สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 23 สิงหาคม 2556
Sharma seeks US investment in infrastructure debt fund
To increase the dwindling foreign capital inflows, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma held a meeting with his US counterpart Michael Froman, urging American investments in the newly launched infrastructure debt fund (IDF).
Both sides also discussed the recent issues related to trade and investment-related matters, laying the groundwork for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with US President Barack Obama next month.
Sharma, who met the US Trade Representative (USTR) on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Brunei on Wednesday evening, pitched for investments by US pension funds and insurance firms in IDF. It is widely expected that Singh will apprise Obama of the recent measures taken by the government to encourage investments, when they meet on September 27. Bilateral trade ties between the countries suffered a substantial setback recently, with both countries dragging each other to the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organization.
(Source: Business Standard)
Trai for higher FDI in radio and TV broadcasting
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday said it was in favour of increasing the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in news television and private FM radio broadcasting to 49% from 26%.
Trai has proposed raising FDI in distribution and carriage services such as direct-to-home television, cable networks and mobile TV to 100% from 74% through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board route.
Trai's recommendation comes a day after the ministry asked the regulator to expedite filing its comments on recommendations made by a finance ministry panel, headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Aravind Mayaram, on FDI caps across sectors. The panel, set up by the finance ministry, had mooted FDI through the automatic route, Trai said that it is in favour of the investment being routed through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
Currently, only 26% FDI is allowed in uplinking of news and current affairs channels and FM radio services.
(Source: the Financial Express, Business Standard, the Economic Times)
India overtake Japan to claim the 3rd largest online population
With 73.9 million net users India is the world's third largest internet population, overtaking Japan but behind China and the US, according to research firm comScore.
Rising number of mobile audience, devices and consumption habits reveal consumers are becoming more platform agnostic in their digital media consumption and switch devices to stay up to date on email, news, social media, said comScore's India Digital Future in Focus 2013.
"Riding on a 31% year-on-year increase, India's online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. India is the world's third largest internet population," the report said. The country overtook Japan by adding 17.6 million users in 2012, the ComScore report said.
Of the total 644 million home and work internet users in Asia-Pacific as of March 2013, China accounted for a lion's share of 54% followed by India (11.5 per cent) and Japan (11.4 per cent).
(Source: Business Standard)
Planning Commission, NHAI lock horns over 6,000-cr highway projects
Planning Commission and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have locked horns over country's biggest highway project worth Rs. 6,000 crore awarded to GMR in 2011.
While Planning Commission is of the view that NHAI should go for re-bidding of the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project in the wake of GMR walking out of it, NHAI is insisting on rescheduling the premium involved in the project. The issue of premium restructuring came up after GMR had approached the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) asking for back-ending of their annual premium of Rs. 636 crore to salvage the Kishangarh-Ahmedabad project.
In January this year, GMR Infra backed out of the six-laning of project citing NHAI's failure to get an environmental clearance for the project and to notify the revised toll rate on this stretch being widened from four to six lanes.
(Source: the Financial Express)
FM and RBI seek structural steps as Rupee slips past 65
Chagrined by the rupee touching a new life-low of 65.52/dollar in intra-day trades, the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) huddled together on Thursday, declared the currency was "undervalued". Finance minister P Chidambaram sought to soothe the currency market promising "structural measures" to enhance the economy's productive capacity and boost investor confidence.
Asserting that recent curbs on dollar outflows should not be misconstrued as capital controls and pledging to revoke them as soon as the rupee's stability is restored, Chidambaram called the current market panic "unwarranted", resulting partly from a "distorted" reading of recent RBI measures.
On a day when the RBI said inflation could accelerate in the current financial year due to the rupee's sharp depreciation and rating agency Fitch said the current slump in investor confidence, unless halted, could lead to negative rating action, the finance minister said GDP growth would likely pick up in the second to fourth quarters although might be subdued in the first quarter.
(Source: the Financial Express, Business Standard)
Economic Section
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