India's foreign exchange reserves of $320.56 billion in the week to Aug 01 are close to surpassing a record high of $320.785 billion in September 2011.Traders said RBI's intervention in the foreign exchange markets was the key reason for build up in reserves.Current reserves cover a little over eight months of imports analysts say.RBI bought a net $11.3 billion of up to one-year forwards in June, almost erasing its forward obligations.It had bought $1.8 billion in the spot market in May, latest bulletin data showed.(Reuters)
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The BRICS bloc of emerging economies will have all preparatory work done for setting up its development bank by the group's summit in July, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday (10 April).The bank Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa plan to support infrastructure projects has been slow in coming, with prolonged disagreements over its funding, management and headquarters.The group, which has struggled to take coordinated action on most issues in the past year after the scaling back of US stimulus prompted an exodus of capital from their markets, is hoping their leaders will officially launch the bank at their July meeting in Brazil."We've made very good progress on the new development bank and most of the formal documentation is ready," Gordhan told journalists after a meeting of the BRICS finance ministers in Washington."There will be a few issues left, which will be resolved between now and the middle of July when we hope the summit will take place."The start-up capital of $50 billion would eventually be built up to $100 billion. Russia has proposed that each member contributes an equal, 20 per cent share, but the share distribution is still to be decided, a BRICS source said.The bank was first proposed in 2012. The proposal was approved last year at a BRICS summit in South Africa. The group's other project, a $100 billion fund designated to steady currency markets, has also been off to a slow start, but Gordhan said progress has been made on that project, as well."On the contingency reserve arrangements, we're also almost 90 per cent of the way towards agreement. Formal documents are ready and we have the basis to reach 100 per cent agreement before the summit."Concerns Over Stalled IMF ReformsThe BRICS are also concerned that the US Congress has failed to ratify reforms to the International Monetary Fund that would double the Fund's resources and give more say to emerging markets, such as the BRICS."We've discussed our mutual concerns about the slow pace of the IMF reforms and the kind of stalemate that we find ourselves in currently and we hope work with everyone to find an equitable solution," Gordhan said."But clearly a lot depends on the US"Some officials from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies have suggested moving ahead on the reforms without the United States, although US approval would be necessary for any major decision to go forward because of Washington's controlling share of IMF votes.Gordhan declined to comment on what could be done, saying only that "there are a number of options being explored" that need further "cooking.""We believe it's in the collective interest of all us to have a strong and well-resourced IMF but also an IMF that is increasingly even-handed in the way it approaches both advanced economies and emerging markets as well," he said.(Reuters)tags:
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The rupee is trading at 60.90/91 versus Friday's close of 61.18/19, tracking losses in the dollar compared with most other Asian currencies.The pair is seen in 60.80 to 61.20 range during the session.The Nifty is trading up 0.5 per cent and will be watched for flows.RBI policy review on Tuesday to be key for near-term cues. The central bank is expected to keep rates on hold, according to a Reuters Poll. (Reuters)
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Rupee trading at 60.29/30 versus its close of 60.07/08, tracking losses in most other Asian currencies.Traders will watch February's factory output data due later in the day and consumer price inflation data next week.A Reuters poll shows the consumer inflation rate is forecast to have edged up slightly in March due to higher food prices, and factory output in February is expected to have risen at its fastest annual pace in five months.Reserve Bank of India governor ran into a wall of resistance on Thursday when he urged some counterparts in developed economies to more formally consider the effects their domestic stimulus has on emerging markets.Sensex trading weaker in early trade also weighing on rupee and will be monitored for cues on foreign fund flows.(Reuters)
