Mumbai: The finance ministry will meet chief executives of public sector banks on November 20 to take stock of the progress made under the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). There will also be a review of the performance of the lenders. Hasmukh Adhia, the newly appointed secretary of financial services, who took charge on November 8, will chair the meeting. Adhia, a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of […]
NEW DELHI: Less than a day after Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) announced a hike in consumer power tariff through power purchase adjustment charges (PPAC), it withdrew the order. This is the first time a tariff order has been withdrawn in Delhi since DERC was constituted in 2001. While the regulator said the order stands withdrawn till it receives complete information from various power generators on fuel […]
NEW DELHI: After cementing trade ties with China, energy-rich Russia is now looking to strengthen its relationship with India by reviving discussions on a hydrocarbon pipeline, in addition to inviting ONGC Videsh (OVL) to invest in oil and gas projects in the Russian Federation. India and Russia have decided to form a joint working group to study laying a ‘hydrocarbon’ pipeline connecting the nations. Preliminary discussions […]
India on Thursday achieved a major victory with the US agreeing to its proposal on food security issues at WTO, a development that will pave the way for a breakthrough to end the three-month long stalemate. The agreement comes two days ahead of the G-20 Summit in Australia, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders including the US President Barack Obama. […]
Mobily shares hit 32-month low RIYADH, 21 hours, 35 minutes ago Shares in Saudi Arabia’s Mobily tumbled for a fourth trading day on Sunday after the company scrapped its third-quarter dividend following its shock restatement of 18 months of earnings last week. Mobily’s shares were down 4.3 per cent at SR56.00 as of 0803 GMT, slumping to a 32-month low and taking its losses to 30 per […]
Honda Motor Co.’s Accord, the best-selling car to U.S. individual buyers in the first half of this year, is being investigated by the U.S. after regulators received 24 complaints about power-steering failure in 2013 models. Some 374,000 cars could be affected, according to a statement posted today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defect Investigation. Four complaints allege that failures resulted in crashes, all […]
Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), which has seen its share price fall by the daily limit for three straight days since reporting an accounting error on Monday, said it would not distribute a dividend for the third quarter. The firm, under investigation by the bourse regulator after restating a year and a half of earnings, also said it would evaluate whether to pay shareholders in the coming […]
By S. Sethuraman Republicans, whose obstructionist role for six years, made life too tough for President Obama to push ahead with a liberal inclusive agenda and reshape the economic system, have now gained full control of the Congress, with a decisive majority in the powerful 100-member Senate while reinforcing their dominant strength in the 435-member House of Representatives. In effect, Mr Obama, who has still […]
NEW DELHI: Suresh Prabhu is set to play a key role in drafting policy on natural resources and infrastructure in the Narendra Modi government. The Shiv Sena member has been given an office in South Block, where the Prime Minister’s Office is located, and is expected to be given cabinet rank. Prabhu is also expected to look after the organisation that will succeed the Planning Commission […]
New Delhi: India is not likely to get a futuristic stealth fighter anytime before 20242025. Technical and price wrangles continue to bedevil the joint project with Russia to develop the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). India, in fact, has conveyed its deep concerns to Russia about being denied “full access“ to the FGFA project despite the fact that it is supposed to be an equal partner in […]
NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance government is planning to exempt public-private partnership (PPP) projects from the need to obtain consent of affected families and the mandatory social-impact assessment, through amendments to the land acquisition law. In the Bill put up by the previous government and passed by Parliament, PPP projects need consent of 70 per cent of affected families and have to study the social […]
Mumbai: Non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking system are set to increase in the range of R60,000 crore to 1 lakh crore in the next five months, rating firm India Ratings and Research said on Tuesday. With the Reserve Bank of India’s forbearance on classification of restructured asset to end after March 31, 2015, no fresh restructured accounts can be classified as standard after the deadline. The […]
NEW DELHI: The Centre has prepared a detailed roadmap in consultation with states to make India “diesel generator and inverter free” in the next five years, and fulfill the Narendra Modi government’s promise to provide 24×7 power to every home, factory and farm and put the country back on the high-growth trajectory. Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal recently held meetings with ministers of […]
Qatar will become the Middle East’s first hub for clearing transactions in the Chinese yuan, in a step that could over the long run help Gulf oil exporting countries reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Doha branch has been appointed as the clearing bank for yuan deals in Qatar, China’s central bank said on Tuesday. “The signing of the MoU […]
You might say Microsoft is acknowledging there’s more than OneDrive in this cloud — with the other drive being Dropbox, which is teaming up to allow users to access its storage service directly from Office apps and edit Office files from the Dropbox app. Here are a few of the features promised to users of the two joined services: Users can edit Office files via the Dropbox […]
The shine may be wearing off for high-end real estate investments by sovereign wealth funds, according to a new report, a consequence of perceived market frothiness and increased competition for property assets. Sovereign wealth funds collectively closed $5.9 billion in real estate deals in the first half of this year, according to the report from Institutional Investor’s Sovereign Wealth Center. That was a 43% decline in value […]
By Amulya Ganguli The history of communism in India is one of strategic miscalculations at the national level as a result of blinkered tactical manoeuvres in the states. The outcome is that while the comrades have remained a marginal force at the centre, their main ideological adversary, viz. the BJP, has made major gains. Arguably, the roots of this fallout lie in the initial premise of […]
KOLKATA: Power shortage in India remained lower last week than during the corresponding period in previous years even as six out of 10 thermal power plants were running with coal stocks adequate for less than a week. Officials said this must have happened as utilities did not properly report demand or the plants generated additional power only during the peak period when the demand surged. According […]
NEW DELHI: In an attempt to force local consumers such as power projects and fertilizer plants to finalize their purchase plans, state-owned gas supplier GAIL (India) Ltd is set to increase the domestic price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 10 cents per unit. Of the total 5.8 million tonnes (mt) of LNG it contracted with US suppliers, GAIL has found Indian buyers for only 2.5 […]
NEW DELHI: The Congress has decided to back three crucial economic reform legislation that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will bring in the winter session of Parliament beginning November 24. These are the constitution amendment Bill for implementing the Goods & Services Tax (GST), the insurance laws (amendment) Bill and the coal ordinance. NDA needs the support of the Opposition party to pass important legislation, as […]
NEW DELHI: The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (Aptel) delivered a technical knockout to 1,424 MW Adani Power over the weekend, quite similar to the one it delivered against 4,000 MW Coast Gujarat Power Limited (Tata Power) on September 15. The main case about giving compensatory tariffs to the two companies, however, continues in Aptel. Given the 18-month delay in the case already, a quick resolution is […]
Demonstrators protest outside a Labour gala dinner, which Ed Miliband attended Photo: Getty Images Professor Brian Cox has made explaining the inexplicable his life’s work. In recent episodes of his television series – Human Universe – the physicist has tramped from Ethiopia to Peru, via Morocco and Ohio, in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos. He has asked whether we are alone in the galaxy, […]
New Delhi: Output of core industries grew at an eight-month low of 1.9 per cent in September, down from 5.8 per cent in August, indicating overall industrial production will be subdued. This could have repercussions on the gross domestic product for the second quarter. Official data showed on Friday infrastructure industries had slowed down the most since January when production grew 1.6 per cent. Output had […]
New Delhi: State-owned NTPC Ltd’s concerns over the revised electricity tariff norms came home to roost with India’s largest power generation utility posting a 17% decline in its second quarter profit. NTPC posted a net profit of `2,071.63 crore for the quarter ended 30 September, compared with `2,492.90 crore a year earlier. Also, revenue increased by only 1% to `17,267.32 crore compared with a year ago. […]
