Government Announces New Expert Panel on Poverty Estimates

The State-wise poverty lines and poverty ratio for 2009-10 have been computed following the extant Tendulkar methodology.  Based on the said methodology the Planning Commission has released the estimates through a Press Note issued on 19th March, 2012.  As indicated in the Press Note, the poverty ratio in the country has come down from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10.  As a result, the number of poor persons in the country has reduced from 40.7 crore in 2004-05 to 35.5 crore in 2009-10.

The Tendulkar Committee, which submitted its Report in 2009, has incorporated adequacy of expenditure from the normative and nutritional viewpoint.  It stated “while moving away from the calorie norms, the proposed poverty lines have been validated by checking the adequacy of actual private expenditure per capita near the poverty lines on food, education and health by comparing them with normative expenditures consistent with nutritional, educational and health outcomes”.

Taking note of the various points of views and perspectives expressed in the public domain with respect to the need to revisit poverty estimates and related methodologies, Government has since decided to set up an Expert Technical Group to revisit the methodology for estimation of the poverty and identification of the poor.

The Technical Group comprising of eminent economists under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Prime Minister’s Economy Advisory Council, is as under:

1.         Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Prime Minister’s

Economy Advisory Council                                …         ….        Chairman

2.         Dr. Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira

Gandhi Institute of Development Research         …         …         Member

3.         Dr. K. Sundaram, formerly Delhi School

of Economics                                                   …         …         Member

4.         Dr. Mahesh Vyas, Centre for

Monitoring Indian Economy                               …         …         Member

5.         Dr. K.L. Datta, Ex-Adviser (Perspective Planning),

Planning Commission                                        …         …         Member Convener

The Terms of Reference of the Expert Technical Group have been finalized as under:

1.         “To comprehensively review the existing methodology of estimation of poverty and examine whether the poverty line should be fixed solely in terms of a consumption basket or whether other criteria are also relevant, and if so, whether the two can be effectively combined to evolve a basis for estimation of poverty in rural and urban areas.

2.         To examine the issue of divergence between consumption estimates based on the NSSO methodology and those emerging from the National Accounts aggregates; and to suggest a methodology for updating consumption poverty lines using the new consumer price indices launched by the CSO for rural and urban areas state-wise.

3.         To review alternative methods of estimation of poverty which may be in use in other countries, including their procedural aspects; and indicate whether on this basis, a particular method can be evolved for empirical estimation of poverty in India, including procedures for updating it over time and across states;

4.         To recommend how the estimates of poverty, as evolved above, should be linked to eligibility and entitlements for schemes and programmes under the Government of India”.

India Overtook Spain to become the 11th Largest Insurance Market in the World

According to the report compiled by Swiss Re named World Insurance in 2010, and published on 6 July 2011, India overtook Spain to become the 11th largest insurance market in the world. Indian insurance market jumped up 10 places in the last decade. India’s market share increased because of the shrinkage in several European markets. USA is the largest insurance market in the world according to the report.

Swiss Reinsurance Company Limited is generally known as Swiss Re. It is a Swiss reinsurance company. The Company is headquartered in Zurich. Swiss Re was founded in 1863.

India's GDP Growth to make the Indian Banking Industry Third Largest in the World by 2025

A study titled Being five star in productivity — road map for excellence in Indian banking was released FICCI-IBA-BCG on 22 August 2011, the eve of IBA-FICCI annual banking conference. The theme for the banking conference was decided to be Productivity Excellence.

According to the study, India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth will make the Indian banking industry third largest in the world by 2025. The report chalked out an action agenda for banks, based on insights from an extensive productivity benchmarking exercise conducted across 40 banks.

The report highlighted that banks have to strive for excellence on five dimensions: branch sales and service, new channels, lean operations, organisation design and bad debt management.

The report stated that branches of banks can generate higher levels of revenue for the banks. Indian banks deploy 62 per cent of staff in customer facing roles as against the benchmark of 82 per cent observed by BCG globally.

Break-out growth in usage of new channels will characterise the next decade in Indian banking. Among the new channels, mobile phones, propelled by 3G and smart phone technology, will emerge as an undisputed winner by 2020 accounting for 20-30 per cent of total transactions. ATMs have seen exponential growth in usage but are far from maturity with just about 50 per cent adoption even in metros.  New channels will not only enhance the productivity but can be a source of new customer acquisition.

