By Nantoo Banerjee It is very heartening that the government has, for the first time, equipped itself with a clear and comprehensive policy to ensure the growth and competitiveness of India’s less-cared micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector. MSMEs are regarded as backbone of development even in highly industrialized countries, including Germany, Japan, France, the US and China. They are incubators of ideas and homes […]
By Ashis Biswas Thanks to an improved relationship among neighbouring countries in the Indian sub continent, goods transport and power connectivity is gradually getting better. Recently, Union Power Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal pressed for a seamless power connectivity among SAARC countries, at a meeting in Delhi. There has been a positive response from Nepal and Bangladesh, apart from valuable co-operation extended by both Nepal and […]
FRANKFURT: Twenty-five banks including Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA failed a stress test led by the European Central Bank, which said almost half of them must act to raise more capital. The central bank in Frankfurt identified a 25 billion-euro shortfall ($32 billion) for the region’s lenders, and said 12 of them have now raised enough funds. Eleven banks need more capital, including Monte […]
By G. Srinivasan The upcoming G-20 Heads of State meeting in Brisbane, Australia in mid-November is being convened when urgent policy actions from major economies, advanced and emerging, call for coordinated and focused approach to get the world economy out of the anemic recovery. Latest economic data from global financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, OECD and the WTO do not inspire hope that […]
NEW DELHI: In order to make India a better place to do business, the government is working to cut down the time for registering a business from 27 days to a single day. Towards this end, it has readied a raft of measures, such as, single registration for all labour laws, overhaul of tax systems, reduction in the number of permits required, easing up property registration, quick […]
By Praful Bidwai The contrast between India’s two recent science and technology (S&T) projects couldn’t have been starker. One, by delivering accurate early warnings about Cyclone Hudhud, saved thousands of human lives, and prevented destruction of property on a monstrous scale. The other put India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully into a distant orbit around the planet—a technological achievement, but without much scientific, leave alone […]
Mumbai: After years of regulatory dithering, foreign and domestic institutions might look forward to entry into the commodity derivatives market. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) are meeting next week to consider the proposal, suggested by a sub-committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council. Allowing domestic financial institutions such as banks and mutual funds was made by the commodities markets […]
There were six in contention; four were dropped, and one became the Chosen One: The Rafale. In French, ‘Rafale’ poetically means a ‘sudden gust of wind.’ It was one of the six fighter aircraft in competition for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft, MMRCA, when the Indian Air Force wanted to acquire 126 polyvalent fighter planes. In April 2011, the IAF shortlisted two birds — […]
By Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: One of the first priorities of the NDA Government on coming to power was to address the task of speedily narrowing down the asymmetrical gap in India’s defence vis-à-vis China along the entire Himalayan border. In fact, this should have begun in right earnest more than half a century ago, immediately after India’s disastrous military defeat at the hands of the […]
NEW DELHI: India Friday called for building the SAARC power grid so that excess power produced in one region of South Asia can be used to meet deficits elsewhere. Addressing the fifth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation energy ministers meet here, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said that with the implementation of such a grid, hydel power generated in India’s northeast, for instance, could be transported […]
By Subrata Majumder Paradoxically, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi succeeded in persuading the Japanese and Chinese investors, he failed to influence the big American investors. Instead, his political wave and speech impelled the Indian Diaspora only. While a number of billion dollar projects were signed during his visit to Japan and the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, no major deal was signed during his […]
NEW DELHI: Having proved himself as a ‘rock star’ abroad and a vote-getting machine at home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now going to do what people are telling him to do: Take policy decisions that cannot be put off any longer. The first of these is a Cabinet reshuffle likely by the end of this month – after Diwali. A brace of decisions on economic […]
Hyderabad: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has said the central bank is in talks with the Centre to set up a financial resolution authority (FRA). “We really need a financial resolution authority so that we can close financial institutions in trouble, without necessarily merging those and taking the losses. We need to clean institutions…while resurrecting those functioning well. FRA will be the entity that […]
NEW DELHI: DRDO is developing an air-launched version of the 1,500-km-range Nirbhay sub-sonic cruise missile which would be capable of being fired from the Air Force’s frontline Su-30MKI combat aircraft. “This Nirbhay missile would be capable of being used from air, land and ships and submarines. An air-launched version of the missile is also being planned,” DRDO chief Avinash Chander told PTI here. He said […]
NEW DELHI: The telecom regulator has proposed to set the base price of 1800 MHz band in the upcoming spectrum auctions at 10% more than the previous round, a recommendation that operators and analysts say is likely to hurt an industry that is laden with debt and facing an uncertain business environment. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has suggested Rs 2,138 crore as the […]
NEW DELHI: To expedite infrastructure projects — road and rail — along the border with China for strategic reasons and also for better connectivity, principal secretary to Prime Minister has called a meeting of top officials of key ministries such as defence, rail and road, head of Border Roads Organization (BRO), national security adviser and others on Thursday. Sources said the agenda of the meeting to […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Defence Minister Arun Jaitley may not be fully aware how the United States made India play a pawn under the UPA’s 10-year-long Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh regime in America’s psychological war against the People’s Republic of China, trying to contain the latter’s geo-political ambition and keep control of the vital South China Sea that handles $5.5-trillion-worth global cargo movement […]
By Ashok B Sharma Recent unprovoked firing by Pakistan at the Line of Control and as well as at the international border shows the utter helplessness and desperation on its part. India has suspended the dialogue process as Pakistan opted to talk to Kashmiri separatists which the former said was against the spirit of the Shimla Agreement and Lahore Declaration. Subsequently, Pakistan resorted to unprovoked firing at […]
By S. Sethuraman A global economy, wobbling six years after the financial market crash of 2008, cannot need anything better than a firm commitment of the world’s financiers to build a more robust, sustainable, balanced, job-rich economic order. Global unemployment is at its all-time peak, especially in Europe and large parts of developing world. Finance Ministers of 188 nations met at the 2014 Annual Meetings […]
By Harihar Swarup It is unbelievable but true that there are as many as 3,000 obsolete, redundant or repetitive laws in India. There are over 300 colonial-era enactments in force, which are absolutely redundant. Some of these British-era laws are even derogatory to a particular group and hence remind us of the days of slavery. Have a look at some of the ridiculous laws still […]
By Ashok B Sharma India’s foreign trade has badly suffered since the beginning of the global financial crisis in August-September 2008 and the subsequent shock of the sovereign crisis in Eurozone added to the problem. Over dependence on markets in the developed countries was the cause for shrinkage in Indian exports. As the recovery in developed countries and increase in demand is slow, India should […]
By Ashis Biswas KOLKATA: There are no two opinions about it: unless the Indian government cracks down hard on the unholy nexus between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bangladeshi Jamat-e-Islami, India’s regional foreign policy objectives will be seriously compromised. The recent accidental explosion at a house in Khagraghar, Burdwan town, where Muslim extremists with Bangladeshi links had set up an explosive manufacturing centre and […]
By G. Srinivasan The inexorable humid weather in the capital in the festive month of October has robbed the exuberant moments of celebrations, even as the weather patterns across the country seem to be swinging in extremes. India and other developing countries may continue to be in a denial mood that weather-related aberrations are not directly due to the broad climate change that is sweeping the universe […]
By S. Sethuraman The world economy is yet to make a full exit of the 2008 financial crisis and its recessionary aftermath, so that growth prospects for 2014, the sixth year, have had to be revised down, with the disappointing and uneven recovery, mainly among advanced nations. And geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with limited impact so far, may hold greater risks […]
