The government on Friday cracked down on private fuel retailers by bringing all petrol pumps under the USO (universal service obligation) to prevent holders of fuel retail licences from wilfully shutting or starving outlets of stocks to minimise losses on petrol and diesel.
Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees for the first time on Thursday, projecting a need for "rationalisation of headcount" but offering few other new details about the $44 billion takeover of the social media company.
India is better placed than many other countries to avoid the risks of a potential stagflation with recovery broadly on track, notwithstanding an increasingly hostile external environment, as per an RBI article on the state of the economy.
US stock indexes tumbled on Thursday, with high-profile tech shares leading the rout, after the Federal Reserve's largest rate increase since 1994 to combat decades-high inflation fanned worries of a recession.
The US Federal Reserve raised its target interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday to stem a disruptive surge in inflation, and projected a slowing economy and rising unemployment in the months to come.
The oil ministry on Wednesday said state-run fuel retailers have introduced night shifts at fuel depots for loading more tankers to speed up stock replenishment at petrol pumps, even as industry data showed petrol consumption spiking 54% and diesel nearly 48% in the first fortnight of June compared to the same period of 2021.
TOI has learned that the government is looking at the options to liquidate the excess stock. “First, we need to get requests from states for getting pulses from the Central pool. The prices of pulses have been under control and sliding, which is a positive sign,” said a government official.
Data released by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) on Tuesday showed inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), rose an annual 15.9% in May, higher than the 15.1% in April and above the 13.1% recorded in May 2021. This is the highest inflation in the new series (2011-12) and the highest since the 16% posted in September 1999. WPI has been in double digits for 14 consecutive months, highlighting the entrenched price pressures.
Upcountry petrol pumps of state-run fuel retailers are suffering intermittent dry spells as curtailment by private players drives retail and bulk consumers public sector outlets, stretching their tanker fleet that were already coping with rising demand from the farm sector and holiday season road traffic.
The Reserve Bank is much ahead of the curve in containing inflation, which appeared to have peaked, though it may go for an interest rate hike in August and October, said an SBI research report on Monday. After rising to a 95-month (almost 8 years) high of 7.79 per cent in April, Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation moderated to 7.04 per cent in May.
Amazon is likely to move the Supreme Court against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order which rejected its plea challenging the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) suspension of approval of the US e-tailer’s investment in Future Coupons (FCPL).
The government on Monday said it will pursue recovery of $3.85 billion from Reliance Industries and its partners in the Panna/Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields case and is mulling an appeal against an English court order over cost recovery dispute in the same fields.
International travellers to the US will no longer need a pre-departure Covid-19 test but only proof of being full vaccinated, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said in a statement. This will be effective from Sunday (June 12) at 12.01 EDT (9.31 pm IST). The requirement of showing proof of Covid vaccination for non-citizens who are nonimmigrants is still in effect, said CDC. It has recommended Covid vaccines, including boosters, for everyone aged five years and above.
Data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday showed the index of industrial production (IIP) rose an annual 7.1% in April, compared with an upwardly revised 2.2% in March. The sector had grown by 133.5% in April 2021 on the back of a very low base of 2020 when the Covid-19 induced lockdown had smothered economic activity and growth.
India’s crude cost rose to $121.28 per barrel on Thursday, the highest since March 9, 2012 when it had hit $125.13. This has pushed the monthly average in June to $118.34 per barrel, a level last seen in April 2012 when the price averaged $118.64.
India's surprise decision to ban wheat exports has raised concerns about potential curbs on rice exports as well, prompting rice traders to step up purchases and place atypical orders for longer-dated deliveries.
Even before the bids are called, 5G auctions are fast turning out to be a turf battle between the well-heeled telecom operators such as Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea and the new-age Big Tech such as Google, Amazon, TCS and Cisco as the two sides fight over the issue of deploying high-speed private networks for enterprises.
India is considering restricting imports of refrigerators to promote local manufacturing, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday, potentially freezing out shipments from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in the $5 billion market.
More than 4.11 lakh PoS, mobile PoS and other physical devices were deployed across the country under the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) scheme as on April 30, 2022, the RBI said on Thursday.
The World Bank on Tuesday cut India's GDP growth forecast for 2022-23 to 7.5% from the earlier estimate of 8%, citing the impact of high inflation, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions.
Chief economic adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran on Monday said that developed countries need to convince their public about the urgency to adopt climate change mitigation policies and observed that there is far less support for climate policies, including tax on fossil fuels, in rich nations.
West Bengal industry minister Partha Chatterjee on Monday said the state government has given its nod to Adani Enterprises for setting up a hyper-scale data centre park at Bengal Silicon Valley in the New Town area on the outskirts of the city.
Restaurants cannot add “service charge” to food bills and it should be left to the discretion of diners to leave tips, Union food and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. Adding service charge to the bill is “chhal” (deceit), the minister said, and eateries cannot mislead people by charging for service. “It has to be the consumer’s choice," he added.
India has no plans to curb food exports for now, Piyush Goyal, the minister for commerce and industry, consumer affairs and food and public distribution said on Friday, weeks after New Delhi banned private wheat exports.
Essar Power Ltd on Friday said it has agreed to sell one of its two electricity transmission lines to Adani Transmission Ltd for Rs 1,913 crore. The sale is a part of deleveraging strategy following which Essar has repaid over Rs 1.8 lakh crore to banks and financial institutions in the last three years - the largest debt repayment in the history.
Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will provide equal opportunities to small retailers to enjoy the benefits of digital world and permit them to trade on a common platform, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
The government wants to arm itself with powers to overturn decisions of top social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Google and Instagram to suspend, block or remove accounts of users over various violations, and is also seeking new levers that will force the internet majors to take down content when directed on a user’s complaint.
LPG subsidy will be given only to poor households with ‘Ujjwala’ connections and all others will have to pay market price but the government is likely to continue to keep fuel prices in check. “Subsidies by definition are not designed to get entrenched and increased. Subsidies by definition have to be depressive,” oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.
India's merchandise exports rose by 15.46 per cent to $37.29 billion in May on account of healthy performance by sectors like petroleum products, electronic goods and chemicals, even as the trade deficit widened to $23.33 billion during the month, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.
The Schengen visa situation could in fact get worse now. The embassy of Denmark in New Delhi has temporarily suspends all new visa appointment at VFS due to “shortage of staff, absence and an unforeseen increase” in the number of applications.
Air India’s iconic Boeing 747s may have finally reached the end of the road after colouring international skies in the tricolour for over half a century. The Tata Group recently revamped the airline’s website and the jumbo jets are not shown as part of the fleet.
India expects rainfall in the biggest coal-producing areas of its east-central region to be below the long-term average this year, potentially easing utilities' coal shortages as there could be fewer disruptions to mining activity due to flooding.
State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Tuesday said the exercise of determining its embedded value as on March 2022 is a "work in progress" and is likely to be completed by the end of next month.