Indian banks, the report mentioned were to be doing well overall with industry cost-income ratio below 50 per cent.

However, there remained plenty of scope for betterment. On an average, Indian banks have about 20 per cent of staff deployed in back-office processing (for some banks, as high as 40 per cent) as against a global best of 10 per cent observed by BCG. Process re-engineering and operating model change if employed could help reduce costs, improve service, and contain operating risks.

Public sector banks were found to be under-investing in technology with spends at about 25 per cent of global benchmarks. An Indian banks average administrative overhead at about 11 per cent of the total staff is in line with what BCG has observed globally.

The banking industry was holding low headcount in HR and finance roles. Variable pay at 2 per cent of fixed compensation is far below the 12-15 per cent that is optimal for incentive compensation. The public sector as per the report urgently needed an adjustment in its compensation structure. The industry has an impressive bad debt performance and the bad debt levels in priority sectors of MSME and agriculture are significantly high.
The report suggested major overhaul of NPA management processes at banks. Some banks have alarmingly high NPA levels in relatively safe products such as home loans.

The report stressed on a whole new paradigm for risk management encompassing operating model, technology, experience and expertise retention, and minimum critical size of book.

White Paper on Black Money

Placed below is a link for White Paper on Black Money:

Click here to see details

Union Cabinet approved 7.6 Billion Dollar TAPI Gas Pipeline Project

The Union Cabinet approved the 7.6 billion dollar TAPI gas pipeline project on 17 May 2012. The TAPI gas pipeline project which originates from the central Asian nation Turkmenistan and reaches to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan is also referred to as the “peace pipeline” as some of the countries that it passes through don’t enjoy good relationship with each other.
The TAPI gas project will have a total length of 1680 km. Of the total length 144km will be in Turkmenistan, 735km in Afghanistan, and 800km in Pakistan, bringing it to the India border. The pipeline, will be entirely functional in 2018 and supply gas over the next thirty years.
The pipeline would produce 90 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (mscmd).  Of the total gas pumped through it, India and Pakistan will get 38 mscmd each and Afghanistan the remaining 14 mscmd. At present India requires 176 mscmd of gas, of which a little more than one-sixth is imported. The country’s need of the gas might reach the level of about 400 mscmd by 2020.
The Indian government was pursuing a similar project with the Iran which was put on hold by the Indian government given the pressure from the USA. The TAPI gas project also involves Asian Development Bank which has bestowed financial assistance to the project.
The TAPI pipeline, was proposed in the early 1990s, but was delayed due to the political and economic hurdles involved into the project. Security of the pipeline has been the major issue of concern which passes through some of the most unstabled regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the project may face the risk of sabotage. India joined the project in April 2008.

Insurance Penetration in the Country

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has informed that the total insurance penetration, which is the ratio of insurance premium as a percentage of GDP has increased from 2.32 in 2000-01 to 5.10 in 2010-11. The life insurance penetration has decreased from 4.60 in 2009-10 to 4.40 in 2010-11, whereas the non-life insurance penetration has increased from 0.60 in 2009-10 to 0.71 in 2010-11.

The insurance penetration is impacted by several macro-economic factors such as growth, inflation, interest rates, small savings return and returns of competing financial products offered by banks and mutual funds.

The IRDA undertakes a sustained insurance education campaign under the brand name Bima Bemisaal. The campaign seeks to educate the uninsured and the insured about the need for insurance, rights, obligations of policyholders etc through various media channels viz. print, radio and television. IRDA also supports consumer bodies in conducting seminars and workshops on insurance in various parts of the country in order to create awareness about insurance. The Bima Bemisaal campaign is carried out in various Indian languages including Hindi, apart from English. IRDA has also brought out educational material for the public and policyholders. Further, to create awareness, IRDA over the last two years has started conducting yearly seminars exclusively on policyholder protection and welfare that brings together all stakeholders including consumer representatives.

Concern of Credit Rating Agencies on Indian Economy

India’s sovereign debt is usually rated by six major Sovereign Credit Rating Agencies (SCRAs) viz. Moody’s Investor Services, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS), Fitch Ratings, Japanese Credit Rating Agency (JCRA) and Rating and Investment Information (R&I).

