Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said political parties that come to power on pre-poll promises of freebies should pay for those through budgetary provisions. Citing the example of free electricity being promised in many states, the finance minister said the burden for the freebies should not be thrust upon the power discoms or gencos. “If a promise has been made to the people at the time of the election, you are looking at a quid pro quo. “You should be, as a responsible party, assume after you come to power, make a provision in the budget for it,” Sitharaman said, speaking at the FE Best Bank Awards event.
Posts tagged Rediff
Air India to restore staff salaries to pre-COVID level (26-08-2022)
Air India will restore salaries that were cut in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic from September 1, according to a communication. The loss-making airline, which was taken over by Tatas in January this year, has also decided to revise crew layover allowances and meal arrangements from September 1. In the communication to the employees, Air India CEO and managing director Campbell Wilson said the airline “will be restoring the salary reduction for all employees with effect from September 1, 2022.”
India to grow at around 7.4% in FY23 and next: FM (26-08-2022)
India will grow at around 7.4 per cent in 2022-23 and continue at the same pace in the next year as well, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. Sitharaman said there are risks on the external front and this is not the right time to throw caution to the wind, and also assured exporters of all the necessary support from the government as they face the headwinds. Speaking at the FE Best Bank Awards event here, Sitharaman said global agencies like IMF and the World Bank have taken cognisance of the strengths of the Indian economy by saying that it will be among the fastest growing ones in the next two years.
Foreign exchange reserves down to $564.05 bn (26-08-2022)
The country’s foreign exchange reserves fell $6.687 billion to $564.05 billion in the week ended August 19, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. In the previous week ended August 12, the reserves declined $2.24 billion to $570.74 billion. The drop in the reserves during the week ended August 19 was due to a fall in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) and the gold reserves, as per the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI on Friday.
Flat buyers of Supertech’s twin towers to be refunded (26-08-2022)
The Supreme Court Friday assured the home buyers of the to-be-razed 40-storey twin-towers of real estate firm Supertech in Noida that they will be refunded the full amount deposited with the builder. The apex court also asked the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) of the firm, facing insolvency proceedings, to deposit Rs one crore with the apex court registry. The Supertech’s 40-storey twin towers at Emerald Court Project of Sector 93A of Noida are scheduled to be razed on August 28.
Essar to sell port infra to ArcelorMittal (26-08-2022)
Essar group on Friday announced the signing of a USD 2.4 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) deal to sell certain ports and power infrastructure to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel in one of the largest post-pandemic merger and acquisition deals in India. In a statement, the Ruia-run firm said the deal also envisages a 50-50 joint venture between Essar and ArcelorMittal for building a 4 million tonnes a year LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Without giving details, it only identified certain ports and power infrastructure that are primarily captive to operations of the Hazira steel plant, which was acquired by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) in 2018-19, as part of the deal.
Does Adani group need Sebi nod to buy NDTV stake? (26-08-2022)
Adani group on Friday rejected NDTV’s assertion that Sebi approval is necessary to acquire interests in RRPR, saying the promoter entity is not a part of the regulator’s order that restrained Prannoy and Radhika Roy from accessing the securities market. Terming the contentions raised by RRPR as “baseless, legally untenable and devoid of merit”, Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd (VCPL) said the holding firm is “bound to immediately perform its obligation and allot the equity shares” as specified in the Warrant Exercise Notice. In a regulatory update, Adani Enterprises Ltd said VCPL has received a reply on behalf of NDTV and RRPR over the Warrant Exercise Notice dated August 23, 2022.
Mkts end with marginal gains amid fag-end volatility (26-08-2022)
Benchmark indices managed to settle in the positive territory on Friday, with the Sensex climbing over 59 points, as fag-end volatility trimmed most of the day’s gains. A largely firm trend in global markets and foreign fund inflows propped up the bourses, traders said. The BSE Sensex climbed 59.15 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 58,833.87.
IRCTC moves to monetise passenger data (26-08-2022)
In a first of its kind move, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the ticket booking arm of the Indian Railways, is looking to monetise its bank of passenger data while conducting business with private and government companies. IRCTC has a large bank of data related to every online railway ticket ever generated as it is the country’s only railway ticketing platform, an IRCTC official told Business Standard. The public sector undertaking, which has sought the services of a consultant to assist with the monetisation process, plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore through this exercise.
India’s valuation premium to EM peers at 5-month high (26-08-2022)
A sharp rally in domestic stocks from June lows has once again rendered Indian markets expensive to their emerging-market (EM) peers. The 12-month forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple for the Nifty50 Index is around 20.6x – 82 per cent higher than 11.3 per cent for the MSCI EM Index. India’s valuation premium has hit a five-month high. This is on the back of sharp outperformance to EM and global peers from June lows and also due to earnings downgrades, following the April-June quarter of 2022-23 earnings.