Sunday, 21 February 2016

Daily Updates and News

Economy & News

Rail Budget 2016: Modi government to splurge on rail modernisation, to increase investment by over 30% 

The BJP government is seeking to step up its drive to modernise the railways by increasing investment in creating new capacity and assets by 20-30 per cent in the rail budget, besides rationalizing freight tariffs to win back goods traffic it has lost to trucks.  During the current financial year, railway minister Suresh Prabhu had allocated around Rs 1 lakh crore towards plan outlay , but is expected to close the year with spending of around Rs 90,000 crore. Higher allocation is expected to continue     [….] Read more at:



India's forex reserves rise $4.6 billion in last four weeks 

India's foreign exchange reserves rose $4.624 billion in the last four weeks bringing much relief to the local authorities amid fear of global economic slowdown and flight of capital from emerging countries to safer destinations. Reserves rose $347 million in the week to February 12 to $351.832 billion, Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly statistical report. RBI does not cite any reason behind the rise or fall of reserves. But market watchers said that the rise in valuation of reserves     [….] Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51058556.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Cut govt stake in public sector banks to below 51% to fight NPAs, says Arundhati Bhattacharya

 There is no dearth of funding for any 'viable' project even as the government is pushing for various projects such as 'sagar mala' for revival of investments, said State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya. She also stressed on the need for a clear road map for recapitalisation of banks, she said on Friday at the ET Markets Pre-Budget Meet. Bhattacharya's demand comes amid record classification of bad loans by banks due to a diktat from the Reserve Bank of India, which wants to     [….] Read more at:



Government banks to see rating revisions over bad loan woes: Icra 

Facing higher than anticipated bad loan stress, public sector banks (PSBs) are likely to see some rating revisions in the next few days, Icra said today. Credit profile of PSBs has worsened because of higher than anticipated stress, slower than expected pace of recovery and weak outlook for several credit intensive sectors. Higher level of stress is likely to significantly impact earnings and solvency profile of PSBs over the next 2-3 years, Icra said. Additionally, adverse capital markets conditions     [….] Read more at:



NDA govt has managed to markedly reduce inflation: Jayant Sinha 

The NDA government has succeeded in containing inflation and if the current trend continues, the prices would be much lower than what they were during the UPA regime, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said today. "NDA government has markedly reduced inflation. At this rate, price levels in 10 years would be much lower than UPA tenure," Sinha tweeted. While the WPI inflation has been in the negative for 15 months, the retail inflation has remained within RBI's comfort zone at 5.69     [….] Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51060360.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

First phase of SmartCity Kochi project to be inaugurated on Saturday 

The I st phase of SmartCity Kochi project, consisting of a 6.5 lakh square feet IT tower, would be inaugurated on Saturday. About 75 % of the total leasable area of the IT tower has already been taken by 27 companies, said Jaber Bin Hafez, vice chairman, SmartCity Kochi.  Earlier speaking to ET, Dr Baju George, managing director, SmartCity said that the project, a joint venture between Government of Kerala and Dubai-based Tecom Investments, will focus on identifying and developing high end   [….] Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51058712.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst


Interest costs, low traffic growth bring down competition in NHAI's projects 

As interest costs and low traffic growth hurt roads companies, the competition intensity has come down in projects awarded by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Given this, roads companies have shown high interest in construction orders rather than road developing orders. One of the chief reasons for this is the nature of construction works. Construction works are less capital intensive than roads developing. Also after constructing works are done a company is paid by clients whereas     [….] Read more at:



India can use Australian expertise in water management, skills, services: Indian High Commissioner 

India and Australia need to work together in a host of areas, including water management, skill development and minerals, an Indian official said. "Clearly, Australia sees the Indian economic story. It has benefited enormously from its 20 years engagement with China, but as Chinese economy begins to slow, India is seen as a natural partner," Indian High Commissioner to Australia Navdeep Suri told PTI. This is more relevant particularly in the areas where Australia's strengths     [….] Read more at:



NDA government gives more fiscal, legislative space to states: Ratan Watal, Finance secretary 

The NDA government has given more fiscal and legislative space to states and is fully committed to the principle of cooperative federalism, Finance Secretary Ratan Watal has said. "The present government is fully committed to the principle of cooperative federalism both in the letter and spirit," Watan said in an interview to Finance Ministry's YouTube channel. "More untied grants are now being given to the states... The focus of the present Government is unique in the sense as it     [….] Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51077836.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Government to restructure tribunals, autonomous organisations 

In a massive restructuring exercise, the Centre may bring down to less than half the number of 36 existing tribunals and revamp over 680 organisations, including public sector undertakings under its control. The move is based on recommendations of a Committee of Secretaries which has Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi as its members, official sources said. The committee has proposed reduction of the number of tribunals from 36 to 17 and has     [….] Read more at:



Thanks & Regards,
Meetesh Shiroya



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