'Only the coming years will tell whether the government finds this an easy way of relieving itself from its fiscal constraints.'
The Reserve Bank is working on a phased implementation strategy for its own digital currency and is in the process of launching it in wholesale and retail segments in the near future, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on Thursday. He said the idea of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is ripe, and many central banks in the world are working towards it. Sankar further said CBDC is needed to protect consumers from the "frightening level of volatility" seen in some of the virtual currencies which have no sovereign backing.
The RBI is still a small player in international gold buying among central banks. But in terms of total gold bought in 2019, it is the sixth largest buyer with 25.2 tonnes purchases in the first 10 months of 2019.
Theoretically, the currency with the public should expand in sync with the nominal income, which again moves in relation to the nominal growth rate of the economy. But the correlation breaks easily when other factors come into play, says Anup Roy.
Goyal was questioned by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office on Thursday in Mumbai in connection with allegations of some financial irregularities.
Hinting at further relaxation in the capital account convertibility norms, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar on Thursday said the country is on the cusp of some fundamental shifts with regard to currency management. India has come a long way in achieving increasing levels of convertibility on the capital account and has broadly achieved the desired outcome for the policy choices in terms of achieving a stable composition of foreign capital inflow, Sankar said while addressing the Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India's (FEDAI) annual day meeting. Convertibility refers to the ability to convert domestic currency into foreign currencies and vice versa to make payments for balance of payments transactions.
Sri Lanka's new Finance Minister Ali Sabry on Tuesday resigned, a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him after sacking his brother Basil Rajapaksa amidst the island nation's worst economic crisis.
He was permanently absorbed into the ED cadre in 2014 and has headed some high-profile investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation case, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the money laundering cases against former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, the Aircel Maxis and VVIP choppers case.
The quarter was marked by adverse foreign exchange rates and commodity prices, higher depreciation and higher sales promotion expenses.
India's widening current account deficit (CAD), driven by the massive spike in commodity prices led by crude oil, is set to put pressure on the fragile recovery, warns a brokerage report that has revised upwards its CAD forecast to $45 billion or 1.4 per cent of GDP by March. According to a report by British brokerage Barclays, the worries arise from the fact that the trade deficit has been jumping continuously since July. From an average monthly trade deficit of $12 billion till June, it has jumped to $16.8 billion in July-October, with September showing the highest-ever trade deficit on record at $22.6 billion, the report said.
There are laws that are as out of time and place today as the Rowlatt Act was a century ago, explains Aakar Patel.
Having exposure to international funds and gold is a must for those who have foreign currency-denominated goals.
If Sebi and RBI remain quiet about this brazenly illegal activity, will someone in the finance ministry or the NITI Aayog take a closer look, asks Debashis Basu.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in public sector refiners, expanding the scope for FDI in the privatisation of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). The approval by the Cabinet will enable the sale of the government's 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL to a foreign buyer, and, at the same time, will open the door for FDI in other public sector companies in the oil sector put up for privatisation.
'... as has been happening in the last three weeks, then the foreign exchange reserves will not be comfortable to ensure that the rupee does not fall drastically.'
The Delhi high court on Monday allowed journalist Rana Ayyub to travel abroad while questioning the Enforcement Directorate over a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against her barring her from travelling abroad.
'Earning expectations remain strong.'
It plans to use it as collateral, along with forex reserves, to print currency.
With inflation remaining at elevated levels, central banks around the world, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will kill excess demand in economy over the next six to eight months, sources in the know said. They also indicated that there could be a rate hike in June, when the inflation forecast for the current financial year would be raised. The RBI, the sources said, might announce more steps such as raising the limit on held-to-maturity (HTM) bonds to support government borrowings but might not come out with any further quantitative easing GSAP (Government Securities Acquisition Programme) measures.
Sri Lanka on Thursday signed an agreement with India to jointly redevelop the strategic World War II-era oil tank farm in the island nation's eastern port district of Trincomalee, in a new milestone in bilateral economic and energy partnership.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Sharif, 70, and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday filed their nomination papers for the post.
Khan, 69, was not present in the lower house at the time of voting. His party lawmakers staged a walkout.
The Government also defended the President's decision to enforce a state of emergency, that had given him sweeping authority to act in the interests of public security and preserving public order, including suspending any laws, authorising detentions and seizing property, saying it was declared after attempts were made to attack the President's Office and other public property.
