18 July 2013

Doors open, but FDI inflow may be a slow train coming

The intended effects of stemming the rupee’s slide and spurring income growth through the government’s latest reforms initiative to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) caps in a range of sectors and simpler entry norms in others may take some time to kick in.

The fresh policy pronouncements, however, are likely to soothe frayed nerves of investors who fear that the government is more likely to be focussed on political risk management rather than economic revival.

“The initiatives taken yesterday were very important policy initiatives in a broad direction,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia Business leaders welcomed the FDI policy overhaul, but cautioned that more needs to be done. “Recent amendments to policies are somewhat responsible for the slump in FDI inflows. A stable policy regime is essential to attract continuous investment flows,” CII said.

Highlights on FDI

Opening the doors to shore upforeign investments, the government on Tuesday liberalised FDI limits in a dozen sectors, including allowing 100 per cent in telecom and higher limits in 'state-of-the-art' defence manufacturing, to boost the sagging economy.

26% FDI cap in defence production to stay; FDI beyond 26% in state-of-the-art technology will be approved by Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS): Anand Sharma

FDI in gas refineries, commodity exchanges, power trading and stock exchanges to be through Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) route, announced commerce minister Anand Sharma at a press conference after the cabinet meeting.

• By consensus some decisions have been taken on FDI caps in the meet called by PM: Anand Sharma
• Petroleum and Natural Gas the sectoral cap remains unchanged at 49%: Anand Sharma
• Power exchanges route changed to automatic; cap remains same as 49%: Anand Sharma
• In insurance sector FDI cap will be 49% through automatic route. It means without approval of FIPB: Anand Sharma
• FDI cap for petroleum refining is at 49%, allowed via automatic route: Anand Sharma
• Asset reconstruction companies: FDI cap upto 49% through automatic route. From 49% to 100 % it will be through FIPB route: Anand Sharma
• In tea sector, condition of divestment to Indian partners deleted: Anand Sharma
• In single brand retail, FDI upto 49% it will be under automatic route; beyond 49% it will be through FIPB route: Anand Sharma
• No change of route in civil aviation sector. Some decisions on this may be taken later: Anand Sharma
• All the FDI decisions have been taken through consensus: Anand Sharma
• The decisions stand taken; they will be placed before coming Cabinet: Anand Sharma
• No view taken on FDI in media: Anand Sharma
• FDI cap in credit information companies raised to 74% from 49%: Anand Sharma

RBI liquidity curbs help rupee recover by 58 p to 59.31 vs dollar

The RBI's measures to address exchange rate volatility by curbing liquidity paid off with the rupee today firming up 58 paise to end at 59.31 against the dollar, the biggest gain in more than a fortnight.The rupee opened higher at 59.20 per dollar as against the previous close of 59.89 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market and firmed up to a high of 59.14 before ending at 59.31 per dollar, a net gain of 58 paise, or 0.97%. It moved in a range of 59.14 to 59.50 per dollar during the day

Bernanke: Fed will not raise rates in forseeable future

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated on Wednesday that the Fed is nowhere close to raising interest rates, assuring markets that the US easy money tap would not soon dry up.
With the economy still facing risks, especially from government spending cuts, Bernanke told a Congressional panel that the Fed was still planning to trim its quantitative easing stimulus, if growth continues at a steady pace.

Ashes limited to just four umpires

Looks like the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its elite panel of umpires are in a fix for the Ashes. With the umpires coming under pressure post the DRS fiasco during the first Test at Trent Bridge — the body admitted that the umpires had erred on seven occasions — the same set of four umpires will be officiating during the whole series.

The current panel of elite umpires, twelve in total, has five Englishmen and three Australians. So effectively, taking into account the neutral umpire rule for Test matches, only Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus and Tony Hill are qualified to officiate in the series.