Forex reserves up by $1.36 bn to $420 billion

India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $1.368 billion to reach $420.055 billion in the week to May 10 on account of a rise in foreign currency assets. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $171.9 million to $418.687 billion. In the reporting week, foreign currency assets - which are a major component of the overall reserves - swelled by $1.358 billion to $392.227 billion. Gold reserves remained unchanged at $23.021 billion, according to RBI data. The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund rose by $3 million to $1.454 billion. The country’s reserve position with the Fund also increased by $7 million to $3.351 billion. The forex kitty had touched an all-time high of $426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018.

‘States should contribute to infra projects’

State governments should contribute in funding for defence, national highways and railways projects, said Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM. “Railways is important, national highway is important. If they are important, then just as Union government should contribute on health, even as health happens to be (on the) state list... By the same token, state governments should also contribute for their share in defence, national highways, railways,” he said. Stressing that fiscal consolidation is important, he said there is a need to prioritise and decide areas that are important from the point of view of public administration. Pointing out that India’s tax-to-GDP ratio is low at 17 per cent, Debroy said, “As long as we have tax exemptions, we will not have simplified tax structure.”

Panel on digital payments submits report

An RBI-appointed committee headed by Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani submitted its suggestions on promoting digital payments to Governor Shaktikanta Das on May 17. In January, the RBI had set up the five-member panel on deepening digital payments with a view to encouraging digitisation of payments and enhance financial inclusion. The panel was tasked with reviewing the existing status of digitisation of payments, identifying current gaps in the ecosystem and suggesting ways to bridge them. Besides Nilekani, the panel includes former RBI deputy governor H.R. Khan, former Vijaya Bank MD and CEO Kishore Sansi, former secretary in ministries of IT and steel Aruna Sharma and Sanjay Jain, CIO, Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad.

Indian Navy successfully test-fires MRSAM

The Indian Navy has successfully test-fired a Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM), achieving a significant milestone to enhance its anti-air warfare capability. The test-firing was undertaken on the western seaboard by Naval ships Kochi and Chennai. The test-firing was carried out jointly by the Indian Navy, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Israel Aerospace Industries. The DRDO has jointly developed the missile in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries. The MRSAM has been manufactured by Bharat Dynamics. “These surface to air missiles are fitted onboard the Kolkata class destroyers and would also be fitted on all future major warships,” the defence ministry said.

Green ministry tweaks EIA notification

Construction in areas between 20,000 and 50,000 sq m will not require green clearance from the government anymore, the Centre has said in its modified notification on the environment impact assessment (EIA). The notification states that the green ministry has decided to “re-engineer” EIA rules based on amendments and experience over the years in its implementation. Under the new notification, the process of clearances granted for sand mining and construction activities have been eased out, a decision that has not gone down well with activists who claim that the notification compromises public hearings. EIA is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project, taking into account socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both good and bad.

Six states get Centre’s drought advisory

With water storage in dams dropping to a “critical” level, the Centre has issued a drought advisory to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, asking them to use water judiciously. The advisory was issued to Tamil Nadu on May 17 and similar cautionary letters were sent to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana late last week, said S.K. Haldar, a member of the Central Water Commission. A drought advisory is issued to states when the water level in reservoirs is 20 per cent less than the average of live water storage figures of the past 10 years. Water falls under the state list and the advisory recommends states to use water only for drinking purpose till the dams are replenished.

IOC taps US, Saudi to plug oil shortfall

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s biggest oil firm, has tied up imports from the US and taken additional volumes from Saudi Arabia to make up for the volumes lost because of sanctions prohibiting buying oil from Iran. Iran supplied more than a tenth of India’s oil needs before the reimposition of US sanctions against Tehran stopped supplies this month. “We have tied up supplies from alternate sources. No single country can make up for the volumes lost, that’s why we are keeping our sourcing diversified. We are fairly diversified in our sourcing and we have robust sourcing in place to make up for all of the Iranian oil,” said IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh. India bought close to 24 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2018-19. Of this, IOC sourced about 9 million tonnes from Iran.

KIIFB lists masala bonds for infra push

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan rang the opening bell at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on May 18 to mark the listing of masala bonds sold by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). With this, Kerala has become the first sub-sovereign entity in the country to access the international market by listing masala bonds issued through its off-budget mechanism. Pinarayi also became the first chief minister to open trading at the LSE. The masala bond market till date had seen issuance only from large Indian corporates and public institutions such as NHAI and NTPC, which are all rated AAA in the domestic market. LSE claims to be the largest masala bond centre, with 49 such rupee-denominated bonds listed across its markets.

UN’s failure to reimburse worries India

India, which is owed $38 million by the UN for peacekeeping operations, has voiced concern over the “unjustifiable and inexplicable” delays in reimbursement to countries providing peacekeeping troops and police for UN missions. It underlined that recurrent delays in payments have turned the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) as “de facto financiers” of UN peacekeeping. “Reimbursement on time for peacekeeping is a genuine expectation,” First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Mahesh Kumar said at a session on ‘Improving the Financial Situation of the United Nations’. He said total arrears stand at $3.6 billion, nearly one-third of the annual assessment of the UN, adding that UN peacekeeping also suffers from delay in reimbursements.

Calls grow for revamping WHO norms

More than 60 civil society organisations have written to the WHO chief, demanding revision of the global health body’s guidelines on evaluation of similar biotherapeutic products (SBPs), which were adopted in 2009. The regulatory framework for approval of SPBs, put in place by many countries, including India, is in accordance with the WHO guidelines, which the groups claim are “unnecessarily cumbersome”. They allege that the “failure” of the WHO secretariat to update the guidelines in line with current scientific evidence and technological advances, “compromises access to affordable biotherapeutic products” and has “grave consequences for the realisation of the right to health and the right to enjoy scientific progress”.

Newsmaker

Indian filmmaker Achyutanand Dwivedi’s three-minute film Seed Mother has won the third prize in the international section of Nespresso Talents at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. Seed Mother celebrates the spirit of Rahibai Soma Popere, who champions the use of local seeds in the villages of Maharashtra.