India must be prepared to deal with climate disasters, geopolitical confrontations, and social strife linked to global events, asserts Jayant Sinha, chairman of Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance.
The ministry of finance is likely to assume crude oil price to remain within $85 per barrel while estimating subsidies for the Interim Budget 2024-25 (FY25), to be presented on February 1. Brent crude prices moved up on Thursday, ending at $78.9 per barrel. Crude oil and cooking gas prices, which move in tandem, impact fertiliser and cooking gas subsidies, constituting 53 per cent of the government's total subsidies.
Pirojsha Godrej, 43, patriarch Adi Godrej's son, is set to take over as chairman of the Godrej Industries Group from 2026 whol Nyrika Holkar, Smita Godrej Crishna's 42-year-old daughter, has emerged as the face of the Godrej Enterprises Group.
The government will formulate a strategy to make India self-reliant in edible oils by boosting domestic output of oilseeds and launch a comprehensive programme to support dairy farmers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday. India imports a large quantity of edible oils to meet the domestic demand. During the 2022-23 marketing year (November-October), the country imported nearly 165 lakh tonnes of cooking oils, valuing a whopping Rs 1.38 lakh crore.
So far, GMTS has defaulted on the supply of more than 20 cargoes or shiploads, 13 of which were set to be received in the second quarter (July-September), officials said.
Food and beverages major PepsiCo India on Thursday announced a partnership with N-Drip, a manufacturer of gravity-powered micro-irrigation system, to help farmers in India increase water efficiency. This is part of a global partnership between PepsiCo and N-Drip, aimed at increasing water efficiency across 10,000 hectares around the world by 2025, the company said in a statement. N-Drip's technology has already been introduced in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan to improve water efficiency levels across thousands of hectares in the country by 2025, PepsiCo India added.
The 193-member general assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia's "illegal so-called referendums in regions within the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine and the attempted illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, following the organisation of the above-mentioned referendums".
Whether this remains under control in the coming months will depend on the future intensity and spread of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the effectiveness of the Indian government's response, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Pre-Budget excercise next month should scrupulously avoid adventurism of all types and refrain from making excessively ambitious projections on revenue and expenditure numbers for 2023-24, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.
State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Adani-Total Gas Ltd and Shell were among the 29 companies that bid and bought natural gas to be produced from the deepest field in the KG-D6 block of Reliance Industries Ltd and bp, sources said. IOC walked away with almost half of the 6 million standard cubic meters per day of gas sold in an e-auction on Wednesday while state-owned gas utility GAIL bought 0.7 mmscmd, Adani-Total Gas Ltd 0.4 mmscmd, Shell 0.5 mmscmd, GSPC 0.25 mmscmd and IGS another 0.5 mmscmd, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Reliance-bp on Wednesday held an e-auction for sale of gas from the MJ field in their eastern offshore KG-D6 block after incorporating the government's new marketing rules to give CNG-selling city gas companies first priority over supplies.
RBI's projection of retail inflation at 6.8 per cent in the current fiscal is neither too high to deter private consumption, nor so low as to weaken inducement to invest, the Economic Survey said on Tuesday. However, entrenched inflation may prolong the tightening cycle and therefore, borrowing costs may stay 'higher for longer', it said. The Economic Survey 2022-23 was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Indian exporters are keeping their fingers crossed on account of rising Covid infections in China and other countries as it could again disrupt supply chains and affect demand for goods. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) director general Ajay Sahai said that if the cases continue to increase in the coming days, it may have implications on imports. "We are keeping our fingers crossed," he said.
If the Budget makes no big announcements on new schemes, projects, or tax giveaways, the government would face a major political dilemma as it may have to reluctantly consider shunning the practice of unveiling pre-election sops to woo voters, notes A K Bhattacharya.
The first consignment of 75,000 vials will reach India on Friday, it added.
'Its people are either victims of corruption or witnesses to it.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday underlined the need for not promoting any restrictions on the supply of energy and called for ensuring stability while once again emphasising on resolving the Ukraine conflict through diplomacy.
As stringent sanctions imposed by the European Union and US are crippling business and trade, desperate Russian oil companies are offering huge discounts to India, provided a payment mechanism to bypass the SWIFT ban is quickly approved by the government. According to sources familiar with the development, Russian oil firms are offering 25-27 per cent discount to the dated Brent crude prices. State-run Rosneft is one the biggest oil companies that supply crude to India.
