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After contracting in the previous month, manufacturing registered a four-month high growth in January following inflows of new business from both domestic and export sources, showed a widely tracked Nikkei purchasing managers'index (PMI) survey. However, investment goods output and new orders fell which may have impact on future growth of manufacturing. However, inflationary pressures remained on upside because of which a commentator associated with PMI does not expect the Reserve Bank of India to cut the policy rate on Tuesday.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

All public sector and private banks have been asked by the Reserve Bank of India to conduct a “thorough internal audit” and put the report before their respective audit committees, as part of the central bank’s efforts to check fraudulent foreign exchange transactions. The move comes in the wake of irregularities that came to light last year in Rs 6,100-crore import remittances effected by Bank of Baroda’s Ashok Vihar branch in New Delhi. A circular has been issued to all scheduled commercial banks, advising them to conduct a thorough internal audit and place the report before audit committee of the board of the respective banks and to forward the summary of findings to RBI, the central bank said in reply to an RTI query filed by PTI. The RBI was asked to provide details of action being taken by it to check fraudulent forex transactions by banks. “We are in the process of receiving the internal audit report from various banks,”it said.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business S

The Bank of Japan today introduced negative interest rater egime at its first policy review for the year. The Japanese central bank decided to keep an interest rate of -0.1% from its current level of 0.1%. The rate will apply to current accounts that financial institutions hold at the bank. The policy was decided by a 5-4 majority vote. A negative interest rate means the central bank and perhaps private banks will charge negative interest; instead of receiving money on deposits, depositors must pay regularly to keep their money with the bank. This is intended to incentivise banks to lend money more freely and businesses and individuals to invest, lend, and spend money rather than pay a fee to keep it safe.  Read Articles

India’s fiscal deficit was Rs 4,88,000 crore ($71.90 billion) during April-December, or 87.9% of the full-year target, data from the government has revealed. The deficit was 100.2% of the full-year target during the same period a year ago. This means that the governnment will have to keep the excess of its expenditure over income  at  12.1% of budget estimates in the remaining three months of the fiscal.  Read Articles

Only 16 of 29 states and seven union territories had digitised the leaky ration-card system of the world’s largest programme to distribute subsidised food, the targeted public distribution system (TDPS), by the end of April 2015, according to the latest-available government data. Nearly half of 55.45 million metric tonne foodgrain despatched for sale to more than 99 million families never reaches them, according to this 2015 paper (using 2011 data) by Ashok Gulati and Shweta Saini of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.  Read Articles

The real estate sector is likely to see improvement in sales and equity deals in 2016 as the economy shows signs of revival on the back of various policy decisions taken by the government, a report said. Budget 2016  - According to a survey jointly conducted by JLL and RICS, nearly 66.7 per cent of respondents foresee improvement in sales over the next 12 months. “Pure equity investments have seen a return and been on the increase and the momentum is expected to continue over the 12 months. This aligns with the recalibration of the investment community’s role as a long term partner with key and select developers,” it added. Union Budget 2016-17  - A majority of respondents, however, feel that equity investments will be restricted to Grade A names and will not be available for developers with limited institutional financing track record over the next 12 months.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

Budget 2016  - India will be the world’s fastest growing large economy at 7.3 per cent in 2016, improving further to 7.5 per cent in the following year, a United Nations world economy report said on Friday. “India’s economy, which accounts for over 70 per cent of South Asia’s GDP, is projected to grow by 7.3 per cent in 2016 and 7.5 per cent in 2017, slightly up from an estimated 7.2 per cent in 2015.” Union Budget 2016-17  - India will be the fastest-growing large economy in the world, said World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016, which was released by the UN here. The report said South Asia is expected to be the world’s fastest-growing region in 2016 and 2017.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

The government on Thursday announced a list of 20 places that will be developed as smart cities.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News

Business leaders of over 80 Chinese companies and enterprises today participated in a road show organised in the southwestern Sichuan province, highlighting the opportunity for entrepreneurs to invest in India under the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.  Speaking on the occasion, Consul General of India in Guangzhou, Sailas Thangal said that 'Make in India’ campaign offers great opportunities for Chinese business and entrepreneurs to invest in India and take advantage of India’s large potentials for growth.  He invited all Chinese business leaders present at the road show at Chengdu to attend the 'Make in India’ week to be held in Mumbai from February 13-18.  Read Articles

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to leave its key interest rate steady at 6.75% next week and only make one cut this year as rising inflation ties its hands, according to a Reuters poll. That marks a turn from rapidly cooling domestic consumer price inflation, which allowed the RBI to lower the repo rate four times in 2015. Its last 50-basis-point cut in September took markets by surprise, but the RBI isn’t likely to act as aggressively in 2016, as a renewed uptick in food-costs driven inflation puts the central bank’s medium-term price target at risk. This week’s poll of nearly 40 economists showed only one 25 basis-point rate cut this calendar year, between April and June, unchanged from earlier expectations.  Read Articles  

