| FMC all set to get more teeth | 03-SEP-09 |
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| Autonomy with more powers for the commodity futures market regulator, Forward Markets Commission (FMC), now seems certain with the Reserve Bank of India saying that futures trading cannot be held responsible for the recent spurt in essential commodity prices. This clearly means that futures trading is getting support from policy-makers — a fact that is likely to prompt the government to introduce the Bill granting more powers to FMC in the next Parliament session. |
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| Sunil Sethi: Delhi's double displacement | 08-AUG-09 |
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| A large and long-established slum close to my neighbourhood, on the edge of the All India Medical Institute, was removed some years ago and its inhabitants sold tiny plots of land in a resettlement colony on the southern outskirts. A double-lane inner-city highway has come up where the old slum existed, as part of the feverish building activity before the Commonwealth Games next year, and the resettled population, it seems, is comparatively better off. |
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| Disinvestment, the buzzword | 27-JUL-09 |
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| Disinvestment is a buzzword now. Economic Survey 2009 indicates that the central government would mobilise Rs 25,000 crore from disinvestment of its holdings in state-owned enterprises (or public sector enterprises). The target is abysmally low (at Rs 1,120 crore) in the budget 2009-10 presented by the Finance Minister. We may assume that the target is Rs 25,000 crore for the year 2009-10. The government is committed to disinvestment, although some of its coalition partners and trade unions are against it. There-fore, although there is no debate on the issue within the lead coalition partner, there are some questions that remain unanswered. |
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| Pragmatic outlook | 07-JUL-09 |
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| The Union Budget for the current fiscal year is a pragmatic and honest budget. The increased allocation to physical infrastructure is a step in the right direction. The government has also incentivised the banking system to lend more to the infrastructure sector by providing 60 per cent refinancing of commercial bank loans through IIFCL over the next one and a half years. The Budget also aims to administer some stimulus by shoring up private consumption. |
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| Subir Gokarn: Caution over aggression | 07-JUL-09 |
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| The Economic Survey for 2008-09, published last week, raised my hopes that the finance minister would take full advantage of the opportunity offered to him to lay out an ambitious reform roadmap over the next five years. The one message that I took from the Survey was that the new UPA government was open to even some of the more radical reform ideas that have been floating around for a while, but never seemed to make it past the political filters. I did not realistically expect to see many of these in the Budget, but still felt that the speech would broadly endorse a series of reforms. But, going beyond that to the nitty-gritties of the revenue and expenditure announcements, I did not expect to see very much tinkering. The economic situation is simply too delicate to warrant bold gambles with either. |
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| Not much for exporters in Economic Survey | 06-JUL-09 |
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| The Economic Survey is fairly upbeat on the growth prospects for the Indian economy but quite downbeat on the growth prospects for exporters. More significant, it recommends fundamental policy changes rather than any quick-fix solutions to revive exports. This means that the exporters can look forward to little more than comforting words from the finance minister on Monday. |
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| Sensex rally seen beyond 15,100 | 05-JUL-09 |
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| The market exhibited high level of volatility in intra-day trades during the week. The Sensex, after slipping in first half of the week, recovered towards the end on positive vibes from the Economic Survey and the Railway Budget. |
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| Economic Survey indicates the direction of govt thinking | 03-JUL-09 |
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| The Economic Survey 2008-09 presented to Parliament provides a broad roadmap which the government needs to implement in the short and medium term to enable the country to achieve the growth targets and address fiscal imbalances. |
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| Reaching for the stars | 03-JUL-09 |
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| The annual Economic Survey is traditionally tabled in Parliament a couple of days before the Budget is presented. This year, the attention being paid to budgetary prospects is particularly high; consequently, the Survey has come under the spotlight far more than in a more ‘normal’ year. That said, the utility of the Survey as an assessment of the state of the economy has dwindled over the years, as the frequency with which economic data is released has increased (monthly fiscal deficit numbers, quarterly GDP assessments, regular tax revenue updates, et al), and as the number of institutions putting out similar reports has multiplied. In such a context, there is very little that the Survey can disclose regarding macroeconomic conditions that is not already known. |
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