Govt set to raise $3.2 billion by selling stake in steel companies

In yet another news of selling stake in sick cos the indian government is all set to sell stake in steel companies which might help in raising money, in future we can see more disinvestment news from the government of india, The details are as follows :

The government may raise 150 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) by selling up to 20 percent stake in state-run firms, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said on Friday.

The minister said the government was in the process of choosing companies for divestment.

Inflation at -1.58 percent but prices still rise

As per latest official data, annual inflation based on Wholesale Price Index stood at - 1.58% for the week ended July 25, 2009, while it was at 12.53% a year ago. The latest inflation number shows a steeper fall in annual inflation recorded at the end of the previous week at -1.54%.

Government data showed on Thursday that price level for all commodities stayed below zero for the eighth straight week, but prices of

food items continued to surge, signaling political trouble for the Centre and three states preparing for local elections in a few months. Maharashtra is facing assembly polls in October-November, while Haryana that is supposed to go to the polls next year is likely to advance it to this year-end. Jharkhand, now under the President’s rule, is also likely to go to polls later this year.

Finance Minister speaks about Fiscal Consolidation

It's official that government will not induce money into unproductive sectors in a bid to consolidate the fiscal deficit which will touch 6.8% of Gross Domestic Product(GDP) for this financial year finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

India's fiscal deficit is projected to swell to a record 6.8 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year 2009/10 (April-March) that has to be funded by a record high borrowing of 4.51 trillion rupees ($95 billion). that's a whopping amount of borrowing.

A report from finance ministery said that - "Government will continue to take necessary measures to moderate inflation, prune unproductive expenditure and closely monitor FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) targets," so lets see whether these statements turn to reality or it's just an answer to opposition questions in parliament.

Hurray ! We got richer by Rs 4207 per annum per person

Finally IT'S OFFICIAL !! Indian have grown richer by rupees 4207 per annum per person . Thanks to growing economy from the last 3 years or so and still growing although slowed down due to ongoing economic crises through out the world.

Let me tell you about the news of increase in per capita income in some more detail,

An average indian or a normal indian's annual income has increased by INR 4207 per annum, the news were told in parliament today that means the annual per capita income of indian has reached a figure of Rs 37490, that sounds nice but in reality much of the growth in annual income is restricted to bigger cities where as cities of bihar , UP are still underdeveloped and average income is much lower then this figure of rupees 37490 annually.

According to data released by the Central Statistical Organisation, the per capita income of people has increased by over one-third from Rs 26,003 in 2005-06 to Rs 37,490 in 2008-09. The per capita income was Rs 33,283 in 2007-08 so there is a growth in indian economy however the pace of growth has slowed down when compared to previous financial year.

Top 10 most admired companies of world

Here is the list of top 10 companies of the world which are most admired across the globe No indian company features in the prestigeous list-

RANK 1 - APPLE Inc (of USA)

RANK 2 - BERKSHIRE HATHWAY - incorporated by legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffett

RANK 3 - TOYOTA MOTOR

RANK 4 - GOOGLE Inc (Search engine Marketing)

RANK 5 - JOHNSON & JOHNSON ltd

RANK 6 - PROCTER and GAMBLE

RANK 7 - FED EX

RANK 8 - SOUTH WEST AIRLINES

RANK 9 - GENERAL ELECTRIC Ltd

RANK 10 - MICROSOFT Inc

OOPS!! looking for some indian companies.... no one is there...may be in future some indian company would make into it..

Govt invests to bring dead PSU's to life again WILL IT HELP?

Looks like our government is very keen to revive the already dead PSU's like Hindustan Machine Tool, National Instruments Ltd, Cement Corporation of India ltd to name 3 out of the 15 PSU's shortlisted for revival by infusing a whopping 7128 crores of rupees put together. The first impression which cam to my mind after reading this news was that WILL IT REALLY HELP? and the answer i got from my brain was that probably ministers would earn a lot from the granted money and would purchase land and fill their bank accounts...

The PSU's which are already dead was because there was no good leaders to make it a profitable investment the employees of these PSU's were doing their job thinking that it's a government job so they need not work...(typical attitude of a government employee in india).. Companies doesn't work like this at all.. PSU's can only come in profit if it's employees think and work like it is their own company not by thinking that it's a government enterprise so it's a social company rather then a business enterprise.

PSU's like Air India is already begging for funds and what more the third biggest employer BSNL recently showed results and there was a whopping 97 % decline in profits from 2700 crores to meager 102 crore so in next six month BSNL (PSU) will also be running in loss (THAT IS REAL SHAME FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND THE EMPLOYEES OF BSNL) .

There is a similarity in working of the PSU's at time when there was no other such enterprise , i am just going back to pre economic liberalisation era of Economy of India all the PSU's were in profit , the reason for profit however was that people of India did not have any other choice take example of BSNL earlier there was no AIRTEL, Essar, Spice telecom, IDEA cellular etc and BSNL was enjoying it's monopoly in telecom sector employees didn't work at that time too... but customers had no other option so the number of subscribers went on increasing... things changed when Indian Economy was liberalized there were more choices for the people and alltogether competition between PSU's and Private companies increased , but PSU employees didn't change change their way of working and are still sleeping This was the time when Private companies ate up PSU's share and overtook almost all the PSU's in terms of revenue and profitability.

So according to me accompanied with the history of working of PSU's this funding to revive the PSU's will not be beneficial and the scenario and outlook for PSu's would not change at all. THEY ARE ON A STEADY DECLINE and would eventually vanish one day... that's the HARD TRUTH...which we all have to admit until the employees of these PSU's do not change their attitude towards working.

