Mumbai, May 26
Helped by a sharp moderation in imports, especially of gold, India's current account deficit (CAD) sharply narrowed to 1.7% of GDP, or $32.4 billion, in FY'14 from 4.7% in FY'13, RBI said today.

"Contraction in the trade deficit, coupled with a rise in net invisibles' receipts, resulted in a reduction of the CAD to $32.4 billion, or 1.7% of GDP, from $87.8 billion, or 4.7% of GDP in 2012-13," it said.

For the March quarter, CAD, a measure of the inflow and outflow of foreign currency, stood at $1.2 billion, or 0.2% of GDP, as against $18.1 billion, or 3.6% of GDP, in the same period previous fiscal, the RBI said.

The highest ever CAD reported last fiscal had led to a slew of problems, including a heavy drop in the rupee, which touched an all-time high of 68.85 against dollar last August.

The high CAD had led to a series of unconventional steps by the Government and the RBI to curb imports, especially on gold which have paid off handsomely.

On trade deficit front, RBI said the recovery in exports and the import moderation led to a sharp recovery in the gap to $147.6 billion in FY14 as against the $195.7 billion in FY13.

The net inflows declined to $48.8 billion during the just-concluded fiscal, as against $89 billion in the previous fiscal, the RBI said, attributing this to lower foreign direct investment flows, net repayment of loans and trade credit and advances.

During the fiscal 2013-14, contribution of services in the balance of payments (BoP) increased to 12.3% at $73 billion, up from the $64.9 billion.

In the final quarter of FY14, gold imports were down by nearly two-thirds to $5.3 billion, down from $15.8 billion in the previous fiscal, the apex bank said.

Trade deficit for the quarter narrowed by about a third to $30.7 billion from $45.6 billion in the year-ago period.

Ever since special measures were introduced by RBI in tandem with Ministries of Finance and Commerce, the rupee has reclaimed a significant portion of the lost ground against US dollar. The Indian unit is now trading under 59 level against the US currency and the RBI has turned to buying dollars to reduce volatility. — PTI

Contraction in trade deficit Sharp moderation in imports, especially of gold, led to narrowing down of current account deficit CAD narrowed to $32.4 billion, or 1.7% of GDP in FY’14, from $87.8 billion, or 4.7% of GDP in FY’13 For the March quarter, CAD stood at $1.2 bn, or 0.2% of GDP, as against $18.1 bn, or 3.6% of GDP in previous year

New Delhi, May 26
India Inc has congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his swearing-in ceremony and expressed hope that this will mark the beginning of a new era of reforms and liberalisation.

CII president Ajay Shriram called it a “pivotal moment in the nation’s history that can shape the future of our 1.2 billion people”.

“Industry looks forward to a new era of reform and liberalisation of the Indian economy. At the current juncture, it is vital to revive the pace of GDP growth, bring down inflation, and create new jobs on a large scale”, CII said.

Listing out the priorities, CII said it anticipates a quick and proactive agenda of economic and governance policies, including fiscal consolidation, fast-tracking of stranded projects, and sectoral initiatives for infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture and mining.

Sidharth Birla, president, FICCI, said, “We are confident that the dynamic leadership of Narendra Modi will set new standards of forward thinking and effective implementation".

"Building business confidence, creating job-enabling environment, mitigating food inflation and improving nutrition & sanitation should be top priorities for the government. A collective resolution of these would help restore economic glory as much as bringing social stability and inclusiveness", he added.

Birla said India needs national competitiveness and progress on product markets needs to be matched by liberalisation of factor markets.

Welcoming the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers, Chella Srinivasan, national president, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), said, “It is a defining day for India that a very stable government has assumed office, after a long time. The track records of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers are impeccable as decisive and pragmatic doers. That is also the need of the hour.”

New Delhi, May 26
The Finance Ministry has proposed fiscal consolidation, simplification of tax regime and revival of business confidence as among the priorities for the new Finance Minister.

The ministry has prepared a presentation for the new Finance Minister which includes the pending issues, overview of the economy, the problems being faced such as low growth and high consumer inflation and some priority steps that can be taken to revive the economy to a high growth.

The presentation covers all areas concerned with the ministry, including forex management, foreign aid, domestic economy, internal and external economy, Union Budget, skill development, infrastructure financing and institutional linkages with bodies like RBI, SEBI, NSDC also some of the issues related to FDI.

The Finance Ministry has listed some of the problems being faced by the economy like high consumer price inflation, low growth, investment growth decline and decline in employment.

Several factors have been outlined for these problems which include a logjam in infrastructure, natural resource management, high fiscal deficit, limited access to financing, lack of clarity in tax policy, difficulty in doing business and fall in sentiment.

There have many controversies related to allocation of natural resources which have hindered the setting up of projects and create scarcity in sectors like power.

Lack of clarity in tax policy and tax collection has been an issue with several claims coming up against MNCs which have been denied. Added to this has been the difficulty of doing business in India which ranks very low on the global scorecard with a plethora of approvals that take time and problems in land acquisition.