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Top five IT majors will add nearly 250,000 employees, 60 per cent of them fresh from educational institutions in the coming year, according Avinash Vashistha, Chairman and Managing Director, Accenture India.A candidate can expect better packages with a sector specific certification. Acquiring digital skills will be crucial as businesses are going digital. Even the graduates joining the major IT companies could improve their salary by up to 50 per cent by doing a skill course in any IT specialisation, said Vashistha. He was speaking at a skill development summit organised by All India Management Association, the national apex body of the management professionals, in India.Given the abysmal placement figures across most technical and management institutions, Vashishtha’s remark brings a ray of hope. For instance, a student who completes a specific course on infrastructure management or analytics in his final semester during MBA would be entitled to get a better package, than his counterpart doing a general MBA.One needs to make an informed choice on his modules. There is no defined means or counseling body to assist students to decide on the modules that suits a particular industry. A student needs to do a lot of networking, beyond just indulging in the regular curriculum to be able to gather the skills in the industry he wishes to apply, said Pramod Bhasin, Chairman, The Skill Academy and former CEO, Genpact, speaking at the summit.Echoing the need to upskill students, Bhasin said, “Skills had to be made aspirational to raise participation in skill learning programmes.” He pointed out that in India only about 5 per cent of the workforce had certified skills compared to the majority in China.Focus of the country’s skill development efforts should be towards its unorganised sector. “We must address the unorganised sector which employs 95 per cent of the country’s workforce. We need to apply the NOS and certification there,” said Bhasin.India had to develop national occupational standards (NOS) for each type of skill for aligning education and training with the needs of the employers. “Every student who passes higher education should be empowered to get a job,” said Dilip Chenoy, CEO and Managing Director, NSDC.NSDC is already working with the employers to develop occupational standards for different jobs and integrate those with training and education. Defining the skills for specific jobs posed a significant challenge, remarked Chenoy. Defining skills narrowly allowed easy standardisation, testing and certification whereas narrow definitions could become obsolete quickly. Accenture, the firm that validates all numbers related to NSDC’s accomplishments, revealed that by 2030 India will add 249 million youth to its workforce, whereas China will deplete workforce by that time. The next largest addition will be only 19 million, in Pakistan. “India has an opportunity to provide workforce to the world, but without education and training that opportunity can also become an issue,” said Vashistha.
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The third phase of general elections was marked by Maoist violence in Chhatisgarh and Bihar on Thursday (10 April). It was also marked by an impressive 64 per cent voter turnout for the seven seats in the coluntry's capital where BJP is seeking victory riding on 'Modi wave' and AAP and Congress posing a challenge by promising good governance and development. About 71 per cent of the 2.43 crore electorate exercised their franchise in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala, where polling passed off on a peaceful note. About 56 per cent voting was reported in the ten Lok Sabha constituencies of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra till 5 pm today. Delhi Election Commission officials said around 64 per cent of 1.27 crore eligible voters exercised their franchise till 6 pm and the polling percentage may go up as thousands of people are still queuing up in various areas of the city even after the deadline for voting ended. In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage was recorded at 52.3 per cent, which had increased to 66 per cent in the 2013 Delhi assembly election in December last year. The high-octane campaign for the polls saw BJP, AAP and Congress engaging in a close fight to win the seven seats -- considered prestigious due to political symbolism. The prominent contenders in the fray include Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress' Ajay Maken, Sandeep Dikshit, Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, journalist-turned- politician Ashutosh and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi. Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal were among the early voters. The election results is likely to set the stage for possible assembly polls in the next few months. BJP may prefer going to assembly polls early if it puts up a good show in the Lok Sabha polls. The Lok Sabha poll mandate will also reflect AAP's support base in Delhi amidst perceived disillusionment among middle-class voters who had helped the party to make a spectacular debut in assembly polls just five months ago. Congress has also tried to regain its support base through a series of initiatives in the last four months following its crushing defeat in the assembly polls in which it got just 8 seats. Bastar LS Poll: 47% Turnout Amid Firing, Explosives SeizureA low voter turnout of 47 per cent was recorded in the insurgency-hit Bastar parliamentary seat of Chhattisgarh today, amid violence by Naxals, who had called for poll boycott, leaving a police personnel injured. Naxals ambushed a team