Government budget balance | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.

Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.

The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.

The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.

Record Coal India share sale boosts privatisation drive | Reuters

India has raised about $3.6 billion by selling a 10 percent stake in state-run Coal India Ltd in the largest ever equity deal in the local market, giving a welcome boost to the government‘s faltering divestment drive.

The share sale will move the government closer to the still distant target of raising $10 billion by selling minority stakes in state-owned companies to trim the fiscal deficit to a seven-year low by the end of March.

Until now, the government had raised barely $300 million.

The strong investor response to the Coal India issue is expected to bolster New Delhi’s plans to offload shares in other state firms including Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Power Finance Corp Ltd.

Overseas and local portfolio investor demand for Coal India shares exceeded supply, in a vote of confidence in recovery in Asia’s third-largest economy, and in its growing demand for energy as industrial production increases.

via Record Coal India share sale boosts privatisation drive | Reuters.

Posted in coal, Economics, India alert, privatisation | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, Central bank, Coal India, Coal India Ltd, Coal India share, Economy of the People's Republic of China, Government budget balance, Gross domestic product, India, Interest, Narendra Modi, New Delhi, Reserve Bank of India

22/01/2015

India wants to reduce subsidies to cut expenditure – Jaitley | Reuters

India wants to reduce its subsidy bill, estimated at near two percent of its gross domestic product, to cut down state expenditure and transfer funds to other sectors, the finance minister said.

“Subsidies for the poor will remain, but we intend to rationalise it,” Arun Jaitley said at an event in Davos on Thursday.

“Elimination of subsidies in India, where one-third of the people are still living in poverty conditions, is not possible, is not desirable.”

Jaitley will present his first full-year budget for 2015/16 fiscal year on Feb. 28.

via India wants to reduce subsidies to cut expenditure – Jaitley | Reuters.

Posted in Economics, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Arun Jaitley, Bimal Jalan, Budget, expenditure, finance minister, Government budget balance, Government spending, Gross domestic product, India, Narendra Modi, subsidies in India, Subsidy

07/12/2014

India Raises $278 Million From Sale of Stake in Steel Authority – Businessweek

India said the sale of a stake in state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd. will fetch $278 million, the first step in a push for $9.5 billion from share sales to help narrow the nation’s budget deficit to a seven-year low.

The disposal of a 5 percent holding in Steel Authority of India is set to generate about 17.15 billion rupees ($278 million) and the offer was more than two times oversubscribed, the Finance Ministry said in a statement today.

“This will give a lot of confidence to the government to come out with disinvestment in other companies,” said R. K. Gupta, managing director at New Delhi-based Taurus Asset Management Co., which oversees $710 million.

via India Raises $278 Million From Sale of Stake in Steel Authority – Businessweek.

India yet to decide on dates for key asset sales – official

Posted in Economics, India alert, privatisation | 1 Comment »

Tags: Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party, Capital Economics, Coal India, finance minister, Finance Ministry, Government budget balance, India, Narendra Modi, New Delhi, Steel Authority, Steel Authority of India, Taurus Asset Management Co.

19/05/2014

The Twin Deficits That Threaten Modi’s India – Businessweek

For Narendra Modi, getting elected as prime minister of India is the easy part. Now comes dealing with the twin deficits—in the national budget and in foreign trade—that endanger the world’s largest democracy.

Opposition leader and India's next prime minister Narendra Modi greets supporters during a visit to seek his mother's blessings in Gandhinagar, the western Indian state of Gujarat on May 16

Overnight poll results show that Modi’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies scored the biggest Indian election win in 30 years. “Voters tired of sluggish economic growth and corruption handed a historic defeat to the Gandhi dynasty that has dominated politics since the country’s founding,” Bloomberg News reported today.

In April, the International Monetary Fund issued a 66-page report on India that highlighted the challenges facing India. The report notes that India is not the only Group of 20 country with high budget deficits, nor is it the only one with high trade deficits. What’s unusual is that it’s high in both.

Despite notable progress in shrinking both deficits, India remains vulnerable to a crisis of confidence among global investors, the IMF report says. Advanced economies are vulnerable to rapid fiscal deterioration, the report says, when they have debt-to-GDP ratios above 80 percent of GDP and persistent deficits in the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services. Emerging economies such as India’s are vulnerable even at lower debt levels, the report says, citing work by Harvard economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart.

via The Twin Deficits That Threaten Modi’s India – Businessweek.