PRANAB REINCARNATION in PRE POLL BLUSTER with Unethical VOTE on ACCOUNT Full of Unrealistic STATICS! HUMAN FACE of ECONOMIC REFORMS Expose Ugliness supreme and SPEED DATING

[Palash]

PRANAB REINCARNATION in PRE POLL BLUSTER with Unethical VOTE on
ACCOUNT Full of Unrealistic STATICS! HUMAN FACE of ECONOMIC REFORMS
Expose Ugliness supreme and SPEED DATING

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 164

Palash Biswas

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Budget a sob story: Pranab stops at presenting UPA report card
Infrastructure is the only sector that could have a short-lived reason
to rejoice post the presentation of the interim budget even as the UPA
government decided to maintain status quo on direct and indirect taxes
for the next four months in a vote-of account that quadrupled India’s
revenue deficit estimates.


Full Speech: Interim Budget 2009-2010
Industry disappointed, says interim budget a non-event
Spending may jump to counter global crunch: Govt
Deficit must go up after 'dream' economic run: Govt
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/budget.cms

Massive allocation in social sector schemes in interim Budget
Press Trust of India, India - 7 hours ago
Of the massive spending projected on social sector schemes that will
have an impact on 'Aam Aadmi' (common man), the Bharat Nirman scheme
gets Rs 40900 ...
Interim Budget failed to bring cheer to eastern business houses
Economic Times
Interim budget 2009 fails to satisfy India Inc Livemint
Budget: The fiscal policy overview Rediff
Times of India - Economic Times
all 774 news articles »

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) Interim Budget along expected lines:
CII
Business Standard, India - 2 hours ago
“CII is keen to see an increase in the funds flowing into
infrastructure projects and the social sector. While the former will
have a multiplier effect on ...
CII Seeks Further Stimulus Packages To Boost India's Economic Growth
RTT News
Economy to slowdown further: CII Times of India
all 31 news articles »

Hindu Interim Budget speech 2009
Sify, India - 7 hours ago
... lay the foundation for a vibrant delivery mechanism for many
social sector schemes such as pension and National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Focus turns to economic growth prospects financial scene Hindu
Economy Update Economic Times
Whither economic reforms? The Statesman
SteelGuru - Ghana Business News
all 28 news articles »
Extend tax holiday for IT-ITeS
Sify, India - 11 hours ago
The IT/ITeS industry today constitutes an integral part of the Indian
social-economic chain. The sector’s contribution to GDP has increased
manifold, ...
Over 1 million women demand access to life education
Times of India, India - 10 hours ago
The partnership under Teach India with SEWA has resulted in building a
bridge between educated professionals and poor informal sector
households. ...

Rediff UPA Govt. has acted on social sector policies: Patil
Hindu, India - 11 Feb 2009
Patil took a broad sweep of the social sector programmes initiated in
the last five years, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (NREGS), ...
Terror, security top concern: President Times of India
What has the common man got? Patil asks, and answers SINDH TODAY
Pratibha: wise policies helped to overcome disruptive events Hindu
all 108 news articles »
India's growth: World waits in anticipation
Economic Times, India - 18 hours ago
And it cannot be emphasised enough that strategic planning must
prioritise rural areas for infrastructure and social development. ...

Newstrack India India Post gets 55% hike in outlay; 5000 POs to be
networked
Press Trust of India, India - 5 hours ago
New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) The postal sector has got a 55 per cent jump
in the outlay for 2009-10 at Rs 620 crore to carry out all-round
development and ...
Full text of budget speech 2009-2010: Part-5 Deccan Herald
Aam admi gets more talk, less allocation Business Standard
all 92 news articles »
India Inc. not satisfied, but hails high rural spending (Lead)
Thaindian.com, Thailand - 3 hours ago
“The CII is keen to see an increase in the funds flowing into
infrastructure projects and the social sector. While the former will
have a multiplier effect ...
A regular vote on account budget: Malvinder Mohan Singh
Business Standard, India - 2 hours ago
Regular areas like agriculture, social sector, education - a little
mention of heathcare there , defense, job creation were the areas of
focus. ...


PRANAB Mukherjee, the KAYASTHA BRAHMIN Icon of Indian politics
surviving all ups and down from INDIRA AGE to Manmohan Era,
REINCARNATED once again as BUDGET GOD with Unethical Vote on account
of the VOLUME of total expenditure estimated at Rs 9,53,231 crore and
Plan expenditure estimated at Rs 2,85,149 crore.Non-Plan expenditure
pegged at Rs 6,68,082 crore. Revenue expenditure at Rs 8,48,085 crore.
Centre's net tax revenue pegged at Rs 5,00,096 crore. Revenue deficit
4 per cent of GDP. Fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of GDP.
Is this a pure VOTE on Account? Is the FM In charge Mukherjee Ethical
enough to present a Full Budget named vote on account on the floor of
Parliament which turned to be a PRE POLL BLUSTER though amusingly
enough the Media, Electronic as well as Print showcasing so called
Economists who are in fact the best agents of world bank and market
forces focused and applauded the FM for going by books. NO POLL SOPs!
It is quite funny the DESI ILLUMINATI India Incs, FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM
and SENSEX cry in the same language and hope BETTER just after the
elections!

What an AMUSING COINCIDENCE to study typical India Political Economy,
Real Politics and Strategical marketing altogether! The FDI Decision
was taken before the Budget session began opening forward and backward
windows and doors of Indian Economy, mind you!

The FM who did everything to promote the DESI ILLUMINATI with his Mass
Destruction, deindustrialisation, disinvestment and Displacement ploy,
the Chettiayar Chidambaram who along with RBI, SEBI and FINMIN
bypassed Parliament and constitution all four years and pumped more
than Rs SIX LAC THOUSAND into the Money machine, sat in Audience. The
Washington planted Prime Minister holding the Finance Ministry is
INDISPOSED. For him Montek singh Ahluwalia decides decisively on all
financial affairs!But it is PRANAB well known for his capacity of
Political as well as Economic jugglery is invoked from the sleep of
FULL Twenty five years to present the HUMAN FACE of the Anti People
Economic reforms for Mass destruction and Ethnic Cleansing so that the
anti national IMPOSTORS ruling India may get the OPPORTUNITY to make
up as SOCIALISTS! Agriculture has been dumped. And PRANAB emphasises
on Agriculture ! What a MYSTERY! some James BOND or Sherlock Holmes
should be called to understand the missing links! No?

Refraining from tinkering with tax and duty rates in the interim
Budget, Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday made a huge
allocation of Rs 30,100 crore to Government's flagship rural
employment programme and many other schemes in a bid to counter the
economic recession. Despite the fact that revised estimates for tax
collections during 2008-09 is projected at Rs 627,949 crore as against
the budget estimate of Rs 687,715 crore, the Minister resisted the
temptation of giving sops since it is an interim budget with General
Elections just a few months away. Mukherjee said the apex bank raised
the interest rates to mop up excess liquidity to check high inflation
that time, which in turn, had implications on the growth rate from
both demand as well as supply side. This, along with easing global
prices, led to a decline in the domestic prices with inflation rate
falling to 4.4 per cent on January 31, 2009, he added.

Just understand, you have not got any TAX Relief as Common Man or
employee, but Rs 65,300 Crore Loan has been written OFF. IMPORT EXPORT
Duties relaxed!Who gets the waiver? I asked the question to my friends
in the train who have to pay Income Tax, sales tax, Property tax,
Municipality tax, VAT and Sales tax, Service tax and Professional tax
and were analysing the Budget on the lines as the cluster of
economists like ABHIRUP Sarkar and Dipankar Bhattacharya and Vimal
Jalan nationwide guided them with a little help with the EVENING
Budget specials published focused on SHINING INDIA!

Just for a Comic relief, I am sorry to present you a glimpse of the
present day VOGUE! Kolkata`s SINGLE working professionals between 22
and 32 Will get a taste of the COOLEST thing hit the city ever. T2
SPEED DATING! Get READY! Be at your best! AXED! So that the girls
should JUMP on you! SEXY Guies! Make sure to win over your VALENTINE
in FIVE Minutes!

What happened ? Just try to understand! given the UNCERTAINTY over
retaining jobs in most of the URBAN centres, CONSUMPTION SPENDING in
the METROs is likely TARDY for some INDEFINITE time to come. It is
clear as the American Recession has opened the FLOOD GATEs of JOBLOSS
and RETRENCHMENT. DISINVESTMENT Strategy already decided and being
IMPLEMENTED Phase by PHASE, PSU as well as GOVT. employees, may be
Permanent, wait to be AXED any time. SAVINGS is the MOTTO in Urban
centres. Hence the RURAL SECTOR has to be OPENED up for FUCKING with
CONSENT! Americanisation and VISUAL as well as PRINT media have done
EXCELLENT work to change the LIFE STYLE in Indian villages now
affluent with Mobile Phones, Automobiles,cooking Gas, FREEZE,
Computer, GM Seeds, Fertilisers, Pesticides, Cyber Cafes, Bars and so
on. Hence, the best BET remains the RURAL SECTOR where the MARKET
Orientation and Business may be diverted to get out of whatsoever
RECESSION in Indian ILLUMINATI! Right to Education has done an
EXCELLENT job for qualitative change in consumer Culture in rural
areas as the GENERATION NEXT is always DEMANDING Irrespective of
purchasing power of the Parents now. Social sectors should be opened
up. Mind you, the so called social sector or public services have been
either PRIVATISED or RUN by NGOs or PARTY GESTAPO! Pranab has done the
work with SURGICAL precision and it happens to be the ESCALATION of
RETAIL CHAIN in rural areas! you may not enter in rural areas if you
do not pose friendly ENOUGH. Hence, Agriculture gets the TOPMOST
Priority after so long a period and farmers` Contribution to GDP is
accepted quite ABRUPTLY in the age of Information Explosion, REALTY
BLITZ, Infrastructure! It was a simple task very hard to work out.
PRANAB made it EASY with his EXPERIENCE of Socialist Coaching gained
under no one else than Mrs Indira Gandhi! Coincidentally, the
ENVIRONMENT favours the ACTING Finance Minister who would be
remembered to present a budget after twenty five years being OUT of
the FINMIN and ECONOMIC AFFAIRS in fact! SUCCESSFUL MONSOON for last
two seasons have left MANY PEOPLE in Rural areas with DISPOSABLE
MONEY. That MONEY has to be TRANSFERRED to India Incs, MNCs, Realty
Magnets, builders and promoters!


Pranab has ALLOCATED Rs HUNDRED CRORE for National Identity Cards. It
means persecution of Bengali Speaking people out of Bengal, specially
the partition Victim Resettled Bengali SC refugees. Deportation drive
has to be CONTINUED. it is the same PRANAB who along with Buddha and
Adwani played key role to change and modify citizenship Act to benefit
NRIs and India Incs PERSECUTING and DEPORTING Genuine Indian citizens
living in India generation after generation!

Pranab have allocated RS FIFTY FOUR CRORE to deal with TERROR. The war
against Terror continues as continues Persecution and ETHNIC Cleansing
of the Minorities in association with CIA and MOSSED!

The BUDGET speech did not mention JOBLOSS and RETRENCHMENT
Unprecedented. Twenty Three Lacs people lost jobs and within three
months ten lac more are destined to lose jobs. Not to mention the
displacement and Ejection and annihilation of the Indigenous
aboriginal people from land, home,livelihood and life! if we include
IMMINENT DISINVESTMENT in PSUS and GOVT sectors like Bank, OIL, SAIL,
Coal India, Rly, Ongc, LIC and POST OFFICE to showcase the ACTUAL
position of ECONOMIC reforms by the Ruling Hegemony with Marxists
Support, the HUMAN Face Presented by the KAYSATHA BRAHMIN ICON of
Bengal would look like the MOST UGLY Face presented ever by any
BOLLYWOOD film!

The Prime Minister has already assured a TWENTY BILLION Bailout
Package but the Nation could not have a GLIMPSE of the so called
EFFICIENT and COMPETITIVE PRIVATE SECTOR Balance SHEET despite the
INFLATED SATYAM ASTAYAM episode!

Crisis of CONFIDENCE is being described as CONFIDENCE! What a TOILET
TRY!

The FM acting dealt with MAL NUTRITION but he evaded FOOD Insecurity
and Starvation, Suicides and Graveyards in the Industrial belts, TEA,
COTTON, Heavy Engineering, Jute and so on. No SOCIAL SECURITY
planned.

NO JOB MOBILISATION! Though SIXTEEN IITs have to be opened to APPEASE
the Privileged Class!

No FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY!

No ATTEMPT to ADDRESS the SITUATION Head ON!

Hence, the budget remains nothing but VOTE Bank Mobilisation and
Demographic readjustment!

The STATISTICAL Jugglery has put on FALSE GDP, false Revenue deficit
and false FISCAL deficit. Balance of payment is not Clarified at all!

What an OPPORTUNITY LOST!

Thanks god! Indian Voters have such a SHORT memory! Moreover the
GLOBAL ZIONIST Order, so called opposition including the most
Hypocrite Marxists, Gandhian carbides and Socialist oxides, Desi and
Foreign ILLUMINATI Zionist,Mossed, CIA and World Bank along with
pentagon Stand ROCK SOLID behind the KILLERS and they have got the
INFINITE LICENSE to KILL!

Belying expectations of a rally, the benchmark Sensex on the Bombay
Stock Exchange nosedived by over 320 points as the interim Budget,
which was widely anticipated to announce stimulating measures for the
industry, turned out to be a damp squib.With investors exercising
caution, the markets had a weak opening before the presentation of
interim Budget by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at 1100 hours in
Parliament.

The BSE barometer went on to post further losses with investors
offloading as the finance minister pegged the fiscal deficit at six
per cent in the next fiscal.

The BSE barometer finally closed the day at 9305.45 points, lower by
329.29 points, the biggest drop since Feb 2.

Realty stocks, which surged in early trade on anticipation of emphasis
on real estate and hospitality sectors in the interim Budget, ended
the day with heavy losses and the sectoral index dipped by a sharp
4.58 per cent, while all the other sectoral indices also closed in the
red.

The Nifty on NSE also fell by 99.85 points at 2,848.50.

Market heaviest RIL led the fall and closed lower by 3.42 per cent.
Blue-chip ICICI Bank was another big loser at 5.79 per cent.
Jaiprakash Associates at 7.88 per cent and Reliance Infra at 6.35 per
cent were the other major losers among the elite Sensex club.


India Inc on Monday gave a thumbs down to the interim budget 2009-10,
proposed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, saying it is a non-
event and more of a political statement.
"It was completely (a) non-event. It was (more a) political statement
than (an) interim budget. There was nothing for any sector, forget
about real estate," Parsvnath Developers Chairman Pradeep Jain said.

Expressing similar sentiments, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director
Uday Kotak said, "Acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has stuck
to what is good convention."

TCS ED and CFO S Mahalingam said there were two stimulus packages
given in the past couple of months and they were going to stay as they
were. "I am disappointed," he added.

Stating that the government did not have much of a choice, Hinduja
Group CFO Prabal Banerjee said: "They did what they could best do."


In view of the fact that security environment has deteriorated
considerably with the Mumbai terror attacks giving an entirely new
dimension to cross-border terrorism, the Budget increased the
allocation for defence to Rs 141,703 crore including Rs 54,824 crore
capital expenditure.

Aiming at enhancing expenditure on schemes to provide employment and
lift the economy, the interim Budget for 2009-10 has planned a total
expenditure of Rs 953,231 crore comprising Rs 285,149 crore in plan
and Rs 668,082 crore in non-plan spending.

To counter the negative impact on exports due to the global economic
crisis, the interest subvention of two per cent on pre and post
shipment for certain employment sectors is proposed to be extended
Like the NREGS, the Bharat Nirman scheme gets a massive injection of
Rs 40,900 crore in the coming year.

"In the current environment, there is a clear need for contra-cyclical
policy and it calls for a substantial increase in expenditure in
infrastructure development where we have a large gap and in rural
development where the programmes such as Bharat Nirman and NREGS are
playing a vital social role," Mukherjee said.

He said since the scope for revenue mobalisation is bound to be
limited in a period of economic slowdown, any increase in plan
expenditure will increase the fiscal deficit.

"Indeed, we may have to consider, the additional plan expenditure from
0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of GDP and gear up our systems
accordingly," Mukherjee, who holds the additional charge of Finance,
said in his 90-minute speech.

In the Budget estimates for 2009-10, the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan has been
given Rs 13,100 crore more while the Mid-day Meal Scheme will get Rs
8,000 crore, the Integrated Child Development Scheme Rs 6,705 crore
and the Jawaharlal Nehru

Urban Renewal Mission will get an additional Rs 11,842 crore.

Among other schemes that got increased allocation are Rajiv Gandhi
Rural Drinking Water Mission (Rs 7,400 crore), Total Rural Sanitation
Programme (Rs 1,200 crore) and National Rural Health Mission (Rs
12,070 crore).

To ensure continuity in financing of rural infrastructure projects,
the Minister proposed RIDF-15 with a corpus of Rs 14,000 crore and
continuation of the window for rural roads with a corpus of Rs 4,000
crore. Mukherjee said the proposed provisions are appropriate for a
vote-on-account but he pointed out that planned expenditure for
2009-10 will have to be increased substantially at the time the
presentation of the regular Budget, if the economy has to be given a
stimulus it needs to cope with the global recession that is likely to
continue through the year.

The Budget makes a provision of Rs 95,579 crore for major subsidies
including food, fertiliser and petroleum.

For the coming year, gross tax revenue receipts at the existing rates
of taxation are estimated at Rs 671,293 crore, of which the Centre's
net receipts have been projected at Rs 500,096 crore.

With revenue expenditure estimated at Rs 848,085 crore, the revenue
deficit amounts to 4 per cent of the GDP. Fiscal deficit is estimated
at Rs 332,835 crore which is 5.5 per cent of the GDP.

This would be lower than in 2008-09 but higher than would be
appropriate under normal circumstances, he said.

"However, conditions in the year ahead are not likely to be normal and
therefore the high fiscal deficit is inevitable. We will return to
FRBM targets once the economy is restored to the recent trend growth
path," he said.

Mukherjee said extraordinary economic circumstances merit
extraordinary measures. "Now is the time for such measures. Our
government decided to relax the FRBM targets, in order to provide much
needed demand boost to counter the situation created by global
financial meltdown.

"Indeed, depending on the response of the domestic economy and the
revival of the global economy, there may be a need to consider
additional fiscal measures when the regular budget is presented by the
new government after the elections. However, the medium term objective
should be to revert to the path of fiscal consolidation at the
earliest," he said.

Touching on the revised estimates for 2008-09, he said the total
expenditure has been revised to Rs 900,953 crore against Rs 750,884
crore, an increase of Rs 150,069 crore.

The plan expenditure for 2008-09 was placed at Rs 243,386 crore in the
Budget estimate which has now gone up to Rs 282,957 crore in the
revised estimates.

The additional plan spending of Rs 39,571 crore is on account of
increase in the central plan by Rs 24,174 crore and an increase of Rs
15,397 crore in central assistance to state and UT plans.

On the non-plan side, the additional Rs 110,498 crore in the revised
estimate is accounted for by an increase in expenditure of Rs 48,863
crore on fertiliser subsidy, Rs 10,960 crore on food subsidy, Rs
15,000 crore on agriculture debt waiver, Rs 7,605 crore on pensions
and Rs 5,149 crore on police. An additional amount of Rs 9,000 crore
has also been provided for in defence expenditure. In keeping with the
recent trend, the actual tax collections during 2007-08 exceeded the
revised estimate for the year both for direct and indirect taxes.

However, for 2008-09, the revised estimate for tax collection is
projected at Rs 627,949 crore as against Budget estimate of Rs 687,715
crore.

This shortfall is primarily on account of government's proactive
fiscal measures to counter the impact of global economic slowdown on
the Indian economy, Mukherjee said.

A substantial relief of about Rs 40,000 crore has been extended
through tax cuts, including a fairly steep across-the-board reduction
in central excise rates in December last. Despite this, it is expected
that the tax collections will exceed last year's collection.

Taking into account the variations in receipts and expenditure, the
current year expected to end with a revenue deficit of Rs 241,273
crore as against Budgeted figure of Rs 55,184 crore.

Accordingly, the revised revenue deficit stands at 4.4 per cent of GDP
instead of 1 per cent in the Budget estimates.

Similarly, the fiscal deficit of 2008-09 has gone up from Rs 133,287
crore in the Budget estimate to Rs 326,515 crore in the revised
estimates.

The revised fiscal deficit is estimated at 6 per cent of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) as against the budgeted figure of 2.5 per
cent.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the Government cannot indulge
in ‘reckless borrowing’ and did not have Parliamentary mandate to
tweak taxes.
"I can't indulge in reckless borrowing...," he said after presenting
the interim budget for FY'10 in Parliament.

The government has pegged fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of Gross
Domestic Product for the next financial year, against the revised
figure of 6 per cent in the current financial year.

The fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal was 2.5 per cent.

However, fiscal measures initiated in the wake of the global economic
downturn and reduction in revenue collection have impacted resource
mobilisation resulting in widening ofdeficit.

Analysts too fear that returning to an era of high fiscal deficit
could push the country into the vicious cycle of high inflation.


Highlights of the interim budget 2009-10

The following are the highlights of the interim budget for 2009-10
presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on
Monday.

* Total expenditure estimated at Rs 9,53,231 crore

* Plan expenditure estimated at Rs 2,85,149 crore.

* Non-Plan expenditure pegged at Rs 6,68,082 crore.

* Revenue expenditure at Rs 8,48,085 crore.

* Centre's net tax revenue pegged at Rs 5,00,096 crore.

* Revenue deficit 4 per cent of GDP.

* Fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of GDP.

* Major subsidies estimated at Rs 95,579 crore.

* Two per cent interest subsidy for exports extended till

Sept for employment oriented sector.

* Defence allocation at Rs 1,41,703 crore.

* Rs 30,100 crore allocated for rural employment scheme.

* Bharat Nirman allocated Rs 40,900 crore.

* Rs 12,070 crore for National Rural Health Mission.

* Rural drinking programme allocated Rs 7,400 crore.

* Rural sanitation programme gets Rs 1,200 crore.

* Rs 14,000 crore for rural infrastructure development.

* Mid-day Meal scheme allocated Rs 8,000 crore.

* Rs 6,705 crore for Integrated Child Development Scheme.

* Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan allocated Rs 13,100 crore.

* Urban renewal mission gets Rs 11,842 crore.

* Government to recapitalise public sector banks.

'Aam admi' focus of Interim Budget, says PM
New Delhi (PTI): Terming the Interim Budget as "people's budget",
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said it showed that aam admi
has been centre of the UPA government's planning process.

"The interim is a fine balancing act between the need to restore
economy to its optimum growth path and the Constitutional constraints
of a pre-election budget," he said in a statement.

Singh, who watched the presentation of the budget by Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee on television, said he had no doubt that the
continued stimulus for various flagship programmes of the government
would provide relief to all sections — especially the aam admi.

The Prime Minister said since the UPA government took over, "aam aadmi
has been the centre of our planning process. This focus continues and
the interim budget clearly indicates the next steps".

Singh, who is recuperating after a cardiac bypass surgery, said "it
continues to be a people's budget."

Complimenting Mukherjee for his "effective response to a difficult
economic situation", Singh said the benefits of the stimulus for
industry and the export sector announced earlier continued to be
available.

"Our stress on increasing the investment on infrastructure and
employment generation has been clearly underlined. All this will
result in positive turn around in economic activity and levels of
confidence," he added.




Inflation down, but no room for complacency: FM

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said there is no room to be
complacent about inflation even though the rate of price rise has
fallen to 4.39 per cent now, against the peak of around 13 per cent in
August 2008.

"We have weathered the crisis, but there is no room for complacency,"
Mukherjee said in his interim budget speech.

Inflation declined by 0.68 percentage points during the week ending
January 31 to 4.39 per cent from 5.07 per cent a week ago. It stood at
4.74 per cent in the year-ago period.

Mukherjee said inflation had shot up nearly 13 per cent in the first
week of August 2008.

"To ease supply side constraints, the government took a series of
fiscal and administrative measures, in concert with monetary policy
measures by the Reserve Bank of India," he added.

RTI has brought more accountability in public servants: Pranab
The Right to Information Act has brought about greater accountability
among public servants, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on
Monday.

Presenting the Interim Budget in Lok Sabha, he said the enactment of
the Act by the Centre and many states has "bridged a critical gap in
the public decision-making process and ushered in greater
accountability of public servants."

He said the Second Administrative Reforms Commission had brought out a
number of reports with "practical recommendations, providing a
starting point for improving efficiency in the delivery of public
services."

The Commission was set up in August 2005 with a mandate to suggest
measures to achieve "a pro-active, responsive, accountable,
sustainable and efficient administration for the country at all levels
of the government," Mukherjee said.


Rupee drops as budget fails to excite


MUMBAI: The Indian rupee dropped on Monday after the government's
interim budget for the next fiscal year failed to deliver major steps
to boost a
faltering economy and helped shares tumble 3.4 percent.

Gains in the dollar against major units overseas also prompted banks
to buy the U.S. unit.

The partially convertible rupee closed at 48.84/85 per dollar, 0.4
percent weaker than 48.67/68 at close on Friday.

"There was nothing positive for the rupee in the budget and since the
stock market reacted negatively, that is likely the reason for fall in
rupee," said V. Kumar, chief dealer with State Bank of Travancore.

"The pressure is on the downside for rupee," he said, adding the local
unit could drop towards 52 per dollar levels.

Shares fell 3.4 percent, the biggest drop in two weeks, after finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee delivered a budget containing little in the
way of new stimulus for an economy expected to slow to a six-year low
this fiscal.

Foreign fund outflows from stocks were a key factor for the rupee's
fall in 2008. Foreigners have already withdrawn about $967 million
from Indian shares this year, after selling more than $13 billion last
year.

In the budget the government projected spending may have to jump later
this year to shield the economy from the global slump and stem job
losses, fueling fears of a spiralling fiscal deficit that is headed
for a seven-year high. .

Dealers were also watching the dollar's performance overseas for cues.
The dollar index, a gauge of the U.S. unit's performance against
majors, was up 0.2 percent, hurting rupee sentiment.

The dollar hit a two-month high on a trade-weighed basis on Monday as
global recession fears encouraged buying of safer assets, while the
yen rose versus the euro as a G7 meeting omitted mention of the
currency's strength.

Public sector companies' turnover rises 84%
16 Feb 2009, 1521 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: The combined turnover of the central public sector
enterprises (CPSEs) has gone up 84% to Rs.10.81 trillion (Rs.10,81,000
crore) last
fiscal from Rs.5.87 trillion in 2003-04, Minister for External Affairs
Pranab Mukherjee said here on Monday.

Presenting the interim budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha on behalf
of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is recuperating from heart bypass
surgery, Mukherjee said combined profit of the CPSEs has increased 72%
from Rs.530 billion to Rs.910 billion.

The public sector companies' contribution to the central exchequer by
way of dividend, interest and taxes and duties went up 86%.

The minister added that the number of loss making enterprises has come
down from 73 in 2003-04 to 55 in 2007-08, while the number of profit
making enterprises has gone up from 143 to 158.

Mukherjee said the government set up the National Investment Fund in
November 2007 to finance select social sector schemes.

The proceeds made by disinvesting government stakes in public
companies were deposited in the fund.

"The residual 25% annual income of the fund will be used to meet the
capital investment requirements of profitable and revivable CPSEs,"
Mukherjee added.
Insurance out of new FDI policy; no specific bar on retail
The new FDI policy excluding indirect foreign stake from the sectoral
caps will not be applicable to the insurance sector, while the
fine-print issued today does not debar overseas players from investing
in multi-brand retail through parent company, "owned and controlled"
by an Indian.

For the present, the new guidelines will not be applicable to the
insurance sector, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
said.

Though Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said the amendments in the
guidelines did not open the gates for the likes of the Wal-Mart into
multi-brand retail, officials admit the revised policy can enable FDI
into the politically sensitive sector.

When asked whether the new policy allows back door entry for FDI in
retail, Nath said, "No, they cannot".

However, officials, not to be named, said it is possible since foreign
investment in a firm "owned and controlled" by an Indian will be
treated as domestic money. For definition of the ownership and
control, the largest Indian shareholder will have to own 51 per cent
equity in I&B and defence sector.

Thus, as long as the likes of Wal-Mart do not have "ownership and
control" of an Indian firm which gets into the business of multi-brand
retailing, there is no bar on the foreign players, sources said.
CBI to probe Satyam fraud, senior VP told to quit
The Andhra Pradesh Government has handed over the Rs 7,800-crore
Satyam scam to the CBI, more than a month after the IT major's founder
B Ramalinga Raju confessed to cooking his company's account books and
inflating profits over the last many years.

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K Jana Reddy said the state has issued a
'Government Order' handing over the probe into the Satyam Computers
fraud to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The order was issued on
February 13, he added.

Separately, Union Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta told PTI
in New Delhi that the case would be now jointly probed by the CBI,
along with the SFIO and other agencies.

"Now, the case will be probed jointly by the CBI, SFIO, I-T department
and others," Gupta said.

The country's biggest ever corporate scam, currently being probed by
the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in Hyderabad, is
expected to be discussed in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow, Gupta added.

Earlier, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had written two letters
to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposing that the CBI take over the
investigation into the Satyam fraud in view of the multi-faced nature
of the issue.

The scandal is currently being probed by the CB-CID of Andhra Pradesh
police also.

Satyam asks senior VP to quit

Satyam Computer Services asked its senior vice-president of banking
and financial services vertical Anil Kumar to quit immediately.

The company spokesperson said that Anil Kumar has been asked to put in
his papers.

NASSCOM seeks expedited spending of funds on IT projects

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom)
Monday urged the government to expedite spending of allocated
funds on IT projects to stimulate the domestic market.

"To drive economic activity, the government needs to expedite spending
of allocated funds for IT projects to stimulate the domestic market,"
the Nasscom said in a statement.

Lauding the government for focusing on infrastructure and education,
the IT trade forum said it was heartening to see the benefits accruing
from state-run projects like 'Project Arrow'.

The Project Arrow was launched in May 2008 to revitalise the postal
department and develop it into a brand for millions of its customers
across the country.

The project is under implementation, which will cover 50 post offices
in the first phase, 450 in the second and 4,500 in the third all over
the country.

Though the IT industry did not expect major announcements from the
vote-on-account budget, the Nasscom said it would engage with the new
government on specific policy initiatives to sustain the industry's
growth.

"In the interim, there is need for urgently removing the inequities
and multiplicities of taxes and procedural issues even before the new
government comes in," the statement noted.

The Nasscom also wanted the government to free up the bandwidth of
companies from these issues so as to enable them to better manage the
downturn and focus on business.

"This is also important to ensure India remains a preferred partner to
do business in the domestic and overseas markets," the statement
added.

Govt to raise extra Rs 450 bn in 08/09; won't tap mkt

NEW DELHI: Government plans to raise an extra 450 billion rupees ($9.2
billion) in the 2008/09 financial year beyond additional borrowings
already announced, but will not tap the markets for it, a senior
finance ministry official said on Monday.

Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla said converting intervention
bonds into regular government bonds could be one option to raise
additional funds. He ruled out a private placement of debt with the
central bank.

In its budget for 2009/10 unveiled on Monday, the government said its
gross market borrowing for the current fiscal year ending on March 31
would be 3.06 trillion rupees, above total announced borrowings of
2.61 trillion rupees which included 460 billion of bonds sales
announced just last week.

"We are in consultation with the RBI. We will notify the manner in
which that will be raised," Chawla said.

"But it will not be market borrowings, because we realise that there
is the problem of how much the market can contribute and how much
space should be available to others," he said.

Chawla also ruled out privately placing government bonds with the
central bank to raise the additional funds needed.

"Private placement is not envisaged under the FRBM (Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Management Act). We don't wish to violate
that," he said.

In the interim budget, the government said its fiscal deficit would
widen to 6 percent of gross domestic product in 2008/09, compared with
its initial estimate a year ago of 2.5 percent.

Market Stabilisation Scheme (MSS) bonds are used to absorb inflation-
fuelling surplus cash in the banking system generated via the central
bank's intervention in the foreign exchange market in the wake of
strong capital inflows.

But foreign flows have slowed, and turned negative for equities, and
the central bank has recently bought back MSS bonds ahead of their
maturity to add to market liquidity and underpin demand for regular
government bond auctions.

The government pays interest on outstanding MSS bonds but does not use
the funds raised for spending.

There are 1.05 trillion rupees of MSS debt outstanding, including
treasury bills.

Kerala plan to invest Rs 10,000 cr in IT sector

The Kerala government plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore in the IT sector
in the near future, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said here
today.

Laying the foundation stone for a Rs 500 crore IT park at Purakad in
Ambalapuzha in the district, he said the government was according top
priority for development of the IT sector in the state. The aim was to
generate five lakh jobs in the next five years, he said.

The IT park, to come up in about 100 acres of land, was part of the
government initiative to promote such parks in all districts in the
state, he said

Work on the Smart City IT Park in Kochi would be started after
removing all hurdles, he added.



Govt seeks $3 bn from World Bank for capital infusion into PSU banks


The government will seek additional $3 billion (about Rs 14,440
crore) from the World Bank to infuse funds into public sector banks
to

Highlights
What is a vote-on-account?
Interim Budget on Agriculture
Growth
Interim Budget: Infrastructure & Education
shore up their capital against various risks to ensure credit flow to
productive sectors to beat the economic slowdown.

This is the part of $4.2 billion (about Rs 20,160 crore) additional
fund that India is seeking over and above the permissible annual grant
to the country.

"We have sought additional World Bank funding over and above what is
normally admissible every year additional to the extent of $4.2
billion. Of that $3 billion has been sought for the recapitalisation
of the banks over the period of about two years," Department of
Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawala said in a post interim-budget
conference.

The process is currently in the pipeline and appropriate provision and
inclusion would be made in the Budget statement as we go along during
the year," he said.

In his interim-budget speech during the day Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee said "government would recapitalise the public sector banks
over the next two years to enable them to maintain Capital to Risk
Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 12 per cent to ensure credit growth
continues to sustain economic growth."

Fertiliser sop bill: Rs102k cr
14 Feb 2009, 0128 hrs IST, Prabha Jagannathan, ET Bureau

The nation's actual fertiliser subsidy bill for 2008-09 is now pegged
at about Rs 1,14,000 crore, thanks mainly to the high price of
crude oil for the better part of 2008. Of this, the department of
finance (DoF) has already spent Rs 1,02,000 crore by January end.

An additional Rs 12,000 crore spend is estimated. This is despite the
steep drop in the global prices of fertiliser inputs and raw materials
between October 2008 and early 2009.

"It is estimated that an additional Rs 12,000 crore subsidy spend will
be incurred over and above what is already spent," fertilisers and
chemicals minister Ram Vilas Paswan told Parliament here on Friday,
even as global prices refused to come down to the pre-peak 2007
levels.

Ironically, those persistently high prices may themselves be dictated
by India, among the biggest fertiliser shoppers in the global market.
The level of global prices in fact drove domestic fertiliser
production into the negative for the first nine months of the year,
affecting availability and necessitating increasing imports and
creating an upward pressure on international prices of fert
commodities.

According to the DoF, compared to about 4.7 mt of urea imported in
’07-08, imports are already to the tune of 5.7 mt in ’08-09. More
imports are expected before March, bringing up the level of imports to
around 6-6.5 mt of urea, 6 mt of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and 5 mt
of muriate of potash (MoP).

Ironically, in last December, the government had estimated a subsidy
bill of slightly lower than Rs 1, 10,000 crore over an earlier
projected amount of Rs 1, 20,000 crore. Based on January 2008 prices,
in fact, the DoF had estimated even earlier that the subsidy bill
would mount to a massive Rs 65,000 crore for this fiscal.

Despite that, budgetary provisions for the year, were only a paltry Rs
31,000 crore, just Rs 486 crore more than the revised allocation for
2007-08. That allocated amount, in fact, was enough to ensure supplies
only up to June 2008.

However, while the drop of around Rs 10,000 crore in subsidy estimates
(down from a higher Rs 1,20,000 crore-odd) was primarily on account of
lower global prices for inputs and raw materials in the last few
weeks, DoF officials maintained that a fast-depreciating rupee against
the dollar blocked any further cut in the subsidy bill.

There is still a big plus side to the massive subsidy bill, however.
The falling price of crude oil. And this hit multi year lows today at
only $ 35-odd per barrel. "The upside on the projected saving on the
subsidy bill is that if crude oil prices had continued rising through
August, September and October, this fiscal's subsidy spend could have
been much higher, at Rs 1,50,000 crore," an official said.

Here's an indication of how the fall in global prices impacted the
fertilsier subsidy bill footed by the government. In the two months
between mid-August and mid-October 2008 alone, the global price of
sulphur, a key input, nosedived from a phenomenal price of around $850/
tonne to only $65/tonne by year end.

Global urea price, meanwhile, shed a price flab of nearly 30% in the
three months up to mid October 2008, and reigned at around $250/tonne
f.o.b. in December. In addition to about $50/tonne for freight, that
brought up the price of urea in December to about $280/300/tonne from
a significantly higher $450/tonne earlier.

In addition, the forced shutdown leading to a loss of production and
energy efficiency thanks to the oil PSU strike in January 2009 alone
added around Rs 100 crore.


CIA helped India, Pak share 26/11 intelligence: Report

Washington America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has played a
crucial role in India and Pakistan sharing secret intelligence
information on Mumbai terrorist attacks, a media report claimed on
Monday.
In a front page article, The Washington Post said CIA "orchestrated
back-channel intelligence exchanges" between India and Pakistan with
the top American intelligence agency itself playing the role of a
neutral arbitrator.

"The exchanges, which began days after the deadly assault in late
November, gradually helped the two sides overcome mutual suspicions
and paved the way for Islamabad's announcement last week acknowledging
that some of the planning for the attack had occurred on Pakistani
soil, The Post quoted sources as saying.

On November 26 last year, 183 people, including American nationals,
were shot dead by Pakistani terrorists who entered Mumbai through sea.
Only one of the Pakistani terrorists involved in the attack was
captured by the Indian security forces and is in the custody of Mumbai
police.

Referring to interviews with sources in the US and foreign government,
the newspaper said the intelligence went well beyond the public
revelations about the ten Mumbai terrorists, and included
sophisticated communications intercepts and an array of physical
evidence detailing how the gunmen and their supporters planned and
executed their three-day killing spree in Mumbai.

"Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies separately shared their
findings with the CIA, which relayed the details while also vetting
the intelligence and filling in blanks with gleanings from its
networks," the Post quoted sources as saying.

"The US role was described in interviews with Pakistani officials and
confirmed by US sources with detailed knowledge of the arrangement.
The arrangement is ongoing, and it is unknown whether it will continue
after the Mumbai case is settled," the newspaper said.

The Post article is a revelation as so far only the role of FBI in the
Mumbai investigation was known.

Terming the sharing of intelligence information between the two South
Asian neighbours as unparallel, The Post said this signalled a thawing
of tensions between the two countries.

"India shared evidence bilaterally, but that's not what cinched it," a
senior Pakistani official familiar with the exchanges was quoted as
saying. "It was the details, shared between intelligence agencies,
with the CIA serving mainly as a bridge," the official said.

Observing that intelligence has been a good bridge, a US official was
quoted as saying: "Everyone on the American side went into this with
their eyes open, aware of the history, the complexities, the tensions.
But at least the two countries are talking, not shooting."
Net borrowings in the next financial year could be as high as $55
billion, up from $47 billion in FY09, analysts at Goldman Sachs said
in a note.

Goldman Sachs has forecast the cumulative deficit to fall marginally
to 10 percent of GDP in the next financial year, mostly due to a
falling subsidy bill; but said that federal deficit may increase to
6.5 percent, from 6.1 percent in the current fiscal.

Information through website not enough under RTI
Krishnadas Rajagopal
Posted: Feb 16, 2009 at 1352 hrs IST
New Delhi Posting information on government websites may not be enough
under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Central Information
Commission has directed public authorities to make available printed
or CD copies of information to RTI applicants even if the same data is
available online.

“All applicants may not have access to websites. Whereas it is helpful
to give information on the website, the Public Information Officer
(PIO) must always offer to give the same on a CD or hard copies,”
Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said.

The Bench was deciding an appeal filed by Chandigarh resident Harish
Kochhar against the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which
repeatedly referred him to its official website in answer to his RTI
queries.

To his first question on whether the CBSE maintained a list of records
“essentially submitted to CBSE by affiliated schools on a yearly
basis”, the PIO merely stated that schools concerned follow the rules
of the Board and directed Kochhar to the education body's websites
www.cbseaff.nic.in and www.cbse.nic.in.

The Board gave the same pattern of answers to the next eight
questions, mostly confining itself to a one-liner “as above Question
no. 1”.

“The PIO has given an inadequate reply and that too very late. It is
also apparent that there was no reason for the delay. The PIO will
give the CD to the appellant free of cost before February 25,” the
Bench directed CBSE PIO Rama Sharma. Issuing notice to Sharma to
explain why a penalty should not to be levied on her, the Information
Commissioner directed the former to produce proof that she had parted
with the information to Kochhar.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Information-through-website-not-enough-under-RTI/424165/

Disappointing budget: It's over to RBI
16 Feb 2009, 1624 hrs IST, T K Arun, ET Bureau
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4137581.cms

India may face downgrade on deficit
16 Feb 2009, 1615 hrs IST, Saikat Das, ET Bureau
MUMBAI: India’s rising fiscal deficit, seen at 6 per cent of GDP at
end 2008-09, might lead to downgrade of the country by international
ratings

Highlights
What is a vote-on-account?
Interim Budget on Agriculture
agencies. The fiscal deficit for the current year is far higher than
the initial target of 2.5 per cent. For the year 2009-10, it is
expected to be 5.5 per cent.

Worried over the rising fiscal deficit, market watchers are not ruling
out a downgrade by rating agencies.

Standard and Poor's is already said to be planning a review India's
domestic debt rating after the government's interim budget on Monday
forecast increased borrowing and a higher fiscal deficit.

Said Saurabh Nanavati, CEO, Religare AMC: “The interim budget has
turned out to be a dampener for the market, which was expecting
industry sops and lesser fiscal estimates. In case of any further fall
in indirect and direct revenue collections by the government, I expect
the combined fiscal deficit at around 9 per cent by the end of March
2010. The compounding fiscal situation may force rating agencies to
downgrade India.”


Also Read
→ Service tax budgeted at Rs.689 bn for 2009-10
→ Delhi gets Rs 2360 crore in budget ahead of C'wealth Games
→ Interim budget 2009/10 dishearten shippers
→ Full Budget can take cues from today's speech: FM




Poor corporate performance is seen as the main reason for low revenue
collections by the government. “In order to push up their topline,
companies are bound to take hits in their bottom line. This results in
lower payment of direct and indirect taxes,” pointed out Waqar Naqvi,
chief executive, Taurus Mutual Fund.

Ravi Sankar, banking analyst at Antique Broking, said, “the downward
risk to GDP estimates will increase chances of fiscal deficit ending
up to be more than 6 per cent by the end of FY 2009. Hence, chances of
re-assessing India’s situation by rating agencies are high.”

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhdzvh35_882gn2rkqd8

Interim Budget failed to bring cheer to eastern business houses


16 Feb 2009, 2027 hrs IST, ET Bureau



KOLKATA: The cross section of industry in Kolkata mostly desisted from
commenting on the vote on account exercise conducted by acting finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament. The budgetary proposals, or
the lack of them, failed to bring any cheer to eastern business
houses.

"There is nothing in it insofar as I am concerned, " said Mr Gaurav
Swarup of Paharpur Cooling Towers. Mr S K Roy of Peerless General
Finance & Investment Company Limited did not even attempt a response.
"I had no expectations on the policy or tax front from this budget,
since a vote on account is a routine exercise," Aditya Khaitan of
McLeod Russel (India) Limited said.

Comparatively better was Mr Sanjiv Goenka of RPG Group. "I don't think
the acting finance minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee or the UPA government
missed out on an opportunity by not announcing fresh stimulus
measures. After all, in a vote on account, industry cannot harbour
expectations on fresh policy announcements. It is not that the
government is not sending stimulus signals to industry. ..last week's
relaxation of FDI norms is a case in point. As the government slips
into election mode, industry should expect a decline in the number of
fresh policy measures," he said.

Mr Harshavardhan Neotia of Ambuja Realty group was frank about the
fact that Monday's budgetary exercise did not have much to talk about.
"The initial part of Mr Mukherjee's speech was predictably a report
card of the UPA government's achievements for the past four years. The
fact that both fiscal deficit and revenue deficit are projected to
shoot up is a direct fall out of the global meltdown. While in the
past, the interim budget has been used as a populist platform, I
personally am not clear on the legality of the interim budget's
boundaries.

Mr Mukherjee, as one of the senior most ministers in the UPA
government, is obviously conversant on the legalities and the
propriety issue which would perhaps have influenced the decision to
keep it pretty neutral. It is not that the government has not been
initiating measures to counter the slowdown. The recent FDI initiative
and the earlier measures announced by the RBI as cases in point."

Sanjay Budhia of Patton Group said: "Continued emphasis on
infrastructure is a step in the right direction. It will yield long
term results in terms of growth and employment in core sectors like
steel and cement, for instance. Such investment in infrastructure is
welcome and so is the thrust on social sector, especially on
education. But the exporters' community has been left disappointed.

Against an average of 26% growth in last four years, the sector
witnessed negative growth in December 2008 with prospects looking dim
in the near term. The government has not announced any stimulus for
them. Even engineering exports has not been given any incentive like
enhancement of DEPB or through duty drawback scheme. Given our high
logistics costs, a marginal interest rate cut for some sectors is
unlikely to provide much succour."

Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry said the interim budget did not
contain any special stimulus packages or any special proposals on
direct and indirect taxes and to that extent it could be viewed as a
non event at this juncture.

Steel, cement cos may witness surge in demand


16 Feb 2009, 1809 hrs IST, Pramugdha Mamgain & Mithun Roy, ET Bureau



NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Steel and cement companies are expected to see surge
in demand due to the fund allocation to the Bharat Nirman scheme, a
time-bound plan for building rural infrastructure.

"The two major inputs that go into almost every infrastructure project
are cement and steel and Bharat Nirman is all about providing
infrastructure facilities to the common masses. Work on new steel
projects, which were held back because of slowdown in demand, will be
expedited with the increase in construction work," said JSW Steel
executive director (commercial) Vinod Naval.

However, the cement and steel makers put a caveat to this expectation:
work on projects under the scheme should commence in time. Said Jindal
Steel and Power director Sushil Maroo, "The impact of allocation of Rs
40,000 crore towards Bharat Nirman would be known only once projects
are on the ground. As of now, it's more of a psychological demand
booster. Demand for long products have already started moving upwards
with the rise in construction activities."

Ispat Industries managing director Vinod Mittal said, "The economy is
passing through extraordinary times and so the steel industry was
expecting more from of the interim budget. Globally, countries have
already announced huge stimulus packages to save employment and revive
demand. The budget was a good opportunity for the Indian government to
announce initiatives in this direction."

Commencement of work on infrastructure projects would mainly increase
the demand for long steel products such as TMT bars and structurals.
Long steel products constitute about 60% of the country's total steel
production. In the last few months, the government has taken few steps
to safeguard the domestic industry from cheap imports and increase
consumption of domestic production. Steel products attract 5% import
duty.

A L Kapur, managing director of Ambuja Cements, told ET that the 261%
increase in fund allocation will provide a fillip to the demand for
cement. The announcement has come at an opportune time when the major
players are implementing expansion. As the incremental capacities come
to fruition gradually during the year, the additional produce may take
care of the new demand to be created from the Bharat Nirman scheme, he
added.

"It's a positive interim budget but the big question is whether the
new government will retain the same or they will bring new changes," H
M Bangur, Cement Manufacturers' Association president and managing
director of Shree Cement said. "The industry is waiting for the real
budget in June-July which will be presented by the new government," Mr
Bangur added.

The cement industry has seen growth in dispatches over the past two
months and the announcement of interim budget will further increase
its demand. The possibility of strengthening of cement prices is very
high, said an analyst with a foreign brokerage.

However, the stock market is not excited with the fund allocation, if
one goes by the performance of the steel and cement stocks on Monday.
While the Tata Steel stock slipped 5.20% to close at Rs 184.05, SAIL
lost 4.47% to Rs 86.60. The JSW Steel stock was down by 7.47% to Rs
215.05 on the BSE. All the frontline cement stocks slipped on Monday:
Grasim lost 1.19% to close at Rs 1349, ACC was down by 2.75% to close
at Rs 561.45, Ambuja Cements slipped by 3.61% to close at Rs 70.70.

Asia looks to turn latest crisis into opportunity


16 Feb 2009, 1232 hrs IST, REUTERS
BEIJING: In 1997/98, Asia fell into the economic abyss because of a
dependence on inflows of foreign capital, which suddenly turned tail.
Ten years on, the region is again in economic freefall because of its
dependence on foreigners, who this time can no longer afford to buy
Asia's manufactures.

Will the region ever learn to stand on its own feet? The question is a
little unfair. Governments did in fact learn from the Asian financial
crisis. They built up current account surpluses and vast stockpiles of
currency reserves that have provided a buffer during the turmoil: no
Asian country has suffered a currency and banking meltdown like
Iceland has.

Moreover, export-led growth is a tried-and-tested economic development
model. No one is saying Asia should stop exporting. But rather than
decoupling from the global economy, Asia has been steadily increasing
its exposure to external demand. Asian exports of goods and services
rose to 53.4 percent of GDP in 2006 from 42.8 percent in 1998,
according to a European Central Bank working paper.

By comparison, the ratio in 2006 was 11 percent in the United States
and 16 percent in the euro zone. The corollary is that domestic demand
in Asia has been suppressed. California consumes about as much as all
of China, while Texas consumes about as much as all of of India, notes
Rob Subbaraman, an economist with Nomura in Hong Kong.

So if they are to turn a crisis into an opportunity, now is the time
for policymakers to start implementing the plethora of reforms
prescribed down the years to spur domestic consumption. A partial list
would include introducing competition in industries that are
frequently dominated by one or two state-owned or politically well-
connected firms; making it easier to start service businesses;
nurturing deep financial markets, especially for household credit; and
building social safety nets so people don't need to save as much for a
rainy day.

"Greater emphasis than has been given in the past now needs to be paid
to the development of reliable health services, broader access to
education and the loosening up of the service sector, from Internet
sales to domestic helpers," David Mahon of Mahon China Investment
Management Ltd said in a report. NEED TO COORDINATE Such deep-seated
changes pose a daunting challenge for countries with sometimes
creaking administrative machinery. Reform will also entail taking on
vested interests that do well out of the present growth model.

"All these issues are often political economy issues. So it's a
question of whether countries have the maturity to proceed with this
transition. Maybe, maybe not," said Dominique Dwor-Frecaut, an
economist with Royal Bank of Scotland in Singapore. It is also hard to
imagine a successful rebalancing of Asian growth -- a crucial element
of a sounder global economy -- without an eventual strengthening of
regional exchange rates.

Firmer currencies would enable Asian consumers to buy more from
abroad, including services such as tourism and education, and induce a
shift in investment away from export industries and into domestic
sectors that make non-tradeable goods. Protective of its exports, Asia
has long resisted currency appreciation and will evidently not switch
tack when trade is collapsing.

But it is not too soon to start making plans. Finance ministers from
13 Asian countries will discuss expanding a currency swap and pooling
arrangement to $120 billion from $80 billion at a meeting in Thailand
this weekend. But they are fighting yesterday's war: the swaps have
not been needed and, even if the mechanism was activated, the sums
involved are a drop in the bucket next to private capital flows.

Instead, ministers should spend their time thinking about how they can
cooperate to bring about collective structural change. "At the moment
it would be completely impractical for them to appreciate their
currencies," Dwor-Frecaut said. "But once this crisis is over -- and
in my view we're talking about a 2-3 year time horizon -- they should
have coordinated currency appreciation and some fiscal expansion to
support their domestic sector," she added.

Subbaraman with Nomura agrees that it would be suicidal for Asia's
open economies to push up exchange rates in the eye of an export
storm. The Japanese bank expects Taiwan to report this week a 4.5 per
cent year-on-year contraction in fourth-quarter GDP. It is also
forecasting a 45 per cent plunge in Singapore's non-oil domestic
exports in January from a year earlier. But Subbaraman said the omens
for currency appreciation in Asia were more auspicious now than at any
point in the last decade.

"There's been a collapse in global demand, which raises question marks
about whether the region should continue to rely on an export-led
growth model," he said. Subbaraman is telling clients that Asian
exchange rates could appreciate substantially within the next two
years as global capital flocks back to the region.

"It's hard to envisage it now, but Asia's the least ugly of all the
regions, and when risk aversion eventually comes down -- and it will
-- Asia will attract massive inflows," he said. The risk of continued
intervention to brake currency appreciation is real, but Subbaraman
thinks central banks will be more tolerant if fiscal stimulus packages
now being implemented across the region succeed in replacing lost
export demand.

"If they see signs in a year's time of demand improving, maybe they'll
be more willing to let currencies appreciate," he said.

Interim Budget lack direction: Asim Dasgupta


16 Feb 2009, 2022 hrs IST, ET Bureau
KOLKATA: Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance
Ministers Asim Dasgupta, who also happens to be West Bengal's finance
minister, is
pleased about the expansion of budgetary provisions for social sector
development projects. But he was skeptical about utilisation of these
schemes, given the rigid nature of the guidelines.

Mr Dasgupta was particularly critical when he said the interim budget
had done precious little to address the needs of the Indian economy in
the backdrop of the global economic slowdown. What seemed to have
peeved the MIT-educated minister most was the lack of direction on how
to cope with the current slackness in global economy .

There s no provision in the interim budget on how to cope with the
current economic situation in light of the global economic meltdown.
However, the state finance minister remains hopeful that the concerns
for the state governments will be addressed in final Union Budget for
2009-10.

But Mr Dasgupa did have a word of praise for some of acting finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee s proposals. He was particularly pleased
with the doubling of the annual plan outlay for programmmes like
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), in step with the
recommendations of the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers.
But the real issues, according to him, lie in the political rigidity
in implementation.

From the state level, as well as from the Empowered Committee of State
Finance Ministers, we have been repeatedly urging the Centre to
provide additional funds, not in terms of rigid centrally sponsored
schemes, but in terms of direct central plan funding with federal
flexibility, given to the states with broad guidelines for speedy
implementation of infrastructure projects linked to irrigation,
drainage and roads, Mr Dasgupta commented.

We are aware of the limitations and constraints of an interim budget.
We hope that when the final budget is prepared, the justified concerns
of the state governments are duly considered based on the interaction
with the states in a democratic manner, Mr Dasgupta said.

He added that the concerns of the states hadn t been reflected in the
interim budget. Besides, the figures of the central plan outlay as
mentioned in this Central budget At A Glance (2009-10) for the
concerned ministries such as those of rural development and urban
development indicated a fall in the budget estimates for the year
(2009-10) compared to the revised estimates of the current year,
2008-09.

Interestingly, West Bengal chief minister a couple of days ago, had
urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up a Rs 20,000 crore
infrastructure development fund to help state governments cope up with
the current deteriorating economic scenario developed due to global
meltdown. Mr Bhattacharjee had, in fact, written to the Prime Minister
and even urged him to set up another Rs 10,000 crore fund to develop
housing facilities for the BPL categories of people.

Not surprisingly, the West Bengal government is unhappy since none of
CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee s recommendations had been considered by
the UPA government in the interim budget.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Interim_Budget_lack_direction_Asim_Dasgupta/articleshow/4138714.cms
'The long-term future for outsourcing is positive'


16 Feb 2009, 0255 hrs IST, N Shivapriya, ET Bureau
MUMBAI: Indian IT firms, which were banking on big integration
projects from the mergers and acquisitions of banks in the US, may be
disappointed.

Nine trends for IT in 2009
Cities that are IT hubs
Technology Watch
Bangalore: India's best IT spot
The acquiring banks are opting not to integrate these systems and
instead simply, scale up their own systems and scrap the systems of
the target banks, said Gartner's VP-research, Peter Redshaw, who's
focused exclusively on financial services outsourcing. "These are
typically migration projects and much smaller," he said in an
interview with ET.

In the past, banks have opted to pick up the best systems from both
the acquiring bank and the target bank and integrate the two or go
with the system used by the acquirer. In the current slowdown, most of
the banks are opting to go with the latter because it's simpler,
cheaper and faster. "In the first case, where you work out what you
take from system of Bank A and what you take from system of Bank B, is
where IT companies get a lot of business. In the second case, there's
a bit of scaling up of systems, transferring the data and re-
formatting it. But it is more of a migration than an integration job,"
said Mr Redshaw.

Companies like TCS and Infosys Technologies that service many top US
banks were anticipating significant volume of business from
integration. For instance, both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America are
clients of TCS. This would have meant that TCS was a strong contender
for any integration project by virtue of knowing the IT systems of
both these banks.


Also Read
→ Indian IT service cos yet to outbid MNCs
→ Outsourcing firms look to India for growth
→ Indian IT needs to raise revenue per employee




IT spending by financial services firms is also not likely to rebound
in 2010, even if the economy picks up, he said. This is because there
is always a lag between recovery and IT budgets returning to pre-
slowdown levels. Mr Redshaw estimated that overall, IT budgets of
banks have shrunk by 15%. A majority of this - about 70% - is still
internal IT spending, and this likely to return to 2007-levels only by
2018. External IT spending, from which IT services vendors benefit,
is, however, likely to rebound much faster. This is because banks are
increasingly moving more work outside.

If the economy recovers in 2010, Mr Redshaw expects external IT spends
to get back on track by 2011-12. "The long-term future for outsourcing
is positive and healthy. Where banks will make those big cuts and
where the cuts will be permanent in their internal spending," he
added.

Customers have become more risk-averse in the current environment
after the Satyam scam. And, vendors are evaluated on a number of
counts including where they are headquartered, under which country's
jurisdiction they operate, if they have a US listing and what
disclosure norms they follow and where their board is domiciled
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/ITeS/The_long-term_future_for_outsourcing_is_positive/articleshow/4133722.cms


Service sector to see slower growth, says industry lobby


15 Feb 2009, 1627 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: India's service sector could see slower growth, a
Confederation of India Industry (CII) report released on Sunday
showed.


According to CII, recent data on specific service sector activities
gives a mixed picture - while there has been a sharp drop in
indicators such as tourist arrivals or air freight and passenger
movements, railway traffic and cellular subscriber growth have been
holding up.

In banking, deposit and credit growth have begun to slow down - though
only moderately. Given that the service sector accounts for over 50
percent of GDP, trends in this sector will have important implications
for growth in the coming year, the industry lobby noted.

CII also said the manufacturing sector has been severely affected,
with the growth in net sales of a sample of 324 companies declining
from 32.4 percent in the quarter ending September 2008 to 6.6 percent
in December 2008.

Profit after tax (PAT), which declined by 4.3 percent in the second
quarter, showed a further decline of 28.5 percent the next quarter
ending December 31.

The study said the global financial crisis has had a significant
impact on domestic monetary conditions: as capital outflows gathered
steam, the Indian banking system faced a severe liquidity crunch in
September and October.

This, CII said, has had an impact on banks' lending behaviour. Banks
are averting taking risk, on account of increased fears of default.

Subsequently, credit growth has witnessed a slowdown, especially in
the small scale sector. The year-on-year growth in bank lending has
dropped from a peak of 29 percent last October to 22 percent as of Jan
16, 2009.

Technology & tolerance: Tools to treasure


Diversity, and freedom to espouse it, is necessary for organisations,
and also for a technologically and resurgent India.



India's growth: World waits in anticipation


Good governance alone will help India to meet the challenges of the
current economic crisis and realise its promise as a dynamic market.

