* BANKING: RBI Executive Director G. Padmanabhan noted violations in the money transfer service of banks, and said employees indulging in such breaches should not be allowed to continue in service. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will meet heads of public sector banks Wednesday (today) and discuss, among other things, low transmission of policy rate cuts.
* COAL: Government has identified eight lignite blocks to be offered under the competitive bidding process.
* DEFENCE: The government may allow up to 100% foreign direct investment in defence units located in special economic zones on a case-to-case basis.
* EXCHANGES: BSE and NSE have identified several scrips for shifting to the restricted trading category from Jul 5 as a measure to ensure market safety. BSE will shift 35 securities to the trade-to-trade or 'T' group, while NSE will transfer nine stocks to this category. In order to safeguard investor interest, the NSE Tuesday advised extra caution while trading in 395 illiquid stocks. The total number of stockbrokers operating in the cash segment of the country's stock exchanges has fallen below 10,000 for the first time in at least four years.
* GOLD: India 's gold imports in June are estimated to have fallen drastically to 35-40 tn from a record high of 162 tn in May, triggering a sharp rise in premium in the local market and raising a question mark on the survival of small jewellers.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Gartner Inc cut its estimate for growth in worldwide spending on information technology to 2.0% in 2013 (Jan-Dec) as against 4.1% projected earlier, mainly on expectations of lower device sales.
* MARKETS: Foreign institutional investors withdrew a record net $7.2 bln in June from Indian bonds and equities.
* MINING: Vedanta Aluminium has received 35,000 tn of bauxite from Gujarat to restart its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, Odisha.
* MONSOON: India Jul 2 rainfall was at 6.9 mm, 19% below normal, said India Meteorological Department.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has capped prices of 51 widely-used drugs. It had earlier capped prices of more than 280 drugs. The government needs some more rounds of discussions before deciding the foreign direct investment policy in pharmaceuticals for brownfield investments, said Industry Secretary Saurabh Chandra.
* PORTS: The shipping ministry may commit around 50 bln rupees for two upcoming ports.
* POLICY: The Cabinet has again listed the food security ordinance in the agenda for its meeting on Wednesday (today), said a senior government official.
* POWER: The recent Cabinet decision on coal cost pass-through should enable quick clearance to nine power plant projects, which will be considered today by the Cabinet Committee on Investment.
* REGULATORY: Noting the high risk to the financial system due to unhedged foreign currency transactions of corporate entities, the RBI issued draft guidelines on the risk weightage, provisioning, and capital requirement for banks' exposures to such transactions. The Forward Markets Commission has reduced the staggered delivery period introduced last June to prevent excessive speculation in near month farm contracts to 10 days from 15 now.
* RETAIL: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is in favour of hiking foreign direct investment limit in multi-brand retail trade to 74% from 51% and relaxing the mandatory conditions on foreign retailers who wish to set up stores in India , said a senior ministry official.
* TELECOM: The Telecom Commission is in favour of allowing 100% foreign direct investment in the sector with the condition that FDI up to 49% will be automatic, said a senior official.
Vodafone India has asked the Department of Telecommunications to withdraw the show-cause notice and imposition of penalty on the company for getting into 3G intra-circle roaming pacts with other telecom service providers and offering services in circles in which it did not have 3G spectrum.
* TAXATION: The government has exempted specified services extended to special economic zones from service tax, said the finance ministry.
* TRADE: Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will take up the issues of the differential rate of credit and high transaction costs, faced by exporters, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to facilitate exports, said an official release.
* COAL: Government has identified eight lignite blocks to be offered under the competitive bidding process.
* DEFENCE: The government may allow up to 100% foreign direct investment in defence units located in special economic zones on a case-to-case basis.
* EXCHANGES: BSE and NSE have identified several scrips for shifting to the restricted trading category from Jul 5 as a measure to ensure market safety. BSE will shift 35 securities to the trade-to-trade or 'T' group, while NSE will transfer nine stocks to this category. In order to safeguard investor interest, the NSE Tuesday advised extra caution while trading in 395 illiquid stocks. The total number of stockbrokers operating in the cash segment of the country's stock exchanges has fallen below 10,000 for the first time in at least four years.
* GOLD: India 's gold imports in June are estimated to have fallen drastically to 35-40 tn from a record high of 162 tn in May, triggering a sharp rise in premium in the local market and raising a question mark on the survival of small jewellers.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Gartner Inc cut its estimate for growth in worldwide spending on information technology to 2.0% in 2013 (Jan-Dec) as against 4.1% projected earlier, mainly on expectations of lower device sales.
* MARKETS: Foreign institutional investors withdrew a record net $7.2 bln in June from Indian bonds and equities.
* MINING: Vedanta Aluminium has received 35,000 tn of bauxite from Gujarat to restart its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, Odisha.
* MONSOON: India Jul 2 rainfall was at 6.9 mm, 19% below normal, said India Meteorological Department.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has capped prices of 51 widely-used drugs. It had earlier capped prices of more than 280 drugs. The government needs some more rounds of discussions before deciding the foreign direct investment policy in pharmaceuticals for brownfield investments, said Industry Secretary Saurabh Chandra.
* PORTS: The shipping ministry may commit around 50 bln rupees for two upcoming ports.
* POLICY: The Cabinet has again listed the food security ordinance in the agenda for its meeting on Wednesday (today), said a senior government official.
* POWER: The recent Cabinet decision on coal cost pass-through should enable quick clearance to nine power plant projects, which will be considered today by the Cabinet Committee on Investment.
* REGULATORY: Noting the high risk to the financial system due to unhedged foreign currency transactions of corporate entities, the RBI issued draft guidelines on the risk weightage, provisioning, and capital requirement for banks' exposures to such transactions. The Forward Markets Commission has reduced the staggered delivery period introduced last June to prevent excessive speculation in near month farm contracts to 10 days from 15 now.
* RETAIL: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is in favour of hiking foreign direct investment limit in multi-brand retail trade to 74% from 51% and relaxing the mandatory conditions on foreign retailers who wish to set up stores in India , said a senior ministry official.
* TELECOM: The Telecom Commission is in favour of allowing 100% foreign direct investment in the sector with the condition that FDI up to 49% will be automatic, said a senior official.
Vodafone India has asked the Department of Telecommunications to withdraw the show-cause notice and imposition of penalty on the company for getting into 3G intra-circle roaming pacts with other telecom service providers and offering services in circles in which it did not have 3G spectrum.
* TAXATION: The government has exempted specified services extended to special economic zones from service tax, said the finance ministry.
* TRADE: Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will take up the issues of the differential rate of credit and high transaction costs, faced by exporters, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to facilitate exports, said an official release.
