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 […]
NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry has asked Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan to provide greater flexibility to banks funding stalled infrastructure projects, after concerns were raised by senior bankers that some lending requirements were too ‘stringent’. A department of financial services communication to Rajan sought to de-link the extent of cost overruns as a condition for classifying any project as a restructured asset. […]
MUMBAI: Leading public sector banks have lowered some of their term deposit rates by up to 100 basis points as credit growth remains sluggish and liquidity in money markets has improved (100 basis points = 1 percentage point). The lenders who reduced deposit rates recently include the Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Andhra Bank. The State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Central Bank 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 attorney-general (A-G) has recommended cancellation of a proposed defence deal for the acquisition of eight minesweeper vessels, estimated to be worth about Rs 6,000 crore, from the South Korean Kangnam Corporation after allegations of involvement of middlemen, official sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) have confirmed. The MoD had sought the view of A-G Mukul Rohatgi in the matter. The government may […]
194 countries have gathered to try and reach a deal to stop global warming Photo: PA The UN Climate Panel came out with its final report yesterday. It is a summary of its 3 main reports, published over the last year. It tells us that global warming is real and a significant problem. And as usual, the media hears something else – in the words of Mother Jones […]
By S. Sethuraman Tamil Nadu political scene is now astir, with BJP and other state-level parties looking ambitiously for a hold on power through new alignments in the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections, and thus hoping to open a new chapter in the State’s chequered politics, hitherto dominated by two Dravidian majors alternately. Undoubtedly, political space dramatically opened up in the wake of the […]
By Ashok B Sharma A definite shift in India’s Look East Policy is underway with added emphasis on Buddha diplomacy under the new dispensation. Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardass Modi plans to market the Buddha card to the countries in the region as India is the place of origin of Dhamman and Sangham. He indicated such a change in emphasis by his first official visit abroad to a […]
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: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who prefers to cut hierarchy and have direct interaction – be it bureaucrats or students – will next meet chiefs of public-sector banks. The proposed meeting comes amid rising bad loans and reports of various irregularities in state-owned banks. The prime minister is likely to take stock of the banks’ performance – an exercise usually undertaken by the finance minister. “Credit […]
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 […]
Gold traded within 40 cents of a four-year low after the Bank of Japan boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases, highlighting divergent central-bank policies and hurting bullion demand as the dollar climbed. Silver retreated to the lowest level since 2010. “One printing press stops and another one cranks up,” Felicity Emmett, senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., wrote in a […]
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the largest lender in the United Arab Emirates, has appointed a veteran former Barclays banker to run its consumer banking business, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. Suvrat Saigal, previously head of consumer banking at Barclays in India, takes over from George Beatty, who resigned in January as NBAD’s general manager of consumer and elite banking. An […]
The scope of Britain’s Islamic finance market is widening with several initiatives from the government and private sector, although the country is about to lose one of its six full-fledged Islamic banks. In June, Britain became the first Western country to sell sovereign sukuk (Islamic bonds), helping boost its industry credentials as competition intensifies among global financial centres for a slice of Islamic business. Britain has 22 […]
By Harihar Swarup Can government ever find out black money deposited by Indians in foreign banks, particularly in Switzerland? Judging by records of the past governments, one wonders if Modi government can perform a feat—unearth back money stashed in foreign banks. Making election promises is one thing and fulfilling them is another thing. One of the main electoral promise of Narendra Modi was to unearth black money […]
By Barun Das Gupta The Union Cabinet has just cleared a Rs. 80,000 crore proposal for modernization of our defence forces. Earlier it had sanctioned another Rs. 40,000 crore for the same purpose. The decision has come not a day too soon. Defence has been the proverbial Cinderella of the Government ever since independence. Even the Chinese aggression of 1962 failed to make us realize the importance […]
By Garga Chatterjee Convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam is dead. He died last week. He was 91. In the subcontinent, many political figures enjoy interesting lives after death. There is a peculiar way in which death accords respectability even to the worst scum on earth. Important people declare somber condolences. Concrete memorials come up overnight in the middle of the street. The number of such memorials corresponds […]
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 […]
Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) has come out with a new product planner rule, by which an insurance company can file only five products for approval in a year. However, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest insurer, might be given a special dispensation by the regulator. In order to reduce the time taken for product approvals, Irda has asked life insurers for […]
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. […]
Mumbai: Cairn India Ltd (Cairn India), the oil and gas unit of Sesa Sterlite Ltd, has initiated a polymer injection programme in the Mangala field in its Barmer oil and gas block in Rajasthan, said a company note released on Friday evening. This will help to arrest the falling output from the field and help the company in enhancing the oil recovery from the field. […]
India will launch an unmanned crew module in December onboard a heavy rocket to test its re-entry into the atmosphere for the country’s future maiden human space flight, the space agency chief said Thursday. “We will send an unmanned crew module on the experimental GSLV-Mark III rocket in December and test its re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere for a human space flight plan in future,” Indian […]
Gold and silver slumped to the lowest since 2010 as the dollar strengthened after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases this week. The Fed is weighing the timing of interest-rate increases as other central banks add to stimulus to bolster their economies. The Bank of Japan today raised its annual target for enlarging the monetary base to 80 trillion […]
