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The Hindu Business Line September 17, 2019 Radhika Merwin  The insurer has come to the government’s rescue in its disinvestment agenda, time and again. The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) stepping in to mop up share sales from the Centre year after year, it appears, has led to a significant jump in its investments in public sector enterprises over the past decade. According to data put out by the RBI, of the total investments made by LIC to the tune of Rs 26.6 lakh crore as of March 2019, Rs 22.6 lakh crore pertains to the public sector and about Rs 4 lakh crore is in the private sector. The proportion of LIC’s investments in public sector entities has shot up to 85 per cent as of March 2019, from about 75 per cent a decade ago. This is a near 15 per cent annual growth in LIC’s public sector investments over the past decade. The jump in LIC’s share of public sector investments was significant in 2013-14 and 2017-18, when the government sold equity stakes in B

The Hindu Business Line September 18, 2019 If the Reserve Bank of India opts for full and direct regulation of Payment Gateways and Payment Aggregators then these entities will have to be a company incorporated in India, with a minimum networth of Rs 100 crore, and deal with only those merchants who have a physical presence in the country. According to RBI's Discussion Paper on Guidelines for Payment Gateways and Payment Aggregators, if the central bank chooses to go in for full and direct regulation, Payment Gateways and Payment Aggregators have to be authorised under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSSA). The entities will be given one financial year (from date of issue of guidelines) to comply with the entry point norms and other technology, security, storage, etc, norms issued in this regard. Their promoters will need to satisfy the fit and proper criteria prescribed by RBI. Entities not able to comply with the net-worth requirement within the stipul

The Print September 19, 2019 Remya Nair New Delhi:  The Modi government’s dependence on public sector firms and off-budget borrowings to make up for its revenue shortfalls and dress up its fiscal deficit numbers has been discovered in another set of shocking data. The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), according to latest data from the RBI, invested Rs 10.7 lakh crore in the public sector, many of them ailing banks, between fiscal years 2014-15 and 2018-19 — the first term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NDA government. This investment of Rs 10.7 lakh crore took the cumulative amount LIC has invested in public sector since its inception in September 1956 to Rs 22.6 lakh crore. In contrast, LIC’s cumulative investment in public sector was Rs 11.9 lakh crore at the end of fiscal 2013-14. In effect, the LIC under the Modi government invested in public sector in five years 90 per cent of the investments LIC had made in them during its entire existence up to 2014. T

The Economics Times  September 18, 2019 MUMBAI: As against a steep 17.5 percent higher tax collection budgeted for the full year, the government could mop-up only 4.7 percent more so far this year, with the direct tax kitty growing to Rs 5.50 lakh crore as of September 17, up from Rs 5.25 lakh crore a year-ago. The lower mop-up reflects the deepening slump in demand and overall growth. In the first quarter the GDP slowed to a six-year low of 5 percent. Of the Rs 5.50 lakh crore collections, advance tax rose a tepid 7.3 percent to Rs 2.20 lakh crore from Rs 2.05 crore, according to sources at the taxation department. Of the Rs 5.50 lakh crore collections, advance tax rose a tepid 7.3 percent to Rs 2.20 lakh crore from Rs 2.05 crore, according to sources at the taxation department. It can be noted that the budget had set a direct tax mop-up target of 17.5 percent for the full year, while the same for indirect taxes are set at 15 percent. "Total tax collection

CNN Business August 13, 2019   Laura He Hong Kong (CNN Business) Singapore could be heading for a recession after it reported a big drop in economic activity in the second quarter of the year. The wealthy city state is being hurt by the US-China trade war and is heading for its weakest annual growth since 2009, when the economy shrunk by 0.6% during the global financial crisis. Singapore on Tuesday  slashed its forecast for GDP growth  in 2019 to between 0% and 1%. Previously, it predicted the economy to grow by between 1.5% and 2.5%. The downgrade followed very weak figures for the April-June period, when GDP shrank by 3.3% compared to the first quarter of the year. The outlook has weakened in part because of how much trade tensions between the United States and China have escalated, Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Tuesday. Singapore is heavily reliant on exports and China is its biggest trading partner. The Chinese economy is growing at

Reuters September 16, 2019 Kelvin Yahoo, Stella Qiu BEIJING (Reuters) - The slowdown in China’s economy deepened in August, with growth in industrial production at its weakest 17-1/2 years amid spreading pain from a trade war with the United States and softening domestic demand. Retail sales and investment gauges worsened too, data released on Monday showed, reinforcing views that China is likely to cut some key interest rates this week for the first time in over three years to prevent a sharper slump in activity. Despite a slew of growth-boosting measures since last year, the world’s second-largest economy has yet to stabilize, and analysts say Beijing needs to roll out more stimulus to ward off a sharper slowdown. Industrial output growth unexpectedly weakened to 4.4% in August from the same period a year earlier, the slowest pace since February 2002 and receding from 4.8% in July. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a pick-up to 5.2%. In particular, t

The Hindu September 18, 2019 The number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million India was the leading country of origin of international migrants in 2019 with a 17.5 million strong diaspora, according to new estimates released by the  United Nations,  which said the number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million. The International Migrant Stock 2019, a dataset released by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) on September 18, provides the latest estimates of the number of international migrants by age, sex and origin for all countries and areas of the world. The estimates are based on official national statistics on the foreign-born or the foreign population obtained from population censuses, population registers or nationally representative surveys. The report said that the top 10 countries of origin account for one-third of all international migrants. In 2019, with 17.5 million persons living

The Hindu Business Line September 17, 2019 PALAK SHAH  The drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Aramco saw a massive spike in global crude oil prices leading to a panic reaction in stock markets on Tuesday, with the Sensex fa lling by 642 points or 1.73 per cent to close at 36,481. Nifty, the broader index, too fell by 185 points or 1.69 per cent to 10,817. However, the US Federal Reserve’s anticipated rate cut on Wednesday will determine how the markets will behave in the coming days. It is this event and not the Saudi drone attack that will drive the global equity markets in the coming days, experts told  BusinessLine . Another key factor that may impact markets is the holding of short positions in F&O by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). They are holding more than 1.2 lakh contracts of total short positions in the F&O segment on the NSE, which is just around 15,000 contracts shot of record levels. This indicates that further sharp slide in the markets

The Economics Times September 18, 2019 Kirtika Suneja NEW DELHI: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US president Donald Trump’s meeting, 44 American lawmakers have asked the Trump administration to reinstate India's designation as a beneficiary developing nation under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme as part of a potential trade deal between the two countries. In a letter to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer dated September 17, they suggested an "early harvest" approach that "would ensure that long-sought market access gains for US industries are not held up by negotiations over remaining issues". Modi will visit the US from  September 21-27 , during which he would address the annual UN General Assembly session and have a series of bilateral and multilateral engagements in New York. Trump will attend Modi’s Houston rally for Indian Americans later this week. The US withdrew incentives to $6.3 billion of India

The Economics Times September 17, 2019 Andrew Jacobs When the Indian government bowed to powerful food companies last year and postponed its decision to put red warning labels on unhealthy packaged food, officials also sought to placate critics of the delay by creating an expert panel to review the proposed labeling system, which would have gone far beyond what other countries have done in the battle to combat soaring obesity rates. But the man chosen to head the three-person committee, Dr. Boindala Sesikeran, a veteran nutritionist and former adviser to Nestle, only further enraged health advocates. That’s because Sesikeran is a trustee of the International Life Sciences Institute, a U.S. nonprofit with an innocuous sounding name that has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies around the world. Created four decades ago by a top Coca-Cola executive, the institute now has branches in 18 countries. It is almost entirely funded by Goliaths of t