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and said it was “closely monitoring” global economic and financial developments, but maintained an otherwise upbeat view of the US economy. The central bank’s decision was widely expected after a month-long plunge in US and world equities raised concerns that an abrupt global slowdown could act as a drag on US economic growth. ALSO READ:  Wall Street turns red after Fed statement “The committee is closely monitoring global economic and financial developments and is assessing their implications for the labor market and inflation,” the Fed’s policy-setting committee said in a statement that diminished the chances of a rate hike at its next meeting in March. Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today took strong exception to people’s complaints and grievances related to the customs and excise sector and directed strict action against the officials responsible. He also asked all Secretaries, whose departments have extensive public dealing, to set up a system for top-level monitoring of grievances immediately, a PMO statement said. His directions came while chairing the 9th meeting of PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation), an IT-based multi-modal platform under which he interacts with top officials of various central departments and state governments via video conferencing.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

India has been ranked at 76th position in public sectorcorruption out of 168 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2015, improving its slot from 85 in 2014 and 94 in 2013. Although corruption is still rife globally, many countries improved their scores in the 2015 edition of the corruption index, a Trasparency International statement said on Wednesday. Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015 index scored below 50 points on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). Despite an improvement in the overall ranking, India’s corruption perception score remains the same as last year at 38/100, which is seen as insufficient improvement. Brazil, Burkina Faso, Thailand, Tunisia and Zambia are the other countries that shares the same ranking as India. China fared worse than India and Brazil at rank 83 with a score of 37. Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent on Tuesday to the Union Cabinet’s recommendation to impose President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh. The recommendation, made by the Cabinet after its January 24 meeting, was given the President’s assent through a Proclamation under article 356(1) of the Constitution.   Read Articles

The Union Cabinet was today “apprised” of an agreement signed between  India and Russia  for joint implementation of competitive research projects in areas of basic and exploratory sciences. The agreement, signed in May last year, is valid for a period of six years and could be extended through mutual consent between Department of Science and Technology(DST) and Russian Science Federation (RSF). It provides for competitive research grants to Indians and Russians for joint implementation of projects. 

Indian naval ship (INS) Vikrant, the first aircraft carrier, which played a pivotal role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, has made its way into a commuter bike to be launched by Bajaj Auto next month. The Pune-based, India’s most valued two- and three-wheeler maker, will launch a 150-cc motorcycle on February 1 christened ‘V’ which is built from metal used in the country’s most celebrated aircraft carrier. This will be the eight product by Bajaj Auto this financial year and the first in 2016. ‘V’ is a new brand by the company complementing five of its predecessors in production. This new bike, which has a slight retro look as seen in the sneak preview aired today by Bajaj, is expected to be positioned between the Pulsar and Discover. However, further details including its price would be known at the time of its launch.  Read Articles  

The World Bank has slashed its forecast for crude oil prices by $14 to $37 per barrel for 2016, it said, amid growing supply and weak demand prospects from emerging markets. In its annual Commodity Markets Outlook, the World Bank lowered its price forecast for 37 of 46 commodities, including oil, saying that weak demand from emerging economies is likely to continue. World Bank economists said weak demand would continue even as oil supply grows with the resumption of Iranian exports, continued US production and a mild Northern Hemisphere winter.  Read Articles  

India signed an inter-governmental agreement on Monday to buy 36 French-built Rafale fighter planes, but the leaders of both countries said there was still work to do to finalise financial terms after months of talks. The deal, worth an estimated $9 billion, was to have been the centrepiece of a visit to India by French President Francois Hollande, invited as guest of honour for Tuesday’s Republic Day parade.   Read Articles  

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said ‘jan sabhas’ will be held across the city to seek public opinion on the odd-even scheme, which will be rolled out as and when “people decide”. Kejriwal said, starting today, every Aam Aadmi Party MLA will organise meetings at the constituency level to decide the future course of the road rationing measure, that was enforced from January 1 to 15 in its pilot phase. “We have decided to organise meetings in every constituency to seek suggestion on when odd-even should be brought again and for how long. I have asked the MLAs to make arrangements in this regard.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande, who began bilateral talks in Delhi today, are expected to discuss deals on more nuclear reactors, smart cities, space cooperation, business and energy. The French President, who came to India on Sunday, has already signed 16 agreements with India. Hollande will be the guest of honour at India’s Republic Day parade on Tuesday, a sign of the deepening political and commercial ties between the two countries. All eyes are on the Rs 60,000-cr Rafale Jet deal, but according to sources, it is unlikely to be signed today. The price of combat planes, key to India’s plans to modernise its military and keep up with neighbours Pakistan and China, will also surface during the discussions, officials have confirmed. Read Articles  