Reconstruction efforts after the Russia-Ukraine war will be dominated by the heft of the membership of major nations across international organisations. India is hamstrung because it does not play host to any major global institution nor does it hold positions of significant influence in the ones in which it has membership. As a result, the world's sixth largest economy is obliged to follow the rules set by most of them.
India's projected economic growth for 2022 has been downgraded by over two per cent to 4.6% by the United Nations, a decrease attributed to the ongoing war in Ukraine, with New Delhi expected to face restraints on energy access and prices, reflexes from trade sanctions, food inflation, tightening policies and financial instability, according to a UN report released on Thursday. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report downgraded its global economic growth projection for 2022 to 2.6 per cent from 3.6 per cent due to shocks from the Ukraine war and changes in macroeconomic policies that put developing countries particularly at risk. The report said while Russia will experience a deep recession this year, significant slowdowns in growth are expected in parts of Western Europe and Central, South and South-East Asia.
The Kerala high court on Tuesday granted bail to Swapna Suresh in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case registered by the National Investigation Agency in connection with the sensational gold smuggling through diplomatic channel.
Prime Minister Khan, who had effectively lost his majority in the 342-member National Assembly, made a brief address to the nation after a stormy parliament session was adjourned by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri.
Gold reserves were up by $712 million to $34.729 billion.
India's sovereign credit ratings do not reflect the economy's fundamentals, the Economic Survey said on Friday and nudged the global agencies to become more transparent and less subjective in their ratings. The Economic Survey 2020-21, tabled in Parliament, said that sovereign credit ratings methodology must be amended to reflect economies' ability and willingness to pay their debt obligations, and suggested that developing economies must come together to address this bias and subjectivity inherent in sovereign credit ratings methodology. "Never in the history of sovereign credit ratings has the fifth largest economy in the world been rated as the lowest rung of the investment-grade (BBB-/Baa3). While sovereign credit ratings do not reflect the Indian economy's fundamentals, noisy, opaque and biased credit ratings damage FPI flows," the survey said.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the country's economy has recovered stronger than expected from the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is a need to be watchful of demand sustainability after the end of festivities. Speaking at the annual day event of Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India (FEDAI), Das said there are downside risks to growth across the world and also in India. It can be noted that the Indian economy contracted by 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the fiscal year, and the RBI expects the economy to shrink by 9.5 per cent in FY21.
If the fear of ED could drive the powerful people of today to be honest or at least be minimally corrupt, will it not be a great thing for our nation?, asks Sudhir Bisht.
The move came hours after Khan was removed from office through a no-confidence vote held early Sunday morning, becoming the first premier in the country's history to be sent home after losing the trust of the House.
Hyderabad on Monday became the second metro city in the country to see petrol price crossing Rs 100 per litre mark after fuel prices were raised yet again. Petrol price was hiked by 29 paise per litre and diesel by 30 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The hike -- 24th in six weeks -- pushed fuel prices across the country to new historic highs. In Delhi, petrol hit an all-time high of Rs 96.41 a litre, while diesel is now priced at Rs 87.28 per litre.
This month, advertisements for managing directors and the senior management team for the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development or NaBFID, should be out, signalling the start of a financial institution (FI) like no other the country has ever had. For this and other reasons government managers associated with the NaBFID project are convinced it should remain a 100 per cent government-owned entity. This is somewhat different from what former economic affairs secretary Tarun Bajaj said when the NaBFID Bill was being tabled in Parliament earlier this year: "To begin with, it will be 100 per cent government owned.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has issued a show cause notice to the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange for undertaking transactions worth over Rs 2,790 crore in alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). WazirX, registered under the company named Zanmai Labs Pvt Ltd, was incorporated in December, 2017 as a domestic cryptocurrency start-up and its directors Nischal Shetty and Hanuman Mhatre, along with the company, have been named in the notice issued by the central probe agency after completion of investigation. The agency issued a statement saying that it stumbled upon the transactions of the company during an ongoing money laundering probe into the "Chinese-owned" illegal online betting applications.
'During Congress rule, the government used to get both the fishermen and the boats released whenever the Sri Lankan navy apprehended them.' 'Under BJP rule, only the fishermen are being released.'
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