The assessment and ratings given by the various agencies differ from each other. In past two years, India’s credit ratings were either affirmed or upgraded by the above mentioned SCRAs. India received these assessments when many nations, including some of the strongest economies, were downgraded during the period.

In June 2011, DBRS upgraded the outlook on India’s rating and also appreciated the Government’s efforts towards fiscal consolidation. In their July 2011 report, Fitch affirmed the credit rating issued in the previous year and also appreciated the management of the economy stating that “India’s medium-term economic growth prospects remain strong, as potential GDP growth remains greater that 8%, well above the ‘BBB – ‘ range median’. In December 2011, Moody’s upgraded the rating on India’s sovereign debt in four segments. S&P, in its latest rating of India’s sovereign credit rating on 25th April 2012, affirmed its BBB (-) long term and A-3 short term sovereign rating of India.

However, all the SCRAs have note favourably commented on India’s fiscal deficit and debt. In their April 2012 report, S&P had revised the outlook on the long-term rating on India from Stable to negative. In its report, S&P also stated that the outlook has been revised “to reflect at least a one-in-three likelihood of a downgrade if the external position continues to deteriorate, growth prospects diminish, or progress on fiscal reforms remains slow”.

Government has taken not of the concerns expressed by various SCRAs and is taking necessary steps in this regard.

In particular, Government has taken note of S&P’s report released on 25th April, 2012. In this regard, Government is taking a number of measures with a view to reducing the current account deficit, improving growth prospects of the economy, and reducing the fiscal deficit.

The measures being taken include steps to restrict the expenditure on central subsidies to under 2% of GDP in 2012-13 and to further bring it down to 1.75% of GDP in the next three years. In addition, Government has made a determined attempt to come back to the path of fiscal consolidation by reducing the budgeted fiscal deficit to 5.1% of GDP in BE 2012-13 from 5.9% of GDP in RE 2011-12.

Reforms in PDS

Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) is operated under the joint responsibility of Central Government and State/Union Territory (UT) Governments. The Central Government is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation of foodgrains upto the designated depots of Food Corporation of India. The operational responsibilities for lifting and distributing the allocated foodgrains within the States/UTs, identification of eligible Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, issuance of ration cards to them and supervision over distribution of allocated foodgrains to eligible card holders through the Fair Price Shops (FPSs) are of the State/UT Governments.

Suggestions are received from time to time to improve the functioning of TPDS. Strengthening and streamlining of TPDS is a continuous process. To improve functioning of TPDS, Government has been regularly requesting State/UT Governments for continuous review of lists of BPL and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) families, ensuring timely availability of foodgrains at Fair Price Shops (FPSs), ensuring greater transparency in functioning of TPDS, improved monitoring and vigilance at various levels and introduction of new technologies such as Computerisation of TPDS operations at various levels.

Government issues instructions and advisories to States/UTs for reforms in TPDS. This Department has also been regularly interacting with the States for successful and effective reforms of the TPDS. In the conference of State Food Secretaries & other officials on Best Practices and Reforms in TPDS held in July, 2010, measures being taken by States/UTs for streamlining the TPDS were shared amongst the participants. These, inter-alia, related to proper identification of beneficiaries, timely distribution of foodgrains, door step delivery of foodgrains, enhancing viability of Fair Price Shops (FPSs), enhancing storage capacities, use of technology based initiatives in TPDS, increasing public awareness, monitoring distribution of PDS commodities through social audit, etc. Regional Conferences were also held in February, 2011 with State/UT Food Ministers and Food Secretaries to review the implementation of TPDS. Further, a two day Conference on Targeted Public Distribution System and Storage with Food & Agriculture Ministers and Secretaries of States/UTs was held on 8th and 9th February, 2012 at New Delhi. The issues discussed in the Conference included stepping up of procurement activities, expeditious action to be taken for computerization of PDS and creation of storage capacity as well as time bound completion of existing projects.

National Food Security Bill has been introduced in Lok Sabha on 22.12.2011. Under the Bill, upto 75% of the rural population (with at least 46% belonging to priority households) and upto 50% of urban population (with at least 28% belonging to priority households) are proposed to be covered under TPDS. Priority households will be entitled to receive 7 kg of foodgrains per person per month at prices not exceeding Rs.3/2/1 per kg for rice/wheat/coarsegrains. General households will be entitled to receive not less than 3 kg of foodgrains per person per month at prices not exceeding 50% of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for wheat and coarsegrains and not exceeding 50% of derived MSP for rice. In order to enable Central and State Governments to perform the roles envisaged under the proposed legislation, provision for reforms in TPDS has also been made in the Bill.

