20.1.16
19.1.16
Exports Dip 15% in Dec
India's merchandise exports contracted for the thirteenth consecutive month in December, falling 14.75% from a year ago. A sharp 179% rise in gold imports in the month widened the trade deficit to a four-month high of $11.66 billion compared with $9.8 billion in November. Imports fell 3.88% from a year earlier to $33.96 billion.
Exports fell in 15 out of 30 segments including iron ore, gems and jewellery, and engineering goods.
The poor performance of merchandise exports this year had been cushioned by services exports and low oil import bill. Services trade data comes with a lag of one month.
Services exports fell 3.63% on year in November at $12.01 billion but the services trade balance has been stable.
Oil imports during December, 2015 were down 33.19% on year at $6.65 billion while non-oil imports were up 7.63% on year at $ 27.4 billion.
In 2014-15, India's total exports were $310.5 billion.
However, allaying industry' fears of job losses, she said employment oriented sectors have continued to be robust even in adverse global situation and that loss of jobs is not a corollary to fall in exports.
Slow global demand and rising volatility in currency markets including the devaluation of the yuan have hit Indian exports on which the Secretary said that though the yuan's devaluation does affect competitiveness of India's exports, but India is not head to head competing with most of Chinese merchandise exports.
Gold prices in the international market have fallen to a five-year low fuelling a rise in imports of the yellow metal and hence, widening of the trade gap to a four month high.
Rising Pune Supergiants
Industrialist Sanjiv Goenka has named the Pune IPL franchise Rising Pune Supergiants, and announced Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the team's captain for the upcoming season.
The team's logo sports purple, gold and orange colours, similar to Goenka's corporate logo.
Raghu Iyer, who previously helmed the suspended Rajasthan Royals franchise, will be moving to the Pune team as its chief executive.
Iyer will oversee the Group's sports operations, which include Atlético de Kolkata -the Kolkata team that Goenka co-owns in the Indian Super League football tournament.
Kolkata-based Goenka's New Rising and Delhi-based handset maker Intex had won the bids for two new IPL fran chises that would play in the IPL in 2016 and 2017, after Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended for two years.
Besides Dhoni, India's captain for limited-over matches, the Pune team will have big names such as Australia skipper Steve Smith, South Africa's Faf du Plessis and Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane and spinner R Ashwin.
Jio, RCom Ink Spectrum Pacts
Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications have signed spectrum trading and sharing agreements, moves that will help the combination leverage each other's airwaves to launch 4G services across India.This marks a much-anticipated union between the Ambani brothers that will pit them against top telcos Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Jio's board separately approved the raising of Rs.15,000 crore through a rights issue to existing shareholders on Monday . Jio is a wholly owned unit of Reliance Industries.
Anil Ambani-owned RCom will sell its airwaves in the 800 Mhz band in nine service areas to Jio owned by elder brother Mukesh where the latter doesn't have spectrum in that band. In 17 circles, the two companies will share airwaves, the carriers said in a joint statement on Monday. The two companies have also agreed on intra-circle roaming agreements, which will enable users in the same service area to use the two networks interchangeably.
RCom is set to get around Rs 4,500 crore by trading its airwaves to Jio, which the company will use to pay the telecom department (DoT) most of the Rs.5,384 crore it needs for liberalising its air waves in 16 circles. The balance will be paid from the proceeds of the recent real estate asset sale deals that RCom has struck, sources said. Liberalising refers to allowing the use of spectrum for any telecom-related activity, not just what it was allocated for.
“The spectrum arrangements be tween RJIL and RCom will result in network synergies, enhanced network capacity and will optimise spectrum utilisation and capex efficiencies. Both operators anticipate considerable savings in operating costs and future investment in networks,“ the statement said.
Market leader Bharti Airtel was first off the blocks on 4G and is offering services in more than 350 towns and cities.Vodafone India and Idea have already launched their own 4G high-speed broadband services in select circles, while Jio is expected to launch its 4G operations in March-April, having soft launched with employees late December.Sources said RCom is also expected to launch its own 4G offerings in tandem with Jio's commercial launch.
Jio and RCom are likely to extend their sharing partnership to all 22 service areas once the government arrives on a price to liberalise airwaves in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, said one of those cited above. Since 800 MHz spectrum wasn't auctioned in these circles, its price is still to be determined.Jio only had higher frequencies until the last auction in 2015, when it bought airwaves in 10 service areas in the 800 MHz band.
Jio's board separately approved the raising of Rs.15,000 crore through a rights issue to existing shareholders on Monday . Jio is a wholly owned unit of Reliance Industries.
Anil Ambani-owned RCom will sell its airwaves in the 800 Mhz band in nine service areas to Jio owned by elder brother Mukesh where the latter doesn't have spectrum in that band. In 17 circles, the two companies will share airwaves, the carriers said in a joint statement on Monday. The two companies have also agreed on intra-circle roaming agreements, which will enable users in the same service area to use the two networks interchangeably.
