Sensex, Nifty rise for second straight day

New Delhi: India’s imports from Russia has jumped about five times to $37.31 billion during April-January this fiscal on account of increasing inbound shipments of crude oil from that country, according to the commerce ministry data. Russia has become India’s fourth largest import source during the 10-month period of the current fiscal. Russia’s share of India’s imports rose to 1.27 million barrels per day in January, taking a 28% share, according to Vortexa. —PTI

Centre Aims At Almost Doubling Seafood Exports

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New Delhi (PTI): Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that petroleum products can be included in the GST framework once an agreement in this regard is reached among states.

Sitharaman also said that the effort of the government over the years has been to increase public expenditure with a view to promote growth.

The 49th meeting of the GST Council is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on February 18, 2023.

“It is the entire (GST) council saying yes, and saying yes, not just yes, because it’s already in there.

“What they have to do is to determine a rate and once they tell me the rate, we get it into the GST,” the finance minister said.

Mumbai (PTI): Benchmark Sensex pared early losses to close 242 points higher while Nifty settled above the 18,000-mark on Wednesday following gains in IT, oil and select banking stocks amid mixed global trends.

of 61,352.55 in day trade.

The broader Nifty of NSE rose by 86 points or 0.48% to settle above the 18,000-mark at 18,015.85, following gains in RIL, Tech Mahindra and Adani Enterprises.

Kolkata: The Centre is aiming at nearly doubling seafood exports to $14 billion by 2025, a Union minister said on Wednesday. Seafood exports are showing a positive trend this fiscal with 3% growth in volume, she said. “In 2021-22, the (seafood) exports figure was worth $7.76 billion, which was 17% of our agriculture shipments. We have a target to achieve $14 billion by 2025,” Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said. —PTI

AIR INDIA BEGINS NEW SERVICE IN TRV-DEL SECTOR

z Finance minister Nirmala

Sitharaman on Wednesday said that petroleum products can be included in the GST framework once an agreement in this regard is reached among states

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z The effort of the central government over the years has been to increase public expenditure with a view to promote growth z According to FM the provision is already available for petroleum products to be brought into the GST

AI, MULTI-CLOUD, QUANTUM COMPUTING TO DRIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN 2023: HCL TECH

New Delhi: Artificial Intelligence, multi-cloud, quantum computing and sustainability applications are expected to be key drivers shaping digital transformation in 2023, according to a latest report by Indian IT services company HCL Technologies. The 2023 edition of HCL Tech’s Tech Trends report has also predicted 5G applications going mainstream. 5G will become the de facto standard in the coming years, with increased collaboration between telecom companies and enterprises leading to innovative 5G applications growing manifold. —PTI

“The provision is already available for petroleum products to be brought into the GST. My predecessor had already made the window kept open,” she said while speaking at the Post-Budget interactive session with the members of the PHDCCI. Five petroleum products viz. Petroleum crude, motor spirit (petrol), high speed diesel, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel have temporarily been kept out and the GST Council shall decide the date from which they shall be included in GST.

“Once the states agree, we will have the petroleum products also be covered under the GST. So, that’s not so much of us not want-

Decision to raise sugar export quota in March

New Delhi (PTI): The government will take a call next month on increasing the sugar export quota from the present 60 lakh tonnes for the current marketing year after assessing the domestic production, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Wednesday.

The minister said that the government in the 202324 budget increased the capital expenditure by 33 per cent to `10 lakh crore.

“Consistently for the last three-four years, the emphasis has been given on public capital expenditure. We have kept that up in this budget...Capital expenditure, clearly can be said as a real focus of this budget,” she said. “This is the first time in many years that the capital expenditure has reached a double-digit amount, making it the clear focus of this budget,” Sitharaman added.

Sitharaman said that she was advised by the prime minister that momentum on growth should not be relaxed or diluted.

Extending gains for a second day, the 30-share BSE Sensex advanced 242.83 points or 0.40% to close at 61,275.09 with 20 of its constituents ending in the green.

The index opened lower at 60,990.05 but later regained foot to touch a high

Among Sensex stocks, Tech Mahindra rose the most by 5.79%.

Index major Reliance Industries spurted 2.22%, while Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, M&M, Nestle Industries, HCL Tech, Kotak Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Titan also advanced.

RUPEE FALLS BY 4 PAISE TO CLOSE AT 82.82 AGAINST AMERICAN CURRENCY

Mumbai (PTI): The rupee pared most of its initial losses to close down by 4 paise at 82.82 (provisional) against the US currency on Wednesday. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 82.90 against the greenback. The local unit recovered some ground later in the day in line with equities to close at 82.82 (provisional), down 4 paise over its previous close of 82.78. During the session the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 82.79 and a low of 82.90 against the American dollar.

IN THE UNITED STATES ‘AI-Boeing deal to create 1 million jobs’

Washington (PTI): The landmark Air India-Boeing deal will create up to 1 million jobs across 44 states in the US and will further deepen bilateral ties, President Joe Biden has told PM Narendra Modi.