Rupay System

National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) is an authorized entity under Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The Reserve Bank of India has granted approval of the NPCI for the following:

1) Public launch of RUPAY affiliated cards issued by banks (for use at ATMs and micro-ATMs).

2) Pilot launch of RUPAY affiliated Debit Card (issued by banks).

It is an approve card payment network like Mastercard and VISA.

As a further step towards Financial Inclusion, the Issue of RUPAY affiliated cards by banks will enable cashless transaction where such cards are used at Point of Sale (POS) and Micro ATMs.

Vidyanathan Committee

Based on the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Task Force-II, the Government had approved the Revival Package for Long Term Cooperative Credit Structure (LTCCS) in February, 2009. A Task Force was constituted to examine the impact of the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008 and the implementation of the revival package for the Short Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS) in the 25 implementing States on the Revival Package for the LTCCS. The Task Force has submitted its report. The proposal is being finalized in consultation with concerned Ministries.

National Policy on Microfinance

Planning Commission had constituted a High Level Committee on financial sector reforms under the Chairmanship of Shri Raghuram G. Rajan, Professor, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago in August, 2007. The Committee submitted the report in September, 2008.

The Committee observed that, “despite its success, the future growth of microfinance is constrained by a number of factors. An important issue is the ability of MFIs to raise financing. Given the large estimated demand for microcredit, MFIs need multiple sources of financing, apart from the traditional loan financing from banks. Other constraints include an unclear regulatory environment and the lack of well-developed management information systems and an adequate supply of trained management talent to facilitate sustainable scaling up.”

To provide a formal statutory framework for the promotion, development, regulation and orderly growth of the micro finance sector and thereby to facilitate universal access to integrated financial services for the unbanked population, the Department of Financial Services is formulating Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill 2012.

Agriculture Development Bank

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was established on 12 July 1982 by an Act of the Parliament for providing and regulating credit and other facilities for the promotion and development of agriculture, small scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas with a view to promoting integrated rural development and securing prosperity of rural areas, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

NABARD provides refinance assistance under Sec.21 (i) of NABARD Act, 1981 for Short Term Seasonal Agricultural Operations (STSAO) purposes for a period not exceeding 8 months to Cooperatives, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and any other financial institutions approved by Reserve Bank of India. Further, in terms of Govt. of India’s instruction the Short Term refinance to Cooperative Banks, RRBs is being provided by NABARD at concessional rate of interest in order to enable them to provide crop loans upto Rs. 3 lakh for a period of one year to farmers at 7% p.a.

Khandelwal Committee Report

Government constituted a Committee on Human Resources issues of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) under the Chairmanship of Dr. A.K. Khandelwal, who has submitted its report. The Committee made 105 recommendations on matters related to Manpower and Recruitment Planning, Training, Career Planning, Performance Management, Reward Management, Succession Planning and Leadership Development, Motivation, Professionalisation of HR, Wages, Service Conditions and Welfare, etc. As 49 recommendations required further deliberations, the remaining 56 recommendations were forwarded to PSBs with the request that an HR Plan for each Bank be prepared and got approved by the respective Board of Directors. The representatives of Workmen Union/ Officer Association are on the Board of Directors of the Bank where a decision on various recommendations is taken.

Banks in Rural Areas

There are 93,659 branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) functioning in the country as on 31st March, 2012, out of which 34,671 branches are in rural areas and 24,133 are in semi-urban areas, which together constitute about 63% of the total bank branches.

During 2010-11, the SCBs opened 3,294 branches in rural/ semi-urban areas against 1,795 branches opened in urban/ Metropolitan areas of the country.

As per the extant Branch Authorization Policy of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), general permission has been granted to domestic SCBs (other than Regional Rural Banks) to open branches in centres with a population upto 99,999 and in all centres of the North-Eastern States and Sikkim, subject to reporting. In order to further expand the banking network, RBI has advised that while preparing their Annual Branch Expansion Plan, the Banks should allocate at least 25 percent of the branches proposed to be opened during a year in unbanked rural centres with population upto 9999.

