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The agriculture sector got its due from the budgetClick here to view graphic(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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Andhra Pradesh came in for rich pickings from the budgetClick here to view graphicGraphic by Venkatesulu(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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The economy can grow an annual 5.2 per cent in the quarter to end-March on higher farm output growth, the chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council said on Friday (14 March).C. Rangarajan also said he expects the economic growth to pick up to 5.5-6 per cent in the fiscal year that begins on April 1.Contracting industrial output and an investment slowdown dragged India's economic growth to a worse-than-expected 4.7 per cent in the three months to December, making it tougher for the economy to hit the government's growth forecast of 4.9 per cent in the fiscal year that ends in March.(Reuters)
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Social Welfare: Aimed at shedding the BJP’s image of being a pro-trader, pro-urban and pro-rich partyClick here to view graphic(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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The rupee hits a one-week low of 61.50 in opening trade on risk aversion as tensions in Ukraine flared up and weak China data renewed concerns about global growth. The pair was last at 61.42/43 versus Thursday's (13 March) close of 61.17/18. The pair is up 0.6 per cent so far this week, on way to break two weeks of losses. US retail sales rebounded in February and new filings for jobless benefits hit a fresh three-month low last week, suggesting the economy was regaining strength to push the dollar higher against a basket of currencies. Data on Thursday showing that China's industrial output growth fell short of forecasts for the January-February period is also likely to weigh on regional forex on heightened concerns about the region's economic powerhouse. Asian shares skidded to a three-week low and the yen held steady at lofty levels on Friday (14 March), as heightened tension in Ukraine ahead of a weekend referendum prompted investors to shed riskier assets. (Reuters)
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Relief for the salaried worker but no such luck for corporate India in the budgetClick here to view graphicGraphic by Prashant Chaudhary(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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The Delhi High Court on Thursday (13 March) upheld the death sentence awarded to the four convicts in the brutal gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old girl here on December 16, 2012 that shook the nation's conscience and led to widespread protests. A bench of justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani confirmed the sentence of Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh, saying the offence committed by them falls in the category of rarest of the rare and upheld their conviction. "Death reference is accepted. Death sentence awarded by the trial court is affirmed. The appeals of the convicts are dismissed," the bench said. The parents of the victim were also present in the court at the time of pronouncement of the verdict. "We have got full faith in the judiciary. We had expected this verdict. But the ultimate satisfaction will be when the convicts meet to their ultimate fate," the mother of the 23-year-old paramedic told the media outside court room after the verdict was delivered. "Hume pura nayay tabhi milega jab sab faansi par latkaye jaege (We will get justice only when all of them will be hanged)," she said. The trial court had on September 13, last year awarded capital punishment to the four, saying they be "hanged till death" as the "beastly" and "hair-raising" manner in which the crime was committed against the girl fell in the rarest of the rare category. The high court had reserved its verdict on January 3 after a marathon three-and-a-half-month long hearing on the death sentence reference sent to it by the trial court and the appeals of the four convicts. On the night of December 16, 2012, Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and a juvenile had gangraped the girl in a bus after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later found to be plying illegally on Delhi roads. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 in a Singapore hospital. Ram Singh, who was the prime accused, was found dead in his cell in Tihar Jail in March last year and the proceedings against him were abated. The sixth accused, the juvenile was on August 31, 2013 convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home by the Juvenile Justice Board. (PTI)
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The BJP-led ruling coalition’s rivals attacked Budget 2014, giving it different monikers. If some called it the “Rs 100-crore scheme” Budget for the 28 Rs 100 crore proposals suggested by the finance minister, others said it borrowed heavily from the previous Budget presented by the UPA government’s P. Chidambaram.But if we did indeed miss the big message behind this year’s Budget, it was clearly BJP’s attempt to redeem itself after a bitter election campaign. Right through the fight for Lok Sabha 2014, the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi were attacked for being pro-big business and pro-rich. With Budget 2014 — the first real statement of the intentions of the ruling coalition — the government made an attempt to project itself as pro-small business, pro-SMEs and pro-poor. Perhaps, even pro-middle class.That said, it appeared to have been put together in a hurry by accommodating several demands of multiple industry associations.Big businesses will really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to salvage something for themselves — except for defence manufacturing, if it does take off at all.Naysayers aside, this Budget was about small businesses, entrepreneurs, foreign institutional investors and real estate. Period. In the following pages we attempt to present an easy-to-grasp ready reckoner of the key takeaways of Arun Jaitley's maiden Budget. Read on... (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 21-08-2014)
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Australia has committed to purchasing the US Navy's MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, its prime minister said on Thursday (13 March), continuing a trend amongst Asia-Pacific nations to protect commercial maritime interests amid rising regional tensions. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that Australia will acquire an undisclosed number of the surveillance aircraft once they become available. The US Navy is still testing the Triton and has plans to buy 68, with the first due in service in 2017. The aircraft will be used "to secure our ocean resources, including energy resources off northern Australia, and help to protect our borders", Abbott said in the statement. Defence analysts say maritime surveillance is the most pressing security need in East and Southeast Asia. Rival maritime claims that have pitted China, which has one of the world's fastest growing militaries, against Japan and other Asian nations have made the South and East China Seas dangerous flashpoints. More than 80 per cent of China's oil imports transit through the Indian Ocean on Australia's west coast. Japan, India and South Korea are also dependent on Indian Ocean routes. The Triton, under development by Northrop Grumman, is the size of a small airliner with a 40-metre wingspan. It can cruise at 20,000 metres for up to 30 hours, sweeping a distance greater than Sydney to London with 360-degree radar and sensors including infra-red and optical cameras. Australia wants drone aircraft to complement its purchase last month of eight of Boeing Co's P-8A Poseidon long-range spy planes for A$4 billion ($3.6 billion). Abbott said that the total number of Triton aircraft to be acquired, as well as their introduction into service date, will be decided in 2016. The planes will be based at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia state, Abbott said, and will bring in A$100 ($89.72) million in investments to the state, which has struggled with the loss of its manufacturing sector. (Reuters) tags : MQ-4C Triton, Asia-Pacific, Tony Abbott, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, P-8A Poseidon, RAAF Base, news 7
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Three members of a Dutch Disaster Victims Identification team arrived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Monday (21 July), the first international investigators to reach rebel-held territory since the airliner crashed last week.They declined to give any details of their plans but a representative for the rebels in the Donetsk region said rebel leaders were prepared to meet and assist them in reaching the site or the refrigerated train where some bodies are being kept.Sergei Kavtaradze, an official of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said the rebels would take advice from the international experts as to where to send the train."We are waiting for the experts to come and decide," he told Reuters.A group of Malaysian officials is also due to arrive in eastern Ukraine on Monday.Officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been in Donetsk since the end of April to monitor the situation in rebel-held territory.They are the only international officials to have been at the scene, which investigators need to be secure to have a chance of determining what and who caused the plane to plunge into the steppe.A source at the OSCE said the Dutch experts would go to the town of Torez to check the bodies in refrigerated wagons. (Reuters)
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