Category: News

A bad news for the car industry: buying new cars will be more expensive now as the Maharashtra motor vehicle tax or the road tax has raised the tax rates and also the price of the diesel and petrol are likely to go up. The new tax policy was cleared recently and will be implemented from May 2nd, 2012. The increase in the road tax will generate more revenue for the transport department. From 1st May 2012, the prices of both petrol and diesel cars will be raised. This development could hit the car manufacturers badly and their sales will go down. So those who are buying petrol cars will have to pay 2% more on the road tax, and the diesel cars will have to pay 4% more than the regular tax. However the government gave a concession for CNG run vehicles of 2% to promote more CNG vehicles. The new tax rates for the petrol cars and jeeps costing less than ten lacs is 9% and costing above  [...]

The international monetary fund on Tuesday lowered India’s growth forecast for the year 2012 to 6.9% from 7% earlier. The reasons stated were policy inertia and slower growth in the rest of the world. The report stated-domestic markets in India contributed to the slowdown, as weak business sentiment reduced the investments and policy tightening raised borrowing costs. India is expected to grow at a slower rate this year and the forecast for the year 2013 remains unchanged at 7.3%. The report also stressed that India needs to tighten more the fiscal policy to take the growth in the positive direction, and make policies which support the economic activity. The government recently projected a fiscal deficit of 5.1% of GDP of 2012-2013. The report said that India needs to keep a check on the potential growth as it is the maximal rate of growth a country can achieve without inflationary  [...]

RESERVE BANK OF INDIA cut the repo rate by 50 bps to revive the flagging economic growth, but simmering price pressures leave little room for more cuts this year. This cutting of interest rates for the first time in three years will result IB home loans and auto loans becoming cheaper. RBI in its annual policy reduced 50 bps of its repo rate- the rate at which it lends funds to banks. It also announced other measures like: Loans to individuals and business man to become cheaper. There will be no foreclosure or prepayment charges on home loan. Zero balance savings account s with minimum facilities to be opened to all its customers. Unique customer ID may open way for savings account portability whereby the customer can transfer his account to any other bank if he is not satisfied with the services offered by the existing bank. Banks will not provide undue returns for bulk  [...]

Industrial growth lost its momentum and slowed down in February raising expectations that the Reserve Bank of India might reduce rates when it reviews its monetary policy on 17th April 2012 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may cut interest rates in order to revive growth to boost the sagging economy, by the policy makers. Data released by central statistics office reflects industrial growth slowed to 4.1% in February 2012 as compared to 6.7% expansion in February 2011. Economists inform that the February data raised expectations of cut in interest rate in the backdrop of easing inflation and slowing growth. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised interest rates 13 times since March 2010 to bring down the high inflation. Industry groups also called for a cut in interest rates to revive positive sentiment in the economy. The Finance Minister of India, Mr. Pranab Mukerjee vowed to  [...]

There is good news for airlines. After a long wait and a period of 16 years, the government is all set to allow foreign airlines to have a stake in Indian carriers. The commerce and industry ministry on Tuesday circulated a note seeking comments from other ministries to allow 49% fdi. This move could be bonanza and could help ailing airlines to raise funds and come out of the financial crisis and operate the flights normally. Lately Kingfisher Airlines is running in the rough weather and may tide over its financial problems with this move. Also Spice Jet and Go Air may benefit from this scheme. The airlines industry in India overall is facing a very situation with accumulated debt of over Rs. 80,000 crore apart from the  cumulative losses of over Rs. 43,000 crore. Giving nod to FDI may help even the national carrier Air India if the government goes for a strategic sale. Jet  [...]

Few months back, we all saw what can happen if a government or economy ends up spending more than it can. It will give rise the debt level and will result in currency devaluation, lower standard of living, and inflation. This certainly isn’t a sign of a good economy. Barack Obama, our President, is taking a lot of measures for smoothening out economic conditions but the US national debt is continuously rising. The increase in annual deficit is because of faulty management that has been going on for a long time and it can’t be rectified in short period of time. When a country’s debt level exceeds the Gross Domestic Product or GDP then the debt starts rising high. The nation ends up spending more than it is bringing in. The borrowings rise and hence there is debt. Also, an economy simply can’t come out of his crisis by printing more money or borrowing money thorough issuing bonds.  [...]

During the 2008 recession, Warren Buffet, the legendary investor, was noted as one of the bank shareholders that made good money during and in the aftermath of the crisis. During the period of fear after Lehman Brothers collapsed in Sept, Buffet injected money into two of the biggest American names GE and Goldman Sachs. These investments were a vote of faith in those tough times. These two investments came out to be extremely profitable for Buffet, and furthering his legend as one of the smartest investors ever. Amid signs of the financial crisis reawakening, the Sage of Omaha has once again extended his capital to an institution that the public believes is beleaguered. This is none other than Bank of America, the bank holding the most assets, and one whose fate is most intertwined with billions of American consumers. The bank was facing investor doubts whether it is able to raise sufficient  [...]

Offshore banking plays an important role in global financial transactions. What is offshore banking actually is? It is the act of depositing funds outside one’s own country (country where one lives). In most cases the offshore banking organizations are located in low tax regions, which offer a number of financial benefits legally over domestic or onshore banks. Today, offshore banking is a common phenomenon of financial world. A large number of financial institutions offer the advantage of offshore banking to their depositors. However, the 2 most popular centers for offshore banking are Cayman Islands and Switzerland. Another characteristic of offshore banks is that they offer more privacy compared to the onshore banks. This is because the offshore banks work based on the bank secrecy acts related to protection of personal information of clients. The offshore banks will only release  [...]

No one knew that McDonald was waiting to give a great stunt by hiring 50,000 employees in a single day. This plan of the fast food chain made it appear on the headlines and it is being expected that the job spree conducted by McDonald will help to reduce the unemployment rate in the US, though in a meager number. The fast food restaurant has decided to hire 50 people from the local areas and is offering all different kinds of job opportunities to the hired individuals. Much frenzy was crested on the day of hiring and individual stories of ecstasy and agony filled the newspaper pages. There were several benefits offered to McDonald by the one day hiring program. The company of Mc Donald is completely franchisee based and there is a strong connection of the franchisee business with the home economy. Much of the revenue generated through franchisee stays within the boundaries of the community  [...]