Rs 10 lakh promised to her by the police, for tipping them off about the whereabouts of LTTE operatives Shivarasan and Shubha.
It was not immediately clear when Garg submitted his voluntary retirement scheme application to the government. It was also not known if the government would accept the application. If he hadn't applied for VRS, he would have retired from government service at the end of October 2020 on attaining of 60 years of age. Garg did not answer phone calls seeking his comments.
During his first Union Budget in July 2014, former finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the setting up of an institution called 3P India, with an allocation of Rs 500 crore. The intention was to mainstream public-private partnerships (PPPs) in India. The plan was to bring together the capacities of the government and private sector to push PPP projects.
The RBI on Monday imposed penalty aggregating to Rs 6 crore on Bank of India and Punjab National Bank for contravention of norms, including one related to "Frauds - Classification and Reporting". A penalty of Rs 4 crore has been imposed on Bank of India and Rs 2 crore on Punjab National Bank. In a statement, the RBI said the statutory Inspection for Supervisory Evaluation (lSE) of Bank of India was conducted with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2019.
Tarun Bajaj, an old hand at the finance ministry, on Friday assumed charge as the economic affairs secretary. He comes back to North Block at a time when the economy is facing headwinds due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
There are no regulations governing virtual currencies in India and the RBI has not given any licence to any entity/company to operate such currencies.
The source of the synthetic drugs was Asia, especially India and China.
In order to achieve $5 trillion GDP by FY'25, India needs to spend about $1.4 trillion over this period on infrastructure, according to the Economic Survey. During financial years 2008-17, India pumped in about $1.1 trillion on infrastructure. However, the challenge is to step up infrastructure investment substantially, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said.
The Home Ministry has conveyed to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) that it has not given security clearance to the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways' proposal to buy a 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways.
FY22 will be the year to rebuild with the IMF projecting output growth at 11.5 per cent, economic survey at 11.0 per cent and the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee at 10.5 per cent.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass a direction for expediting the execution of death sentence of Mohmammad Afzal, convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case.
The chargesheet names 14 accused, including the Congress leader's son Karti Chidambaram, Peter Mukherjea and Indrani Mukerjea.
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