Further, under the “Swabhimaan” financial inclusion campaign, banking facilities have been provided to over 74,000 villages having population over 2000.

Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) drafted Policy on Exploitation of Shale Gas

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) drafted a safe as well as encouraging policy on exploitation of shale gas that is seen as the new hope for fuelling India’s burgeoning appetite for hydrocarbons. DGF drafted the policy in the wake of the CAG’s strictures against the DGH and the Petroleum Ministry on violations in the KG-D6 contract.

The draft policy does not permit cost recovery and hence profit sharing — the two features that came under criticism by the CAG in its audit report. However it banks on production-linked payment (PLP) as the Centre’s share from the discovery.

The draft stated that the PLP would be a fixed percentage of revenue receipts from the shale gas or shale oil sold from the contract area, net of royalty on a monthly basis. Royalty would be in line with what is prescribed in the Oilfields (Regulation & Development) act. The PLP quoted at the time of the bidding for blocks assumes significance as it would carry the maximum 60 per cent weight for deciding the award of the block. The total investment quoted for completing the promised minimum work programme would get 40 per cent weightage. As a fiscal incentive, the contractor will be exempt from PLP payment for the first five years from the start of commercial production or from the date of entering the development and production phase, whichever is earlier.

The maximum period of PLP exemption would be 10 years from the date of signing of the contract and will not be extended under any circumstance since it is an incentive for faster development.

As per the policy, the explorer will be given the freedom to market shale gas within India on an arm’s length basis, with shale oil marketing following the prevailing norms of the New Exploration Licensing Policy. The other incentive proposed in the draft is customs duty exemption on the import of goods and materials for exploration and exploitation of shale gas or oil.

The blocks are to be awarded through open international competitive bidding with up to 100 per cent equity participation by foreign companies. The operating firm in a consortium would be the one which has minimum 25 per cent equity. The contract would be for 30 years with the first five years kept for exploration, appraisal and evaluation of the prospect and its feasibility.

Exports from SEZs

The 30th Report of the Public Accounts Committee (2010-11) on performance of SEZs has, inter-alia, observed that out of an overall export of Rs. 7,149.23 crore made by a sample 22 SEZ units, the actual export content was only Rs. 1,999.27 crore (28 per cent) and the remaining Rs. 5,149.96 crore (72 per cent) related to Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) earnings.

The total value of exports from SEZs during the financial year 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 have been Rs. 220.7 thousand crore, Rs 315.9 thousand crore and Rs. 364.5 thousand crore respectively, registering growth of 121%, 46.11% and 15.38% over the exports of the immediately preceding financial year.

No export targets are set for Special Economic Zones (SEZs). However, the SEZs are under obligation to achieve positive Net Foreign Exchange (NFE) earnings to be calculated cumulatively for a period of 5 years from the commencement of production, failing which the units shall be liable for penal action under the provisions of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992.

India's exports drop by 5.71 percent, imports surges 24.28 percent in March

India's exports fell by 5.71 percent to USD 28.68 billion in March while imports surged 24.28 percent to USD42.58 billion, leaving a monthly trade deficit of USD13.9 billion, government data showed on Tuesday.
Despite a year-on-year decline in March, India's exports surpassed the USD300 billion target in 2011-12. Total exports grew by 20.94 percent to USD303.71 billion.
The government had set an exports target of USD300 billion for the financial year ended March 31. India managed to exceed the export target helped by product and market diversification strategy. Imports grew by 24.28 percent to USD42.58 billion in March 2012 as compared to USD34.26 billion recorded during the corresponding month of previous year, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Total imports in 2011-12 grew to USD488.64 billion, 32.15 percent higher than the USD369.76 billion recorded in the previous year. Trade deficit widened to a record USD184.92 billion in 2011-12, substantially higher than the government's target of USD150 billion, and USD118.63 billion deficit recorded in the previous fiscal.
Oil imports jumped by 32.45 percent to USD15.83 billion in March, largely due to high energy prices in the international markets. Total oil imports in 2011-12 surged by 46.88 percent to USD155.63 billion. Oil imports bill in 2010-11 was of USD105.96 billion.
This has been the main reason for widening deficit. Engineering exports grew by 16.9 percent to USD58.2 billion. Exports of petroleum and oil products surged by 38.5 percent to USD57.5 billion and gems and jewellery exports increased to USD45.9 billion, which is 13.3 percent higher than the exports registered in the previous year.
Other sectors which showed healthy performance include: drugs and pharmaceuticals, up 21.9 percent at USD13.1 billion; leather, up 22.5 percent at USD4.2 billion; electronics, up 9.2 percent at USD9 billion; cotton yarn and fabric made-up, up 17.4 percent at USD7.2 billion, readymade garments yarns and fabrics, up 18 percent at USD13.7 billion and marine products up 31.4 percent at USD3.4 billion.
Gold and silver imports jumped by 44.4 percent to USD61.5 billion. Imports of coal surged by 80.3 percent to USD17.6 billion and imports of machinery increased by 27.7 percent to USD35.4 billion.
Imports of electronics goods grew by 23 percent to USD32.7 billion; iron and steel imports increased by 15 percent to USD11.9 billion; vegetable oil imports grew by 47.5 percent to USD9.7 billion; and fertilizer imports surged by 59 percent to USD11 billion. However, imports of gems and jewellery fell by 0.6 percent to USD31 billion.

