Posts tagged ‘Narendra Modi’

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10/02/2015

BBC News – Delhi election: Arvind Kejriwal’s party routs Modi’s BJP

An anti-corruption party has won a stunning victory in the Delhi state elections in a huge setback for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man's Party, Arvind Kejriwal waves to the crowd as his party looks set for a landslide party in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015

The BJP admitted defeat after Arvind Kejriwal‘s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 67 of the 70 assembly seats.

Mr Modi congratulated the AAP leader, whose career seemed doomed a year ago when he quit as Delhi’s chief minister over a crucial anti-corruption bill.

It is the BJP’s first setback since it triumphed in the 2014 general election.

Correspondents say the win marks a remarkable comeback for Arvind Kejriwal, a former tax inspector.

His party was routed by the BJP in last May’s general elections, months after the AAP made a spectacular debut in the 2013 Delhi elections.

Mr Modi has enjoyed huge popularity since taking office last year, winning a string of local elections and wooing international investors and world leaders.

Final results gave Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just three seats. India’s main opposition Congress party failed to win even a single seat.

via BBC News – Delhi election: Arvind Kejriwal’s party routs Modi’s BJP.

Posted in Economics, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | 1 Comment »

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06/02/2015

Companies set to back huge India solar expansion | Reuters

India could start installing 20,000 megawatts of solar power capacity as early as April after companies pledged to support the government’s drive for clean energy, an official told Reuters.

A worker cleans photovoltaic solar panels inside a solar power plant at Raisan village near Gandhinagar, in Gujarat, February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/Files

Details of the plan, which has drawn commitments from U.S., German and Chinese companies, will be announced on Friday, said Upendra Tripathy, secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

“We have got commitments from very established industry, both foreign and domestic for next year,” he said in an interview at his office.

Foreign companies will be allowed to decide where they manufacture the required equipment, he said.

via Companies set to back huge India solar expansion | Reuters.

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05/02/2015

BBC News – Fresh protest against Delhi church attacks

Police in the Indian capital, Delhi, have detained dozens of people who were protesting against recent attacks on churches in the city.

Indian Christians hold placards protesting against recent attacks on churches in the Indian capital as they assemble outside the Sacred Heart Church in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015

There have been five attacks on churches in Delhi since December.

Christian groups accuse hardline Hindus of carrying out the attacks, but police say there is little evidence for this.

Some protesters have accused India’s Hindu nationalist BJP government of not doing enough to reassure the city’s Christian minority.

Thursday’s protest came after a church in Delhi was vandalised on Monday, and an unexplained fire gutted another in December.

Protesters carrying placards reading “Enough is Enough, What are police doing?” gathered outside the city’s main Catholic Sacred Heart Cathedral in central New Delhi.

Police said the protesters were detained as they were marching towards the residence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh in a high-security area where protests are not allowed.

via BBC News – Fresh protest against Delhi church attacks.

Posted in India alert, Politics, religion, Religious clash, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

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05/02/2015

Falling oil prices pull India’s budget out of the fire | Reuters

Falling oil prices have been a major windfall for India: Just weeks ago it faced failing to meet fiscal deficit targets, but can now expect a budget that not only hits its targets, but also provides extra cash to support reform.

India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gestures during the session 'India's Next Decade' in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

The coming budget for fiscal 2015/16 (April-March), which will be unveiled on Feb. 28, is widely seen as a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s ability to lead economic reform.

Fortunately for Modi, the economic climate has handed him a chance to pass that test with flying colours: Budget planners are optimistic that he will set Asia’s third-largest economy on a path for growth of 7 percent to 8 percent over the next two years.

“The situation is far better now than in December,” said one finance ministry official, who spoke to Reuters despite a ban on contact with the media in the secrecy-shrouded run-up to the presentation of the annual budget. “The budget will deliver on Modi’s promise of better days for the economy.”

The halving of global oil prices since mid-2014 has allowed the Modi government to raise diesel and petrol fuel taxes and cut diesel prices by 25-30 percent – a windfall gain for households as well as businesses, and dampening inflationary pressures in the economy.

via Falling oil prices pull India’s budget out of the fire | Reuters.

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03/02/2015

Drought hits 90 lakhs farmers in Maharashtra – The Times of India

Nearly 90 lakh farmers in Maharashtra have been impacted by the drought that has devastated the kharif crop, official data shows. The figure is almost on a par with the population of Sweden.

Maharashtra is already known for its farm crisis and reports the highest number of farmer’s suicides in the country. The drought — brought on by a delayed and inadequate monsoon — is set to deepen the distress for its cultivators.

It comes close on the heels of the crop distress wreaked by the hailstorms last year which hit cultivators hard.

Data with the agriculture department show that two-thirds of the state’s 1.37crore farmers have been affected by the drought which has impacted mainly the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. These areas have historically been the most deprived in the state.


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via Drought hits 90 lakhs farmers in Maharashtra – The Times of India.

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03/02/2015

Aam Aadmi Party Scores Delhi Elections Polling Hat Trick – India Real Time – WSJ

If three’s a trend then the Aam Aadmi Party might want to throw their topis in the air in celebration at the latest opinion polls.

