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PM's Economic Advisory Council to hold first meeting at NITI Aayog today

Agencies
October 11, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 11: The first meeting of the newly-constituted Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (EAC-PM) will be held today at the NITI Aayog.

The council, set up with the Prime Minister's approval on September 26, 2017 and comprising reputed economists and experts, will be chaired by Dr. Bibey Debroy. Principal Adviser of NITI Aayog Ratan P. Watal will be the council'a member secretary and Dr. Surjit Bhalla, Dr. Rathin Roy and Dr. Ashima Goyal its part-time members.

With the constitution of the Council, the government has set up a unique independent institutional mechanism. This is mandated to analyse all critical issues, economic or otherwise referred to it by the Prime Minister and to advise him on the same. Members of the Council will also be expected to address issues of macro-economic importance and express their views.

The Council held a brainstorming session with stakeholders on October 9 at the NITI Aayog in the run-up to the first meeting of the Council.  The Council will address all issues of emergent importance, will engage with a broad spectrum of stakeholders and formulate advice accordingly.

In another development, former RBI Governor C Rangarajan said that he expected the economy to grow at 6.5 per cent for the year 2017-18. He also said that job opportunities and economic growth of the country were inter-related.

"Jobs (jobs creation) are not independent. They are related to growth. When the economy grows, jobs also grow. So you cannot talk of jobs separately from growth", the former chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council said.

"I think the possibility is that growth will pick up in the next few quarters but one doesn't know by how much. Perhaps by the year as a whole my own estimation is the economy may grow at 6.5 per cent", the former RBI Governor noted.

NITI AAYOG WORKING ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION INDEX

Meanwhile, the NITI Aayhog is working on a Digital Transformation Index for start-ups in the country.

"NITI Aayog is working on a Digital Transformation Index for start-ups", its Officer on Special Duty Aalekh Sharan said,

Digital Transformation Index (DTI) is a tool used for gauging how well one helps an organisation grow and thrive in a digital world.

Steps such as measuring the spirit of cooperation and competitiveness among states and ensuring best practices are shared and replicated are being taken, he said, adding that many top innovators are engaged with multinational companies abroad.

"The challenge is to bring them back home and inspire them to contribute towards innovation in India. This is something which will create more jobs, he said at an event organised by the CII in association with USPTO-GIPA in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Sharan also underscored the need for stronger industry-academia linkages for creating a strong eco-system of innovation.

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News Network
April 28,2020

New Delhi, Apr 28: Outstanding loans amounting to Rs 68,607 crore of top 50 wilful bank loan defaulters in the country including firms of Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya have been technically written off till September 30, 2019, the Reserve Bank of India said in a RTI reply.

Absconding dimantaire Choksi's company Gitanjali Gems tops the list of these defaulters with a whopping amount of Rs 5,492 crore, according to the list.

This is followed by REI Agro with Rs 4,314 crore and Winsome Diamonds with Rs 4,076 crore.

Rotomac Global Private Limited has funded advances of Rs 2,850 crore which have been technically written off and Kudos Chemie Ltd with Rs 2,326 crore, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, now owned by Ramdev's Patanjali, with Rs 2,212 crore and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd with Rs 2,012 crore being the other companies.

Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines figures in the list at number 9, with outstanding of Rs 1943 crore which have been technically written off by the banks.

Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds Private Limited has loans of Rs 1,962 crore written off while Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited have Rs 1915 crore written off loans.

Choksi's other firms Gili India and Nakshatra Brands also have loans of Rs 1,447 and Rs 1109 crore respectively written off.

REI Agro of Jhunjhunwala brothers is already under the scanner of ED. The CBI and ED are also probing alleged fraud by the owners of Winsome Diamonds.

Vikram Kothari's Rotomac is the fourth in the list. He and his son Rahul Kothari were arrested by the CBI for bank loan default.

In the last Parliament session, Rahul Gandhi had asked the government to provide a list of top 50 bank loans defaulters in the country, leading to sharp exchanges and uproar in the Lok Sabha.

"The information on top 50 wilful defaulters and their sum of funded amount outstanding and amount technically/prudentially written off as on September 30, 2019 reported in CRILC by banks, is provided," the RBI said in its written response dated April 24.

In his application, RTI activist Saket Gokhale had sought the list of defaulters as on February 16, but the RBI said the requested information is not available.

The RBI said that according to section 8 (1)(a) of RTI Act 2005 read with para 77 of Supreme Court judgement of December 16, 2015 in Jayantilal N Mistry case, information on overseas borrowers is exempted from public disclosure.

"Data is as reported by banks and RBI will not be held responsibly or accountable for any misreporting and/or incorrect reporting by the reporting entities," the RBI said in the written reply to the RTI query.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting the Indians stranded in Wuhan province of China, the epicentre of coronavirus, saying the ground situation there has further worsened.

In a letter to Mr. Modi, he said since the situation in Wuhan was grave, it would be appropriate to operate a special flight to Wuhan or a nearby functional airport and airlift Indian nationals stranded there.

Mr. Vijayan also wanted the Prime Minister to give necessary instructions to the Indian Embassy in China to act pro-actively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including Keralites, stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

The Chief Minister offered assistance of medical professionals from the State in case of evacuation of the Indians from Wuhan.

Chinese health authorities have announced the death toll due to coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India's gold demand in 2020 is expected to fall to the lowest level in 26 years with domestic bullion prices hitting a record high and as falling disposable incomes could curtail retail purchases, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

Lower demand by the world's second-biggest bullion consumer could limit a rally in global prices, which hit a record high earlier this month, although it could also reduce India's trade deficit and support the ailing rupee.

"Fast rising gold prices could act as headwinds," said Somasundaram PR, the managing director of WGC's Indian operations.

Local gold futures have jumped 35% so far this year after rising a quarter in 2019.

India's gold consumption in the first half of 2020 plunged 56% on-year to 165.6 tonnes. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-triggered lockdown also slashed demand by 70% in the June quarter to 63.7 tonnes, the lowest in more than a decade, the WGC said in a report published on Thursday.

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut after the country imposed a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people to curb the spread of the virus that has infected more than 1.5 million Indians.

Consumption is generally high during the June quarter due to weddings and key festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, but lockdown restrictions kept shoppers indoors this year.

The weak demand in the first half could drag down India's gold consumption in 2020 to the lowest since 1994, when demand stood at 415 tonnes, Somasundaram said, adding that it is still difficult to provide an estimate for full-year demand as the coronavirus crisis is still unfolding.

"Indian demand has previously jumped as much as 300 tonnes in a quarter. Latent demand could come out in the second half," Somasundaram said.

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