LIVE! FDI inflows rose in 2014-15 from 3 countries visited by Modi

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Thu, 30 July 2015

FDI inflows rose in 2014-15 from 3 countries visited by Modi

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17:38 FDI inflows rose in 2014-15 from 3 countries visited by Modi

FDI inflows increased in 2014-15 from three countries out of four major investing nations visited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last fiscal with Australia showing a decline, government said today.

Replying in the Rajya Sabha, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Modi visited 26 countries from June 2014 to July 2015 and all visits had a substantial economic component.

"These efforts have helped in creating a positive image of India and, as a result, FDI equity inflows increased from USD 24.3 billion in financial year 2013-14 to USD 30.9 billion in 2014-15, a growth 27.3 percent," she said.

A break-up of FDI inflows from top 10 countries visited by Modi showed increase in eight cases and decline in two others. Out of this, he visited only four countries during the last fiscal.

All central government employees were today asked to file the details of their assets and liabilities for two years by October 15, as part of a mandatory obligation under the Lokpal Act.

The first return, giving details of assets and liabilities as on August 1, 2014, and second one, as on March 31, 2015, can now be filed by October 15, this year, the Department of Personnel and Training said in a communique sent to secretaries of all central government ministries.

They have been asked to ensure compliance of all officers working under their charge and those in PSUs and other organisations under the control of their ministries.

As per rules, notified under the Lokpal Act, every public servant shall file declaration, information and annual returns pertaining to his assets and liabilities as on March 31 every year or on or before July 31 of that year.

It may come as a shock to some, but even gold jewellery that has Hallmark certification vary in purity, the World Gold Council on Thursday said while calling for urgent steps to improve quality standards in the world's largest gold consuming nation.
The improvements to the hallmarking system in India are not only essential to a successful gold monetisation scheme but also help to boost the country's gold jewellery exports from the existing $8 billion to $40 billion in the next five years, it said.
The hallmarking of gold, which is voluntary in nature at present, is a purity certification of the precious metal.

16:21 SpiceJet looks to have more women pilots

No-frills carrier SpiceJet, which is seeing a turnaround, plans to induct more women pilots and also provide greater flexibility at work for the staff.
"It brings a lot of respect for the person in the cockpit.
It is an extremely remunerative position to be in. We consciously try to ensure that more and more women get into the cockpit," SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh said on Thursday.
Out of the 470 pilots in the airline, nearly 50 are women commanders and first officers. SpiceJet has a staff strength of about 5,000.
Singh's wife Shiwani Singh is a director on the airline's board.
She was inducted to comply with Sebi norms that mandate listed companies
to have at least one woman director.

16:15 Reliance Jio to raise Rs 3,500-cr debt

Ahead of launching commercial operations of 4G services, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, plans to raise Rs 3,500-crore (Rs 35-billion) debt to fund roll-out expenses.
"The Company proposes to issue Secured Redeemable Non-Convertible Debentures aggregating up to Rs 3,500 crore, on private placement basis," RJIL said on Thursday in a regulatory filing.
The company's board has approved the proposal.

16:11 NTPC Q1 profit down 3% to Rs 2,135 cr

State-run NTPC on Thursday posted Rs 2,135.35 crore (Rs 21.35-billion) standalone profit, down about 3 per cent, for the quarter ended on June 30, mainly on account of low demand of electricity.
Its net profit for the April-June quarter of last fiscal was Rs 2,201.20 crore (Rs 22.01 billion), the NTPC Ltd said in a statement to Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday.
The profit was down marginally in the first quarter of the current fiscal mainly due to low demand for power, as indicated in its key performance indicators for the period in its BSE filing.
During the first quarter of 2015-16, NTPC's gross power generation was 58.69 billion units of power compared to 63.15 billion units in the year-ago period.

