Business
India Proposes Preferential Trade Pact With Mexico To Deal With Tariffs
NEW DELHI: India has proposed a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Mexico to help domestic exporters deal with the steep tariffs announced by the North American country, a top government official said on Monday. Mexico has decided to impose steep import tariffs – ranging from about 5 per cent...
Centre Proposes Renaming MGNREGA To VB-G Ram G, To Change Funding Pattern
NEW DELHI: The Union government has decided to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the flagship social-welfare scheme, 20 years after it was enacted, providing for a piece of legislation with a higher number of mandatory work days and altered funding norms. The number of...
Proposed Nuclear Energy Bill Caps Operator’s Liability At ₹3,000 Crore
NEW DELHI: The government on Monday introduced in Parliament a Bill that seeks to finally open up the Indian civil nuclear energy sector to private sector players, except in uranium mining, after amending specific provisions dealing with thorny issues like the supplier’s liability and compensation in case of a...
WPI Inflation Remains In Negative Territory For 2nd Month In A Row In November
NEW DELHI: India’s factory-gate inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), remained in deflationary territory at -0.32 per cent in November, easing from a 27-month low of -1.21 per cent in the previous month, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday....
Unemployment Slides To 4.7% In November, Signals Steady Grip Of Job Market Recovery
CHENNAI: India’s unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent in November, marking its lowest level since April, according to official government data, signalling a steady improvement in labour market conditions as the economy moves deeper into the second half of the financial year. The decline from 5.2 percent recorded in...
Budget May Unveil Next Round Of PSB Reforms
NEW DELHI: The government is considering a two-pronged strategy to further consolidate public sector banks (PSBs) – merging smaller lenders to create scale and gradually diluting its ownership closer to 51% to enable the banks to raise growth capital independently. According to sources familiar with the discussions on the...
Centre Identifies 300 Products To Narrow Trade Gap With Russia
NEW DELHI: As India and Russia pursue a $100 billion bilateral trade target by 2030 and seek to make exchanges more balanced, the government has identified about 300 products across sectors such as engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and agriculture to help bridge the gap between current trade levels and the...
Trade Imbalances Slow Adoption Of Rupee Oil Payments
NEW DELHI: Oil companies in India are increasingly engaging with suppliers to negotiate crude oil settlements in Indian rupees (INR), but foreign suppliers remain hesitant to accept the currency, citing trade imbalances, according to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. The ministry’s statement comes in response to a...
Growth-Stage Funding Consolidates As Investors Seek Quality
BENGALURU: After years of muted activity in India’s growth-stage funding market, Series B and C rounds are showing strong signs of capital consolidation this year, even as overall funding continues to dip. Data from Tracxn shows that while deal volumes are shrinking across stages, cheque sizes are rising primarily...
Recent Investments In India From US Firms Highlight Scale Of Bilateral Tech & Economic Engagement
NEW DELHI: Three marquee U.S. investments totalling USD 67.5 billion have recently been announced in India, highlighting the scale and depth of India–U.S. technology and economic engagement. Google has unveiled a USD 15 billion investment to build a 1GW AI-powered data centre campus in Visakhapatnam—its largest outside the United...
Cabinet Clears Bill To Hike FDI In Insurance To 100 Per Cent
NEW DELHI: In a bid to expand insurance penetration in the country, the Union Cabinet on Friday approved a Bill to raise foreign direct investment in the insurance sector to 100 per cent, according to sources. The Bill may be introduced in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament, which...
Government Notifies New Petroleum And Natural Gas Rules, 2025
NEW DELHI: The government has notified the new Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2025, bringing into force a modern regulatory framework aimed at attracting investment and improving ease of doing business in the oil and gas sector. The rules, issued under the recently approved Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment...
Retail Inflation Rises To 0.71 Per Cent In November On Higher Food Prices
NEW DELHI: The consumer price index (CPI) based retail inflation inched up to 0.71 per cent in November from a record low of 0.25 per cent in October, thanks to the fading of favourable base effect and the narrowing deflation in food basket on account of seasonal rise in...
New Bank Group Norms Strengthen Lenders Balance-Sheets: Crisil
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank’s final guidelines on the non-banking financial services businesses of banks provide flexibility on overlapping lending activities within major bank groups, helping as many 12 bank groups not radically restructure their lending businesses. The October 2024 draft guidelines had proposed that only one bank group entity...
PE/VC Investment Volumes Reach A Decadal High, Value Soars 54% To $34 Billion Till November
MUMBAI: Despite the lingering funding winter, private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) investments have surged to their highest levels in a decade in terms of number of deals at 1,761 between January and November this year, surpassing the previous record of 1,726 deals in 2021 while in value terms...
Nose-Diving Rupee Set To Make Wide Range Of Consumer Goods More Expensive
MUMBAI: A nose-diving rupee is set to make a wide range of consumer products costlier, from white goods to smartphones and cars, as most companies will have no option but to pass on higher import costs to buyers. The rupee declined to 90.47 versus the US dollar on Thursday,...
NITI Aayog Recommends Special Accounts, Tax Incentives For Corporate Bond Investments
NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog, the government think tank, has recommended special bond accounts, demat trading of listed bonds, facilitating purchases through mobile and internet banking, and tax incentives for investments in corporate bonds to boost retail participation in the bond market. A report by Niti Aayog on deepening the...
Manufacturing To Contribute 25 Per Cent Of GDP By 2047: Report
NEW DELHI: The manufacturing sector’s share in the Indian GDP will rise to 25 per cent from approximately 17 per cent at present, and the country is poised to become a global industrial powerhouse by then, said a joint report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Z47. Flagship...