- Himanshu Sharma

Foreign Direct Investment (FD|) drops whopping 47 percent

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India dipped by about 47 per cent to $2.1 billion in May due to the global recession and the trend is likely to continue for some more months, so it means recession is still at it's best and it looks US stock markets are also behaving in the similar fashion ie still the beast is out there roaming freely across the globe. OR IS IT NOT?

In present situation Indian economy is looking promising as government plans some one crore job oppurtunities in ongoing fiscal THATS GREAT NEWS i'hve heard after a long time from our government but still i wonder how these oppurtunities would be created...

During the same month last year, FDI was $3.9 billion so that's a difference of a good US$ 1.8 billion. However it can be recalled that FDI in 2008-09 was $27.3 billion against $24.5 billion in 2007-08.

India's Forex reserves drop by about $560 million Wk o wk

India's foreign exchange reserves fell to $263.917 billion as on July 10, from $264.477 billion a week earlier. The main reason for decline was mainly because of Changes in foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in its reserves such as the euro, pound sterling and yen

16 FDI proposels given green signal by Government

Government of India cleared total of 16 Foreign Direct Investment Proposals(FDI) totalling to INR 825 crores including on hydro power project in state of sikkim.

The Government, however, revoked all foreign collaboration approvals for ByCell Telecom on concerns over the Switzerland registered company's funding sources.

Among cleared proposals, Teesta Urja will bring in Rs 547.20 crore for developing 1,200-MW hydro power project in Sikkim.

The Government also allowed IL&FS Trust Company to hold two per cent stake in Multi Commodity Exchange of India, that will bring in Rs 108 crore of FDI.

Govt would require to borrow 120 billion rupees per week

The Government official said today that the borrowing in the closing weeks of September could be 110 billion rupees or less.

Earlier, a central bank deputy governor said the government would borrow an additional 1.1 trillion rupees ($22.6 billion), taking the total to 2.99 trillion between April and September, a central bank deputy said on Thursday.

The additional borrowing excludes 120 billion rupees of bond sale scheduled for Friday.

Wholesale price index Weekly Inflation at (-1.21 %) - July 4/09

Weekly whole price index rose from -1.55% to -1.21 % for week ended july 4 as government increased the price of fuel in corresponding week which led to increase in whole sale price index or inflation.

Following the government decision to raise fuel prices effective July 1, prices of naphtha rose 15 per cent, furnace oil 11 per cent, petrol 10 per cent, high-speed diesel 7 per cent and light diesel oil by 4 per cent.

However consumer price index is still alarming high

Finance Minister assures about Economic Reforms pace

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee replied to opposition questions "...there is no question of diluting the process of economic reforms. Reform is a continuing process, whichever government comes they continue to do so," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Rajya Sabha in reply to debate on the Budget 2009-10.

He said disinvestment is not the only indicator of economic reforms. It is part of the government programmes.

If he has not given the list of public sector companies to be disinvested, some believe heavens have fallen. "I do not subscribe to this view", the minister said.

Top 10 economies of world in trade - friendliness

Indian economy is growing by over 6 percent from last 3-4 years so has our economy become more trade friendly, well if I compare it with era before 1990`s then the answer to this question is `yes`, After the liberalisation of Indian economy in the 90`s thanks to the present Prime Minister for bringing the reforms. Still I think a lot of work needs to be done as our Indian economy is still not the most trade friendly economy of the world, as i saw the list of top 10 economies in their trade friendliness and Indian Economy doesn`t feature in the list.

Following is the list of top 10 economies (country) of the world :

Rank 1 - SINGAPORE

Rank 2 - HONG KONG

Rank 3 - SWITZERLAND

Rank 4 - DENMARK

Rank 5 - SWEDEN

Rank 6 - CANADA

Rank 7 - NORWAY

Rank 8 - FINLAND

Rank 9 - AUSTRIA

Rank 10 - NETHERLANDS

3837 crores lies unclaimed in EPFO and is unusable

Government of India's Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) which has
accumulated to the tune of Rs 3,837 crore, even as EPFO is making efforts to trace those who have not taken their dues.

"As the money, lying in the inoperative accounts belongs to the members or their heirs, and is payable at any time when claims are received. It cannot be utilised for any other purpose," Minister of State for Employment Harish Rawat said in the Lok Sabha. He said that as of March 31, 2008, money to the tune of Rs 3,837 was lying unclaimed in the inoperative accounts of Employees Provident Fund.

In a written reply in the House he said instructions have been issued to all field officers of EPFO to scrutinise the claims of the inoperative account holders and release the amounts only to the rightful claimants.

EPFO on its part is also making efforts to trace out the beneficiaries through advertisements in newspapers and inviting those who have not preferred their claims for more than three years after leaving their job.

Indian Government not to monetise debt

The Government on Tuesday categorically said that it has "no intention" to monetise its debt, which implies that it will not directly borrow from the Reserve Bank of India.

"Government has no intentions of monetising its debt," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Lok Sabha in his reply to the debate on Union Budget (read budget highlights).

He said during the first half of 2009-10, the Government plans to borrow Rs 2.41 lakh crore from the market and RBI is supporting it through its Open Market Operations (OMO), through which the central bank releases or sucks money from the market against government securities.

"OMO should not be confused with monetisation of debt," Mukherjee said. Monetisation of the Government debt would be when RBI directly subscribes to the Government paper.
(read budget highlights).
As fiscal deficit is projected to be at 6.8 per cent of GDP this fiscal and the Government has pegged its market borrowings at around Rs 4 lakh crore for 2009-10.

Mukherjee also dispelled fears that higher government borrowings would leave little resources for the private sector and would increase cost of borrowings, as also apprehensions that the private sector will be elbowed out due to this.