India to get banking information from Switzerland on liberal terms

In a development that will boost the fight against black money menace, Switzerland has agreed to provide details of secret bank accounts of individuals sought by India even on the basis of limited information.

Under a mutual agreement reached on April 20 between the two countries, Switzerland has agreed to give liberal interpretation to the provisions concerning identities of Indian citizens.

“... it is sufficient if the requesting state identifies the person by other means than by indicating the name and address of the person concerned, and indicates to the extent known, the name and address of any person believed to be in possession of the requested information,” a Finance Ministry release said on Monday.

Under the existing bilateral treaty, the requesting country has to compulsorily provide the name of the person under examination and the name of the foreign holder of the information. These are part of the identity requirements without which the information would not be shared by the other country.

“This was a restrictive provision and not in line with the international standards,” the release said.

The agreement was signed under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between the two countries.

“This agreement is beneficial to India because it gives liberal interpretation to the identity requirements for exchange of information which India will be seeking from Switzerland and is in line with international standards,” the release said.

The pact would allow liberal interpretation of Article 26, concerning exchange of information.

“The conditions as clarified by Switzerland, will enable India to get information even if we have only limited details regarding the person having bank accounts in Switzerland,” the release said.

India had inked the pact with Switzerland to revise their bilateral taxation treaty in August 2010. The revised treaty was approved by Swiss Parliament on June 17 last year.

The new agreement was signed by Sanjay Kumar Mishra Joint Secretary (Foreign Tax & Tax Research division), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Juerg Giraudi, Head of Division of International Tax Affairs, Swiss Federal Department of Finance.

The Cabinet had earlier approved the mutual pact on March 23.

“... this mutual agreement will apply from the date on which the amending Protocol which was signed on August 30, 2010, has come into effect April 1, 2011,” the release said.

As per data from the Swiss National Bank, the total deposits of Indian individuals and companies in Swiss banks stood at about USD 2.5 billion at the end of 2010.

Production & Availability of Fertilizers in the Country During March 2012

In March, 2012 production of Urea was 17.28 lakh MT against the target of 18.93 lakh MT. Estimated production of DAP during the month was 3.10 lakh MT as against the target of 3.03 lakh MT. Production of DAP had been more than the target by 0.07 lakh MT.

During March 2012, approximately 21.25 lakh MT (both indigenous and imported) urea was dispatched to various States. Availability of urea during the month of March 2012 was about 24.94 lakh MT and availability was satisfactory in all the States. Further, sale of Urea in the current season up to 31.3.2012 was about 151.16 lakh MT which is lower by 3.15% as compared to the sale of 156.08 lakh MT in the corresponding period of the previous year.

As regards decontrolled fertilizers, availability of DAP and MOP during the month of March 2012 had been about 18.56 lakh MT and 7.28 lakh MT respectively, which was adequate to meet the demand of the States.

During the month of March 2012, 1.59 lakh MT of urea was imported from OMIFCO, Oman. In addition, 0.25 lakh MT of DAP and 1.18 lakh MT of MOP was also imported into the country.

