| Business/Economy |
Procurement plunge casts shadow over food Bill -
Sandip Das, Financial Express
Despite the government hiking its estimate of wheat production by around a million tonnes to a likely 93.62 million tonnes (mt) for 2013, the sharp fall in procurement suggests the government may have to revise the output. Based on figures till May 16, procurement levels are already lower than last year’s by 5.5 mt. Compared with 29.7 mt till May 16, 2012, just 24.2 mt of wheat were procured in the same period this year. |
Drug pricing order hits few, helps many -
Financial Express
Roughly 28% of the R70,000-crore Indian pharmaceutical market will soon come under a benign market-based price regulation as against 18% under the existing opaque cost-based control regime. This will lead to modest revenue losses (up to 6% by an industry estimate) at several pharmaceutical companies, but others, especially the smaller ones, might even benefit. |
After telecom licences and coal blocks, will bank licences be the next cash cow for the UPA? -
Mythili Bhusnurmath, Economic Times
The finance ministry’s reported opposition to India Post’s plans to seek a bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) puts paid to any pretence that it is the desire for greater financial inclusion that is driving the government to issue new bank licences. The ministry’s opposition defies logic. After all, who better than India Post with its overwhelming presence in the rural areas to deliver on the mandate of financial inclusion? But no, the finance ministry thinks otherwise. |
National Pension System subscribers earn double digit return in 2012-13 -
ET
Government's flagship retirement scheme, New Pension Scheme (NPS) has delivered double-digit return for the financial year 2012-13. For this fiscal, the government has announced 8.7% interest for deposits under Public Provident Fund (PPF), while it has approved 8.5% rate of interest for 2012-13 for Employees Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers. |
HSBC signals 14,000 job cuts in $3-bn savings plan -
Business Standard
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, will eliminate as many as 14,000 more jobs as Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver set out plans to cut an additional $3 billion of costs as he tries to revive profitability. |
Empty malls reflect the hollowness of India story -
Ravi Teja Sharma & Vijaya Rathore, Economic Times
Malls were supposed to be the symbols of prosperity in India's 'boomtowns'. Instead they have turned out to be edifices of gloom. Notwithstanding their bright facade, these half-empty buildings in smaller towns reveal the other side of the India story, as vacancy levels rise and consumption remains low. |
Manufacturing: Getting to the 25% mark -
Nirvikar Singh, Financial Express
India’s manufacturing sector has played an unusual role in the national growth experience, compared to many other developing countries. In 1950-51, manufacturing was about 9% of GDP. By 1979-80, this ratio came very close to 15%, but thereafter has barely increased. In this context, the National Manufacturing Policy’s (NMP) goal of increasing manufacturing’s share to 25% by 2022 is ambitious indeed. |
Oil price collusion would be a Libor-scale scandal -
Kevin Allison, Business Standard
If the suspicions of European authorities are true, and oil traders conspired to rig published energy prices, global markets could be looking at a scandal bigger than Libor. One thing is certain. The ongoing debate about the integrity of the energy benchmarks compiled by price-reporting agencies such as Platts, Argus and ICIS Heren has taken a dramatic turn with Tuesday's raids on the offices of Shell, BP and Statoil. |
Global firms bet on India's spending power -
Business Standard
Global companies betting on India's potential as a consumer market are looking beyond the worst patch in a decade for Asia's third-largest economy and investing billions of dollars in the country. |
Perils of an ad hoc forex policy -
TB Kapali, Business Line
In a speech that he gave last month at the International Monetary Fund, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, posed several questions about countries’ policies on foreign exchange market intervention and their holding of reserves. |
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