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 Mint December 10, 2020 Ashwin Ramarathinam Shares of  cement companies   were under pressure in trade on Thursday after fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) initiated a probe into possible cartelisation by the firms. Shares of Ramco Cements, Dalmia Bharat, Deccan Cements, UltraTech Cement, India Cements, JK Cement, Ambuja Cement, Shree Cement, ACC, JK Lakshmi Cement, and Heidelbergcement India fell 1.3-4.2%. "The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has initiated an investigation against cement companies in India including ACC regarding alleged anti-competitive behaviour," ACC Ltd said in an exchange filing on Thursday. ACC said it is of the firm view that it has acted and continues to act in compliance with competition laws and are cooperating with the investigation and providing all necessary information to the authorities. "ACC has a long-standing commitment to fair competition as reflected in its Code of Business Conduct," the company add...

  The Indian Express December 09, 2020 Sandeep Singh Stock market: Investors who need some money and have to meet one of their financial goals of buying a home, car or funding higher education of kids can go for some profit booking at this time as the markets are on a high. The benchmark Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange closed above the 46,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday. Over the last one month, since it closed above the 42,000 mark on November 9, the Sensex has breached five milestones. Having risen by over 4,200 points or 10 per cent over the last one month while there is a sense of relief among existing investors as their investments have turned good, there are growing concerns among many over the high valuations and is leading them to book profits. What is fuelling the market? Over the last couple of months the markets have risen on various factors starting from signs of economic recovery in September and October, US election outcome, announcement of successful tri...

  The Indian Express December 07, 2020 Udit Mishra If inflation rate has been outside RBI’s comfort zone for the past 12 months and RBI has also bumped up inflation forecast, then why hasn’t it raised repo rates? Dear Readers, Exactly a year ago, Finance Minister  Nirmala Sitharaman  was asked if  India was facing stagflation , which refers to a phase when an economy witnesses ‘stag’nant growth and persistently high in’flation’. The question was asked because India’s growth rate in the first two quarters of the last financial year (2019-20) had decelerated sharply to a six-year low and retail inflation — or the rate of increase in prices that we face as consumers — had shot up in November 2019. She had reportedly replied:   “I have heard of the narrative going on and I have no comments to make”. To be fair, at the time, calls of stagflation were quite premature. For one, retail inflation had gone up for just a couple of months. Moreover, the main culprits were f...

  The Print December 07, 2020 Divya Patil and Anil Poonia A stronger NBFC sector, which has been struggling since a crisis in 2018 when a large financier unexpectedly defaulted, is key to helping staunch further trouble in the economy. The fortunes of India’s shadow lenders have been improving amid early signs Asia’s third-largest economy is rebounding from an unprecedented recession. Two of four indicators compiled by Bloomberg that reflect the state of shadow banks strengthened last month from October. Shares of such firms that are part of the benchmark S&P BSE 500 index jumped two levels higher. The financiers also trimmed their debt piles, helping a gauge measuring their total outstanding debt burden to improve. A stronger shadow banking industry, which has been struggling since a crisis in 2018 when a large financier unexpectedly defaulted, is key to helping staunch further trouble in the economy. The lenders provide funds to those that banks can’t reach, including some in...

 Scroll.in December 05, 2020 Prathamesh Mulye Between April and September, the foreign direct investments into the country rose 15% year-on-year, says a CARE Ratings report. At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic was  wreaking havoc in India , foreign investors were pumping money into the country at a pace faster than before. Between April and September, when India’s economy was in a “ technical recession ,” the foreign direct investment into the country rose 15% year-on-year to $39.9 billion (Rs 29,400 crore), according to a December 4 report by CARE Ratings. “Optimism on India growth story among foreign investors combined with ample liquidity in the global market has aided flows into India,” the report said. It added that the Indian government’s reforms  like supporting the manufacturing sector  and investors’ bid to find  alternate supply chains to China  have also led to an increase in FDI into India. After all, this was the period during which the world ...

 The Hindu Business Line, 10.11.2020 Besides job opportunities, such a database will help migrant labour get the benefit of government schemes The Finance Ministry has given its go-ahead for the creation of the first ever national database of migrant labour to provide a platform for workers and employers, and for the government to implement specific programmes for such labourers. Link- https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/finmin-nod-for-national-database-of-unorganised-workers/article33065764.ece

 The Hindu, 12.11.2020 The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has relaxed norms for farmer, student, religious and other groups who are not directly aligned to any political party to receive foreign funds if the groups are not involved in “active politics”. The Ministry notified new rules under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 on Wednesday thereby amending the FCRA Rules, 2011. The new rule said, “The organisations specified under clauses (v) and (vi) of sub-rule (1) shall be considered to be of political nature, if they participate in active politics or party politics, as the case may be.” The 2011 rules on said clauses dealt with “guidelines for the declaration of an organisation to be of a political nature, not being a political party”, and the Central government could specify an organisation as that of political nature based on six criteria. ‘Political group’ Clause V of Rule 3 (FCRA 2011) qualified a political group as, “organisations of farmers, workers, stude...

