Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan has proclaimed his determination to set Tamil Nadu's fiscal house in order in five years, and Friday will show how he plans to go about it when he rises to present the Stalin government's maiden budget, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tesla began taking orders for its Model 3 sedan from Indian customers in 2016 and caught the fancy of people like GOQii's Vishal Gondal, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma and venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy. Amid hints from Elon Musk, Alnoor Peermohamed reports on Tesla's Indian entry.
Modi had campaigned with promises of jobs, infrastructure and development.
Can the newly-minted Jal Shakti ministry bring water to some 19 crore Indian households that have never had taps or heard the sound of flowing water, wonders Vinayak Chatterjee.
14-year-old Vinisha Umashankar has been creating a buzz with her solar-powered ironing cart. The youngest finalist of the Duke of Cambridge's The Earthshot Prize 2021, she is a shining example of why one is never too young to help the environment.
Policy lays out a 5-year road map seeking creation of 3.5 mn jobs and promoting 10,000 start-ups.
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Chinese alumina refining and metal smelting technologies have emerged as a match for the best anywhere in the world. In fact, Vedanta and Hindalco have bought technologies from China. Our aluminium makers will be haunted by twin fears of rising imports and low metal prices squeezing margins over a long time.
The Modi government's e-auction policy for coal, meant to shield the consumer against hike in electricity charges, has already led to serious allegations of cartelisation among the bidding corporates. Matters came to such a pass that the government at one point last week was considering inviting the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the matter, reports Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
The power ministry is planning to start a second version of UDAY, aimed only at reducing the losses of discoms and improving the quality of power supply.
'There is good indication that the economy is bouncing back, but the problem is, we should look at the eight quarters preceding March 2020.' 'The growth had fallen below 3.1% before March 2020.' 'So, the governments must realise that even if you transform the best of green shoots into banyan trees, you see only 3.1% growth.'
The prime minister made the reference about the functioning of the Parliament against the backdrop of the virtual washout of its Monsoon session over various issues.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government would adopt a multi-faceted approach on pricing in all forms of energy including auto fuel, LPG, kerosene and electricity aimed at efficient and rational use of energy resources.
'The question often being asked is whether the demand for petrol and diesel is price inelastic?' asks Arun Balakrishnan, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum.
It became increasingly clear that the real negotiations the government had to conduct were with Indian business which was wary of yet another free trade agreement, points out T N Ninan.
The Sensex, which began the year at 26,160.90 level, has shed nearly 1,400 points.
In an over an hour-and-a-half speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined his 15-month-old government's performance and his vision for the nation in the years to come.
Of the 170 million rural households in the country, a government website claims to have connected 82 per cent of them. The metered households are 50 per cent of the total. As on February, 2018, of the 780,000 villages to be intensively electrified or provide connection to all in households, 493,000 have been covered. However, the amount and quality of the power supply cannot be ascertained from this data. No clause in any of the rural electrification programmes promises 24 hours' power supply.
India kicked off a new phase of power reforms on Monday with a new law that will encourage competition, cut subsidies and attract private investment in the energy-starved country, officials and analysts said.
Attacking Arvind Kejriwal over his announcement of 50 per cent reduction in power tariff up to 400 units, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Harsh Vardhan today said Kejriwal was indulging in "populism" and the decisions would be implemented at the cost of Aam Admi's welfare projects.
In a bid to correct the lopsided power tariff structure, the Centre on Tuesday said all the states had agreed to bring down cross-subsidies and rebalance the tariff.
GST will yield 'better value for money' for car buyers, increasing automobile industry demand, says Sandip Neogi.
On paper, only 8,000 villages remain to be electrified in the country, but the situation on the ground shows euphoria over numbers is misplaced
Indian auto and pharma industries import several critical components and raw materials from China.
Delhi BJP chief Tiwari said each poor family will be provided good quality, subsidised 'atta' (wheat flour) at a rate of Rs 2 per kilogram. The BJP will bring an ambitious 'Samridh Delhi Infrastructure Scheme', with a provision of Rs 10,000 crore, to ensure "focussed and priority" development of roads, flyovers, foot over-bridges and other key infrastructure projects, the manifesto stated. The manifesto promises to set up a 'Colonies Development Board' for undertaking development of various civic amenities.
Hit hard by volatility in yarn prices, 50% of the looms said to be operating only 3-4 days a week.
An empowered group of ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is to consider an Oil Ministry proposal of abolishing the priority ranking according to which natural gas is first given to urea manufacturing fertiliser plants, then to LPG units, followed by power plants, city gas, steel and refineries.
If not for Palaniswami, it is hard to guess if the AIADMK would have been able to garner 33.3 per cent vote share as against the DMK's 37.7 per cent. AIADMK won 66 seats, its allies Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bharatiya Janata Party five and four seats respectively and proved yet again that the western region was its fortress.
Normally, kharif sowing of vegetable seeds starts during the first week of May across the country. Farmers start preparing their fields to make them suitable for kharif sowing during the second fortnight of April. Now, however, faced with the lockdown, farmers are in a hurry to clear their fields of rabi crop and prepare for kharif planting. With a normal monsoon forecast this year, they are doing all they can to take advantage of pre-monsoon showers.
'Defence funding is channelled to State-owned research organisations where scientists are merely bureaucrats holding meetings and sending out minutes of meetings and press releases, but have long ago stopped any innovative work.' 'Unless this tragedy is fixed, India's chances to create world-conquering and job-creating new industries are slim,' says Ajit Balakrishnan.
NDA's energy plan powered UP win, but it's not a winner yet. Centre has claimed to have saved money by targeted coverage but critics say the system is not yet foolproof.
Modi sarkar will have to undertake reforms to prove its mettle.
Dharmendra Pradhan lays bare the next course of action for his ministry and says RIL will have to pay the same price at which it produced the volumes.
Studies suggest net benefits of hydro-power, nuclear energy or natural gas as sources of electricity are greater than those of wind and solar.
While an import duty is ruled out, a small excise duty on jewellery manufacturing can be on the cards.
A government that confuses PowerPoints for policy is delaying structural change too much.
'The economy has to become the government's No. 1 priority, which it is not at the moment,' says T N Ninan.
