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 […]
Dubai redeemed $1.93 billion of Islamic bonds that were sold in 2009 before the emirate roiled global capital markets by seeking to freeze debt payments. The government settled a 2.5 billion-dirham ($681 million) sukuk and a separate $1.25 billion security complying with Shariah that matured today, the state-run WAM news agency reported. The yield on Dubai’s dollar-denominated Islamic bonds due in January 2023 fell two basis points […]
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 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 […]
By Surojit Mahalanobis NEW DELHI: Removal of the multi-level taxing systems and inter-state checkpoints for movement of vehicles laden with goods for states, is essential today. These would effectively halve the transit time and losses due to the logistics at transits. The World Bank’s India Development Update’s observation, released last week, coming just ahead of the government’s tabling the 115th amendment of the statute, aims to […]
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 […]
Jonathon Clifton, the Asia managing director for Offshore Incorporations, is trying to change perceptions of offshore jurisdictions. Offshore Incorporations The word “offshore” to many people is synonymous with criminality and tax evasion. That, perhaps, should come as little surprise, given that large companies and wealthy investors have long used such jurisdictions to hide money and avoid taxation at home, a practice the U.S. in particular has been […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Asian traders are split on whether Saudi Arabia will deepen the crude price cuts that propelled oil into a bear market this month. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will announce official selling prices for supplies to buyers in Asia for December next week after cutting prices to the lowest in almost six years for a month earlier. The world’s biggest oil exporter will further discount supplies, according […]
BEIJING Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:56pm IST Visitors use their smarts phones underneath the logo of Tencent at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing May 6, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files Related Topics Stocks Photographs from India which caught our eyes this week Pics BEIJING (Reuters) – Tencent Holdings Ltd said on Friday it would collaborate with International Business Machines Corp (IBM) on a new […]
By S. Sethuraman The American economy on an expanding phase is welcome for global growth and India’s exports if our exchange rates are not over-valued, but the ending of Federal Reserve’s asset purchases (QE3) opens way for US interest rates’ to rise in the near future with costs to other economies. This is likely to trigger some capital outflows from emerging market economies including India, which […]
Mumbai: After mark-to-market gains of over 30% from the ONGC stake sale in FY12, LIC is looking forward to the government’s divestment programme to raise its stake further in the oil & gas company if the shares are offered at an attractive price, said a source. Apart from ONGC, the insurer sees SAIL as an attractive opportunity. The government plans to sell 5% stake in ONGC and […]
