The markets tanked 209 points after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tabled the Union Budget in Parliament on Friday. Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan defends the measures, saying the markets will need time to comprehend the measures.
Many bureaucrats have in the recent past switched sides to join companies.
R Gopalan has been appointed as Secretary Economic Affairs. He will hold this position, in addition to his current charge as Secretary Financial Services.
ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd on Friday said its MD & CEO Punit Goenka has initiated a process of rationalisation of workforce by 15 per cent to prune staff strength across the company. In a regulatory filing, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) said Goenka has proposed a lean organisation structure to the board with a lateral structure while identifying broadcast, digital, movies and music as core business units. "In line with his overall strategic approach, the MD & CEO has initiated the process of rationalisation of the workforce by 15 per cent, that will prune the staff strength across the company to arrive at a streamlined team that is sharply focused on the set goals for the future," the company said.
Merger of state-run banks should be done with a view to bring in good synergies, on mutual interests of the concerned entities and government will not compel the consolidation process on individual banks, Financial Services Secretary, R Gopalan said at Bancon conference in Mumbai.
As part of the exercise, each family will get complete ownership of the businesses it manages while scrapping the holding company.
Media major Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has cancelled its board meeting, scheduled to be held on Wednesday for considering the results for the July-September quarter, due to lack of quorum. In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, ZEEL said, "A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company, which was scheduled to be held on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, inter alia, to consider and approve the unaudited financial results of the Company both on a standalone and consolidated basis for the 2nd quarter and half year ended September 30, 2021, has been cancelled due to lack of quorum." The development comes at a time when the company is battling it out the single-largest shareholders Invesco Developing Markets Fund (formerly Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund) and OFI Global China Fund LLC that together hold 17.88 per cent and have been pressing for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for removing managing director Punit Goenka, besides opposing ZEEL's proposed merger deal with Pictures Network India (SPNI).
Ministries seek more discussions, Cabinet defers decision.
The sharp decline in rupee against the dollar is a cause of concern and there are expectations that steps would be announced to boost the domestic currency, the finance minister said.
India's infrastructure financing requirements and the new manufacturing policy being finalised will open up $1 trillion opportunities for global investors over the next five years.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram will soon have to decide whether to stick by his predecessor's choice of former Reserve Bank governor Y V Reddy for chairmanship of the 14th Finance Commission, to be set up next month.
The Public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC), chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, had granted approval to the six proposals of the ministry of road transport and highways spread across five states, an official statement said.
The Finance Ministry on Friday cautioned banks to be on guard for subversion of lending processes by some "undesirable parties", as in the case of the recent bribes-for-loans scandal, in the context of the "burgeoning" non-performing assets of some lenders.
Dissatisfied with the reply about non-submission of the controversial March 25 note on 2G spectrum allocation before the panel examining the issue, non-United Progressive Alliance members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Monday asked the finance ministry to provide input documents that helped its compilation.
Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, who retains charge of financial services, has shown an ability to grasp ground realities in pushing critical reforms.
After growing at 8.4 per cent for consecutive financial years, economic growth fell to 6.5 per cent in 2011-12, primarily owing to a dismal show by the manufacturing sector, as well as a part of the services segment.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was aware of the contents of the controversial 2G note which was issued as an office memorandum at the insistence of the Prime Minister's Office, a top official told the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with rediff.com Gopalan replies back to the critics of the Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The finance ministry on Monday said the ability of the Reserve Bank to intervene in the forex market to arrest the fall in rupee is limited, even as the Indian currency declined to a 32-month low of Rs 51.50 per US dollar in the early trade.
The Government today said it has not directed public sector banks to cut exposure in real estate following the housing-finance bribery scam. "No why should we say this," Financial Services Secretary R Gopalan told reporters when asked if the government has given such directions to the state-run banks.
Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan indicated the government's finances could go awry if there was a bad monsoon and global crude prices continued to remain high. He said these two factors would play a key role in determining the fiscal deficit.
Overall inflation increased to 9.72 per cent in September, 2011, from 8.98 per cent in the year-ago period, as prices of food and manufactured items continued to escalate.
"RBI has been following a good policy. These are the ways of correcting international imbalances," Department of Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan said on the sidelines of a seminar organised by ICRIER in New Delhi.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in the Budget, announced facilitating the establishment of dedicated infra debt funds through special purpose vehicles for attracting foreign investment in the infrastructure sector.
The Reserve Bank will announce draft guidelines for giving new banking licences in the next few days, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.
Proposal to raise the rate from 8.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent had come from the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation.
The amount would enable the banking behemoth to fuel its business plans, particularly in the face of rising competition from private and overseas rivals with deep pockets.
The $8.5 billion TVS Group received final approval for a family resettlement on February 4 from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). It is an arrangement that is noteworthy because unlike many other corporate settlements this one was sorted out amicably and without any open conflicts.
The government has decided to chalk out a two-year programme to push financial inclusion initiatives by banks to bring it in line with the unique identity plan for the country.
The central bank is reviewing its monetary policy on April 20 and is widely expected to further hike its key rates and/or ratio to rein in rising inflation.
Leading media firms Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures on Wednesday said they have received in-principle approval for a merger that will combine both companies' linear networks, digital assets, production operations and programme libraries.
Chandra, who will turn 69 years old on Saturday, becomes non-executive director with immediate effect.
About 50 per cent of the accounts that availed of the EMI moratorium amid the pandemic, which made things worse in an already slowing economy, are expected to be restructured, and of these accounts that would undergo restructuring, one-third, or Rs 6-9 trillion, could turn into NPAs.
Making water available is always a serious challenge in the summer for all public authorities. This year, the challenge is higher when hand-washing at every opportunity has become a necessity. So keeping potable water lines running without a glitch has become most necessary.
Two successive reports, one by Percy Mistry in 2007 and the other by Raghuram Rajan in 2008 had provided the RBI and the finance ministry with blueprints of what to do next. Both reports, unfortunately, was put on ice. The global meltdown saved the RBI. It also saved the finance ministry from having to work on the two reports.
The term of the last chairman of the pension regulator, Yogesh Agarwal, was cut short by the finance ministry in November.
Happiest Minds expects revenue to touch $100 mn in 3 years, the fastest in India's tech services sector.
Duvvuri Subbarao recounts how his tensions with P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee, then finance ministers, over monetary policy spilled over into other issues in the central bank in this excerpt from Who Moved My Interest Rate?, his memoir of his term as Reserve Bank of India governor.
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