Oil prices hit fresh two-year highs on Thursday as chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said he would tell Baghdad it needed to submit credible evidence that it has no weapons of mass destruction, or face war.
Automobile retail sales in India increased by 37 per cent in April on a low base of COVID-hit April last year, automobile dealers' body FADA said on Thursday. Total sales across categories rose to 16,27,975 units in April, as compared to 11,87,771 units in the year-ago period. On a year-on-year basis, all vehicle categories including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers were up as compared with April last year.
Forty five organised slaughterhouses are not in a position to cater for the big demand for rawhide
India's cement demand has consistently shown double-digit growth over the past few quarters, primarily driven by infrastructure spending. However, dealers and industry executives note that state elections, festival season, and, in some markets, weddings and pollution may temporarily disrupt this demand story. While the festival season typically sees a slowdown in construction activity, some dealers anticipate this lull extending throughout the entire month as multiple states enter election mode.
Overall gross import of rough diamonds between April to November 2019 has shown a decline of 17.24 per cent to $8.55 billion from $10.34 billion registered during April to November 2018. This is one of sharpest fall in import of diamond in India in last one decade.
The rate of cash withdrawals over deposits was almost double in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, according to the latest analysis submitted by the RBI to the finance ministry.
In a move that could potentially irk New Delhi, China has offered to supply liquified petroleum gas to Nepal after gifting fuel to ease the crisis in the country, hit by acute fuel shortage due to a blockade at key border trade points with India.
No-frills carrier Go First filing for insolvency proceedings and cancelling flights is bad for the airline industry as the move will reduce capacity and could push airfares in certain routes, travel agents' grouping TAAI said on Wednesday.
China's covid crisis could provoke a raw material crunch for India's EV industry later this year.
Coal production by Coal India (CIL) has grown slower than the captive mines, awarded over the last six years. During 2020-22, production from the captive mines jumped by 38.5 per cent while CIL saw a tepid growth of 3.4 per cent, according to government data. In terms of dispatch to the power sector, captive mines have raced ahead, witnessing a growth of 72 per cent compared to 15 per cent for CIL. For the current fiscal year, CIL's production is expected to be around 565 million tonnes.
'If supply of cash is not sufficient from the RBI, it may create difficulty for both banks and people.'
The domestic availability of onion has been affected on account of damage to kharif crop because of unseasonal rains in key producing states including Maharashtra.
Currently the currency in stock is about Rs 2 lakh crore and the reserves are adequate to meet any unusual spurt in demand
Adequate currency in circulation, temporary shortage to be tackled quickly, says FM
Major General S C N Jatar, who passed into the ages on Monday night, thwarted anti-national forces at the peak of the Assam agitation. Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) salutes this officer and gentleman.
As the Centre deals with the fallout of cash shortage in certain parts of the country, Principal Economic Advisor in the finance ministry, Sanjeev Sanyal, bottom, left, tells Arup Roychoudhury that the demand for cash has seen a spike of late.
Even as the semiconductor shortage has limited the demand for new cars, the pre-owned car segment is seeing a surge. A preference for personal mobility, availability of multiple organised online platforms, including e-commerce channels, aggregators, and classifieds, have been fuelling growth. The growth rate of the pre-owned car market is expected to be 1.5x that of the new car market over the next five years.
India, the world's largest consumer of gold, has imported 393.68 tonnes of the yellow metal during the April-September period of this year
While the outbreak has forced most leading brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme to rework their launch dates and pricing strategies, Samsung, which struggled to maintain its hold over the market last year, has taken the lead.
The RBI fell short of pumping Rs 150 billion into the economy at the beginning of 2018-2019.
Wadia group-owned Go First will temporarily suspend flights on May 3 and 4 amid severe fund crunch, the airline's chief Kaushik Khona said on Tuesday.
It may touch Rs 19,800 crore.
Reports from Ludhiana, Coimbatore, Moradabad, Tirupur, Indore, Surat, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, suggest the impact of demonetisation is worsening.
The rupee appreciated 7 paise to 79.74 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday as a positive trend in domestic equities supported the local unit. However, a strong American currency overseas and forex outflows restricted the rupee's gain, dealers said. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 79.72 against the American dollar, then went lower to trade at 79.74 against the greenback in early deals, registering a gain of 7 paise over the last close.
The government on Thursday more than doubled the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking, on the back of a spike in global energy prices. The price of gas produced from old regulated fields, such as the nation's largest gas field of Bassein of ONGC, will rise to a record high of $6.10 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from the current $2.90 per mmBtu, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). The new price, which is likely to result in a hike in CNG and piped cooking gas rates, will be for six months beginning April 1.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday reserved its order on crisis-hit airline Go First's plea seeking voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings and interim moratorium on financial obligations while aircraft lessors vehemently opposed the petition. Amid the airline facing severe financial crunch and cancelling flights, a two-member NCLT bench comprising Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Member L N Gupta heard the arguments for and against the petition for nearly four hours. As aircraft lessors opposed the plea, the counsels for Go First said the petition was not a malicious one to avoid payment of dues to its creditors but to save the company.
Consumer sentiment seen better than last year's
Instead of locking themselves into long-term contracts, companies are buying from the spot markets and that too in small quantities in order to keep their inventories as low as possible. Commodity prices have fallen off their record peaks in the last few months on account of a demand slowdown, especially from China. Analysts expect commodity prices the world over to soften further.
Also, the import tariff value -- the base price at which customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing -- in case of silver has been reduced to $644 per kg from $694 per kg earlier, a notification by the Central Board of Excise and Customs said.
'Everyone wants to take a vaccine. The last time a camp was held, there were 1,000 people for 500 doses. People are waiting and returning disappointed. At times, it is creating problems. The demand is much more than the supply.' Ishita Ayan Dutt reports on how the West Bengal countryside is reacting to the vaccination drive.
'The RBI is not releasing Rs 2,000 notes for the last 10 days; probably they have stopped printing it.'
Seven major state power distribution utilities, identified by the central government for financial restructuring, have failed to increase their tariff considerably to improve their financials.
A looming global shortage of diesel in Europe presents India with more than one opportunity to profit from strong margins. A shortage of the fuel, a key contributor to inflation, has been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, and western sanctions on Russian fuel supplies. The slowdown in natural gas supply means the West needs diesel to heat their homes this winter.
'India's manufacturing will take 10-15 years to catch up with China.'
The import tariff value is the base price at which the customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing.
The Rs 13,000-crore consultancy industry will face skilled manpower crunch, as it will create a capacity of over 220,000 top management consultants by 2010, found a study by Elixir web solutions on recruitment process outsourcing. The shortage is estimated to be around 10-12 per cent of the demand. The industry is growing at a rate of 20 per cent per annum and within it the Information Technology consulting sector is growing faster at 30 per cent per annum.
Though three crops of onions are raised in a year - early kharif, late kharif and rabi - their harvests are not evenly spread out.
'We are planning load shedding in such a way that the entire state will not suffer.'
Audi's strategy seems to point to pushing technology to directly connect with consumers using digital platforms and marketing to synchromesh into one seamless experience, says Pavan Lall.
According to political analysts, the results of these bypolls, which saw a high-voltage campaign by senior leaders from various parties, will set the tone for the forthcoming elections in the state, including of the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies.