Plan & Policy
The two Houses of Parliament were on Wednesday adjourned without transacting much business as the opposition staged protest on a variety of issues, including Rafale jet deal, Ram temple and Cauvery river water. Wednesday was the second day of the Winter session. On the first day on Tuesday, both Houses were adjourned after paying obituary to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and union minister Ananth Kumar.
In a big blow to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), former Army Chief Gen JJ Singh resigned from the party Wednesday “disillusioned” with the party leadership.
Singh, who also served as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, had joined the Akali Dal with much fanfare ahead of the Punjab assembly elections in early 2017 and had unsuccessfully contested against chief minister Amarinder Singh from the Patiala assembly constituency.
A parliamentary panel has expressed disappointment over “difficulties” being faced by CRPF jawans fighting Naxals in Chhattisgarh in getting their daily meals and asked the government to ensure a foolproof mechanism for regular supply of nutritious food to them.
The parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, headed by Congress leader P Chidambaram, also expressed anguish over some of the CRPF personnel living in
With geo-political factors impacting crude prices, India needs to have a good oil hedging policy as the volatility will continue to rise, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Raghuram Rajan said on Wednesday.
Rajan said the issue has been discussed in the past and it began with a strategic petroleum reserve, but beyond that there is a need to think about hedging oil prices especially when it comes to levels such as now.
Air India’s union representing narrow body pilots on Wednesday alleged a majority of its members were defaulting on bank EMIs due to the salary delays which was also putting them under a lot of “stress”.
In a letter to AI chairman and managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola, the Indian commercial pilots association (ICPA) also claimed the loss-making carrier had only partially paid the pilots for October as they were yet to receive the flying allowance, which constitutes 80 per cent of their total monthly salary.
India’s air connectivity has grown the fastest in the last five years and there is “strong growth” ahead in terms of domestic passenger numbers though there are infrastructure challenges, according to IATA.
India is the fastest growing domestic aviation market in the world, IATA’s chief economist Brian Pearce said. The country registered double-digit growth in domestic aviation for the 50th consecutive month in October.
The government has detected GST evasion worth Rs 12,000 crore in 8 months till November, a senior tax official said on Wednesday.
Central board of indirect taxes and customs (CBIC) member John Joseph said despite the electronic way or E-way bill mechanism there has been rampant evasion and there is a need to increase compliance.
India’s industrial output grew at an 11-month high of 8.1 per cent in October mainly on the back of mining, power and manufacturing sectors coupled with higher offtake of capital as well as consumer durable goods.
Industrial production measured in terms of index of industrial production (IIP) grew 1.8 per cent in October last year, as per official data released by the central statistics office (CSO) on Wednesday.
The Asian Development Bank on Wednesday retained India’s economic growth forecast at 7.3 per cent for the current fiscal and 7.6 per cent for 2019-20, despite downside risks posed by stress in the non-banking sector, limited fiscal space as well as escalating trade tensions.
Shaktikanta Das, the 25th governor of the Reserve Bank of India, on Wednesday allayed fears of rift between the central bank and the government saying he would do everything to uphold the core values and autonomy of RBI.
At his first press conference, Das said every institution must adhere to principles of accountability and that the government was not just a stakeholder but managed policy and ran the country.
He said the December 14 RBI board meeting was on track and would discuss all issues listed in the agenda and set up a panel on RBI reserves shortly.
