In what could be a dampener to the global retail chains, the Centre is considering allowing 51% FDI in the politically sensitive sector with a rider that permission of the states would be a must to open stores, sources said. ‘The states’ permission would be required, since the trade is a state subject,’ an official said.
Cotton exporters, who fail to ship the quantity allocated to them within the stipulatedperiod, will be debarred from future allocations, according to tough norms of the commerce ministry. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said it would also initiate penal action against the defaulting exporters.
PSU banks should be made to bid for surplus funds with the state-owned firms, rather than getting them through a common rate of interest, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has said. In a communication to the Finance Ministry, the DPE has written to the Finance Ministry arguing that these banks must compete among themselves for deposits of the PSU firms, which had a surplus of about Rs 2.50 lakh crore at the end of March, 2010.
India is likely to allow foreign individuals to invest in mutual funds in the next two weeks but with a cumulative cap of USD 10 billion, an official said today. The detailed guidelines are being worked out jointly by the finance ministry, RBI and Sebi. These will be notified by the capital market regulator, the Finance Ministry official said.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has clarified, that Sahara Prime City limited, a Sahara Group company intending to go for an IPO, had filed information about its group companies to SEBI in its Draft Red Herring Prospectus. SEBI as market regulator vested with the mandate of investor protection, upon noticing inadequacy in material disclosures has asked information about some Sahara Group companies as per SEBI’s disclosure requirements.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued AP (DIR Series) Circular No. 70, dated June 9, 2011 permitting Authorized Dealer Category – I banks [AD] to re-designate resident accounts of repatriating foreign nationals as Non-Resident (Ordinary) [NRO] accounts. This will enable foreign nationals to receive their bona fide dues even after they leave the country. Prior to this, foreign nationals had to close their resident accounts at the time of repatriation from India.
The Swiss Parliament today gave approval to amendments to tax treaties with countries, including India, making it easier for to access information about the illegal funds held by their nationals in Swiss private banks. The upper house of the Swiss Parliament endorsed amendments to double-taxation agreements in line with internationally applicable standards.
Union Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has stressed on the need to sustain and pursue the efforts currently underway to reform the international and national policy regimes for better managing the forces of globalisation, in serving the collective well-being of people. He was speaking after inaugurating the National Banking Conclave organised by ASSOCHAM on the theme ‘Challenges and opportunities in a Trillion Dollar Economy’, here today.
Admitting that the Reserve Bank’s anti-inflation monetary measures may impact growth, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the major challenge right now is to contain price rise. ‘The monetary policy has been gradually tightened… Monetary measures may end up moderating the growth if they have to be persisted for an extended period of time,’ Mr. Mukherjee said at an Assocham meet here.
The Reserve Bank of India today released a DRG Study entitled, “Productivity, Efficiency and Competitiveness of the Indian Manufacturing Sector”. The study is co-authored by Prof. Pushpa Trivedi (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Shri L. Lakshmanan (Assistant Adviser, Internal Debt Management Department), Dr. Rajeev Jain (Assistant Adviser, Department of Economic and Policy Research) and Dr. Yogesh Kumar Gupta (Assistant Adviser, Department of Statistics and Information Management) of the Reserve Bank.
