สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 7 พฤศจิกายน 2556

Govt to invite bids for stake sale in gold mines

The government has decided to float global tenders to revive closed or unviable gold mines in India. For selling the assets of Bharat Gold Mines Ltd, a tender for investment bankers has been floated. A few Indian mining giants, as well as global ones, are said to be preparing to grab the opportunity. Sources said Vedanta group, London-listed Kolar Gold and an Australian mining company were the leading entities interested in gold mining in India. India’s gold reserves are estimated at 14,000 tonnes. The government’s move follows a Supreme Court judgment asking the Centre to finalise global tenders to sell the assets of gold mines that were shut. Sources said at a later stage the government might consider selling unviable copper mines said to have gold reserves to private companies, through a global tendering process.

(Source: Business Standard)

India’s exports gained from free trade agreements: Anand Sharma

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma clarified that India's exports gained from the regional and bilateral free trade pacts, responding to the concerns raised about the adverse impact of FTAs on India's trade balance and on the manufacturing sector at the Trade & Economic Relations Committee (TERC) meeting held on Monday. The TERC, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed at length about India's trade engagements, specifically India-EU BTIA, SAFTA, RCEP and Africa. Sharma said India has a huge trade surplus of about $12 billion with SAFTA.  "With ASEAN, exports have more than doubled after signing of the Indo-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement in 2009, though imports have also grown as is natural in any trade agreement," he was quoted as saying in the commerce department release. India enjoys a trade surplus with ASEAN. Finance minister P Chidambaram is reported to have raised concern over India's rising imports with the FTA partners. He warned against hasty signing of FTAs. High transaction costs and cumbersome procedure on the border at times hamper the ease of doing business in India which need to be addressed to retain India's competitiveness, Sharma pointed out at the meeting.

(Source: Economic Times)

High growth possible if complex policy issues resolved: Asian Development Bank

Multilateral agency ADB said India will have to resolve complex policy and regulatory issues like land acquisition and environmental clearances in order to return to higher growth trajectory. Resolution of these issues, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said, would invigorate the private sector that has been vital to economic growth, employment generation, and capital formation. ADB further said that to sustain high and inclusive growth, India needs to expand and consolidate structural reforms, remove its infrastructure deficit, and improve the quality and coverage of basic social services. ADB said it would provide $10 billion over the five years till 2017 to India to create jobs, enhance investment reforms, and improve infrastructure.

(Source: Economic Times)

Foreign bank subsidiaries get M&A, branch freedom

India has just one branch of a foreign bank for every three million people. That could change dramatically, with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan delivering on his promise of unveiling a set of far-reaching regulations to let foreign bankscompete on a nearly equal footing with domestic banks, provided they set up wholly-owned subsidiaries (WOSes) in India. In its guidelines released late on Wednesday, the RBI said WOSes of foreign banks could acquire domestic private-sector banks, as well as set up branches anywhere in the country. These WOSes might be permitted to enter into merger & acquisition (M&A) transactions with any private bank in India, subject to the overall foreign investment limit of 74 per cent, the central bank said. While the current law permits foreign investors to hold up to 74 per cent stake in an Indian private bank, it does not allow a single entity to own more than five per cent share in a local lender. In the past, RBI did not allow any foreign bank to take over local lenders. In fact, the regulator had forced HSBC, which had picked up a 14.71 per cent stake in UTI Bank (now Axis Bank) to reduce its stake. Industry analysts believe the move will encourage the foreign lenders aspiring to grow inorganically to opt for subsidiarisation.

(Source: Business Standard)

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