The Finance Ministry note has also listed some of the steps that have been taken so far, including cutting fiscal deficit through fiscal consolidation, reducing the CAD, gradual fall in inflation and setting up of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) for approvals to projects.

To boost agriculture growth and controlling food inflation, several measures have been listed such as integrated water management, policy for national agriculture market, amendment to the APMC Act and utilisation and offloading of existing food stocks to control inflation.

Measures listed Reduction in fiscal deficit Gradual fall in inflation Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure for approvals to projects Integrated water management Policy for national agriculture market Amendment to APMC Act

Chandigarh, May 26
More than 700 officers of State Bank of Patiala (SBoP) today converged at the head office of the bank at Patiala to lodge a protest against the management for initiating probe against officers who are involved in sanctioning loans without following the bank's laid down policy.

In a statement issued by the Associate Banks' Officers' Association Unit of State Bank of Patiala, its president DK Tripathi and general secretary Parmod Sharma said even the guidelines issued by the Central Vigilance Commission regarding sanction and follow-up of loans were being flouted.

With the online shopping market growing at a tremendous pace, a large number of entrepreneurs are looking to take advantage of the growing pie. Surjendu Kuila and Neeraj Jain, founders of Reviews42.com talk about the growing potential of online shopping.

Q. What growth potential do you see in the coming months?

A. The growth potential is immense. Total addressable market is worth $100 billion. With smartphone penetration, trends such as ROPO (Research Online Purchase Offline) and showrooming are becoming common and Reviews42 is at the vantage point of connecting online + offline.

Q. Where does Reviews42 stand among its competitors? What makes this particular concept different?

A. We provide product discovery, price discovery and merchant discovery to our users. We help users by providing comprehensive product listings, price information, availability along with reviews.

For merchants we provide a way to expose their inventory on a real time basis to users nearby through our location-based mobile app and our channel partners.

We provide a strong online and offline connect. Yes, there are competitors who do only one piece that too not that comprehensive. We bring buyers and sellers together without getting into transactions. We stand out in many counts — by building proprietary technology to collect online product information by creating a user-friendly retail inventory system for merchants to expose their inventory on a real time basis.

Q. With the competition such as Amazon Price Check app, how do you see yourself placed in the market in India?

A. Reviews42 is India's only comprehensive product research app. It is similar to successful apps such as Amazon Price Check and Shopsavvy which have tremendous downloads and usage in the US and Europe. For India, Reviews42 is the only app which provides similar services to Indian shoppers. Amazon price check only provides Amazon prices, whereas Reviews42 provides information from 1,200 e-commerce portals, has 10 million products, crawls 10.5 million price URLs and 100,000 offline stores.

The typical use case for Reviews42 app is when someone is shopping offline (or online) and wants to quickly check online/offline prices and user reviews before buying.

We would also be able to tell the user which all stores nearby (0-10 km) are carrying the same inventory and at what price point. This way I am empowering the user with all required information about the product thereby making her an informed buyer.

Q. What are the company’s future targets and plans to venture into new markets?

A. We are planning to scale up everything that we do and build a billion dollar business. We are working on a number of new services to improve people’s shopping experience.

Q. Despite a large number of people buying offline, there is no service in the market which can tell users in which nearby retail store the product is available currently and what is its price in nearby stores?

A. Reviews42 is solving this problem for retail shoppers. Reviews42 has recently updated its Android app. Now, using the GPS service of user's phone, it detects user's location and suggests nearby retail stores. Currently, there are more than 100,000 geo-code stores across India. We will add thousands of new stores every month. For more than 400 categories, users can now see which stores are selling the product. Users will also have the option to call the store and figure out availability and pricing information immediately. Users will know the distance of store from their current location and directions to the store.

Q. What exclusive benefit do users get from your app?

A. Reviews42 app has a catalogue of over 10 million products and 400 categories. Reviews42 helps in product, price and merchant discovery both online and offline. We help users buy the widest variety of products at lowest prices both online and offline.

BRIEFLY

Flipkart raises $210 m, to use funds for acquisitions
New Delhi: Flipkart on Monday said it has raised $210 million, bringing the PE firm DST Global on board as an investor. DST Global will lead this round of funding besides existing investors. — PTI

GAIL Q4 profit zooms 57% to Rs 972 crore
New Delhi: GAIL India Ltd on Monday reported a 57% jump in its Q4 profit on the back of better petrochemical and LPG prices and drop in subsidy outgo. GAIL posted a net profit of Rs 972 crore in January-March quarter, up from Rs 618 crore in the same period a year ago. — PTI

PTC India Q4 net surges 86% to Rs 69 crore
New Delhi: PTC India on Monday reported 86% jump in net profit to Rs 68.91 crore for the quarter ended March 31. In the Q4 of last fiscal, the firm's total revenue climbed to Rs 2,848.62 crore from Rs 2,198.74 crore in the corresponding period. — PTI