Opinion
Appeal
The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.Markets Await 25-Basis Point Rate Cut
MUMBAI: While slowing growth, lower core inflation and fall in crude oil prices make a case for rate cuts in the upcoming policy review, economists say the central bank will have to be cautious. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to announce the mid-quarter policy review on...
Euro Zone Meltdown: India Prepares Contingency Plan
NEW DELHI: India has prepared a contingency plan for Greece exiting the euro zone and even a collapse of the monetary union, Indian officials said on Tuesday. The euro zone debt crisis has already put a damper on India’s exports to Europe— the biggest destination for Indian goods —...
EGoM Calls For Auction 13.75 MHz Spectrum
NEW DELHI: The panel of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday decided to sell up to 13.75 MHz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in the upcoming auctions, raising the possibility of two mobile phone companies winning back their cancelled permits. The nine-member Empowered Group...
FinMin Files Pile Up Into A Raisina Hill As Work Stops
NEW DELHI: The possibility of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moving to Rashtrapati Bhavan has brought activity in key economic ministries to a near-halt. Officials in these ministries are preferring to wait and see which politician gets what portfolio, rather than clear files. Decision-making has come to a halt at...
US Focussing On Bengal In A Big Way
By Ashis Biswas After China, it is the turn of the USA and other powers to establish their strategic and economic presence in Myanmar, Bangladesh and to a .lesser extent,West Bengal. Over the past two decades, China set the pace in constantly upgrading its economic links with the most...
Conquests Of Indian Science
By Anjan Roy One hundred years back on June 2, a small beginning was made when the first session of Indian Science Congress was held. Inaugurated by Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, vice chancellor of Calcutta University and a judge of Calcutta High Court, himself was a student of mathematics and...
Dynasty Losing Its Appeal
By Amulya Ganguli The value of the Nehru-Gandhi family for the Congress is well known. Not only does it make the party stand out from the others because of the family’s inestimable contributions to the nation in the pre-independence period and in establishing secular democracy after 1947, it is...
Benefiting From Mass Murder
By Praful Bidwai The Mumbai session of the national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party will go down as a Hindutva watershed for anointing Narendra Milosevic Modi as its supremely important, indispensable leader and its likeliest Prime Ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections. Mumbai thus takes forward...
China, AfPak To Figure In India-US Defence And Strategic Cooperation Talks
NEW DELHI:China’s growing assertiveness, especially in the contentious South China Sea, and the volatile AfPak region will figure high in the bilateral defence and strategic cooperation talks betweenIndiaand theUSon Tuesday and Wednesday. Indiawill also convey toUSsecretary of defence Leon Panetta, on his first visit toIndiaafter taking over from Robert...
Future Group sells Future Capital Holdings to Warburg Pincus for Rs 800 crore
MUMBAI: US private equity giant Warburg Pincus has agreed to buy a controlling stake in financial services firm Future Capital Holdings for about Rs 800 crore. The move is part of its strategy to tap opportunities in India’s capital-starved micro, small and medium enterprises sector. Warburg will pay 162...
PM Initiates Steps To Boost Sagging Economy
NEW DELHI: aced with difficult times, the government today took a few more steps to soothe investors and “stay course”, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepping in to form a ministers’ panel to thrash out problems in the coal sector and convening a meeting on Wednesday to review the...
India Eyeing Afghanistan Oil & Gas Blocks Sans Bids
NEW DELHI:Indiais hoping to secure oil and gas exploration blocks inAfghanistanon the basis of its goodwill with the country, while it may also participate in the upcoming auction of six blocks to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif, officials said. An Indian delegation, including officials from state-run explorer Oil & Natural...
Easier FDI Norms Soon For Single-Brand Retail Business
NEW DELHI: The government is drawing up plans to ease the foreign direct investment norms for single-brand retail, including the condition that global firms will have to source 30% of their requirements from local small firms and artisans. This is seen as a clear sign that the Centre is...
CIL Tells Arms To Ink Fuel Pacts With New Plants
NEW DELHI: State-owned CoalIndiahas directed its subsidiaries to enter into fuel supply pacts with power units that are coming up between January 2012 and March 2015, bringing a respite to fuel-starved power companies. The development comes in the wake of the coal ministry, last month, directing the public sector...
Incumbents Must Pay New 2G Price: DoT
NEW DELHI:India’s beleaguered mobile phone companies are set for a Rs. 1,20,000-crore shocker. A Cabinet note prepared by the telecom department proposes to make it compulsory for all operators to match the auction-determined price for their existing 2G airwaves for the remaining period of their licences. Industry calculations show...
Gokarn Sees Room For Rate Cut
MUMBAI: Dismal growth numbers may force the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rates and soften its monetary policy stance. While a diesel price hike by the government will make the central bank’s job simpler, RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn on Monday hinted that there was some...
PMO, FinMin Differ Over Brownfield Pharma FDI
NEW DELHI: The row over the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for the pharmaceutical sector refuses to die down. Ministries have again locked horns over who will regulate brownfield foreign investment in the sector, forcing the Prime Minister’s Office to advise a group of ministers (GoM) looking at the...
New Power Buy Norms May Cut Tariff
MUMBAI: The power ministry’s guidelines for short-term procurement of electricity for less than or equal to one year is likely to bring cheer to cash-strapped distribution companies. The new rules are expected to reduce power cost. The ministry had noted that the guidelines are aimed at promoting competitive procurement...