Russia has welcomed India's decision to not support the price cap on Russian oil announced by G7 and its allies and offered it cooperation on leasing and building large-capacity ships to overcome the ban on insurance services and tanker chartering in the European Union and Britain to continue buying discounted oil. The offer came as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak held a meeting with the Indian Ambassador to Moscow, Pavan Kapoor, on Friday. "The Deputy Prime Minister welcomed India's decision not to support the price cap on Russian oil, which was imposed on December 5 by the G7 countries and their allies," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
India is keen to strengthen its partnership with Russia on Arctic subjects and there is immense scope for cooperation in the field of energy as well, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
The production of eight infrastructure sectors rose by 7.5 per cent in October on healthy performance by the segments of coal, natural gas, refinery products and cement, official data released on Tuesday showed. The output of eight core sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 0.5 per cent in October 2020, according to the data released by the commerce and industry ministry. Core sectors' growth stood at 4.5 per cent in September this year.
Investors are showing some interest in the downstream energy cycle. Refiners and marketers, especially the public sector (PSU) oil marketing companies (OMCs) could see a revival of marketing margins. Lower crude oil and gas prices may also improve margins in industries like paints, logistics, synthetic fabrics, plastics, and fertilisers. In the medium-term, however, there could be a supply overhang affecting OMCs as new refining capacities are scheduled to be commissioned, especially in China, and this may lead to a drop in the refining margins as capacity would be surplus to demand until and unless there's a pick-up in global growth.
The free food scheme is driven by electoral considerations, but its long-term fiscal risks outweigh the short-term gains, cautions A K Bhattacharya.
The US President also underlined that both countries "will advance sustainable and inclusive growth while tackling shared challenges like the climate, energy, and food crises."
The Union home ministry said several steps have been taken to augment the production and supply of Remdesivir injections from 38.80 lakh units per month to 74 lakh units per month by early next month, and asked the states to ensure its seamless supply and transport.
The wholesale price-based inflation eased to a five-month low of 13.93 per cent in July on easing prices of food articles and manufactured products. The WPI-based inflation softened for the second consecutive month in July, raising hopes of further decline in wholesale prices in the months to come. The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation, after scaling a record high of 15.88 per cent in May, declined to 15.18 per cent in June. It was 13.43 per cent in February. It was 11.57 per cent in July last year.
As India's stock rises, the resolution of the border row may become even more difficult, warn Harsh V Pant and Kalpit Mankikar.
The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
Agriculture activity, according to recent channel checks by Prabhudas Lilladher, is expected to continue at a strong pace in FY22.
'It has been an ongoing process, talking to the relevant ministries about eliminating leakages and curbing non-core expenditure in various schemes.'
If they can sit together and hammer out 'Black Sea Initiative' deal for much needed food shipments, surely, they should be able to address the madness of the larger military conflict?
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, has walked away with half of the natural gas that Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp of the UK offered in the latest auction of the fuel used to generate power, produce fertilizer, turned into CNG and used for cooking purposes. IOC got 2.5 million standard cubic meters per day out of the 5 mmscmd of gas auctioned last month, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The oil refining and marketing company, which was the top bidder even in the previous auction of gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 block of Reliance-bp, bid the volumes on behalf of seven fertilizer plants.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday met Sri Lanka's top leadership and discussed a host of issues, including the debt crisis faced by the island nation, investments, promoting tourism and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as the two countries marked the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties.
The oil ministry has stopped making fresh allocation of natural gas from domestic fields to the city gas sector, threatening the viability of Rs 2 lakh crore investment planned in the sector besides leading to a hike in CNG and piped cooking gas prices to record levels, sources said. Despite a decision of the Union Cabinet to give 100 per cent gas supply under 'no cut' priority to the city gas distribution (CGD) sector, current supplies have been maintained at March 2021 demand level. Besides, the process of allocating gas on a six-monthly average drawl also is punishing the CGD entities driving growth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in Ukraine, saying 'today's era is not of war' even as he called for finding ways to address the global food and energy security crisis.
India's economy grew 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022-23, pushing up the annual growth rate to 7.2 per cent, official data showed on Wednesday.
Power plants, involving investments of Rs 100,000 crore, facing closure.
The G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday was unable to come out with a joint communique due to sharp differences over the Ukraine conflict despite persistent efforts by host India to build consensus.
India's G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow-travellers in the global South, whose voice often goes unheard, he said.
'A lot has been done under the leadership of PM Modi. He is a patriot of his country. His idea of 'Make in India' matters both economic wise and in ethics. Future belongs to India, it can be proud of the fact that it's the largest democracy in the world,' the Kremlin said at Valdai Discussion Club.
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