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October 11, 2017 4:36 AM The Catch-22 the Centre must be finding itself in now may perhaps finally show the government what a bad idea price-capping is. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had capped the prices of coronary stents in February this year to spare patients what it perceived as unduly high prices charged for the device. But, soon enough, it had to face the unintended consequence of cheap Chinese stents starting make their presence felt in the market. The department of industrial policy and promotion had flagged this to the PMO—saying that this may “adversely affect efficacy of treatment”—and the PMO, in turn, asked the health ministry’s expert panel to study if the latest generation of biodegradable stents possess “futuristic innovations”, and could thus be classified under a separate category from the two categories subject to the cap and get a reprieve from price capping. Unfortunately, as per The Indian Express, the expert panel has concluded that ...

MUMBAI, OCTOBER 10 In a bid to pare its debt, the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) is in talks with Adani Transmission for the sale of its flagship Mumbai distribution business, valued at ₹10,000-13,000 crore. The two companies have entered into an agreement for exclusive talks till January 15, 2018. “The proposed transaction would further strengthen ATL’s footprint in the power transmission sector while making its foray into the power distribution sector,” Adani Transmission said in a statement. It did comment any further on the potential deal. Divesting attempts RInfra has been trying to divest its Mumbai distribution business for the past three years. In 2015, in entered into talks with Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) of Canada for the sale of a 49 per cent stake in the discom. However, this did not result in a deal. If the deal with Adani goes through, RInfra will be looking at utilising the proceeds of the proposed ...

Oct 11, 2017, 11.43 AM IST  When Infrastructure Development and Finance Co (IDFC) was granted universal banking licence in 2014 from among 26 applicants, it was the envy of those who missed out on the coveted prize. Three and a half years later, both investors and the managements that were not lucky enough, are smiling.  A surge in liquidity, regulatory arbitrage, and the crippled state of banks converged to make the non-banking finance company (NBFC) business model a success with equity investors latching on to any business that would reflect the Indian financial services growth without its baggage of bad loans. Life has come a full circle with premium attached to banks shrinking while NBFCs gaining traction.  IDFC Bank which came into being in 2015 has lost 15.91 per cent since, while its parent IDFC gained 16.33 per cent. In the same period, Bajaj FinanceBSE 0.16 %, which failed to get a bank licence, rose 265.48 per cent and Warburg Pincus-backed Capital...

Oct 11, 2017, 11:46 IST HUSSAINIWALA (FEROZPUR): Narcotics smugglers from Pakistan have started using trained divers to cross the International Border (IB) into Indian Punjab, intelligence sources have said. After the Border Security Force (BSF) stepped up its vigil, smugglers have started employing divers to navigate a 35km riverine area in Punjab's Ferozpur, Gurdaspur and Amritsar sectors of the IB. BSF had recently introduced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), laser walls and thermal imagers along with larger deployment of men along the border to squeeze out the drug supply. BSF, which guards a 553km (518 km land and 33 km riverine) stretch of the IB along Punjab, has seized 729 kg narcotics (mostly heroin) worth hundreds of crores in the past three years. The highest recovery of 340 kg was made from Ferozpur sector. The new method to pump drugs into the state was discovered during the interrogation of a peddler, who said his consignment was delivered to him by a ...

Oct 11, 2017, 02:37 IST NEW DELHI: In a move to ensure efficacy of medicines sold in India, the drug regulator has made it mandatory for companies to include Indian patients in global clinical trials if they want to market in India a new drug developed outside the country. The decision was taken in a recent technical committee meeting, headed by director general of health services Jagdish Prasad. The committee, which was formed following directions from the Supreme Court, has a mandate to supervise clinical trials on new chemical entities. "Any firm intending to market a new drug which is being developed outside the country, should include Indian patients in the global clinical trial...," the minutes of the meeting, reviewed by TOI, said. The committee also decided that if proposal of such global clinical trials are already approved in ICH countries such as the US, Europe and Japan, then it will be reviewed on priority by the Indian drug regulator. The I...

