Indian Forex reserves at $ 287 billion

India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $287.356 billion as on August 6, from $284.183 billion in the previous week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Foreign exchange reserves include India's Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the RBI said.

14000 crores as subsidy to Oil Cos

The government will give Rs 14,000 crore in cash to Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to make up for the losses incurred on selling fuel below cost in the first quarter of 2010-11 fiscal.

The Finance Ministry today sought parliamentary approval for additional spending of Rs 68,294.30 crore that included Rs 14,000 crore "for providing compensation to oil marketing companies towards estimated under-recoveries on account of sale of petroleum products."

Retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL lost about Rs 20,275 crore on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost in the first quarter of this fiscal. Of these, losses of upstream firms like Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), made up for one-third or Rs 6,690.68 crore.

Key rates decision after analysing Inflation problem root - RBI

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary stance will depend on whether it perceives inflation as stemming from excessive liquidity or due to supply constraints, the country's top civil servant said.

On Tuesday, Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar allayed concerns of persistently high prices, reiterating the government's forecast of headline inflation easing to 5-6 percent by the end of the year.

India's annual headline inflation stayed above 10 percent for the fifth straight month in June, cementing expectations the RBI will raise interest rates for a second time this month to contain price pressures.

A majority of economists expect the RBI to raise key interest rates by 25 basis points in its quarterly review on July 27 and tighten policy further in coming quarters, a new Reuters poll showed.

"A call will have to be taken by the Reserve Bank (RBI) on whether inflation is on account of high money supply or is it on account of certain sectoral reasons, some supply constraints," Chandrasekhar told a news conference.

Some analysts have pegged capacity constraints in the rapidly expanding economy as the main reason for a surge in non-food inflation, pointing out a slowdown in May industrial output, despite robust domestic consumer demand.

Further, expansion in the M3 money supply, the broadest measure of liquidity in the system, has just picked up after slowing down since the year began and lags credit expansion.

Exports to EU countries increases

According to latest report exports to EU union have increase YoY. So does it mean that EU is coming out of bad times...The answer might not be so easy currently, have to wait for another quarter for sure to analyse.

Details:

Exports from India to the 27-member EU increased by 18 percent to 10.7 billion euros in January-April 2010, compared to 9.1 billion euros in the corresponding period last year. and also Exports from the European Union (EU) to India shot up by 28 percent to 10.6 billion euros (about $13 billion) between January and April 2010, compared to 8.3 billion euros in the corresponding period last year,

Good Move - Rs 8000 crores for mid day meal scheme

This year the Centre has alloted rs 8000 crore for the mid day meal scheme , hence there would be more enrolment for schools for sure thus increasing the number of literates in country.

Flashing back to midday scheme: Mid-day meal scheme was first evolved by former Tamil Nadu chief minister K Kamaraj and now it has been taken as a role model for the entire country.