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Somewhere in Bengal....

Petrol price cut, Diesel hiked

State-run Indian Oil Corporation moved in contrary directions, cutting the petrol price by Rs.3.02 a litre, but raising diesel by Rs.1.47, both at Delhi, with corresponding changes in other states, effective from midnight.
Indian Oil had moved contradictorily in its previous revision of transport fuel prices too on February 17, cutting petrol price by 32 paise a litre, while increasing diesel price by 28 paise, with global oil prices pulling back a little from their earlier plunge.
Petrol per litre from Tuesday will cost Rs.56.61 in Delhi, Rs.62.32 in Kolkata, Rs.62.75 in Mumbai and Rs.56.08 in Chennai. The price of diesel per litre will be Rs.46.43 in Delhi, Rs.49.57 in Kolkata, Rs.53.06 in Mumbai and Rs.47.13 in Chennai.

Statutory status for Aadhaar

The Modi government is set to accord statutory status to the Aadhaar scheme by way of a new legislation to be introduced during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament. The move, announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech, points at the Centre's commitment to use unique identification numbers to directly extend welfare scheme benefits to the needy .
The progress in Aadhaar enrolments -over 98 crore citizens are already registered under the scheme -and its potential to check leakages in Centre's welfare schemes that amount to nearly Rs.3.5 lakh crore has nudged the government to think of a fresh legislation. This is also expected to pave the way for its envisaged role as part of the Jandhan-Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) trinity .The “transformative piece of legislation“ will provide a legal foundation to expand the use of UID numbers for a range of developmental purposes at a time when the project is under the Supreme Court's lens.
“We will undertake significant reforms, including enactment of a law to ensure all government benefits are conferred to people who deserve it by giving a statutory backing to the Aadhaar platform,“ Jaitley said. Aadhaar is visualised as a reliable and efficient means to verify the identity of beneficiaries. It can decrease the administrative costs of banks and government agencies and, as part of JAM, link individuals to benefits while doing away with intermediaries.
“We will introduce a bill for targeted delivery of financial and other subsidiary benefits services by using the Aadhaar framework. The bill will be introduced in the current budget session of Parliament,“ the finance minister said.

India 2025

India 2025 will be the world's most populous nation, with a population of just under 1.5 billion, a little ahead of China.
Gandhiji's famous statement that “India lives in her villages“ will remain true with under 40% of the population in urban areas. Agriculture will remain the mainstay of employment with over 40% still dependent on it even as its share of economic activity continues to shrink.
Literacy will rise significantly to over 80%, but that will still leave about one in five adults illiterate. At least 2.6% of all children born will die within their first year, but life expectancy will cross 70 for both genders. The fertility rate -the number of children born to a woman -will fall just below two, making us a nation of “hum do, hamaare do“ decades after the slogan was conceived.
Some of this sounds depressing, but on the economic front, rapid strides would have been made. Gross domestic product (GDP) will touch neary $8 trillion, almost four times the current level, and the addition to the GDP in the decade will be nearly thrice the amount added in the 68 years since Independence. With population growth slowing down, this will also mean per capita incomes rise about four-fold to $6,000.
India's integration with the global economy will be even higher with trade in goods and services accounting for nearly two-thirds of GDP. The average Indian will consume over four times the power she does today .
Internet users will account for anywhere between 50% and 80% of the populace. The market for passenger cars will be around 7.2 million a year, currently the size of the US market. Over 320 million people will travel by air within the country each year, meaning nearly a million Indians will take to the skies each day .
Where does Bollywood go from here? Well, if we've got this right, the successors to the Khans and their ilk will be competing to release films that rake in more than Rs 1,000 crore.

100% FDI in packaged desi foods

In a bold policy move, the Indian government finally appears to have opened the doors of 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) to multi-brand retail, though only in processed foods manufactured locally in the country .
The move could pave the way for global retailers like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco, which can now set up retail outlets exclusively for packaged food products made in India.The objective is to make the food processing industry more efficient. It is also expected to benefit farmers as the requirement involves 100% sourcing of raw materials from India.
Union minister of food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal had recently written to the PM in favour of 100% FDI in multi-brand retail in food products. Krish Iyer, president & CEO, Walmart India, said, “The decision by the government is very progressive and will help reduce wastage, enhance farm diversification and encourage industry to produce locally within the country . This far-reaching reform will benefit farmers, give impetus to the food processing industry and create vast employment.“
Piruz Khambatta, chairman, Rasna, said the move “would bring in more foreign capital in farm to fork rural infrastructure which will greatly help bring down the prices of agri produce“. The move will also indirectly benefit companies like Britannia, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle and Parle.