Kolkata: The fear of bad loans and limited lending opportunities to top companies have prompted several banks to shift focus towards the retail (individual loans) and small & medium enterprises segments. India Inc’s reluctance to borrow money is keeping bankers worried. While lenders were able to stem fresh impairment in their credit quality in the July-September period, low demand for corporate loans has decelerated the growth in […]
KOLKATA: State-run NTPC, the country’s biggest power generator and thermal coal consumer, plans to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in coal mines abroad to secure longterm fuel supplies for all its power plants, a senior executive said. This is a shift from the company’s earlier stance of seeking only minority stakes in such mines to ensure fuel for plants that operate only on imported […]
NEW DELHI: With global energy firms refusing to participate in the ambitious TAPI gas pipeline, India may propose getting a Chinese company to lead a consortium that will build the USD 10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. French giant Total SA had initially envisaged interest in leading a consortium of national oil companies of the four nations in the TAPI project, but backed off after […]
NEW DELHI: A few weeks before the Reserve Bank of India announces the monetary policy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made his preferences clear in the raging debate over whether governor Raghuram Rajan should cut interest rates on December 2. “Reduction in the cost of capital will give a good fillip to the Indian economy,” Jaitley said at the Citi Investor Forum, but added that the […]
NEW DELHI: A few weeks before the Reserve Bank of India announces the monetary policy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made his preferences clear in the raging debate over whether governor Raghuram Rajan should cut interest rates on December 2. “Reduction in the cost of capital will give a good fillip to the Indian economy,” Jaitley said at the Citi Investor Forum, but added that the decision […]
Brisbane: DRIVEN by a strong domestic political agenda of getting black money back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday managed to get the Group of 20 include a certain clause in the final Leaders’ Communique that will make it difficult for tax havens to give complete tax exemption to companies. This, along with the G-20’s endorsement of a global Common Reporting Standard for automatic exchange of […]
PANAJI: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is considering the introduction of a new policy on the vexed issue of blacklisting defence equipment suppliers accused of corruption as well as reforming rules for lobbyists to balance the needs of the armed forces with transparency. Speaking to ET in the state capital at the chief minister’s residence, Parrikar said, “One of the ideas the government is thinking about is […]
By Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: Way back in 1994, the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao formulated India’s ‘Look East’ policy. Its aim was to strengthen economic ties, increase trade and commerce between India and her eastern neighbours and provide greater market access to one another for mutual benefit. Several projects like the 3200 km long India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway were taken up to accelerate the implementation […]
By Garga Chatterjee If you have not watched the YouTube video Enna Da Rascalas: South of India, you should. It is a crisp catchy-tune video made by a talented group of artists calling themselves the Culture Machine and Stray Factory. It has gone ‘viral’, logging more than 1.2 million hits in 7 days. It humorously aims to inform people about the different peoples of ‘South of […]
By Kalyani Shankar The 25-year-old Shiv Sena-BJP break up in Maharashtra confirms the long-term plan of the BJP to go beyond the allies and emerge a dominant national party eclipsing others. In election rallies in both Maharashtra and Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the end of the coalition era in Indian politics to stress this point. Narendra Modi as well as the BJP chief […]
By Nora Chopra The clamour for Priyanka Gandhi in the Congress is growing by the day. .The latest to join the chorus is Hansraj Bhardwaj once known as a retainer of Gandhi family. Bhardwaj has gone public and said that Rahul Gandhi lacks the capability and charisma to attract the masses. He can only address a crowd of fifty students and no more than that. On the […]
By Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: If one takes the trouble of rummaging through the archives relating to that part of India which is now called Arunachal Pradesh, one will stumble on a shocking document titled “Regulation 2 of 1880. The Assam Frontier Tracts Regulation, 1880.” It begins with the Preamble: “Whereas it is expedient to provide for the removal of certain frontier tracts in Assam inhabited or […]
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: 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 […]
NEW DELHI: Eyeing joint-production of military and civilian items with a foreign partner, India and Russia could clinch deals on co-production of mid-range civilian aircraft as well as military helicopters during President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Delhi on December 11-12. During Putin’s maiden visit to Delhi for the annual summit after Modi became the Prime Minister the two sides might agree on joint production of the […]
Dubai’s inflation rate advanced to the highest level in more than five years, after prices in the housing index rose the most since at least January 2009. Consumer prices accelerated to 4.38 percent in October compared with the same period last year, the Dubai Statistics Center said in an e-mail today, the highest since May 2009. Housing, the biggest component in the consumer price index, added 6.67 […]
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. […]
Uh-oh, folks, this is starting to look serious. There really does appear to be a plot to remove Ed Miliband. One paper has reported that there are 20 shadow ministers who are “on the verge” of asking him to step down. Nameless Labour MPs have said that the rebellion against Ed has reached “critical mass” – and one has a vision of fuel rods starting to shudder […]
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 […]
New Delhi: India Inc on Wednesday pitched for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), saying the central bank should be “more courageous”, since inflation had come down drastically and growth is not picking up. RBI is slated to come out with its policy review on December 2. “RBI has to be more courageous,” said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra & […]
KATHMANDU: India and Nepal are holding negotiations to sign a second Project Development Agreement (PDA) to generate hydorelectric power in the Himalayan nation endowed with rich water resources. The negotiations for the 900 MW Arun-III project between Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, India, which began here yesterday, continued today, Indian Embassy sources said, adding, they are set to continue tomorrow as […]
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 […]
Dubai’s stocks fell the most among global markets as oil extended declines while Saudi shares slumped amid heightened security concerns. The benchmark DFM General Index (DFMGI) dropped 3.3 percent, the most in three weeks, to 4,400.80 at the close. That’s the steepest slide among 93 gauges worldwide tracked by Bloomberg so far today. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index lost 1.6 percent for the third-worst decrease, taking […]
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 […]