Wheat prices fall by about `5/kg after OMSS

Thiruvananthapuram: Air India has started new service to New Delhi from Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. The ‘Capital to Capital’ flight is Air India’s second daily service in this sector. The Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi service (AI 829) departs at 6.40 AM and reaches at 9.25 AM, an airport statement said adding that the return flight (AI830) starts from Delhi at 9 PM and reaches Thiruvananthapuram at 12.20 AM. The fully economy class service flight will have 180 seats. This is the fourth daily service in the TRVDEL sector. —PTI

GOLD TUMBLES BY `475 AMID WEAK GLOBAL TRENDS

DoT ASKS TRAI TO ADD STRICTER BENCHMARK IN QUALITY NORMS

New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked sector regulator Trai to make quality of service norms stricter in order to curb call drops and improve call quality, an official source said. The move comes after DoT collected feedback from the public through an IVRS (interactive voice response system) call around call drop, quality of calls etc. The source said DoT also observed few key performance indicators while broadly studying global best practices on QoS. —PTI

New Delhi: Gold price tumbled `475 to `56,345 per 10 gram in the national capital on Wednesday amid a decline in rate of the precious metal globally, according to HDFC Securities. The yellow metal had ended at `56,820 per 10 gram in the previous trade. Silver also fell by `195 to `65,925 per kilogram. In the overseas market, both gold and silver were quoting lower at $1,834 per ounce and $21.58 per ounce, respectively. —PTI

PLAN

APPROVED TO SET UP 2 LAKH PACS, DAIRY, FISHERY COOPERATIVES

New Delhi: Seeking to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country, the union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of 2 lakh Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) and dairy-fishery cooperatives in uncovered villages and panchayats over the next five years. At present, there are around 63,000 functional PACS in the country. The Cabinet approved steps to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country and deepen its reach up to the grassroots. —PTI

The food ministry has allowed 60 lakh tonnes of sugar exports for the current 2022-23 marketing year. “We have not yet taken a call. We are closely monitoring the production and we would take a call may be in March depending on what the final figures of anticipated production are,” Chopra said.

TRADE DEFICIT LOWEST IN 12-MONTHS

Boeing and Air India announced a mega deal on Tuesday under which the Tata Group-owned airline will purchase 190 B737 MAX, 20 B787, and 10 B777X for a total of 220 firm orders valued at $34 billion at list price.

The deal will also include customer options for an additional 50 Boeing 737 MAX and 20 Boeing 787, totalling 290 airplanes for a total of $45.9 billion at the list price.

While discussing the landmark deal with Prime Minister Modi, Biden said, he was looking forward to

India’s exports and imports in January dip

New Delhi (PTI): Contracting for the second month in a row, India’s exports dipped by 6.58% to $32.91 billion in January due to slowdown in global demand, even as the trade deficit touched a 12-month low of $17.75 billion during the month, according to official data released.

Imports in January too contracted by 3.63%, the second consecutive month, to $50.66 billion.

Cumulatively, however, during April-January 202223, the country’s merchandise exports rose 8.51% to $369.25 billion, while im- ports increased 21.89% to $602.20 billion, the data showed. The merchandise trade deficit for the April-

January this fiscal stood at about $233 billion. The country’s exports had contracted by 12.2% to

Data In Numbers

z India’s exports dipped by 6.58% to $32.91 billion in January due to slowdown in global demand z Imports in January too contracted by 3.63%, the second consecutive month, to $50.66 billion z The merchandise trade deficit stood at $233 bn deepening the ties between India and the US.

$34.48 billion in Dec 2022.

Last time, it was in Jan 2022, when the trade deficit touched $17.42 billion.

This purchase will support over one million American jobs across 44 states, and many will not require a four-year college degree, Biden said in the call. The Air India order is Boeing’s third biggest sale ever in dollar value and second in terms of the number of planes.

During the call, the two leaders also reaffirmed the strength of the US-India relationship.

New Delhi (PTI): Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra on Wednesday said the prices of wheat in wholesale and retail markets have come down by about ` 5/kg after the Centre’s decision to sell 3 million tonnes of the grain in the open market, and asserted that more steps will be taken if required to ease rates. The government is closely monitoring the prices of wheat and atta (wheat flour) and, if needed, will take more steps, including offering more wheat under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS), to bring down the prices and provide relief to consumers, Chopra told reporters. He said the government is not considering any proposal as of now to lift the ban on wheat exports, which was imposed in May last year after a sharp fall in its procurement.

Volatility in steel prices new normal: Narendran

New Delhi (PTI): The volatility in steel prices is expected to continue and the industry must learn to live with the “new normal”, T V Narendran the global CEO and MD of Tata Steel has suggested. Replying to a question on the continuous fluctuations in prices of steel, he said industry members, both producers and consumers, can not wish away the price volatility and instead should look at how it can be managed.

“I have never seen the type of volatility we have seen in the last 8 to 9 months in my 34 years of association with the industry. It’s a new normal we need to learn to live with it,” Narendran said.

When asked about the reason for the price volatility, the industry veteran said the steel industry is a geo-political relevant industry with long supply chains. The input materials are very volatile.

All the riches cannot buy the happiness of time spent with loved ones, breeze in your hair, smell of soil after the first rain… these are priceless!

— Dr Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, First India

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