 Hindustan Times, Neeraj Chauhan, November 04, 2020 Twenty one months after a multi-agency probe was launched into the alleged irregularities in disbursement of loans by former ICICI Bank managing director (MD) Chanda Kochhar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against the former top banker, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot for allegedly using a web of companies to launder the money received as bribe from Videocon Group, people familiar with the development said. This is the first ever chargesheet against Chanda Kochhar, who had to step down in October 2018 from the ICICI Bank after allegations of multiple irregularities surfaced against her. The ED filed its chargesheet under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a Mumbai special court on Tuesday, listing evidence and details of companies which were used to launder the ill-gotten money, people cited above said. It took five huge trunks to carry documents in cou...

 The Telegraph Online, October 15, 2020 The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a reluctant Centre to issue by November 2 the circular on compound interest waivers relating to the moratorium on loans offered by banks till August 31. The bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah rejected solicitor-general Tushar Mehta’s plea to give the government time till November 15 for the circular as the Centre wanted to work out certain modalities for the waiver on loans up to Rs 2 crore given for homes, consumer purchases and MSMEs. “Why one month time (till November 15) to implement such a small decision? Not fair on the part of the central government,” the bench observed while adjourning the matter to November 2. By that time, the court said the government must issue the circular to give effect to the waiver. “… See the plight of common people, when you’ve already decided to help…their Diwali is in your hands, Mr Mehta…” the bench told the solicitor-general while passi...

 The Telegraph Online,  October 15, 2020 A spike in the prices of food items pushed wholesale price inflation to a seven-month high of 1.32 per cent in September, after turning positive in August for the first time since March. The WPI-based inflation appears to be moving in sync with CPI-based retail inflation which shot up to an eight-month high of 7.34 per cent in September, mainly on account of rising prices of food items. Although the RBI takes into account retail inflation while deciding the monetary policy stance, ICRA’s principal economist Aditi Nayar said, “Today’s data (on WPI inflation) further cements the likelihood of an extended pause from the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).” Before recording an increase of 0.16 per cent in August, the WPI inflation was in the negative territory for four straight months —April (-) 1.57 per cent, May (-) 3.37 per cent, June (-) 1.81 per cent and July (-) 0.25 per cent. Inflation in food articles in September was at 8.17 per cent ...

 Mint October 14, 2020 State-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to leverage International Solar Alliance (ISA) to help land airport contracts in member countries, by showcasing Kerala’s Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), which is the first airport in the world to run fully on solar power. India has been trying to land solar power project contracts in ISA member countries against the backdrop of China’s attempt to co-opt countries into its ambitious One Belt One Road initiative. “The ISA secretariat has launched the corporate partner scheme, wherein corporate organizations across the globe can get corporate partner status, subject to approval of the ISA assembly, after contributing $1 million to ISA’s corpus fund," said ISA’ director general Upendra Tripathy in an interview with Mint. With clean energy projects comprising more than a fifth of its installed power generation capacity, India has been leveraging its solar energy credentials to build solar projects overse...

 Mint, October 14, 2020 A day after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a fresh set of measures to stimulate demand in the economy by incentivising spending by the central government employees and through additional capital expenditure, expenditure secretary in the finance ministry T.V. Somanathan explains the rationale behind the package. Edited excerpts: What's your assessment of the current state of the economy? The worst effects of the pandemic are over. We are beginning to see the recovery. The recovery is visible in a number of sectors, whether it is power consumption, GST collections, the recovery is fairly good. Even in terms of consumer behavior, there is some recovery. Whether it will be sustained in the remaining quarters of the year is a matter to be seen. So I am cautiously optimistic. Do you think the measures that the government so far has announced will be sufficient to put the economy on a sustainable recovery path? I would slightly look at it differently...

 Mint, October 14, 2020 The salt to technology conglomerate Tata Group has joined the conversations to pick up a minority stake in online grocer BigBasket, which has been looking to raise $200 million in growth capital, two people aware of the development told Mint. “Tata group, Temasek and Generation Investment Management are in advanced talks with BigBasket. The deal size is around $200 million, which will be entirely primary capital to boost the company’s growth," said one of the people cited above, requesting anonymity. BigBasket has seen strong tailwinds due to the covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, as more customers are now preferring to shop online for groceries, the person added. Spokespersons for Tata, Temasek, Generation Investment Management and BigBasket could not be immediately reached for a comment. Tata’s interest in BigBasket comes at a time when the group is looking to enter the online commerce market in a big way. In August, The Financial Times reported that th...

 Hindustan Times,  October 14, 2020 The Narendra Modi government is considering a third economic stimulus package, combining fiscal and policy measures that could include incentives for the manufacturing and services sectors, income support for the jobless and incentives to people to spend instead of keeping their money in the bank, according to two officials aware of the plan. On Monday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a demand stimulus package consisting of ₹73,000 crore in public expenditure by March 31, 2021. These included allowing government employees to spend tax-exempt leave travel allowances on goods and services, special festival advances and 50-year soft loans to states for capital investments. The new incentives in the works will be targeted at sectors such as tourism and hospitality that have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the two officials cited above said on condition of anonymity. “Yesterday [Monday], we announced some measures to stimulat...

