1. I Disagreed With Governor Raghuram Rajan – But I Salute Him: Raghav Bahl
Raghuram Rajan has now ended his 3-year term. He has won supreme laurels for his stint; and while I have disagreed with his interest rate policy more often than not, I must salute him for his professionalism and integrity. His admirers are legion.
Every time I would question his over-arching caution, academic homilies and textbook approach to inflation, I would get howls of protest from my young journalist colleagues, most shrilly from women reporters on the Mint Street beat.
I found his singular focus on using interest rates to tame inflation a theorem that works only in developed western economies where everything is mapped within the organised, formal sector.
And even here, the concept of “blind” inflation targeting is getting discredited and out of mode – read this week’s editorial in The Economist to understand how modern thinkers are now advocating Nominal GDP growth rates, instead of this “impotent” policy target.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
2. RBI’s Annual Report: Raghuram Rajan Says India’s Growth Below Potential
The economy’s prospects for the current financial year are brighter than the previous fiscal, but growth is still below potential, wrote Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan in his foreword to the central bank’s annual report for 2015-16.
A week before he hands over charge to Urjit Patel, Rajan listed economic growth, curbing inflation and ensuring that banks focus on rate cut transmission and balance sheet clean up as the key “work in progress” areas for the central bank.
On economic growth, the governor said that a “virtuous cycle of growth is possible, reinforced by anticipation of the coming benefits from reforms like the recently passed goods and services tax legislation in Parliament”.
(Source: Livemint)
3. Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani to Start Microfinance Company
Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Vijay Kelkar, former finance secretary and chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Ltd and the architect of Aadhaar, are joining hands to start a microfinance institution (MFI).
Named Avanti Finance, the company, a “technology-enabled financial inclusion vehicle”, will focus on “delivering affordable and timely credit to under-served and un-served segments in India”, said a statement from Tata Trusts.
Avanti will apply to the Reserve Bank of India for registration and is expected to start operations before the end of the financial year, added the statement.
(Source: Livemint)
4. Panagariya Sees 8% Growth Rate This Fiscal Year
India’s economy will accelerate to 8 percent growth in the current financial year thanks to a good monsoon, policy reforms and PM Narendra Modi’s focus on implementation at the grassroots level, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya told Economic Times in an interview. And, unlike most others, he also sees private investment doing better this year.
He also said India has strongly opposed the language of the draft on intellectual property protection to be taken up at the upcoming G20 meeting in Beijing, signalling the government’s firm stand against any move by developed nations to undermine the flexibility the country enjoys under the existing multilateral regime. The eminent economist is also India’s Sherpa at G20.
(Source: Economic Times)
5. Indian Oil’s Profit Rises 25%, Refining Margins Shrink in First Quarter
Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest oil refiner, saw a 25.5 percent profit growth for the first quarter of financial year 2016-17, beating street estimates.
Net profit for the April-June period grew to Rs 8,269 crore from Rs 6,590.8 crore in the corresponding period last year, it said in a stock exchange filing. The consensus of analyst estimates tracked by Bloomberg was Rs 4,472.72 crore.
Revenue for the quarter-ended June decreased 5.9 percent to Rs 1,06,775.2 crore from Rs 1,13,444.4 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased 31.9 percent to Rs 13,683.5 crore from Rs 10,376.9 crore year-on-year. The EBITDA margin expanded by 360 basis points to 12.76 percent from 9.12 percent on a yearly basis.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
6. HAL to Put in Rs 2,000 Crore for Sukhoi 30 Spares Hub
With defence minister Manohar Parrikar determined to increase the efficiency of the existing fighter fleet, state-owned PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is working on a pact with the air force and the Russian government to set up a spares hub for Sukhoi 30 fighters in India.
The Russian origin aircraft has been facing technical difficulties with several fighter jets grounded for prolonged periods as the current process of ordering spare parts is time consuming and inefficient.
This has resulted in a situation in which at any given point of time, only 50-55 percent of the fleet is ready for operations.
(Source: Economic Times)
7. Reliance Jio Pre-Launch Jitters: Airtel Cuts 4G Price by up to 80%
Bharti Airtel Ltd cut data tariffs for some customers by as much as 80%, as the company prepares for the imminent launch of Reliance Jio.
On Monday, the company announced another data pack offer for prepaid users that requires them to pay Rs 748 or Rs 1,498 for a 1GB 3G/4G data pack, and avail recharges for same amount of data for only Rs 99 or Rs 51.
They can do this for between six months and a year.
Vishal Tripathi, research director at Gartner Inc sees the price cuts a result of a (coming) new entrant.
(Source: Livemint)
Also Read: Reliance Jio 4G Tested On the Roads of Delhi
8. Why the Rise of Partners in ‘Big Four’ Accounting Firms Is Not Dazzling
Recently, accounting firm KPMG promoted 27 senior executives to the position of partner. Come September, the firm is likely to promote a similar number as partners. KPMG has also created a separate HR vertical devoted entirely to partners. In the past two years, PWC has poached many mid-level executives from competitors and made them partners along with a bunch of senior directors in its ranks.
KPMG and PWC are not alone. The number of partners in the Big Four accounting firms — the others are Deloitte and EY — has nearly doubled to about 1,150 in five years.
There is a catch though. Several of the executives who have been promoted are just partners in name. They are actually salaried partners. As the title suggests, these people merely earn salaries. The real McCoy are the equity partners who not only earn a salary, but also share the spoils and have voting rights to elect the CEO.
(Source: Economic Times)
9. Spectrum Auction to Start From 1 October
India’s biggest telecom spectrum auction will now start from 1 October instead of 29 September, as the operators have suggested that there should be a gap of three working days between the mock auction and the actual start of sale of airwaves.
According to a revised notice inviting application (NIA), the auction will start on 1 October and the mock auction will be held on 26 and 27 September.
In the queries and responses to NIA that came on 8 August, the operators said the current gap between the mock auction and the start of auction was only one working day. “It is suggested that a gap of three working days is provided between the two to take care of any actions to be taken by the auctioneer or the bidders,” the operators had said.
(Source: Business Standard)
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