Rising
prices in India have always been the ‘run to’ issue for any political group.It
favors everyone except the government. This of course leaving aside the average
Indian who has to spend more.Now that it’s Food Prices which are going through
the roof, the usual round of chatter has begun. Opposition parties accusing the
incumbent government of lackluster action, ineffectiveness and the usual lingo
that anyone in India is used to especially when it’s a battle between political
parties. None of the rhetoric in any case means squat if prices do not come down.
We’ve been harping on rising prices for over a year now, I sincerely hope that
this is not the case a year later as well.
The New Year for the Indian
economy is an uncertain one. The highs that the markets reached a year ago have
inadvertently led to the lows that it finds itself in. The euphoria from the Bull
Run that lasted for four years has been wiped away in a matter of twelve months
and has given birth to a Bear Market not seen in over half a century. For the Finance
Department, getting the economy on track remains priority number one. In one
sense it’s a good thing that India has not crept into a recession but the fact
does remain that the magical growth rate of 9% will somehow not be that easy to
achieve.
If the Finance Minister is to be
believed then everything in the Indian banking sector is hunky dory. The banks
have enough cash and the RBI is doing a wonderful job. At least, that’s the
impression one would have got if he or she were present at a press conference
addressed by P.Chidambaram earlier today. Cynics have already pegged this
estimation as a deliberate lie that misguides people about our banking system
making out the case for Indian banks to be as bad as faced by banks in the US.
Both arguments are valid but on
this count it’d the
Finance Minister’s statements that have turned out to be more accurate.
Indian banks aren’t as comfortable as he says they are but they definitely have an ample supply of liquidity to power the Indian economic engine.
Within an hour of the Government Trust
Vote held in the month of July this year, business reporters stormed the Finance
Minister and bombarded him with umpteen questions. Before rushing off to his
waiting car the Finance Minister highlighted the need to approve three
important finance laws. One of them which has been on the backburner since the
first year of the present government is the Insurance Laws Bill. Insurance
sector wise, the immediate priority for the Finance department is to table the
amendments to this bill which will raise FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the
Indian Insurance sector to 49%.
In India, it has been all gold for real estate developers and especially rewarding for those companies who are floating their companies to cash on the booming demand and spiraling real estate prices.
Kolkata, India: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the market regulator in the country is pretty serious about clamping down on manipulation by the Indian Real estate players inflating their land banks to boost value and is unfazed by concerns that new disclosure norms will keep realty companies from tapping the market.
Lucknow, India: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for a crash programme on increasing India's generation capacity. There is no doubt that poor pace of reforms in the power sector will trip overall economic growth and there is an urgent requirement to check electricity theft that is bleeding the system.
Lucknow, India: If the Indian government fails to meet its deficit reduction targets, the overseas borrowing costs of Indian companies could increase over the next two years. You may ask: Why is it so? This is because failure to meet deficit reduction targets can adversely impact the sovereign credit rating of the country.
Indian government may minimize custom duties on number of items to keep inflation below 5 percent. Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while talking to The India Street said government was ready to take further fiscal steps to control inflation and keep it below 5 percent.
The New Year for the Indian
economy is an uncertain one. The highs that the markets reached a year ago have
inadvertently led to the lows that it finds itself in. The euphoria from the Bull
Run that lasted for four years has been wiped away in a matter of twelve months
and has given birth to a Bear Market not seen in over half a century. For the Finance
Department, getting the economy on track remains priority number one. In one
sense it’s a good thing that India has not crept into a recession but the fact
does remain that the magical growth rate of 9% will somehow not be that easy to
achieve. 
If the Finance Minister is to be
believed then everything in the Indian banking sector is hunky dory. The banks
have enough cash and the RBI is doing a wonderful job. At least, that’s the
impression one would have got if he or she were present at a press conference
addressed by P.Chidambaram earlier today. Cynics have already pegged this
estimation as a deliberate lie that misguides people about our banking system
making out the case for Indian banks to be as bad as faced by banks in the US.
Within an hour of the Government Trust
Vote held in the month of July this year, business reporters stormed the Finance
Minister and bombarded him with umpteen questions. Before rushing off to his
waiting car the Finance Minister highlighted the need to approve three
important finance laws. One of them which has been on the backburner since the
first year of the present government is the Insurance Laws Bill. Insurance
sector wise, the immediate priority for the Finance department is to table the
amendments to this bill which will raise FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the
Indian Insurance sector to 49%. 
