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Indian Express Aug 29, 2019 The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India has decided not to transfer any amount from the CGRA (currency and gold revaluation account), which has Rs 730,000 crore of unrealised gains, to the government as recommended by the Bimal Jalan committee. Advertising CGRA comprises unrealised gains or losses on foreign currency assets and gold due to movement in exchange rate and prices of gold. There will be no distribution of unrealised revaluation balances. This effectively means bulk of the RBI’s Rs 10 lakh crore surplus — mostly lying in CGRA — can’t be touched. This policy, as proposed by the committee, will be in vogue for the next five years. The contention of the RBI Board as well as the Jalan committee is that central bank doesn’t have the money in its CRGA account as it’s unrealised balance. For the year ended June 2018, the RBI had total reserves of Rs 9.6 lakh crore, comprising mainly CGRA (Rs 6.91 lakh crore) and contingency f...

Quartz India Aug 28, 2019 The world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer is loosening its purse strings to help small Indian farmers improve their livelihoods. Yesterday (Aug. 27), Walmart Foundation, the philanthropy arm of the Bentonville, US-headquartered retailer, said it has pledged grants worth $4.8 million (Rs34 crore) towards Digital Green and TechnoServe, both organisations that help Indian farmers increase their income. The grants will be used to support programmes that help small farmers gain access to agriculture technology, training on sustainable farming methods, enhanced access to formal markets, and skill and capacity building for farmer producer organisations. “The grant builds upon the Walmart Foundation’s efforts to increase economic opportunity for smallholder farmers and their families while promoting sustainable farming practices and the empowerment and inclusion of women,” Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer at Walmart, said in a press r...

If policymakers on both sides can shut out the noise, it could be an opportune time to repair ties between the government and the RBI and to forge a respectful relationship. In August last year, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England told Bloomberg about fixing common errors that happen over history and the attempt by the central bank he heads to ensure a change in thinking to make the system as resilient as possible to “unknown unknowns”. Advertising The questions on the minds of central bankers like him are: “What’s the shock that could happen? Do I have enough capital? If somebody fails, can I clean up the mess in an orderly way?” A few days ago, the chief of the world’s most powerful central bank, the US Federal Reserve, Jeremy Powell, said at the annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that the Fed was examining the monetary policy tools it has used both in calm times and in (a) crisis. Powell, who has come under a savage attack from the US Presiden...

The Hindu Aug 28, 2019 With 140 cm of annual rainfall, Chennai has no business to ever get into a drought situation. But it did — for over 170 straight days without a drop of rain, the city has slipped into such a horrendous water crisis that even the international media, notably  CNN  and  The New York Times , ran stories on it. Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio highlighted the problem to his 32 million Instagram followers through a post in June. Yet today, though the current water shortage problems is far from solved, the mood in the city is upbeat. There are good reasons to believe that from after a few years, the city will never go dry. Some people are even talking of Chennai, 425 sq km large and home to 10.6 million people, as the emerging ‘water capital’ of India. The city’s Chief Resilience Officer, Krishna Mohan, believes a complete drought-proofing of Chennai could be as near as five years. So, what has changed? Hundreds of the city’s water bodies, long p...

The Hindu Aug 28, 2019 Iran has suggested putting in place a barter trade system with India beyond the existing rupee payment mechanism in which items could be traded sectorally. "We could do barter trade with India agriculture against agriculture, pharmaceutical against pharmaceutical and so on," Iran's Ambassador to India Ali Chegeni said at an interactive session with Indian business organised by PHDCCI on Wednesday. Chegeni pointed out that despite US economic sanctions against Iran, the bilateral trade between India and Iran had increased to $ 17.50 billion in 2018 from $ 13.5 billion the previous year. There is scope for bilateral trade to rise to $ 30 billion soon and then to $ 50 billion, he added. "The relationship between Iran and India is complimentary. We don't compete with each. We need the items that the other country produces," Chegeni said. India and Iran re-activated the Rupee payment mechanism in October 2018 when the US sanction...

The Hindu Aug 28, 2019 Despite RBI slashing repo rate by 110 basis points so far this year, there would be no impact on the housing market: Reuters poll India's liquidity-starved economy will restrain housing market activity and price rises in coming months and into 2020, according to a Reuters poll of property market experts who were skeptical aggressive interest rate cuts will revive it. House prices are expected to rise just 1 per cent on average this year and 2 per cent in 2020, the lowest median predictions since polling began for the two years, and well below the current 3.15 per cent rate of consumer price inflation. A majority of respondents in the August 13-27 survey said risks to those already-modest predictions were skewed more to the downside. That comes despite the Reserve Bank of India having slashed its repo rate by 110 basis points so far this year, to 5.40 per cent. It is also expected to cut it further to 5.15 per cent over the coming months to revive...