of police personnel escorting a polling party when they were returning after conclusion of polling under Gadiras police station limits of Sukma district in south Chhattisgarh, injuring a state police constable, Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chandrakar told PTI. "The incident took place in the forests between Dhruwaras and Munga forests when the rebels triggered a pressure bomb blast followed by indiscriminate firing on security personnel," he said. "A police constable - Raju Alami - was injured in the blast," he said, adding, the injured was being taken out of the forest. Also, firing was reported near several polling booths and explosives were recovered from separate places in the tribal-dominated seat which went alone to polls in the first phase of parliamentary election in the state. "As per information, around 47 per cent electorate exercised their franchise in Bastar parliamentary constituency," Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur said. Polling concluded at 3 PM in seven Assembly seats - Bastar, Chitrakot, Narayanpur, Bijapur, Konta, Kondagaon and Dantewada - of the region while Jagdalpur Assembly seat witnessed polling till 4 PM, he said. Voting did not take place in Polampalli polling station of Konta region of Sukma district due to fault in EVM machine, he said. A total of 26 EVMs were replaced during the electoral process in Bastar due to fault in these machines, he said. "22 Electronic Voting Machines were replaced before polling, 3 during mock poll while one after voting was started," he said. Earlier, the explosives - 15 IEDs, 10 kg each - were unearthed this morning by a joint patrol squad of Border Security Force and district force from Nelnar area of Narayanpur district. Later, owing to security reasons, the Nelnar polling booth was shifted to a nearby place Akabeda, he said. Violence Hits Bihar On Poll Day, 2 CRPF Personnel KilledMaoists detonated a landmine killing two CRPF jawans and injuring seven others before polling began today for six Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar. The two CRPF personnel were killed and seven others injured in Haveli Kharagpur area of Munger district when they were on their way to polling stations of Jamui constituency. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Khargpur, Ranjan Kumar told PTI that the men belonging to 131 CRPF battalion were travelling in two jeeps to Tarapur in the Maoist-affected district for poll duty in the early hours when the attack took place. The Maoists first detonated an improvised explosive device and then fired on the CRPF personnel near Sawa Lakh Baba Mandir at the entrance of Bhimbandh jungle at around 5.30 am with the security personnel returning the fire. The dead CRPF personnel were head constable Ravindra Rai and constable Sone Gora, Kumar said. The seven injured were taken to the Bhagalpur hospital, from where four were flown by helicopter to Patna and admitted at a private hospital. Principal Secretary Home Amir Subhani visited the injured security men and told them that their medical expenses would be borne by the state government. A report from neighbouring Lakhisarai district quoting Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Singh said that the ultras bombed a government school in Narotampur which hosted CRPF personnel late last night, but there was no casualty as they had left by then. A report from Maoist-hit Gaya district quoting Senior Superintendent of Police Nishant Kumar Tiwari said that the police seized and defused six can bombs weighing 30 kg each from Banke Bazar area in Imamganj Assembly segment, a part of Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat where polling was held during the day. Maoists had earlier given a call for a poll boycott. Lok Janashakti Party President Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag was in the fray from the Jamui parliamentary constituency against Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary of JD(U) and Sudhanshu Shekhar Bhaskar of RJD. Voting ended at 4 pm in many Assembly segments of the six Lok Sabha seats in Maoist-hit areas. In other areas, electors exercised franchise till the scheduled 6 pm. About 71% Cast Votes In KeralaAbout 71 per cent of the 2.43 crore electorate exercised their franchise in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala, where polling passed off on a peaceful note. The poll fate of 269 candidates was sealed in EVMs in the state, where the fight is between ruling Congress-led UDF and opposition CPI(M)-led LDF and BJP, which is desperately trying to shed its tag of the perennial loser. Authorities had made elaborate security arrangements in all 21,424 polling stations across the state, which witnessed brisk polling right from morning. Maharashtra: 56% Polling In 10 LS Seats Till 5 PmAbout 56 per cent voting was reported in the ten Lok Sabha constituencies of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra till 5 pm today, Election Commission sources said. The percentage is likely to go up as the polling was scheduled to end at 6 pm. The constituency-wise percentages till 5 pm are as follows: Buldhana 53.86, Akola: 49.90, Amravati: 54.82, Wardha: 58.08, Ramtek: 50.00, Nagpur: 49.32, Bhandhara-gondiya: 58.60, Gadchiroli-Chimur: 61.00, Chandrapur: 55.80, Yavatmal- Washim: 49.46. Today's elections would decide the fates of former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister Praful Patel (NCP), former minister of State Vilas Muttemwar (Congress) and Shivajirao Moghe (Congress), among others. Amid tight security, the voting was mostly peaceful, even in the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli and parts of Bhandara and Gondia districts, authorities said. (Agencies)
