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Govt appoints insider Urjit Patel as new central bank governor

August 20, 2016

New Delhi, Aug 20: Modi government promoted Urjit Patel, a deputy governor in charge of monetary policy at the Reserve Bank of India, to serve as its next governor for a three-year term, it said on Saturday.Rbi new 1

He will replace Raghuram Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist who stunned financial markets in June by announcing he would step down in September and return to academia after a single three-year term at the RBI.

Patel, 52, headed a panel that recommended landmark changes to monetary policy in India, including a switch to inflation-targeting and the creation of a panel to set interest rates. He will start his three-year term on Sept. 4.

"The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Dr. Urjit R. Patel as Governor, Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years," said the statement from the government.

Patel, who has a doctorate from Yale, had widely been seen as ensuring the most continuity among the candidates believed to be in the running to be the next governor.

He had been reappointed in January for another three years as deputy governor in charge of monetary policy, a department he has run since 2013.

Seen as a close lieutenant to Rajan, Patel will now get to implement the policies he had helped shape.

The government is soon expected to announce the composition of a six-member monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates. It will be made up of himself and two other RBI officials, along with three members appointed by the government.

Rajan, who succeeded in halving the inflation rate from the double digit levels prevailing when he took over, also persuaded the government to adopt inflation targeting, setting a medium term central target of 4 percent, within a range of 2 to 6 percent - another policy endorsed by Patel.

The new governor takes over at a time when inflation has bust out of the top end of that range. Consumer inflation INCPIY=ECI accelerated to 6.07 percent in July, the fourth consecutive month it has stayed above the RBI's near-term target of 5 percent by March.

Aside from controlling inflation, the new governor will have to follow through on efforts to clean-up banks' bad loans so that they can once again support the investments needed if India is to keep its place as one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Patel will also have to navigate India's tricky political scene. Right-wing members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had criticized Rajan for some of his speeches on economic matters and for not cutting interest rates faster.

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News Network
July 21,2020

New Delhi, Jul 21: With a spike of 37,148 cases and 587 deaths reported in India in the last 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 cases stands at 11,55,191, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total number of cases include 4,02,529 active cases, 7,24,578 cured/discharged/migrated and 28,084 deaths, the ministry informed.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 3,18,695 cases and 12,030 deaths.
The second worst-hit state, Tamil Nadu has reported 1,75,678 COVID-19 cases so far while Delhi has reported 1,23,747 cases, according to the Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, as per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,43,81,303 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to July 20. Of these 3,33,395 were tested yesterday.

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News Network
June 9,2020

New Delhi, Jun 9: Petrol price on Tuesday was hiked by 54 paise per litre and diesel by 58 paise a litre - the third straight daily increase in rates after oil PSUs ended an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 73.00 per litre from 72.46, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 71.17 a litre from Rs 70.59, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.

This is the third daily increase in rates in a row. Oil companies had on Sunday restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus.

Prices were raised by 60 paise per litre each on both petrol and diesel on Sunday as well as on Monday. In all, petrol price has gone up by Rs 1.74 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.78 a litre in three days.

Oil PSUs - Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) - had put daily price revisions on hold soon after the government on March 14, hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per litre each.

Oil companies did not pass on that excise duty hike, as well as the May 6 increase in tax on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and Rs 13 a litre hike on diesel by setting them off against the decline in retail prices that should have effected to reflect international oil rates falling to two-decade low.

International rates have since rebounded and oil companies having exhausted all the margin are now passing on the increase to customers, an industry official said.

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Agencies
May 24,2020

Lucknow, May 24: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has banned Corona patients from keeping mobile phones inside isolation wards of COVID-19 hospitals in the state.

Patients admitted in dedicated L-2 and L-3 COVID hospitals will no longer will allowed to take mobile phones along with them in the isolation wards in order to check the spread of the infection.

According to an order issued by the state government late on Saturday night, two mobile phones will now be available with the ward in-charge of the COVID care centres so that patients and talk to their family members and administration if required.

Further, the orders specify that the mobile numbers should be communicated to the family members of the patients also.

Director General Medical Education, K.K. Gupta, who issued the order, has informed all concerned officials and directors of dedicated COVID hospitals.

"To facilitate the communication between COVID-19 patients admitted in clinics, with their family members, or anyone else, ensure that two dedicated mobile phones while adhering to infection prevention norms, are kept with ward in-charge of COVID care centre," the order said.

According to the latest data available on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Uttar Pradesh now has 5,735 cases of Corona positive patients and the numbers have been growing steadily since the past ten days.

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