The power of managing complexity


Downturns reveal a company's weaknesses. An organisation focused
during a period of expansion may be ineffectual when demand drops
off.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinionshome/897228639.cms

Simplify transfer pricing, service tax rules: Nasscom
New Delhi (PTI): Not finding mention in the interim Budget has not
disappointed the 52 billion dollar Indian IT industry but it certainly
wants the Government to simplify certain rules on service tax and
transfer-pricing to make India more ... More

Infosys has no lay off plans; to go ahead with new recruitments
Chennai (PTI): IT major Infosys has no plans to lay off its employees
and is going ahead with placement of all the 18,000 candidates who
were extended offer letters. "No, we do not have any plans," Infosys
Chief Executive Officer and Managing ... More

Nokia launches new handsets
BARCELONA: Nokia on Monday announced the availability of four new
handsets at the Mobile World Congress 2009 at Barcelona.The new Nokia
E75 will be the successor of the popular-with-business people
communicator series. The E75 sports a sliding ... More

SC gives conditional nod to debt transactions by banks 'One in three
Asian cos may freeze base pays this year' Budget fails to cheer
exporters; more layoffs feared Satyam soars on SEBI relaxation of
takeover norms Moser Baer India promoter pledges 1.56 per cent stake
Textile, fertiliser stocks plunge on BSE despite govt measures Hosiery
manufacturers body disappointed over interim budget Realty firms
plunge as interim budget disappoints investors Educomp appoints Grant
Thornton as internal auditor AAA Project Ventures pledges 16.35 pc
stake in Reliance Infrastructure China warns protectionism will hurt
recovery Singapore Airlines to cut capacity, ground planes Japan
economy contracts sharply in fourth quarter Obama adviser: Auto
industry must restructure Dubai firms to seek avenues in India's IT
sector Travel and tourism industry go for online ads OPEC willing to
cut output: Qatar energy minister Economy, opportunity spur interest
in India RBS to unveil 'brutal' cost-cutting measures: Reports

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006hdline.htm



Northern Voices Online
Budget boost for gas hydrates, polar sciences research
Hindu - 51 minutes ago
New Delhi (PTI): The Interim Budget on Monday effected a 29 per cent
hike in the allocation for the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) which
will spend more on research on gas hydrates and boosting polar science
studies.
Delhi gets Rs 2360 crore in budget ahead of C'wealth Games Economic
Times
DAE gets Rs 4835.28 crore, 2.59 pc less than previous fiscal Press
Trust of India
NDTV.com - Business Standard - Livemint - Financial Express
all 98 news articles »




Indian fiscal deterioration a concern - Fitch
Reuters India - 39 minutes ago
By Anurag Joshi MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's fiscal position was a
concern for the country's rating, Fitch Ratings said on Monday,
although it said the deterioration revealed in the government's
interim budget on its own would not lead to a downgrade.
Fiscal deficit widens to 6%, FRBM breached Business Standard
India may face downgrade as deficit balloons Economic Times
Moneycontrol.com - Myiris.com - Livemint - Equity Bulls
all 47 news articles » हिन्दी में »




Thaindian.com
Realty stocks stumble as budget dashes investors' hopes
Economic Times - 56 minutes ago
16 Feb 2009, 1957 hrs IST, PTI MUMBAI: With the interim budget dashing
investors' hopes, realty stocks today nosedived on the Bombay Stock
Exchange led by realty majors DLF and Unitech, which suffered the
brunt of the sell off on the bourse.
Budget disappoints: Sensex slides 329pts, RIL sheds 5% Business
Standard
Textile, fertiliser stocks plunge on BSE despite govt measures Hindu
Sify - NDTV.com - Livemint - Press Trust of India
all 161 news articles » हिन्दी में »



AFP Budget fails to cheer exporters
Business Standard, India - 2 hours ago
... operating in few labour intensive sectors was the only fiscal
stimulus measure announced in today’s Interim Budget presented by
Pranab Mukherjee. ...
Budget fails to address recession: Opposition parties Times of India
Status quo on tax rates in high-deficit interim budget Economic Times
PM's heart was in Parliament during Budget presentation Hindu
Economic Times - Hindu
all 774 news articles »

Fresh News Nifty falls 3% as non-event budget disappoints
Economic Times, India - 8 hours ago
... of long positions on Monday as traders were disappointed after the
stand-in finance minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the interim
budget for FY09-10. ...
Markets slip as government presents interim budget Hindu
Close: Interim budget frustrates investors, drags Sensex by 3.4%
Livemint
Interim budget fails to cheer markets Hindu
Economic Times - Economic Times
all 157 news articles »
Interim Budget 'election oriented': Orissa CM
Business Standard, India - 2 hours ago
The Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today termed the interim
budget of the Union government for 2009-10 presented by Pranab
Mukherjee in the parliament ...

Newstrack India Budget boost for gas hydrates, polar sciences research
Hindu, India - 54 minutes ago
The interim budget presented in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee allocated Rs 1060 crore for the Ministry headed by
Kapil Sibal — a hike ...
DAE gets Rs 4835.28 crore, 2.59 pc less than previous fiscal Press
Trust of India
Interim budget earmarks Rs.10 bn for 2010 Commonwealth Games
Thaindian.com
all 92 news articles »
Hosiery manufacturers body disappointed over interim budget
Hindu, India - 4 hours ago
Pointing out that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who
presented the interim budget, was concerned on the decline of export
growth down to 17.1 ...
How different is Vote-on-Account from a full Budget
IBNLive.com, India - 11 hours ago
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee dons the role of FM
precisely 25 years after he presented the last Budget. But instead of
a full Budget, ...
Learning with Times: Vote-on-account deals with expenditure side ...
Times of India
all 6 news articles »
Can Cong break vote-on-account jinx?
Times of India, India - 17 hours ago
The only one of them who went on to present the full budget later in
the year was Sinha in 1998. In every other case, the minister who
presented the interim ...
Fiscal deficit quadruples
Times of India, India - 7 hours ago
NEW DELHI: The interim Budget presented in the Parliament on Monday
indicated that the revenue deficit quadrupled due to the impact of the
fiscal stimulus ...
Fiscal deficit to rise to 5.5% on higher spending; lower taxes Press
Trust of India
Interim budget was a non-event as expected: Religare AMC Myiris.com
As deficit soars, next govt to inherit painful legacy Livemint
all 30 news articles »
Pranab presents interim Budget
Sify, India - 9 hours ago
New Delhi: The External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, began
presenting the interim Budget for the next fiscal amid expectations
that measures will be ...
Govt extends interest subsidy to exporters till September
Times of India, India - 7 hours ago
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the interim budget.
Earlier, the interest subvention of two per cent could be availed of
till March. ...
Budget fails to cheer exporters NDTV.com
all 10 news articles »





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Budget ignores gems and jewellery sector: GJEPC
Economic Times, India - 2 hours ago
The interest subvention of two per cent will be extended beyond March
31 till September 30, Union Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who presented
the interim ...
Investors await Interim Budget; stocks seen ranged
Economic Times, India - 11 hours ago
The interim Budget, to be presented by External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee who is currently holding the charge of Finance
Ministry, ...
Interim budget 2009/10 disheartens shippers
Reuters India, India - 3 hours ago
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian shipping firms were disappointed with the
interim budget 2009/10 presented on Monday as it did not announce any
sops to boost the ...

BBC News Indian fiscal deficit set to rise
BBC News, UK - 6 hours ago
... Pranab Mukherjee told parliament. "There may be a need to consider
additional fiscal measures when the budget is presented by the new
government. ...
India fiscal deficit worrying, to review rating - S&P's Reuters India
all 18 news articles »
Stocks to watch: Satyam, Jet Airways, ICICI Bank, TCS, HBL Power ...
Economic Times, India - 11 hours ago
The interim Budget, to be presented by External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee who is currently holding the charge of Finance
Ministry, ...BOM:532174 - BOM:532617 - BOM:500376
Indian shares shed 0.6 pct early; budget awaited
Reuters - 10 hours ago
... on weak Asian cues and as investors awaited an interim budget that
is expected to be presented to parliament at 11 am (0530 GMT). By 9:55
am (0425 GMT), ...
Lok Sabha adjourned after MP falls sick during budget speech
Hindu, India - 8 hours ago
New Delhi (IANS): Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had to
interrupt the interim budget presentation by Minister for External
Affairs Pranab Mukherjee on ...
Govt revenues from oil to go up marginally next fiscal
Business Standard, India - 2 hours ago
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in the Interim Budget for 2009-10
presented to Parliament today, put subsidy for domestic LPG and
kerosene at Rs 3109 ...
Interim budget focuses on agriculture & rural development
Myiris.com, India - 4 hours ago
The sixth interim budget presented by Pranab Mukherjee had a host of
goodies for agriculture and rural development. Mukherjee also took
pain to point out ...
Rupee ends weaker as budget disappoints
Commodity Online, India - 2 hours ago
Indian rupee ended trading Monday in the red as the interim budget
presented today failed to excite investors amid gains in the dollar
against major units ...
India to Borrow Record 3.62 Trillion Rupees in FY10 Bloomberg
all 41 news articles »


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AFP With FM's hands tied by convention, it's over to the RBI
Economic Times, India - 5 hours ago
He has followed the tradition of the interim budget merely being a
vote on account, without tweaking taxation. The global economic crisis
and its impact on ...
Union Budget: No new tax, no new scheme Gujarat Global.com
UPA to go for major tax sops in Interim Budget IBNLive.com
HIGHLIGHTS-India's interim budget for fiscal year 2009/10 Reuters UK
RTT News - SamayLive
all 774 news articles »
Interim Budget 2009: Fiscal deficit zooms to 6 per cent; seen ...
domain-B, India - 4 hours ago
This would be lower than in 2008-09, but higher than would be
appropriate under normal circumstances, acting finance minister Pranab
Mukerjee said while ...
Revenue deficit For 2009-10 estimated At 4 Per cent & fiscal ... Press
Information Bureau (press release)
all 30 news articles »
Yesterday once more: Shortest FM marks budget long haul
Times of India, India - 17 hours ago
NEW DELHI: When Pranab Mukherjee finished presenting his first budget
for one hour 35 minutes as finance minister in 1982, Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi ...
A lame duck budget?
Reuters India, India - 11 Feb 2009
The views expressed in this column are his own) By DH Pai Panandiker
Next week Pranab Mukerjee will present the pre-election budget which
conventionally has ...

Newstrack India Interim Budget '09: Rs 953231 crore expenditure
proposed
Newstrack India, India - 5 hours ago
In the Interim Budget-2009-10, Gross Tax Revenue receipts at the
existing rates of taxation are estimated at Rs.6,71293 crore and
Centre’s net tax revenue ...
Can a vote on account alter tax rates?
Hindu Business Line, India - 6 Feb 2009
6 Can the Government change the rates of taxation in a request for a
vote on account? The question has arisen following the statement made
by Mr P. ...

