Department Financial News

Nirmala Sitharaman called on various ministries and departments to expedite capital spending and set quarterly targets. On Tuesday, Sitharaman chaired the first of a series of meetings lined up to review the productive spending, and the resultant asset creation, across infrastructure and other ministries. She held meetings with the ministries of road, transport and highways, and communication. She asked them to meet the targets well on time to make up for the decline, witnessed in the first and second quarters of this fiscal, in the third quarter itself, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Foreign direct investment in India jumped 47.8 per cent to USD 16.17 billion in April-June this fiscal on healthy inflows in services, computer, telecom and pharma sectors, according to government data. FDI inflows were at USD 10.94 billion in April-June 2023-24. The data showed that overseas inflows in May rose to USD 5.85 billion and in June to USD 5.41 billion from USD 2.67 billion and USD 3.16 billion, respectively, in the year-ago period. In April, FDI inflows were down marginally at USD 4.91 billion against USD 5.1 billion in April 2023.

DGFT on Tuesday said the Department of Defence Production has been authorised as the licensing authority for export of all items falling under the munitions category for military end-use. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has notified the updated SCOMET (Special Chemicals Organisms Materials Equipment and Technologies) list for 2024. It said that India's export control list (SCOMET) has been updated, incorporating the recent changes in the control lists of the multilateral export control regimes, and certain policy amendments on the basis of inputs from relevant government organisations and stakeholders. «With the recent update, DGFT has also authorised the Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence, to be the licensing authority for export of all items falling under Category 6 of SCOMET for military end use,» it said in a statement.

₹48,000 crore to J.C. Flowers Asset Reconstruction Pvt. Ltd in December 2022 for ₹11,183 crore.

EET Fuels (a trading name of Essar Oil (UK) Ltd), has appointed Toyo Engineering India Pvt. Ltd. (Toyo-India) (100% subsidiary of Toyo Engineering Corporation, Japan) a leading engineering, procurement, and construction company, to carry out the FEED phase — an integral part of the project management process. Toyo-India will oversee design completion, project de-risking, detailed costing analysis, and other vital work. Completion of FEED will enable the Company to make the final investment decision (FID) on the ICC project. Upon completion (expected in 2028), the ICC project will capture carbon dioxide emitted from Stanlow refinery’s full-residue fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit — one of Europe’s largest units. Leveraging Stanlow’s unique location, the captured carbon dioxide will use a repurposed existing gas transportation network and be permanently sequestered into depleted gas fields in Liverpool Bay, as part of the HyNet industrial decarbonisation cluster in the North West of England.

Karnataka government has officially declared dengue as an epidemic disease following a sharp increase in cases across the state. According to the Health Department, a total of 7,362 dengue cases have been reported from January to July this year, with seven fatalities recorded during this period.

The Commerce Department releases its latest U.S. construction spending data Tuesday

A decision on whether to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug in the U.S. won’t come until after the November presidential election

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has planned to employ the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), a non-profit under the Odisha government, to address the problem of loss of drinking water during transmission, reported TOI. About 58 per cent of water is wasted in transmission in the city, much higher than the national average of around 20 per cent. WATCO has been able to address a similar problem by bringing the loss of water rate down to 15 per cent from 50 per cent, said officials.

Russia of the 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as «invincible.» Putin has said the weapon — dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO — has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik's strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap. Using images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, the two researchers identified a construction project abutting a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names — Vologda-20 and Chebsara — as the new missile's potential deployment site. The facility is 295 miles (475 km) north of Moscow.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma presented permanent appointment letters to 23,959 contractual and state pool teachers of upper and lower primary school teachers in Guwahati. The appointment of the teachers is considered a great step towards empowering the teaching fraternity of the state. It may be noted that under the present government, Assam has achieved an impressive milestone with a total of 1,24,345 appointments made so far. The recruitment drive has seen substantial growth: 4,779 candidates were selected by the end of 2021, followed by a leap to 35,130 in 2022. In 2023, the number soared to 55,593, and by August 26 this year, an additional 4,887 were added to the list. Sarma said that this robust recruitment effort highlights the government’s dedication to enhancing job opportunities and ensuring a merit-based, transparent selection process throughout the state. Plans are underway to create 50,000 new government jobs in the coming years, aiming to significantly boost employment opportunities and strengthen the public sector workforce across various departments and services, he added.

ministry of labour and employment has reached out to several ministries including the ministry of panchayati raj (MoPR), ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) and the ministry of rural development (MoRD) among others to register the unorganised workers under their ambit on eShram portal, at the earliest. The drive to fast-track onboarding of unorganised workers on the portal is being done as the ministry develops the e-Shram portal as a one-stop solution to extend all scheme benefits to these workers. The portal has over 300 million unorganized workers registered till date since its launch in 2021. The ministry had initially estimated 370 million unorganised workers in the country.

