Niti Aayog suggests labour reforms for high productivity
The Dollar Business Bureau According to Niti Aayog, the government's think-tank that replaced the planning commission, labour reforms are needed to induce productivity and create jobs in the market. The report on labour importantly suggests unifying 44 labour laws into four central ones. The reforms mooted by a panel headed by Arun Jaitley, the Finance Minister, offers an overview of development activities as part of a three-year draft action-agenda. The logic behind the labour-reforms stems from challenges relating to industrial relations, establishing commensurate wages, social-security and safety for labourers as well as adopting a global labour code. Reforms in labour laws, or centralizing labour codes would also provide a fillip for investments in many sectors, besides reducing the burden of compliance. The draft-agenda ...
IMF retains India's GDP forecast at 7.5%
Source: PTI Retaining its 7.5 per cent GDP expansion forecast for India in 2016 and 2017, IMF today asked the government to cut down subsidies, initiate labour reforms and dismantle infrastructure bottlenecks to sustain strong growth. In its World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said India should continue fiscal consolidation, underpinned by revenue reforms and further reduction in subsidies. "Sustaining strong growth over the medium term will require labour market reforms and dismantling of infrastructure bottlenecks, especially in the power sector," it said. In 2015, India's growth was 7.3 per cent, which would increase to 7.5 per cent in the next two years of 2016 and 2017, IMF had earlier forecast. Retaining its last forecast, IMF said, "With the revival of sentiment and ...
Implementing business reforms key to higher growth
The Dollar Business Bureau In order to see India’s economic growth at 9-10%, , said Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). “These measures would enable India to break in to the top 50 countries on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking list over the next two-three years,” Kant said at an event of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in New Delhi on Friday. Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Economic Affairs, stressed on the need to give a thrust to skill building and said that the government is also working towards addressing key challenges in agriculture and banking sectors. He said that it is most critical to kick start the domestic private ...
Government mulling strong bilateral treaty to revise investment pacts
Source: PTI The government will soon come with a comprehensive model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), which will form basis for fixing shortcomings in existing pacts and negotiations with different countries. Government had decided to come out with a new framework after several multinational firms invoked bilateral investment protection agreements. The model text would be used for renegotiating the BITs and would form basis for new investment protection treaties. As per the proposal, the model BIT may include provisions to limit power of tribunal to award monetary compensation to an aggrieved investor, sources said. The Finance Ministry will move a Cabinet note on the issue soon. An aggrieved investor as per the proposal would have to exhaust all local remedies before initiating ...
Growth numbers look strong only due to special factors, says RBI
The Dollar Business Bureau With the RBI reducing the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.25% on Tuesday and then, in its commentary, virtually ruling out any further reduction later in the year, the focus is back fully on the government to spur India’s economic growth. Several questions, however, remain. Why did the RBI have to cut rates, if the economy is indeed growing at an annual rate of 7.5% (as the government claims)? While interacting with the media, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan touched upon this issue, but didn’t completely rubbish the official government figures. “In the eyes of the rest of the world, it is a discrepancy why we feel the need for rate cuts when the economy is growing ...
Government sensitive to concerns of investors, says RBI Governor
The Dollar Business Bureau The expectations from the new Indian government when it came to power were probably unrealistic, however, the government has taken steps to propel growth. A statement in this regard was reportedly said to have been made by Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The new government came in with tremendous expectations and the kind of expectations was probably unrealistic for any government, he added. The new NDA government has also taken steps to create a business-friendly environment for investment and by being sensitive towards the investors’ concerns, the government is also looking at addressing key economic issues, he noted. Stating that taxes are big part of the business environment, the RBI Governor also informed that ...
External sector doing remarkably well, says Reserve Bank of India
The Dollar Business Bureau | @TheDollarBiz The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) says that policy efforts, improvement in exports and a steep decline in imports helped reduce the full year current account deficit (CAD) in FY2013-14 to $32.4 billion or 1.7% of GDP (valued at around $1.9 trillion) from the large deficit of 4.9% of GDP recorded in Q1 of FY2013-14. “Following a lower trade deficit accompanied by robust growth in services export and stable flows of remittances, CAD declined to 1.7% of GDP in 2013-14,” the RBI says in its Annual Report (ended June 30, 2014). Policy decisions to curb gold imports last year were effective, and other factors such as low international prices of oil, fertilisers and ...