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Several member states of the World Trade Organisation voiced frustration after India's demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling led to the collapse of the first major global trade reform pact in two decades.WTO ministers had already agreed the global reform of customs procedures known as "trade facilitation" in Bali, Indonesia, last December, but were unable to overcome last minute Indian objections and get it into the WTO rule book by the July 31 deadline."We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge that gap," WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told trade diplomats in Geneva, just two hours before the final deadline for a deal lapsed at midnight (2200 GMT Thursday).Most diplomats had expected the pact to be rubber-stamped this week, marking a unique success in the WTO's 19-year history which according to some estimates would add $1 trillion and 21 million jobs to the world economy.They were shocked when India unveiled its veto and the eleventh-hour failure drew strong criticism, as well as rumblings about the future of the organisation and the multilateral system it underpins."Australia is deeply disappointed that it has not been possible to meet the deadline. This failure is a great blow to the confidence revived in Bali that the WTO can deliver negotiated outcomes," Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said on Friday."There are no winners from this outcome – least of all those in developing countries which would see the biggest gains."But the momentum on trade facilitation reforms means it may be hard to stop and some nations have already discussed a plan to exclude India from the agreement and push ahead regardless.An Australian trade official involved in the talks, who requested anonymity to speak more candidly, said officials were exhausted with the process and that there was already discussion about major reforms at the WTO and the Doha Round of trade negotiations, which began in 2001."Some see it as a final trigger for ending Doha and pressing ahead with plurilateral reform, leave behind those that don’t want to come along," he said.Let Those Who Want To Do It, Do ItIndia had insisted that, in exchange for signing the trade facilitation agreement, it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by WTO rules.India's new nationalist government has insisted that a permanent agreement on its subsidised food stockpiling must be in place at the same time as the trade facilitation deal, well ahead of a 2017 target set last December in Bali.After Azevedo's speech, US Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punke was downbeat."We're obviously sad and disappointed that a very small handful of countries were unwilling to keep their commitments from the December conference in Bali, and we agree with the Director-General that that action has put this institution on very uncertain new ground," Punke told reporters.But some nations, including the United States, European Union, Australia, Japan and Norway, have already discussed a plan to exclude India from the agreement and push ahead, officials involved in the talks said.A Japanese official familiar with the situation said that while Tokyo reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining and strengthening the multilateral trade system, it was frustrated that such a small group of countries had stymied the overwhelming consensus."The future of the Doha Round including the Bali package is unclear at this stage," he said.Asked about going ahead without India, he said: "I think it is all too premature to talk about specifics at this stage."The failure of the agreement should signal a move away from monolithic single undertaking agreements that have defined the body for decades, Peter Gallagher, an expert on free trade and the WTO at the University of Adelaide, told Reuters."I think it is certainly premature to speak about the death of the WTO. I hope we've got to the point where a little bit more realism is going to enter into the negotiating procedures," he said."It's 153 countries. We can't all move at the same speed on the same things, and it's time to let those that want to do it, do it."(Reuters)
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The rupee falls to 60.80 versus the dollar, its lowest since April 25. The pair was last trading at 60.7750/78 compared with its Thursday (1 August) close of 60.55/56.In July, the dollar index rose to a 10-1/2 month peak.US monthly jobs data later in day will be key for USD/INR's direction.The Nifty is down 0.6 per cent tracking lower Asian shares.(Reuters)
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