A Norwegian ice-cream company has scooped a Guinness World Records title after creating the world's tallest ice-cream cone ever with a whopping 3- metre high confectionary construction.
Norway's popular family-run ice-cream company Hennig-Olsen created the ice-cream cone that measured a whopping 3.08 metre tall, earlier this month.
The giant cone weighed almost a tonne and was able to contain 1,080 litres of ice-cream -- enough for 10,800 people to have two scoops each -- as well as 60 litres of chocolate and 110 kg of waffle biscuit.
The ice-cream had to be airlifted by a helicopter from the ice-cream factory where it was made, to an event in Kristiansand in Southern Norway where a Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand to verify the attempt. Photograph: Kind courtesy, guinnessworldrecords.com

15:30 Mahindra to launch SUV TUV300 in mid-September

Homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra will launch its new compact SUV named TUV300 in mid September as it looks to enhance its position as a leading manufacturer of utility vehicles in India.
"The TUV300 is a compact sub-four metre SUV. This will be a true blue SUV and not a crossover that is mainly the case in the market now," M&M Executive Director Pawan Goenka told PTI.
While he did not comment on the details of the product, he said: "This new vehicle will address the needs of those customers who are looking for a pure SUV in the compact segment.
We will share the details of the product around the time of launch in mid-September."
The TUV300 is expected to compete with the likes of Toyota Etios Cross, Hyundai 120 Active and Fiat Avventura which are priced at a range of Rs 623,000 nd Rs 889,000 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
A sketch of the new car. Photograph: Kind courtesy, indianautosblog

Falling for the third straight day, gold prices tumbled by another Rs 200 to Rs 25,090 per ten gram at the bullion market today in line with a weakening global trend amid subdued demand from jewellers.

Silver also eased by Rs 150 to Rs 34,050 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Traders said a weakening global trend where gold heading for its largest monthly decline in two years, as the Federal Reserve moved closer to boosting US interest rates for the first time since 2006, mainly kept pressure on precious metals prices.

Globally, gold fell 1.1 per cent to $1,084.51 an ounce and silver by 1 per cent to $14.66 an ounce in Singapore.

Besides, fall in demand from jewellers and retailers who deferred their buying plans in anticipation of further dip in prices, dampened the sentiment to some extent, they said.

Technology giant Google has introduced a new update to its Translate app that will allow visual translation from English to Hindi and 19 other languages, a move aimed at strengthening its translation and transliteration offerings.

Using the app, users need to click on the camera option, and point it at the text like street signs, ingredient lists or instruction manual that needs to be translated and the same will be translated in languages like Hindi, Thai, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch and Filipino.

Users can translate using the app without an Internet connection.

These updates are coming to both Android and iOS, rolling out over the next few days.

13:22 ITC Q1 net up 3.61% at Rs 2,265.44 cr

ITC Ltd on Thursday posted 3.61 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 2,265.44 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 2,186.39 crore (Rs 21.86 billion) during the same period of 2014-15 fiscal.
Net sales of the Kolkata-based company, however declined 7.18 per cent to Rs 8,505.53 crore for the quarter under review as against Rs 9,164.42 crore (Rs 91.64 billion) during June quarter of the previous fiscal, ITC said in a filing to the BSE.
ITC shares were trading at Rs 311.10 apiece on the BSE up 2.35 per cent from the previous close.

Gold dipped towards its weakest level since early 2010 on Thursday after the Federal Reserve said the US economy continues to strengthen, supporting a potential interest rate rise when the Fed meets again in September.

After a two-day meeting, policymakers said on Wednesday they felt the economy had overcome a first-quarter slowdown and was "expanding moderately".

That buoyed the greenback against a basket of currencies, making dollar-priced gold more costly for buyers using other currencies.

Spot gold dropped 0.3 percent to $1,093.40 an ounce by 0239 GMT. It sank to as low as $1,077 last week, its weakest since February 2010, after a selloff in New York and Shanghai and has since struggled to recover above $1,100.

"We still do think the bearish pressure on gold prices is strong. We don't expect to see any substantial recovery," said Howie Lee, analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

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