The country's exports rose by 8.32 per cent to USD 24 billion in May, even as the trade deficit shot up to nearly 30-month high of USD 13.84 billion, mainly due to increase in gold imports, reported PTI. Strong performance by petroleum, engineering, textiles and gems and jewellery sectors propelled the country's exports growth during the month.

India's exports stood at USD

MUMBAI  - India's current account deficit widened to $3.4 billion, or 0.6 percent of gross domestic product, in the January-March quarter from the same period a year earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on Thursday.

That compared with a deficit of $0.3 billion, or 0.1 percent of GDP in the same quarter of 2016, and a deficit of $8 billion, o

The Reserve Bank is expected to step up forex buying and may go for a 25 basis points cut in interest rate on August 2, says a report. According to the US economists of global financial services major Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML), going by the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the US Fed is likely to withdraw liquidity from September.

"We expect the R

The government is all set to roll out the 'Mission Parivar Vikas' programme to improve family planning services in 146 districts that house 28 per cent of the country's population. The districts, in the seven states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Assam, have a total fertility rate (TFR) of 3 and above and have been identified as high-

The all powerful GST Council will meet on June 18 to finalise tax rates on lottery as well as rules relating to e-way bill and anti-profiteering measures, reported PTI. This will be the 17th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts. The Council has already finalised tax rates on almost all goods and services in the bracket of 5

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to lower the risk weights and standard asset provisioning on select housing loan sizes is credit negative for Indian banks, global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday.

In its credit outlook report, Moody's said: "The RBI's moves are credit-negative for Indian banks because lower capital require

The Reserve Bank of India today fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 64.2801 against the US dollar and 72.1094 for the euro. The corresponding rates were 64.3141and 72.1283, yesterday. According to an RBI statement, the exchange rates for the pound and the yen against the rupee were 81.9121 and 58.62 per 100 yens, respectively, based on reference rates for the dollar and cross-currency quot

The government has constituted a five-member committee to oversee implementation of a new policy under which preference will be given to local goods and services in public procurement. The policy, which aims to generate employment and promote Make in India initiative, was approved by the Union Cabinet last month. The standing committee will be chaired by the secretary in the Department of Indus

The civil aviation ministry has sought postponement of the GST implementation by two months on the ground that airlines need more time to revamp their systems to comply with the new tax regime. The goods and services tax (GST) is scheduled to be rolled out from July 1 and preparations are at an advanced stage.

Against this backdrop, the ministry has written to the finance ministry see

To stimulate "transformational change" in key social sectors, the NITI Aayog would provide strategic, technical and implementation support to three states in education and health.

The three states to be offered institutional support would be short-listed by July, the NITI Aayog said on Thursday. 

The initiative defines a new dimension for cooperative federalis

The Union Minister for Finance, Arun Jaitley, will chair the 17th Meeting of the GST Council scheduled to be held on Sunday, 18th June, 2017 at Vigyan Bhavan in the national capital, according to a statement released by the ministry of finance. “The one day Meeting will also be attended among others by the Finance Ministers of different States and UTs (having elected assembly) being the m

With the second round of GST enrolment set to close on Thursday, GST Network (GSTN) company, providing IT backbone for GST system, said it will re-open enrolment on June 25 to allow all taxpayers to smoothly complete the process.

"More than four lakh of the remaining taxpayers have completed their enrolment during the second window that opened on June 1. However, for the remainin

Bankers have welcomed the Reserve Bank move to identify 25 per cent of the top non-performing accounts for immediate resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), reported PTI. The central bank had said its internal advisory committee (IAC), which met on June 12, decided to focus on large stressed accounts and accordingly took up for consideration the accounts which were classified

The industry department will discuss the draft standard operating procedure (SOP) for clearing foreign investment proposals with other departments, including revenue and economic affairs, today, reported PTI. The standard operating procedure (SOP) is being finalised after the abolition of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which was clearing FDI proposals earlier. The Department of Indu

Leading stock exchange BSE will auction investment limits for overseas investors to purchase government debt securities worth a staggering Rs 18,437 crore tomorrow. The auction will be conducted on BSE's ebidxchange platform from 1530 hours to 1730 hours after the close of market hours, the exchange said in a circular. The debt auction quota gives overseas investors the right to invest in t

As inflation slumped to a five- month low of 2.17 per cent in May, India Inc stepped up its call for the RBI to ease the interest rate, highlighting the need to boost investment for creation of jobs, reported PTI. It expects prices to remain benign in coming months. The industry also urged the government to create a conducive environment for investment, capacity utilisation and augmentation of

In a bid to boost agricultural productivity, the Union cabinet on Wednesday approved a 5 per cent subsidy on farm loan interest for 2017-18 on short-term agricultural credit of up to Rs 3 lakh payable within a year.

The government has earmarked Rs 20,339 crore for this purpose.

"The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Interest Subvention Scheme

Indian spices and spice products surged to a record export growth worth Rs 17,664.61 crore ($2633.30 million) and a volume of 9,47,790 tonnes in 2016-17.

The exports grew 12 per cent in value and nine per cent in rupee terms compared with 2015-16.

Chilli continued to be the most exported at 4,00,250 tonnes amounting to Rs 5,070.75 crore and registered an increase of 15 per c

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved signing of memorandum of understanding between India and Armenia for cooperation on youth matters. The MoU, which has already been signed by both parties in April, 2017, will remain in force for a period of five years. Thereafter, the MoU will be automatically renewed for successive periods of five years, unless either Party notifies the other Party of it

Telecom major Reliance Communications (RCom) Chairman Anil Ambani has voluntarily decided to forego his salary and commission from the company during the current financial year as part of its "strategic transformation programme", RCom announced on Wednesday.

"Reliance Group Chairman Anil D. Ambani voluntarily decides to draw no salary or commission from RCom in current

Fair trade regulator CCI will rope in more institutions to carry out competition assessment of economic legislations as part of its continuing efforts to curb possible unfair business ways, reported PTI. Guidelines are already in place for competition assessment of economic legislations and policies. Such assessments are aimed at understanding whether there could be any anti-competitive element

The Reserve Bank of India today fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 64.3141 against the US dollar and 72.1283 for the euro. The corresponding rates were 64.4453 and 72.1465, yesterday. According to an RBI statement, the exchange rates for the pound and the yen against the rupee were 82.1098 and 58.45 per 100 yens, respectively, based on reference rates for the dollar and cross-currency quo

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the proposal to introduce a Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017. “The Bill would provide for a comprehensive resolution framework for specified financial sector entities to deal with bankruptcy situation in banks, insurance companies and financial sector entities,” according to a statement

The Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) on Wednesday urged the government to rollback 5 per cent GST imposed on raw tobacco, saying "the move will severely endanger the livelihood of tobacco growers".

Calling the move unrealistic, the association, which represents millions of commercial crop growers, have also stalled auctions in all platforms fearing a steep

Counterfeit currency detection instances in the country's banking channels have seen an all time increase in the last eight years at over 3.53 lakh instances, according to a latest government report accessed by PTI. All banks, either public sector, private and foreign banks in the country, are mandated to report such instances to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under anti-money launde