IT Examiner Budget vote slated for 16 February
IT Examiner, India - 28 Jan 2009
Dr Ambedkar introduced vote on account in the Constitution stating
that financial statement and the government's taxation proposals and
proposals for ...
Ethiopian PM in India to bolster bilateral ties
Thaindian.com, Thailand - 5 Feb 2009
Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee after meeting Zenawi in New Delhi,
said, ” We are committed to make our own contribution in the
development of Ethiopia ...
New Delhi, Delhi, India, Saturday, February 07, 2009 -- (Business ...
Business Wire India (press release), India - 7 Feb 2009
They stressed for a need for an alternate institution which could
implement carbon taxation and cap trade in an equitable and agreeable
manner. ...
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How to lose your debt, slowly
Lansdale Reporter, PA - 1 hour ago
In a six-column format, write: the card name, its limit, outstanding
balance, minimum payment, payment you’re making and interest
rate. ...
Government's foreign borrowings boost BOP surplus
GMA news.tv, Philippines - 6 hours ago
MANILA, Philippines- The foreign borrowing of the national government
has boosted the country’s balance of payments in January, the Bangko
Sentral ng ...
RP's Jan BOP surplus at $1.74B ABS CBN News
all 4 news articles »
Policy forecasts stable external balance of payment
Business Standard, India - 27 Jan 2009
The third quarter review of monetary policy 2008-09 has forecast a
stable external balance of payment situation, thus stating the fears
of deficit current ...
Indian Data Watch-Interim Budget on Feb 16
Reuters - 10 hours ago
QUARTERLY PERIOD CURRENT QTR EARLIER QTR YR-AGO GDP Jul-Sep 7.6 pct
7.9 pct 9.3 pct Balance of Jul-Sep 4.73 bln -$2.24 bln -$29.24 bln
payment@ @ Source: ...
Your finances in the balance
Independent, UK - 2 hours ago
... while the Educational Grants Advisory Service at
www.egas-online.org.uk/fwa/index.html can also reveal what payments
you might be eligible for. ...
Personal Injury Recovery May Be Subject To Medical Liens
InjuryBoard.com, FL - 1 hour ago
Fortunately, in most cases, there is first party health insurance as
well as medical payment coverage in the applicable liability insurance
policy to fully ...
Balance of payments surplus seen to exceed $500 million in 2009
ABS CBN News, Philippines - 12 Feb 2009
Tetangco said, however, that the BSP is still comfortable with this
level of reserve, although officials have yet to firm up the balance
of payments (BOP) ...
Balance of payments to post higher surplus Manila Times
BSP expects ’09 BoP surplus of $500M Inquirer.net
Philippines may miss BOP targets for this year GMA news.tv
Philippine Star - BusinessWorld Online
all 26 news articles »

AFP Budget: The fiscal policy overview
Rediff, India - 5 hours ago
In addition pilots are currently underway in the States of Punjab,
Karnataka and Uttarakhand for testing a system for expenditure filing
and direct payment ...
Mukherjee faces challenges that are new, yet familiar Livemint
all 774 news articles »


Govt seeks $3 bn from World Bank for capital infusion into PSU banks
Economic Times, India - 2 hours ago
This is the part of $4.2 billion (about Rs 20160 crore) additional
fund that India is seeking over and above the permissible annual grant
to the country. ...
Will investing in PSU stocks for dividends pay off?
Hindu Business Line, India - 21 hours ago
... domestic economic outlook and the liquidity constraints being
faced by India Inc, the cash flows of most PSU companies would also be
under pressure. ...
PSUs cough up record interim dividends Hindu Business Line
all 3 news articles »

AFP Highlights of the Interim Budget 2009-10
Rediff, India - 6 hours ago
Corpus of National Investment Fund created out of disinvestment
proceeds from Central PSUs stood at Rs 1815 crore as on December 31,
2008. ...
Much ado about nothing in budget India Today
Lacklustre interim budget disappoints industry Hindu
Don't see a pre-budget rally: Ramesh Damani Moneycontrol.com
Assam Tribune - Rediff
all 774 news articles »
10 pointers for India to make a mark in engineering outsourcing
Livemint, India - 15 Feb 2009
Information technology put India on the world map of outsourcing and
made it a leader in this space. It is now the turn of engineering to
take the country ...
New norm may boost FDI in telecom: COAI
NDTV.com, India - 12 Feb 2009
More or less all leading foreign players are present in India through
joint ventures except with Reliance Communications and the two PSUs –
BSNL and MTNL. ...
Air show signs off in style
Deccan Herald, India - 10 hours ago
Even the seven-member Chinese delegation had good discussions with
Indian PSUs. SMEs could expose themselves to overseas
participants. ...

Rediff Lalu Prasad keeps a low profile
Sify, India - 14 Feb 2009
The Railway PSUs will be the key beneficiaries of this largesse but
the private sector will also benefit from sub-contracts and supplies
of parts, etc. ...
Cut for polls: fares and convention Calcutta Telegraph
all 598 news articles »

Fresh News Sensex ends 329 pts down on heavy selling in heavyweights
Sify, India - 4 hours ago
Power, PSU, information technology, telecom, pharma and consumer
durables stocks too ended with sharp losses. Select FMCG stocks bucked
the trend and posted ...
Sensex tanks over 300pts on lack of interim budget support Press Trust
of India
all 157 news articles »
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AFP India Inc hopes for 'packaged deal' from interim budget
NDTV.com, India - 9 hours ago
In India Inc.’s Pre-Budget Expectations Survey conducted under aegis
of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India
(ASSOCHAM) with ...
Not surprised by plain-vanilla Budget: India Inc IBNLive.com
Interim budget 2009 fails to satisfy India Inc Livemint
Expectations run high on eve of India's interim budget Hindu
Thaindian.com - Business Standard
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Lalu's comments on pvt firms do not go well with India Inc
Economic Times, India - 15 Feb 2009
15 Feb 2009, 1126 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: New FICCI President Harsh
Pati Singhania disagreed with observation of Railway Minister Lalu
Prasad that the ...

Rediff India Inc slams Lalu for a singular lack of ingenuity
Express Buzz, India - 13 Feb 2009
But their is an immediate need to upgrade the existing capacity to
meet the growing demands of the Indian economy," Vishwas Udgirkar,
executive director, ...
India Inc feels let down by Lalu's budget Indian Express
Industry lauds rail budget, but unhappy with freight rates
Thaindian.com
all 598 news articles »
India Inc. not satisfied, but hails high rural spending (Lead)
Thaindian.com, Thailand - 3 hours ago
Added Harsh Pati Singhania, president of the Federation of Indian
chamber of commerce and industry (FICCI): “The interim budget has set
the direction for ...
India Inc profits from extraordinary efforts
Economic Times, India - 14 Feb 2009
NEW DELHI: Without one-time gains, India Inc could have found their
going tough on the profitability street. In the recently concluded
quarter ...
India Inc. debates climate hurdles, solutions
Reuters - 12 Feb 2009
By Krittivas Mukherjee NEW DELHI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - India's
government needs to give financial support and incentives for
technological research to help ...

Sify India Inc concerned as industrial output falls again
Economic Times, India - 12 Feb 2009
NEW DELHI: Latest data on industrial output has left India Inc worried
as the official index showed a two per cent drop in December, after a
small recovery ...
India's industrial production slips to lowest in 15 years ... IBTimes
India
all 47 news articles »
FII holding in India Inc plunged to five-yr low in Q3: Citi
Hindu Business Line, India - 12 Feb 2009
“It is no surprise that foreigners own less of India Inc after Oct-Dec
2008...just as in each of the previous three quarters,” Citigroup
Global Markets ...
FII holdings in Indian cos down to 2003 level Times of India
all 6 news articles »
Economy, opportunity spur interest in India
Hindu, India - 20 hours ago
He works in Mumbai as a senior vice president for Fleishman-Hillard
Inc., a global marketing and communications firm, but his wife is
still looking. ...

Moneycontrol.com See sops for auto, export ind in Interim Budget:
India Inc
Moneycontrol.com, India - 14 Feb 2009
On Monday is the big event- the vote-on-account. But actually it is
not meant to be a big event. It is meant to be a simple statement of
account. ...


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Rediff Railways' success different from that of private sector: Lalu
Sify, India - 13 Feb 2009
New Delhi: The financial transformation of the Indian Railways - which
registered a huge turnover this fiscal - is different from the private
sector that ...
Sensex firm, rail stocks gain NDTV.com
Lalu Prasad budgets for fare cuts, 43 new trains Hindu
Slowdown puts brakes on Lalu's dream run Business Standard
Times of India - Sify
all 598 news articles »
Lalu's comments on pvt firms do not go well with India Inc
Economic Times, India - 15 Feb 2009
"The transformation of the Railways is fundamentally different from
the financial turnaround witnessed in the private sector
companies. ...
10 pointers for India to make a mark in engineering outsourcing
Livemint, India - 15 Feb 2009
This policy should integrate the existing stand-alone policies such as
civil and defence offsets, private sector participation in defence
aerospace, ...
FDI hike in insurance will hit economy, says CPI leader
Hindu, India - 17 hours ago
The effect of the US economic meltdown was not felt in the banking and
insurance sectors in India because a majority of them were with the
government, ...

Hindu Interim Budget speech 2009
Sify, India - 7 hours ago
I am happy to say that the Government of India has been successful in
attracting private investment in infrastructure sectors such as
telecommunications, ...
Whither economic reforms? The Statesman
all 28 news articles »
India’s new pension system redefines scale
Asian Investor (subscription), Hong Kong - 19 hours ago
It originated as a scheme for central government employees, with the
intention of expanding to the private unorganized sector. Last year
the Pension Fund ...
Amid financial gloom, Sun Pharma eye more
Times of India, India - 20 hours ago
Naik estimated that the company's order book position, from 50:50
between private sector and government projects will become 30:70 in
the near future. ...
Indian fiscal deterioration a concern - Fitch
Reuters India, India - 45 minutes ago
By Anurag Joshi MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's fiscal position was a
concern for the country's rating, Fitch Ratings said on Monday,
although it said the ...
16-02-2009: Fitch expects further downgrade in sovereign ratings The
Edge Daily
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