Mar. 11 - Indian companies are expected to resume hiring from April to June with the organized sector forecast to create one million jobs by 2011 backed by the strength of the improving economy according to two global employment trend surveys.
According to the Employment Outlook Survey compiled by the human resources consulting firm Manpower, two in every five Indian companies plan to hire more people in the second quarter of the year. Another survey by human resources services provider Ma Foi Management Consultants said that polled companies were upbeat about their prospects for 2011 although most are still cautious about the coming second quarter. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 9 - A proposal to implement a construction tax under the new services tax will invariably hike prices for real estate projects still under construction or pending approval from authorities.
The tax would apply to the construction of complex service or commercial or industrial construction services as well as services offering premium prices based on a flat’s location in a multi-storey building. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 9 - The Confederation of Indian Industries has ranked New Delhi as having the best quality of life for its residents among all cities in the India based on their latest “Liveability Index.”
After New Delhi, the next best cities to live in are Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. The survey looked at 37 Indian cities in over a decade to compute for a quality of life index. It also used hard data collected from reliable sources to eliminate the possibility of personal bias or a sampling error obscuring the reality. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 4 - The Indian Government is to spend US$400 million over the next three years to enable broadband to reach more than 265,000 rural Indian villages, making the country one of the most densely interconnected populations on the planet.
The formation of a Group of Ministers (GoM) to monitor and review the implementation of this broadband initiative is also being considered. Whether the GoM will invite the private sector to participate in the planning of this initiative and focus on wireless as a means of delivery remains to be seen. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 25 - India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has proposed widening the scope for service tax to include the entertainment business for the upcoming Union Budget 2010-11.
Currently, entertainment is separately taxed by states and as a service tax by the central government with no prevailing uniformity on taxation since taxes are paid on a case-to-case basis. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 19 - The Indian government approved an equity infusion of US$177million in two equal monthly installments to the National Aviation Company of India Ltd, the holding company for Air India.
NACIL is currently facing severe financial losses. Costly legacy assets, a weakening revenue stream and high cost structure are resulting in rising liabilities. The equity infusion will help the troubled carrier over its cash flow problem and finance fleet acquisition plans. A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod to the fresh equity infusion. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 18 - The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is considering a new scheme that will provide pre-merger consultation for companies mulling over potential mergers and acquisition.
This will allow companies the opportunity to seek competition regulator’s views prior to filing proposals and cut down on approval times and delay that sometimes can take as long as 210 days. “We are considering having pre-merger consultations clause for vetting mergers under sections 5 and 6 of the Competition Act,” CCI chairman Dhanendra Kumar said in a statement during the Indo-U.S. Economic Summit held in New Delhi. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 9 - India’s domestic economic growth is forecast to reach 7.2 percent for 2009-10, against the 6.7 percent recorded a year ago, according to advance gross domestic product estimates released by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO).
As per forecast estimates, per capita income is set to rise to US$945 from US$864 in 2008-09, an increase of nine percent. Farm output is expected to contract by 0.2 percent while maintain moderate growth. Moreover, the manufacturing is estimated to grow by strong 8.9 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 9 - India’s Finance Ministry is considering a rate of 16 percent for the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) for both Center and states combined on companies and traders with annual turnover of US$21,609 and above.
The new tax will help simplify goods production by setting one tax structure instead of India’s current multiple tax structure. The GST will only be levied once at the point of supply thus decreasing costs for consumers. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 5 - Business visa rules that prohibit foreigners from working in the country may be relaxed to adjust to the needs of the IT industry.
Indian visa rules became stricter last year to clamp down on the thousands high and low-skilled Chinese workers illegally working in the country on power and steel projects using a business visa. The new rules requires that only one percent of total workers in a project can avail of employment visas and a cap of only twenty employment visas per project. Read the rest of this entry »
