January, 2018: Cabinet approves amendments in FDI policy

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval to a number of amendments to the FDI Policy. These are intended to liberalize and simplify the FDI policy so as to provide ease of doing business in the country. In turn, it will lead to larger FDI inflows contributing to the growth of investment, income, and employment.

January, 2018: Economic Survey 2017-18

A series of major reforms undertaken over the past year will allow real GDP growth to reach 6.75 percent this fiscal and will rise to 7.0 to 7.5 percent in 2018-19, thereby re-instating India as the world’s fastest-growing major economy. This was stated in the Economic Survey 2017-18 tabled in the Parliament by the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley. It said that the reform measures undertaken in 2017-18 can be strengthened further in 2018-19.

January, 2018: Everything that happened in the first month of 2018

AWARDS & HONOURS

Ravi Menon, an Indian-origin banker in Singapore was named as the best central bank governor in Asia- Pacific for 2018. Menon, managing director of Singapore's central bank Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), was recognized by the leading UK-based magazine 'The Banker' for his contribution in the makeover of Singapore's financial system.

Aishwarya Tipnis, a Delhi-based conservation architect, was conferred France’s top cultural award ”Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” for her outstanding commitment to preservation of French heritage in India.

December, 2017: India ranks 5th in list of countries with highest NPA levels

India ranks fifth out of 39 major economies with a pile of bad loans, according to a recent report. At 9.9 per cent, the ratio of non-performing assets (NPA) to the total loans collected by Indian lenders is far higher than that of banks of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. In fact, the NPAs of these economies were less than 2 per cent.

December, 2017: Himachal Politics- A Generational Shift!

After its chief ministerial nominee Prem Kumar Dhumal suffered a shocking defeat in the Himachal Pradesh assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the name of Jai Ram Thakur as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

The name of Thakur, a five-time member of legislative assembly (MLA) from the Seraj constituency in Mandi district, was announced after a meeting between the party’s central observers—Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narinder Singh Tomar—and newly elected members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and other party leaders in Shimla.

November, 2017: Telangana leads state-wise ease of doing business ranking

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana jointly topped the 2016 all-India State/Union Territory-wise Ease of Doing Business rankings, while last year's topper Gujarat slipped to the third spot. The rankings, announced by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, are on the basis of a 340-point business reform action plan and their implementation by the States. This covers the period from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016.The 340 reform areas are broadly under categories including construction permits, environmental and labor registration, obtaining electricity connection, online tax-return filing, inspection reform, access to information and transparency, single window, land availability and commercial dispute resolution.