Providing More Employment to Women in Textile Sector

Ministry of Women and Child Development, under the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) (a Centrally Sponsored Scheme), is in the process of setting up State Resource Centres for Women (SRCW) in all States and Union Territories to carry out activities of the Mission including convergence between Ministries and Departments of Central and State Governments on women`s issues. The Mission is mandated to pilot convergence and facilitation centres for women in the village, block and district levels in 32 selected districts across the country to demonstrate convergence. However, there is no specific plan for linking with institutions in the textile sector.

EPFO may give more than 8.25% interest this fiscal

Retirement fund body EPFO’s interest rate for its over 50 million subscribers for this fiscal could be higher than 8.25 per cent provided during 2011-12, the Labour Minister, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge said.

“Suppose if our income goes up, it may be beyond 8.25 per also,” Mr Kharge told reporters when asked whether the Employees Provident Fund Organisation has decided to pay 8.6 per cent rate this fiscal.

The Minister said: “We will distribute interest (among subscribers) based on our income...this is what I said in Rajya Sabha. We will see what our total revenue is and based on that we can give.’’

A section of the media had reported last week that the EPFO has decided to pay 8.6 per cent rate of return this fiscal to its account holders, based on the Minister’s reply to a debate on labour issues in the Rajya Sabha.

The Minister explained that he had spoken about the 8.6 per cent rate of return in the context of the Government’s decision to increase the rate of return on Special Deposit Scheme.

The EPFO has parked about Rs 55,000 crore in the SDS. Its total corpus is around Rs 3 lakh crore.

There was a hue and cry when the EPFO had last month slashed the interest rate on PF deposits to 8.25 per cent for 2011-12 from 9.5 per cent in 2010-11.

As per practice, the rate of return on PF deposits is announced by the EPFO’s apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), headed by the Labour Minister.

The CBT’s decision on interest rate is based on the EPFO’s income projections for a financial year. The decision is finally implemented after the Finance Ministry’s concurrence.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered India’s Economic Growth Forecast to 6.9% in 2012

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook (WEO), released ahead of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings, marginally lowered India’s economic growth forecast to 6.9% in 2012, from 7% projected earlier. The IMF projected world economic growth rate to slump to 3.5% in 2012 from 3.9% in 2011. It pegged India’s growth during the 2013 calendar year at 7.3%.

The WEO pointed out that in emerging Asia, including India, strengthening domestic demand will require improving the conditions for private investment by addressing infrastructure bottlenecks and enhancing governance and public service delivery. The WEO while referring to the declining growth rate stated that domestic factors also contributed to the slowdown, as deterioration in business sentiment weakened investment and policy tightening raised borrowing costs.

According to the estimates of India’s Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the growth rate during the financial year 2011-12 slipped to a 3-year low of 6.9%. The Union government projected a growth rate of 7.6% for 2012-13 fiscal year. The Reserve Bank of India however expects it to be 7.3%.

The WEO highlighted that fiscal consolidation would continue to remain a priority in India, to anchor confidence and rebuild room to meet future challenges.

India registered Highest Ever Trade Deficit of $184.9 billion in 2011-12

Commerce Secretary on 19 April 2012 announced that India surpassed the export target of $300 billion for 2011-12. India was able to surpass the trade target of $300 billion despite slowdown in demand in its traditional markets of the U.S. and Europe. Exports increased by 21 per cent to $303.7 billion in 2011-12 powered by a strong growth in petroleum, pharmaceuticals and engineering products.

However, imports surged by 32.1 per cent to $488.6 billion thereby leaving the highest-ever trade deficit of $184.9 billion.
Engineering exports grew by 16.9 per cent to $58.2 billion. Exports of petroleum and oil products surged by 38.5 per cent to $57.5 billion and gems and jewellery exports increased to $45.9 billion.

Other sectors which showed healthy performance with respect to export include drugs and pharmaceuticals up 21.9 per cent at $13.1 billion; leather (up 22.5 per cent) at $4.2 billion; electronics (up 9.2 per cent) at $9 billion; cotton yarn and fabric made-up (up 17.4 per cent) at $7.2 billion, readymade garments yarns and fabrics (up 18 per cent) at $13.7 billion and marine products (up 31.4 per cent) at $3.4 billion.

Imports also registered a huge surge with petroleum, oil and lubricants moving up by a steep 46.9 per cent to $155.6 billion largely due to increased prices in international markets. Imports of gold and silver jumped by 44.4 per cent to $61.5 billion while that of coal surged by 80.3 per cent to $17.6 billion.