Three voter surveys published Tuesday in the run up to elections in Delhi gave the lead to AAP slightly ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and leagues in front of the Congress party that held the capital for 15 years until 2013.

The city goes to the polls on Feb. 7 in an election that is widely viewed as a referendum on Mr. Modi’s performance since he took office in May. The results will be announced on Feb. 10.

To be sure, opinion polling in India is far from an exact science and usually needs to be taken with a handful of salt.

Nevertheless, the wind seems to be changing in favor of AAP, or the common man’s party in a revival of fortunes after a drubbing in national elections last year.

Analysts say this is because the upstart party has focused on local issues-based politics while the BJP and Congress have been turned their arsenal on Mr. Kejriwal at the expense of issues voters care about.

AAP, led by tax-inspector-turned-activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal, could walk away with 36 to 40 seats in the 70-member legislative assembly, according to the latest findings from polling firm TNS for the Economic Times newspaper.

To form the government in Delhi, a party needs a simple majority of 36 seats.

via Aam Aadmi Party Scores Delhi Elections Polling Hat Trick – India Real Time – WSJ.

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31/01/2015

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.

Workers drill at an open cast coal field at Dhanbad district in Jharkhand September 18, 2012. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood/Files

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.

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31/01/2015

India’s economic growth revised up by almost 50 percent | Reuters

India’s economy grew almost 50 percent faster in 2013/14 than earlier thought, the government said on Friday after changing a formula, a reminder of the challenges that unreliable statistics present to Indian policymakers.

Kashmiri farmers thrash paddy crop in Srinagar October 22, 2013. REUTERS/Danish Ismail/Files

In the year leading up to the elections that brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power last May, the economy grew 6.9 percent, not the 4.7 percent reported earlier, chief statistician T.C.A. Anant told reporters.

Modi’s campaign succeeded partly because of the widespread feeling that his predecessors from the Congress party had plunged the economy into the country’s longest deceleration in growth in a generation.

The revised formula, showing a faster recovery, includes under-represented and informal sectors as well as items such as smartphones and LED television sets in gross domestic product.

That could boost India’s growth figure in the year ending in March 2015, which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has projected to be around 5.5 percent.

Some in government predict the change will

via Economic growth revised up by almost 50 percent | Reuters.

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29/01/2015

India’s Vodafone decision eases tax worries for Shell, others | Reuters

This action demonstrates the new pro-business attitude of Modi’s government.

“India’s decision to drop a tax dispute with Vodafone Group Plc(VOD.L) is likely to mean relief for Royal Dutch Shell PLC(RDSa.L) and others caught in similar, protracted battles, as the government tries to attract much-needed foreign investment.

A Shell logo is seen at a petrol station in London January 31, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/Files

India’s image as an investment destination has been tarnished by a reputation for red tape, unpredictable rules and a tax office long seen as over zealous in its pursuit of foreign firms. Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s government, seeking to reboot a slowing economy, has sought to change that.

Late on Wednesday, the government said it would not appeal a Bombay High Court ruling in favour of Vodafone, the biggest foreign investor in India.

“It’s a departure from the past when all the high-value tax cases were always litigated,” said Himanshu Shekar Sinha, a partner at law firm Trilegal.

“With this, the government has sent a clear direction that appeals should not be filed routinely.”

Tax lawyers said they expected cases such as those involving IBM (IBM.N), Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and others could now be resolved instead through negotiation.”

via India’s Vodafone decision eases tax worries for Shell, others | Reuters.

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27/01/2015

Obama ends day of Indian pageantry with $4 billion pledge | Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama ended a landmark day in India on Monday with a pledge of $4 billion in investments and loans, seeking to release what he called the “untapped potential” of a business and strategic partnership between the world’s largest democracies.

Honeywell CEO Dave Cote (L) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) laugh at a remark by U.S. President Barack Obama (R) during a CEO Roundtable and Forum at the India U.S. Business Summit in New Delhi January 26, 2015. REUTERS-Jim Bourg

Earlier in the day, at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Obama was the first U.S. president to attend India’s annual Republic Day parade, a show of military might that has been associated with Cold War anti-Americanism.

It rained as troops, tanks and cultural floats filed through the heart of New Delhi, but excitement nevertheless ran high over Obama’s visit, which began on Sunday with a clutch of deals to unlock billions of dollars in nuclear trade and to deepen defence ties.

Both sides hope to build enough momentum to forge a relationship that will help balance China’s rise by catapulting democratic India into the league of major world powers.

The leaders talked on first name terms, recorded a radio programme together and spent hours speaking at different events, but despite the bonhomie, Obama and Modi reminded business leaders, including the head of PepsiCo, that trade ties were still fragile.

India accounts for only 2 percent of U.S. imports and one percent of its exports, Obama said. While annual bilateral trade had reached $100 billion, that is less than a fifth of U.S. trade with China.

via Obama ends day of Indian pageantry with $4 billion pledge | Reuters.

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