Economy

New Delhi, PTI: Seeking to promote India as an investment destination, the Indian Finance Ministry proposed sweeping changes in the FDI regime, favouring higher sectoral caps in almost all sectors including defence, multi-brand retail and telecom.

Virtually doing away with the 26 per cent ceiling, a committee headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram recommended that Foreign Direct Investment limit be raised to 49 per cent in almost all sectors through automatic route.

Mumbai, PTI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday kept key policy rates unchanged in view of high food inflation, the declining value of rupee and global uncertainty, disappointing India Inc as well as retail borrowers.

The repo rate, at which RBI lends to banks, has been retained at 7.25 per cent, while the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) will continue to be 4 per cent.

New Delhi, PTI: In a bid to spur investments, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today "strongly favoured" raising the FDI cap in telecom as well as defence sector and said he will meet global investors to address their concerns, particularly in multi-brand retail.

Before leaving for 10-day visit from tommorow to Helsinki, St Petersburg, Belfast and London, Sharma said he will address all the concerns of foreign retail sector investors and ensure all help in setting up stores.

New Delhi, PTI: India has approached over half a dozen foreign jurisdictions, including Singapore and some tax havens, for banking and other financial details of more than 500 individuals and entities that might have 'secret offshore accounts' at those places.

The "names and listed addresses" of as many as 505 India- linked entities, including businessmen and companies from the country, have been made public after a global expose on secret offshore accounts by US-based rights group, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

New Delhi, PTI: Petrol price was hiked by a steep Rs 2 a litre, the second increase in rates this month, as devaluation of rupee against US dollar made imports costlier.

The hike, which is effective from midnight tonight, is excluding local sales tax or VAT and actual increase for consumers will be higher.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked by Rs 2.40 a litre to Rs 66.39 from Rs 63.99 previously.

This is the second increase in rates this month. Oil firms had from June 1 hiked prices by 75 paisa, excluding VAT.

Mumbai, PTI: India's foreign exchange reserves rose USD 1.78 billion to reach USD 289.67 billion during the week ended June 7 on account of a healthy increase in currency assets.

Total reserves had slid by USD 4.18 billion to USD 287.9 billion in the previous reporting week.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of the forex reserves, rose USD 1.62 billion to USD 260.13 billion for the week ended June 7, the Reserve Bank said today.

New Delhi, PTI: Declining prices of manufactured goods helped inflation ease to three-and-a-half year low of 4.7 per cent in May, providing leeway to the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates in its policy review on Monday so as to spur growth.

Falling for the fourth straight month, inflation reached the lowest level since November 2009 when it was 4.50 per cent.

Inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) stood at 4.89 per cent in April. In May 2012, it was 7.55 per cent.

New Delhi, PTI: With Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar yet again stonewalling, the Cabinet today shunned plans for an Ordinance on food security bill which the government now wants to be passed in a special session of parliament.

However, the government has not closed the option of resorting to promulgating an Ordinance if there is no consensus during the meetings it plans with Opposition on the issue.

New Delhi, PTI: Correcting the industrial output figures twice within span of a few hours, the government today said IIP grew at 2.3 per cent in April instead of 2 per cent reported yesterday.

The first correction this morning put the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) at 2.2 per cent, only to revise it yet again later in the day to 2.3 per cent.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation cited wrong recording of production data for the electricity sector as the reason for revision.

New Delhi, PTI: Endorsing India's efforts to tame fiscal deficit, Fitch today revised the country's sovereign credit rating outlook to stable from negative that helped halt rupee slide and brought cheer to the government battling slowdown.

The development came as a pleasant surprise and pushed up the value of the rupee, which had touched a low time low of 58.96 against dollar yesterday, to 57.79.