 Hindustan Times, October 14, 2020 The government is examining the decision of an arbitration panel last month favouring Vodafone Group Plc in a tax dispute, given its implications for India’s sovereign rights of taxation, according to a government official. Reducing tax litigation is a policy priority for the Narendra Modi administration but the dispute with Vodafone Group Plc on its $11 billion offshore deal acquiring Hutchison Essar Ltd—later renamed Vodafone India Ltd—has implications beyond the legality of retrospective taxes. An arbitration committee that had heard both the parties last month ruled that the Indian government should cease its tax claim, which it said was in breach of the protection guaranteed under the Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) signed with the Netherlands in 1995. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the arbitration was around the protection granted to foreign investment, not the 2012 retrospective...

 Financial Express, October 14, 2020 The trend of rising dues to power plants continues despite the Union power ministry implementing the letter of credit (LC) mechanism since August 2019 to compel discoms to become more disciplined in meeting payment obligations. The Union power ministry’s proposal to reduce late payment surcharge for state-run power distribution companies could potentially provide a relief of about Rs 6,000 crore annually to these distressed entities, given their current level of over-dues to gencos, analysts said. In the draft Electricity Late Payment Surcharge Rules, 2020, recently released by the ministry, it has proposed to reduce the rate of late payment surcharge from the existing 18%, to a graded payment linked to the “bank rate” which is 500 basis points (bps) more than SBI’s marginal cost of funds-based lending rate. Discoms’ over-dues — payment default of 45-60 days or more — to power plants increased 52% annually to Rs 1.19 lakh crore at August end. Th...

 Financial Express, October 13, 2020 Batting for more fiscal spending, chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy V Subramanian said a boost to infrastructure and employment-related programmes like creation of an urban job guarantee programme would help pep up consumption demand. The Covid-ravaged economy will likely shrink by a record 9.5% in the current fiscal, Subramanian said on Tuesday, as he agreed with the central bank’s latest assessment of the magnitude of growth slump. However, elevated inflation will still drive up nominal GDP. Monetising the fiscal deficit in a year like this can’t be ruled out as one of the financing options for the government, the CEA told CNBC-TV18. “We have time-one can do it within the borrowing programme itself-short-term borrowing so as not to increase the yields,” he said. “We might be looking at about 1.7- 1.8% of GDP ($50 billion) of current account surplus (in FY21),” he noted. With net tax revenues declining 30% on year in April-August (the budget...

 Business Standard October 14, 2020 A day after the goods and services tax (GST) Council meeting ended in a deadlock, the Centre on Tuesday allowed 20 states to borrow an additional Rs 68,825 crore through the market to make up for the compensation shortfall amid inadequate cess collection. Meanwhile, dissenting states like Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab and Chhattisgarh said they are exploring legal options, including moving the Supreme Court, to counter the Centre’s move. Twenty states had picked the finance ministry’s first option of raising up to Rs 1.1 trillion to make up for revenue loss estimated on account of GST implementation alone, but not for losses due to the pandemic. Under this option, the entire principle and the interest will be repaid through compensation cess collection, which has been extended beyond June 2022. “Additional borrowing permission has been granted at 0.50 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) to those states that have opted for Option 1 o...

 The Hindu, October 13, 2020 The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked all NGOs seeking foreign donations to open a designated FCRA account at the State Bank of India’s New Delhi branch by March 31, 2021. The MHA order reiterated that NGOs registered under FCRA shall not receive any foreign donations in any other bank account from April 1, 2021. In September, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2020 was amended by Parliament and a new provision that makes it mandatory for all non-government organisations and associations to receive foreign funds in a designated bank account at SBI’s New Delhi branch was inserted. An order specifying the process of opening the FCRA bank account was issued by the MHA on Tuesday. As of now there are 22,434 such NGOs and associations active under the FCRA. The order said an NGO will have to report the amount and source of foreign remittance received to the authorities. The order said the Centre has notified the New Delhi Main Branch (NDMB) of...

 The Indian Express, October 14, 2020 Just three days ago, a consumer confidence survey by the Reserve Bank of India said discretionary spending was expected to remain low in the near future even though people expected an improvement not just in economic situation but also in employment conditions and income scenario. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement on measures to boost consumer spending is clearly an acknowledgement that people going out and spending is key to a faster turnaround of the economy. But then, two things stand out in the announcement: One, much of it (the consumer spending part) is front-loading of expenditure, or in other words, repurposing of government spending, and the size of the overall package is nothing much to talk home about (compared with the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Yojana and the AtmaNirbhar Bharat package); and, two, by specifying how and where to spend, the Finance Ministry just doused any excitement among the 35 lakh-odd Central ...