- Monday, April 21, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy and business for Friday, February 16, 2024:
Indian chief economic adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Friday cautioned that the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources could amplify global risks instead of reducing them. Addressing an audience in Mumbai on February 16 at the inaugural annual conference on macroeconomics, banking, and finance hosted by the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode, Nageswaran highlighted the increasing global reliance on critical minerals and rare earths in the energy transition. These elements are essential for manufacturing high-tech devices such as mobile phones, electric vehicles, and lasers. “The production of these rare earths and critical minerals is concentrated in a few countries but the processing of them happens exclusively in one country,” Nageswaran said, hinting at China.
India on Friday approved defence big-ticket acquisition projects worth Rs 84,560 crore (£8.08 billion) that included procurement of mid-air refuellers, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, heavy weight-torpedoes, air defence radars and new generation anti-tank mines to bolster the combat prowess of the armed forces. Cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh, almost all the procurement projects will be implemented with a broader framework of the government’s focus on ensuring self-reliance in defence manufacturing, officials said. “In the true spirit of ‘Aatmanirbharta’ (self reliance), the approvals accorded on February 16 lay special emphasis on procurement of various equipment from Indian vendors,” the defence ministry said. It said the acquisition will boost the capabilities of the armed forces and the Indian Coast Guard.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday gave a 15-day relaxation to Paytm payments bank on accepting deposits. The last date will now be March 15 from the earlier date of February 29. In its release, the central bank said, “No further deposits credit transactions or top-ups shall be allowed in any customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards, among others. After March 15, 2024 (extended from the earlier stipulated timeline of February 29, 2024), other than any interest, cashback, sweep in from partner banks or refunds which may be credited anytime.” On January 31, the central bank barred the bank from undertaking any banking activities whatsoever after February 29. The central bank also issued a set of FAQs on Friday after several queries were sent by customers to the bank.
India’s elite probe agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed its charge sheet in an ongoing coal scam case probe against New Delhi-based Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd, its chairman cum managing director Sandeep Jajodia and senior vice president Amitabh Mudgal for alleged irregularities in allocation and running of Gare Palma and Rajgamar Dipside coal blocks in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, officials said Friday. After over six years of investigation, the CBI has invoked sections of the Indian Penal Code related to criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust against the company, Jajodia and Mudgal. This is one of the alleged coal scam cases arising out of irregular allocation of coal blocks during 1993-2005.
The newly elected board of directors of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories led by its president Harshvardhan Patil met Indian home minister and minister of cooperation Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi. To achieve the vision of “Sahakar se Samriddhi” (from cooperation to prosperity), the cooperation ministry has undertaken some initiatives in consultation with various ministries/departments of the federal government, states and Union Territories, national cooperative federations, and statutory and non-statutory bodies. There are around 802,639 cooperative societies in 29 different sectors in India out of which numbers of cooperative societies in the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand are 81,307, 17,659, and 11,448, respectively.
(With agencies)
