The Budget 2011-12 has made the New Pension System more attractive. It has made two rule changes which will help both individuals and their employers. The NPS is the pension system applicable to new government employees and is also open to all citizens, to save for their retirement, and is run as per the regulations of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
Economy+Policy
Recent Posts
Individual Income Tax: loose change for the salaried, hurrah for the elders
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The government did not disappoint on expectations that it would increase the tax exemption limit for individuals. But it did nothing very dramatic on this front.
Filed under: Economy+Policy, Top News, Income Tax, Policy Accounting, Law and Taxation, Union Budget
Rail Budget: no fare hikes, poor finances and some clever accounting
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It was a foregone conclusion that the railway minister Mamata Banerjee would keep fares unchanged in the current railway budget. Even if it was needed to get the railway’s finances back on track.
The railway minister is seeking to cultivate a people-friendly image, the outcome of which is a zero-fare hike policy. With elections due in her home state of West Bengal, despite the railway’s flagging financials, there was no way she would want to hike fares.
Filed under: Economy+Policy, Top News, Mamata Banerjee, Railway Budget
RBI goes by the script, hikes rates by 0.25%
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stuck to its trajectory of calibrated rate hikes in the current credit policy too. It hiked the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5% and the reverse repo rate also by 25 basis points to 5.5%. The repo rate is what banks pay to the RBI to borrow funds to meet short term liquidity needs and the reverse repo rate is what they get from the RBI, when they park surplus funds with the central bank.
Filed under: Economy+Policy, News Analysis, Credit Policy, Interest Rates, Policy From the Regulators, RBI
Indian investors can now trade in foreign index derivatives
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India has become an integral part of the global capital markets, forming a key part of the emerging markets portfolio for large investors. Domestic investors have benefited as the incoming tide of foreign capital flows has swelled investor wealth, over a longer period of time. While foreign investors can hedge their bets across the world, it was not as easy for domestic investors to do so. Increasingly, domestic investors will feel the need to hedge against an unfavourable movement in domestic markets. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Economy+Policy, Finance+Markets, Quick News, derivatives, Policy From the Regulators
RBI lowers liquidity but leaves rates unchanged
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The Reserve Bank of India announced its quarterly monetary policy today. It left benchmark rates unchanged, like the repo rate (the rate at which banks borrow from the RBI) and the reverse repo rate (the rate at which banks park their surpluses with the RBI. What it did was to hike the cash reserve ratio by a good 75 basis points, taking out Rs 36,000 crore from the banking system. Cash reserve ratio is the proportion of deposits that banks must set aside as a reserve. Apart from this, the RBI has not made any changes and the Annual Policy will be announced on April 20. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Economy+Policy, Top News, Credit Policy, Inflation, Interest Rates, Monetary Stimulus, RBI
Power exchanges get new regulations
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After stock exchanges came commodity exchanges and now you have power trading exchanges. Their life just got more interesting, with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the central power sector regulator, notifying a host of regulations they have to adhere to. The current exchanges too have been set up under the purview of the regulator, but these were in the form of guidelines. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Economy+Policy, News Analysis, Power, CERC, Power Exchanges
Food inflation soars, at 15.6%
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The intertwining of agriculture and politics has usually meant that farmers and the consumers, especially those at the margin, suffer from government action or inaction. Food prices have been rising for a long period, at least a year, and show no signs of abating.
Today, the government announced the wholesale price index data (WPI) for the week ended November 14.
Filed under: Economy+Policy, News Analysis, Fuel prices, Inflation, Interest Rates, Markets Debt & Forex Markets, RBI, WPI
Inflation at 1.34% in October; may touch 3% in November
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The base effect that held inflation to near zero levels has ended. Higher inflation also coincides with a period when the government has changed the frequency of inflation reporting from weekly to monthly. Now, only the primary articles (fuel and agricultural products) are reported on a weekly basis. Manufactured products’ inflation will be available only on a monthly basis. October 2009 is the first month after the reporting frequency changed. Till now, inflation rates have been hovering around the zero mark and even turning negative, due to a high base effect in the previous year.
Continue Reading →
Filed under: Economy+Policy, Top News, Economic Stimulus, Inflation, WPI
Rail freight rises: core sector in good shape
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India’s goods traffic movement is a good lead indicator of how some core sectors are performing. Coal is shipped by rail. Steel plants transport ore and other raw materials to their plants, and transport finished steel back by rail. Other key commodities being transported by rail include fertilisers, foodgrains and crude oil. An increase in freight traffic either indicates higher demand for raw materials (coal is used by power and steel plants) or higher production because shipments are going up.