RCom is set to get around Rs 4,500 crore by trading its airwaves to Jio, which the company will use to pay the telecom department (DoT) most of the Rs.5,384 crore it needs for liberalising its air waves in 16 circles. The balance will be paid from the proceeds of the recent real estate asset sale deals that RCom has struck, sources said. Liberalising refers to allowing the use of spectrum for any telecom-related activity, not just what it was allocated for.
“The spectrum arrangements be tween RJIL and RCom will result in network synergies, enhanced network capacity and will optimise spectrum utilisation and capex efficiencies. Both operators anticipate considerable savings in operating costs and future investment in networks,“ the statement said.
Market leader Bharti Airtel was first off the blocks on 4G and is offering services in more than 350 towns and cities.Vodafone India and Idea have already launched their own 4G high-speed broadband services in select circles, while Jio is expected to launch its 4G operations in March-April, having soft launched with employees late December.Sources said RCom is also expected to launch its own 4G offerings in tandem with Jio's commercial launch.
Jio and RCom are likely to extend their sharing partnership to all 22 service areas once the government arrives on a price to liberalise airwaves in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, said one of those cited above. Since 800 MHz spectrum wasn't auctioned in these circles, its price is still to be determined.Jio only had higher frequencies until the last auction in 2015, when it bought airwaves in 10 service areas in the 800 MHz band.
Sensex @ a 20 month low
The sensex took another tumble in a late selloff due to weak global cues, closing 267 points lower at 24,188, a 20-month closing low. It's now just 282 points above the level of May 15, 2014, the day before the Narendra Modi-led alliance won a thumping majority in the last Lok Sabha elections. The very next day , the sensex had surged more than 1,000 points in early trades to rise above the 25,000 mark for the first time, marking the beginning of an expectation-led buoyancy in the stock markets.
What's more, the current sensex level is also just 168 points short of entering the bear market territory . Marketmen consider a 20% slide in the benchmark index from its peak as the entry point to a bear market region. From its March 4, 2015 peak of 30,025 points, the sensex has lost 19.4% to its Monday close, and the bear territory for the index is below 24,020.
The year’s selloff so far has left investors poorer by nearly Rs 9 lakh crore, with BSE’s market capitalisation now at Rs 91.1 lakh crore.
Monday’s slide was led by strong selling from foreign investors, which also pulled the rupee down by 8 paise to 67.69.
With a Rs 1,200-crore net selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) on Monday, the total net outflow by this powerful group of investors in 2016 is now nearly $850 million (about Rs 5,700 crore). Institutional dealers, however, said that it's mainly the global nervousness which is pulling all markets around the world down and it's not specific to India. A 391-point crash in Dow Jones index on Friday night also weighed on the Indian market, although on Monday the Chinese market was relatively quiet and the Shanghai index, which is already in a bear territory , closed flat.
Among the sensex stocks, RIL, which was cushioning the fall in the index in the last few sessions, lost the most on Monday , closing 5.1% down. Along with RIL, other top laggards were Bajaj Auto, down 3.7%, and Asian Paints, which lost 3.3%. Of the 30 sensex stocks, 19 ended in the red. Of the gainers, BHEL was up 4.3% and Tata Steel gained 2.8%.
Organic Sikkim
Applauding the achievement of Sikkim, that has turned itself into the first and only fully organic state in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gangtok, appealed to all states to identify a district, or even a block, to convert it into a 100% organic area. “When the idea of organic farming would have been shared over a decade ago, I am sure people may have opposed this. What we are seeing today is the result of tremendous hard work and belief in an idea,” he said, while addressing a gathering of agriculture ministers and senior officials of different states during the national conference on sustainable agriculture. Branding Sikkim as a ‘model state’ for the world, the Prime Minister said that the state was developing successfully without harming the environment.
“It has been agreed by all nations that we have to change our lifestyle. We cannot exploit nature. We have to live in harmony with nature and go back to the basics. At COP21 (Paris climate summit in November-December last year), it was decided that you need to learn to love nature and Sikkim has proved just that. Nature is protected here and development is not compromised,” he said.
Modi is on a two-day visit to the northeast. On Tuesday, he will interact with students of IIT, NIT & central universities of the northeast in Assam.
Modi also tweeted his wish, saying he envisions the entire northeast to be a hub of organic farming.
“It has been agreed by all nations that we have to change our lifestyle. We cannot exploit nature. We have to live in harmony with nature and go back to the basics. At COP21 (Paris climate summit in November-December last year), it was decided that you need to learn to love nature and Sikkim has proved just that. Nature is protected here and development is not compromised,” he said.
Modi is on a two-day visit to the northeast. On Tuesday, he will interact with students of IIT, NIT & central universities of the northeast in Assam.
Modi also tweeted his wish, saying he envisions the entire northeast to be a hub of organic farming.
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