French President Francois Hollande today made common cause with India on the issue of fighting terrorism, underlining that the purpose of his visit was to “reinforce and strengthen” the cooperation between the two countries to tackle the menace. Hollande, who is on a three-day visit to India, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for playing an “important” role in Paris COP21 and said that the two countries are going to “follow up” on all decisions on the climate change front as well as areas of economic cooperation. The French President, who will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations here tomorrow, made the remarks at Rashtrapati Bhawan where he was accorded a ceremonial welcome in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee and Modi.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said India has given fresh leads relating to the Pathankot terror attack and Pakistan is verifying the facts to bring the perpetrators to justice. “I have received fresh leads from India on the Pathankot attack and we will look and examine those evidences given by India. We could have hidden it or forgotten it but we asserted that we have received the evidences,” Sharif said on a day when US President Barack Obama termed the Pathankot terror strike as “another example of the inexcusable terrorism that India has endured for too long”. “Pakistan has an opportunity to show that it is serious about delegitimising, disrupting and dismantling terror networks,” Obama said in an interview.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News  

In a dingy factory in the sprawling industrial hub of Manesar in northern India, a plastic moulding machine malfunctioned, mangling Visheshwar Prasad Singh’s right hand as he made parts for a supplier to the country’s major automakers. Singh was one of thousands of poor labourers, many temporary, who toil for 12 hours a day making auto parts for as little as $3-a-day to feed India’s cheap car boom. “I had no training to use the machine and was asked to operate it one day,” said the 51-year-old, who made parts for Ranee Polymers, supplying to Honda Motor and Yamaha Motor.  Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News

Rohith Vemula’s suicide has sent our politics into convulsion and has once again brought to fore the deep social fault-lines that criss-cross our society. Often masked, these divisions have always existed deep under. Through constitutionally mandated means – aided by political participation – the Indian Republic has sought to paper over the rumbling of these tectonic plates. Whether it has succeeded or failed depends on how you look at it.  The government’s response has been to brush aside the casteist underpinnings of this issue. HRD minister, Smriti Irani, was at pains to deflect attention by suggesting that it was not a Dalits versus non-Dalits issue. A report in the Indian Express today highlights, how her deputies in the ministry – one of whom is a Dalit– have gone silent on the matter. This has only highlighted how important conversations around Dalit issues are ignored in attempts to tide over a crisis.  Read Articles

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may look to press the reset button on his leadership this spring to reinvigorate stalled economic reforms and appease critics, eyeing a mix of tried and tested allies and fresh blood, senior government sources said. The government has overseen rapid economic growth, but failed on tax and land reforms, and the euphoria that met Modi’s 2014 election triumph has given way to investor disillusionment; stocks have erased all of their gains since he won power. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces a crucial election test in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017 that it probably needs to win if it wants to hold on topower nationally in 2019. Read Articles  

The first mantra of the oil crisis was ‘lower for longer’. Then “lower for even longer”. Now in Davos, oil executives are starting to talk - or rather, whisper - about a new nightmare scenario: “A lot lower for a lot longer.” Oil executives, policy makers and banks said in the first days of the World Economic Forum that a recovery will remain elusive in 2016 as major producers keep pumping and China’s fuel appetite slackens. And they fret that prices could take another hit as Iranian crude freed from sanctions flows back on to world markets. “It is the third year in a row we have more supply than demand,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Francine Lacqua in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Prices will be still under pressure. I don’t see any reason why we have a surprise increase in the price in 2016.”  Read Articles  

Escalating its attack on the Centre over the issue of a dalit scholar’s alleged suicide in Hyderabad University,Congress today demanded immediate sacking of HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.  “…Irani is lying through her teeth in a bid to protect the ABVP leader. She is misleading the nation by giving false information,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said, seeking to dismiss the claims of Irani on the issue.  Irani had yesterday said that the ABVP leader, who was attacked in student rivalry earlier, also belonged to the OBC community as was Dattatreya, who had written a letter to her about the attack. Read Articles

In February 2014, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion, the messaging platform was earning only around $15 million in annual revenue but had a user base of around 450 mn, with a million getting added each month. The revenue was primarily from the annual subscription fee, of around $1, the company was charging users in selected countries after rendering one year of free service. Now, with WhatsApp having decided to make it free for users, it indicates that garnering revenue by charging the users was never the prime focus of its monetisation strategy. With the company now part of social networking site Facebook, the most valuable asset on the WhatsApp platform is the free user-generated data, mostly generated real-time, by close to a billion users that it has worldwide, without paying for it.  Read Articles  

India’s Test captain Virat Kohli has been named as the brand ambassador of luxury real estate brand Nitesh Estates.  On his association with the Bengaluru-based company, Kohli said: “The company in many aspects reflects the values I hold in high esteem. I respect the fact that as a first generation company it has made extraordinary progress in a very short span.  "I am very impressed with their quality of developments across homes, hotels, office buildings and shopping malls.”  Read Articles  

Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday sought to ease fears amid the stock market plunge and therupee nearing its lowest-ever level, saying things will stabilise and people will look at stable emerging markets, including India. The rupee, Rajan said, has been "relatively strong" in the emerging-market currency basket, but India is affected by the "same kind of jitters" hitting other world markets. "My sense is that, at this point, if you are an emerging market, you focus on fundamentals, try and get inflation down, try and get your current account deficit down, keep your fiscal on target, do all the good things, and then people reward you," he said in Davos. ALSO READ: Raghuram Rajan urges Oz firms to invest in Indian market Investors "take the money off the table in a hurry when they are doing it everywhere, but then they come back". "My sense is that after the initial volatility, things will stabilise, people will tr

The war of words between telecom regulator Trai and social media giant Facebook refuse to die down. In a latest development, Trai said it has been misleading its users with its ‘Save Free Basics Campaign’ and the responses sent by Facebook are not relevant to the questions being raised by the regulator in the consultation paper. “Your urging has the flavour of reducing this meaningful consultative exercise designed to produce informed decisions in a transparent manner into a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll,” Trai said. “Neither the spirit nor the letter of a consultative process warrants such an intrepretation which, if accepted, has dangerous ramifications for policy-making in India,” Trai added.   Read Articles  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today strongly condemned the terror attack at a university in Pakistan and expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. “Strongly condemn the terror attack at Bacha Khan University in Pakistan. Condolences to families of the deceased. Prayers with the injured,” he tweeted.  ALSO READ:   Gunmen storm Bacha Khan University in Pakistan, at least 25 killed Heavily-armed Taliban militants stormed the prestigious university in Pakistan’s restive northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province this morning, firing indiscriminately on students and teachers.  Read Articles

Fresh protests today rocked the Hyderabad Central University over the alleged suicide of Dalit student, Rohith Vemula, even as several politicians headed to the city including YSR Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury. A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus this morning. Besides Hyderabad many cities across the country including in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai were rocked by protests yesterday. ALSO READ: Protests continue at University of Hyderabad over Dalit scholar’s suicide Reddy and Yechury are scheduled to meet the protesting students of the University today.   Read Articles

Actor Aamir Khan damaged the “brand India” while being the brand ambassador of the celebrated ‘Incredible India’ campaign, a senior official has said. Defending the exit of Khan from the campaign, Secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP),Amitabh Kant said the actor, by terming India an 'intolerant country’, worked against his role as that of a brand ambassador. “A brand ambassador promotes a brand. People will come to India and tourist flow will increase only if the brand ambassador of 'Incredible India’ promotes the country as 'incredible’,” Kant told reporters on the sidelines of a convocation here on Monday. “But if the brand ambassador says India is intolerant, he surely is not working as brand ambassador,” Kant said. ALSO READ:  Would Love To Be Incredible India Ambassador: Akshay Ram Madhav Takes Dig At Aamir, Says He Should Preach To Wife Leave Me Out Of Incredible India Ambassador Debate: SRK Lots Of Suggestions On New Face

Going on the offensive on the dalit student’s suicide case in Hyderabad, Congress today demanded that HRD Minister Smriti Irani should be removed along with Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, against whom an FIR has been lodged. Party spokesperson Kumari Selja told reporters here that both Irani and Dattatreya should resign or else Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take action against the two by sacking them. She said that the HRD Minister has “misguided” the whole country as she had written a number of letters on the issue and that Dattatreya was “against dalit students in order to promote ABVP”. ALSO READ:  Rohith Vemula suicide: Digvijay Singh asks student wings to unite against communal forces Rohith Vemula Didn’t Get Fellowship For Past 7 Months, Says Letter Dalit Student Rohith Vemula’s Suicide ‘Murder Of Democracy’: Kejriwal Rohith Vemula Suicide: Rahul Gandhi To Visit Hyderabad University Dalit Student Suicide: FTII Students Sit On Hunger Strike Datta

In the bidding for solar projects totalling 420 MW in Rajasthan under the National Solar Mission, the winning bid touched a new low of Rs 4.34 per unit, entered by Finnish solar power company Fortum Energy for a 70 Mw project. However, lowering of benchmark tariff by the central government did not go too well in Maharashtra which saw subdued interest from the companies participating in bidding for 500 MW in the state Rajasthan saw a spurt of foreign companies lining up for solar projects. American company Rising Sun Energy quoted Rs 4.35 per unit for two projects with total capacity of 140 MW. African major SolaireDirect has quoted same tariff for same capacity projects. Among the domestic ones, India Bulls through its subsidiary Yarrow Infra won 70 MW by quoting Rs 4.36 per unit.  Read Articles