Daily News Monitor - 23 April 2015
1. Narendra Modi to expand loans across Asia
Source: Live Mint (Link)
India plans to set up a special purpose facility to fund roads, bridges and power plants across southern Asia and even Africa, said Yaduvendra Mathur, chairman of the Export-Import Bank of India. While he declined to reveal the size, government officials familiar with the discussions say it’ll be less than a quarter the size of China’s $40 billion Silk Road fund.
Modi is seeking to improve ties with neighboring countries that have increasingly taken Chinese loans for roads, ports and power plants.
2. Large companies worse off as tractor sales continue to decline
Source: Live Mint (Link)
Clouds of gloom loom over the domestic tractor industry, as 2014-15 closed with a double-digit sales decline. A huge 30% year-on-year sales decline in March marked the sixth consecutive month of pathetic sales. Noticeably, large companies like Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), TAFE Ltd and Escorts Ltd posted higher declines than the smaller ones like Sonalika, which clocked growth on low volumes.
It was the steep 25% sales drop in the central region of the country that spoilt the party, while the decline was not so steep in other regions. This does not bode well for manufacturers’ fortunes as weak demand led to higher discounts and sales incentives, which hurt profit margins. Analysts expect the decline in sales to continue even in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
3. India expresses concerns over mega regional trade pacts
Source: Live Mint (Link)
India is concerned about the outcome of the negotiations of the regional trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that it is not part of and urged members of such groupings not to set standards beyond the realm of trade.
Sujata Mehta, Secretary (economic relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs said that the mega-regional trade agreements are expected to allow foreign investors to have their grievances against governments arbitrated by dispute-specific panels under the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism clause. The agreement will certainly go beyond World Trade Organization (WTO) standards and protection measures for intellectual property, environmental and labour.
India is currently undertaking a consultation process to bring out a model bilateral investment partnership agreement under which it proposes to force the foreign investors to first exhaust all administrative and judicial procedures within the country before dragging the government to arbitration in case of a dispute.
4. Cabinet approves bill setting up courts for commercial disputes
Source: Live Mint (Link)
The Union cabinet approved the introduction of a new law to set up courts that will deal exclusively with commercial disputes, ensuring their speedy disposal and making it easier to do business in India. The Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill, 2015, will be introduced in the current session of Parliament.
The bill proposes to set up commercial divisions in high courts such as those in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Himachal Pradesh, which already have civil jurisdiction. These courts will handle cases with claims above Rs.1 crore and all existing cases in various courts will be transferred to these courts. The courts, which will be equivalent to district courts, will exercise jurisdiction over all cases and applications relating to commercial disputes.
The commercial courts shall, however, not have jurisdiction in matters relating to commercial disputes where the jurisdiction of the civil court has been either expressly or implicitly barred under law.
5. India might become vice-president of China floated AIIB
Source: Business Standard (Link)
India is likely to get the vice-president's post in the China-backed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in which India and 56 countries have been admitted as founding members. Chances of India getting the post are high as the vote share is expected to be based 50% on gross domestic product and 50% on purchasing power parity with primacy for the Asian countries, as the bank aims to fund infrastructure projects mainly in the region.
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By Harsha Hazarika