Imports of machinery increased by 27.7 per cent to $35.4 billion; electronics goods by 23 per cent to $32.7 billion; iron and steel by 15 per cent to $11.9 billion; vegetable oil by 47.5 per cent to $9.7 billion; and fertilizer by 59 per cent to $11 billion.

However, imports of gems and jewellery fell by 10.6 per cent to $31 billion.

Standard & Poor's cut India’s Credit Rating Outlook to Negative

Standard & Poor's downgraded credit rating outlook for India to negative from stable on 25 April 2012. The cut in credit rating is the reflection of India's widening fiscal and current account deficits.
The negative outlook jeopardises India's long-term rating of BBB-, the lowest investment grade rating, and sent Indian bonds, stocks and the rupee lower.
India has no sovereign global bond issues, but a downgrade would increase borrowing costs for local companies and make it harder to refinance debt, and may have a further chilling effect on foreign investor confidence in the country in general.
India's fiscal deficit widened to 5.9% of gross domestic product in the fiscal year 2011-12, starkly higher than the government's target of 4.6%. The country is performing equally bad on the front of foreign institutional investment as it witnessed a sharp decline in the FII over the past few months.  India has drawn nearly 171.8 million dollar FII so far in April 2012 against more than 5 billion dollar in February 2012.
The credit rating downgrading indicates that the government will now have to contemplate seriously over the long-pending economic reforms and push them through as soon as possible.

India's GDP Growth to make the Indian Banking Industry Third Largest in the World by 2025

A study titled Being five star in productivity  road map for excellence in Indian banking was released FICCI-IBA-BCG on 22 August 2011, the eve of IBA-FICCI annual banking conference. The theme for the banking conference was decided to be Productivity Excellence.

According to the study, India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth will make the Indian banking industry third largest in the world by 2025. The report chalked out an action agenda for banks, based on insights from an extensive productivity benchmarking exercise conducted across 40 banks.

The report highlighted that banks have to strive for excellence on five dimensions: branch sales and service, new channels, lean operations, organisation design and bad debt management.

The report stated that branches of banks can generate higher levels of revenue for the banks. Indian banks deploy 62 per cent of staff in customer facing roles as against the benchmark of 82 per cent observed by BCG globally.

Break-out growth in usage of new channels will characterise the next decade in Indian banking. Among the new channels, mobile phones, propelled by 3G and smart phone technology, will emerge as an undisputed winner by 2020 accounting for 20-30 per cent of total transactions. ATMs have seen exponential growth in usage but are far from maturity with just about 50 per cent adoption even in metros.  New channels will not only enhance the productivity but can be a source of new customer acquisition.

Indian banks, the report mentioned were to be doing well overall with industry cost-income ratio below 50 per cent.

However, there remained plenty of scope for betterment. On an average, Indian banks have about 20 per cent of staff deployed in back-office processing (for some banks, as high as 40 per cent) as against a global best of 10 per cent observed by BCG. Process re-engineering and operating model change if employed could help reduce costs, improve service, and contain operating risks.

Public sector banks were found to be under-investing in technology with spends at about 25 per cent of global benchmarks. An Indian banks average administrative overhead at about 11 per cent of the total staff is in line with what BCG has observed globally.

The banking industry was holding low headcount in HR and finance roles. Variable pay at 2 per cent of fixed compensation is far below the 12-15 per cent that is optimal for incentive compensation. The public sector as per the report urgently needed an adjustment in its compensation structure. The industry has an impressive bad debt performance and the bad debt levels in priority sectors of MSME and agriculture are significantly high.
The report suggested major overhaul of NPA management processes at banks. Some banks have alarmingly high NPA levels in relatively safe products such as home loans.

The report stressed on a whole new paradigm for risk management encompassing operating model, technology, experience and expertise retention, and minimum critical size of book.

Goa topped the List of States with Highest Per Capita Income

Goa topped the list of the states with highest per capita income in the country with a total per capita income of 192652 rupees.
Delhi with a total per capita income of 1.75 lakh rupees  in 2011-12 secured second spot in the list, followed by Haryana with per capita income of 109227 rupees.
The national average was estimated at 38005 rupees in 2011-12 against 35993 rupees in 2010-11. The estimates WERE prepared as per methodology prescribed by the Central Statistical Organisation on the basis of provisional data provided by it and other government sources.