October 11, 2017 1:56 am In what will help India adopt a better mechanism for price discovery of both domestic as well as imported gas, the petroleum ministry will seek the Union Cabinet’s approval for a domestic gas trading hub. Stating this on Tuesday, petroleum minister  Dharmendra  Pradhan also said his ministry was in the process of creating an internal think-tank to assist in priority areas like foreign investment, moving towards gas-based economy, financing models, using technology and curbing hydrocarbon imports. Members of the think-tank will be Daniel Yergin (IHS Markit), Chanda Kochhar (ICICI Bank), Vijay Kelkar (economist), Dev Sanyal (BP), Ashok Belani (Schlumberger), Vijay Swarup (ExxonMobil), K V Kamath (BRICS New Development Bank), Rahul Dhir (GTI Group) and Satish Pai (Hindalco). Currently, the price of natural gas in the country is determined through a government-mandated formula that links the local price to rates prevailing in gas-surplus nations....

11 October 2017  01.13 BST Equifax has admitted that almost 700,000 UK consumers have had their personal details accessed following a cyber-attack, a figure far higher than previously thought. As well as affecting more Britons, the hack also resulted in significantly more damaging data being leaked on those who were affected. The information lost by the US credit monitoring firm included partial credit card details, phone numbers and driving licence numbers. The Information Commissioner’s Office said that it was still investigating the company, which had initially claimed just 400,000 British residents had been affected. “We continue to investigate what happened at Equifax and how UK citizen’s information came to be compromised,” an ICO spokesperson confirmed. “It is a complex and fast-moving case and we are working closely with other UK regulators and our counterparts in Canada and the US. “We have been pressing Equifax to confirm the scale and any impact on UK ci...

 October 10, 2017 7:06 am Every bank has been told that it will be your responsibility to ensure that wherever you have a branch, you have to give loans to two persons in the area — a youth who is a Dalit or an Adivasi, and a woman — to help them start a new enterprise, new business. That’s what Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  said at the launch of the Stand Up India initiative in Noida on April 5, 2016. Records show that 17 months after this assurance, barely six per cent of the 1.3 lakh bank branches have provided Stand Up India loans to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe individuals. And less than 25 per cent of the branches have provided loans to women in the general category. This is according to data on loans obtained from the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act. According to the data received, 21 public sector commercial banks, 42 regional rural banks and nine private sector banks h...

The Economic Times,  Updated:  Oct 10, 2017,  By:  By  ECONOMICTIMES.COM The Tata Group, which founded Air India 85 years ago and was then forced to relinquish control, said it will look at bidding for the airline put up for sale by the government.  If it acquires Air India, it will be 64 years after its nationalisation.  Tata would "definitely look" at Air India once the government finalised the privatisation process, N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata group's holding company Tata Sons, told a TV channel, Reuters said in a report.  He said Tata, which already has two small airline joint ventures in India, one with Singapore Airlines and the other with Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd, was still not clear about what a sale would look like.  The history will come full circle with the move, underlining not only the sorry fate of government-owned enterprises but also how India's indigenous business groups refused to fade out ev...

Rediff.com, October 09, 2017,  Even the well heeled in metros find it difficult to go completely digital. Cash withdrawals from ATMs are back at the same level as they were before demonetisation. It has been 11 months since demonetisation was carried out to give India, among other things, a digital push. The results, at best, have been mixed. And, cash continues to rule. In Delhi, purchasing a 55-inch television at a prominent electronic shop in Mayur Vihar Phase 1 means a levy of 2.5 per cent for swiping the card. But, there is a cashback of five per cent. Your net benefit: 2.5 per cent. Pay in cash and the shopkeeper is happy to give you an additional five per cent discount. On a product that costs Rs 89,000, this translates into a significant saving. In Mumbai, things aren’t, too, different. Cash continues to rule at restaurants. Arya Bhavan, a popular eatery in Matunga, charges a flat fee of Rs 10 from any customer who chooses to pay by card. Says ...