AAP government and claimed the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has taken cognisance of it. Addressing a press conference, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva claimed that they had filed a complaint to the Delhi ACB regarding corruption by the AAP and the authority has taken cognisance of it. There was no immediate reaction from the AAP on the BJP's allegations.

The transportation sector has been severely impacted, with the South Central Railway, headquartered in Secunderabad, canceling numerous train services and rerouting others. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning for extremely heavy rainfall in Adilabad district on Monday.

While British fund manager abdrn predicts that the U.S. economy will see a soft landing, there is still the risk of a prolonged slowdown in 2025, said Kenneth Akintewe, the company's head of Asian sovereign debt.

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). «Pendency of cases against CBI officers reflects on the reputation and image of the country's premier investigation agency,» it said. As on December 31, 2023, 54 departmental cases against Group A officers and 28 cases against Group B and C officials of CBI were pending at various stages, said the CVC's annual report. Of the total pending departmental action cases against Group A officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), 25 were pending for more than four years, four between three and four years, 16 between one and three years and nine for less than a year, it said.

high-demand areas like Mumbai and Pune. Additionally, an out-of-series VIP number can now cost up to Rs 18 lakh in major cities, equivalent to the price of a mid-segment car. The fee revision will apply from August 30, following a draft notification issued on September 16, 2022, and is the first update since April 20, 2013. For four-wheelers, the fee for '0001' will rise from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. In high-demand areas such as Mumbai, Pune, Thane, and Nashik, the fee increases to Rs 6 lakh from Rs 4 lakh. For two and three-wheelers, the cost will double from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. If the '0001' number is unavailable in the current series, an out-of-series number will cost Rs 15 lakh for four-wheelers and Rs 3 lakh for two- and three-wheelers. The notification states, «The revised 'three-time basic fees' will be Rs 15 lakh for four-wheelers and more-wheeled vehicles and Rs 3 lakh for two- and three-wheelers if the number '0001' is unavailable in the current series for that particular type of vehicle and if it needs to be given from another series as per the rules.»

Pakistan is facing a growing concern over the spread of mpox as Peshawar reports its fifth case this year, raising fears that the city may be emerging as a hub for patients arriving from the Gulf region, The Express Tribune reported. A 47-year-old man who recently returned from the Gulf region has tested positive for the virus and was isolated by Border Health Services staff on August 29. «This is the fifth mpox case reported in Pakistan this year and the fourth since WHO declared mpox a global health emergency,» said Dr. Shabana Saleem, Federal Director General of Health.

Lenders to debt-ridden Reliance Capital Ltd (RCAP) have alleged that Hinduja Group firm IIHL is indulging in delaying tactics, resulting in slowdown in implementation of the resolution plan. Mauritius-based IndusInd International Holdings Ltd (IIHL) emerged as a successful bidder for acquisition of Reliance Capital. The NCLT Mumbai on February 27, 2024, approved IIHL's Rs 9,861-crore resolution plan for the debt-ridden financial firm. According to sources, lenders claimed that IIHL's move to seek approval from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is an afterthought.

Hyderabad will remain closed on Monday amid a forecast of heavy rainfall in Telangana, officials said on Sunday. The Hyderabad district collector announced the closure as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of students. «Due to the forecast of heavy rains in Hyderabad District, all primary and secondary schools, under all managements (government, aided, and Private), are hereby declared a holiday on Monday, 02-09-2024, as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of the children,» the District Collector said in a post on X.

Gopal Rai, Delhi Environment Minister and AAP leader, released a statement on Sunday regarding the possibility of cloud seeding (artificial rain) and the construction of smog towers in Delhi. Gopal Rai refuted the allegations by BJP leaders that the Delhi government was wasting money by not constructing smog towers. «Yesterday, BJP leaders said that money was wasted. They do not know that on the orders of the court, the Delhi government built a smog tower in Connaught Place and the centre built in Anand Vihar. In such a situation, how did the Delhi government waste money?», said the Delhi Environment minister. Rai criticised the condition of the smog tower built by the Union government in Anand Vihar, he added, «Also, find out what the condition of the smog tower built by the Centre is, and why are you hiding the smog tower of Anand Vihar. We are always ready to give all kinds of support to the Centre.»