New Delhi, August 29
Consumers already having bank accounts can also participate in the government’s massive financial inclusion scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The Finance Ministry said today that beneficiaries, who already have a bank account, are also eligible to take benefits of accident insurance of Rs 1 lakh and life insurance of Rs 30,000 under this scheme by getting a RuPay card issued from their bank branch before January 26 next year.

The scheme, an ambitious programme on financial Inclusion to cover about 7.5 crore unbanked households in the country was launched yesterday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister has also asked that the target of opening 7.5 crore bank accounts is to be completed by January 26 next year.

Simultaneous launch functions were held in state capitals and districts through 79 mega camps in the presence of Union Ministers, state chief ministers, MPs/MLAs and other dignitaries.

In all, more than 70,000 camps were held across the country and 1.84 crore accounts were opened.

It has been decided that banks will hold such camps on weekly basis, from 8 am to 8 pm on all Saturdays so that the target of covering unbanked households is achieved well in time.

Under the scheme, a person from an unbanked household, opening an account will get a RuPay debit card with a Rs 1 lakh accident insurance cover. An additional Rs 30,000 life insurance cover for the accounts opened up to January 26, 2015 was also announced by the Prime Minister. The modalities of this additional life cover are being worked out by the Department of Financial Services.

The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme is set to get a huge boost with the launch of the government’s new financial inclusion plan.

The plan proposes to channel all government benefits from the Centre, states and local bodies to the beneficiaries to such accounts and pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government, including restarting the DBT in LPG scheme. MNREGA sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Development is also likely to be included in Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.

The banking sector would see a huge expansion to set up an additional 50,000 business correspondents (BCs), more than 7,000 branches and more than 20,000 new ATMs in the first phase.

The implementation strategy of the plan is to utilise the existing banking infrastructure and expand the same to cover all households. The existing banking network would be fully geared up to open bank accounts of the uncovered households in both rural and urban areas and there will also be expansion.

The plan is being considered necessary considering the learnings from the past where a large number of accounts opened remained dormant, resulting in costs incurred for banks and no benefits to the beneficiaries.

New Delhi, August 29
The India growth story seems to be making a comeback boosted by the formation of the Narendra Modi government as GDP growth rate for the first quarter hit a two and half year high at 5.7 per cent, the highest since 2012.

The economy has clocked a better than expected number after two years of sub 5 per cent growth. Several indicators had started showing improvement in the last two months with the stock markets at record highs, industrial growth improving, inflation not spiraling out of control and stalled projects being cleared along with business and consumer confidence coming back with the Modi government at the centre.

The highest growth number in two and half years in the April-June quarter came on the back of performance of the mining, manufacturing and services sector.

Industry is of the view that the growth story is coming back after two years. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said that the sharp rise in GDP growth to 5.7 per cent, after remaining in the sub 5 per cent range for the last two years, is noteworthy and reinforces faith in the India growth story.

There are expectations that the economy will further improve from here on. “The GDP data released today indicating a growth of 5.7% in Q1 FY15, vis-à-vis 4.6% increase in Q4 FY14 comes as a welcome breather and clearly points towards a pickup in economic activity. The overall economic sentiment has seen an improvement in last couple of months and we are quite optimistic that this positive trend will continue through the year in view of several positive measures taken by the new government”, said Sidharth Birla, president, FICCI.

Manufacturing sector recorded a growth of 3.5 per cent as against a contraction of 1.2 per cent in Q1, 2013-14. The mining sector too grew by 2.1 per cent and the highest growth rate during Q1, 2014-15 was recorded by financial services sector at 10.4 per cent, followed by electricity gas and water supply at 10.2 per cent.

Assocham expects the economy to cross the 6 per cent mark this year. “While we were expecting a pick up and recovery, 5.7 per cent GDP growth in Q1 is certainly above our expectations. It will only pick up further from here and Indian economy is well poised to reach six per cent or may even cross the six per cent mark for the full financial year 2015", Assocham president Rana Kapoor said.

New Delhi, August 29
Business confidence continues to show an upward trajectory after the formation of the new government, according to the business confidence index for the first quarter by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

The BCI rose by 13% in June 2014 over April 2014, overshadowing the 3.8% increase in April 2014 over January 2014.

Out of the four components of BCI three showed improvement reflecting higher expectations of overall economic growth, financial position of the firms and investment climate for the overall economy improved. Only the fourth component, optimal capacity utilisation showed a marginal decline.

The Political Confidence Index (PCI), as similarly recorded in June 2014, surged by 20% over April 2014. All eight components of PCI reflect higher optimism in this round.

The current survey was conducted just after the formation of a new government at the Centre with a single party getting majority of its own after three decades thereby assuring citizens of stability, according to the NCAER.

June was the time that the government was getting ready to present its maiden Budget. Hopes and expectations from the government were high especially given its emphasis on reviving economic growth. The Business Confidence Index (BCI) compiled by the NCAER provides an assessment of the sentiments of the business sector in June 2014 given this background.

The 89th round of BES (Business Expectations Survey) carried out in June 2014 reflects improvement in business sentiments as measured by the NCAER Business Confidence Index (BCI). All five major sectors of the economy show an improvement in business sentiments in the present survey over the last round. Although service sector firms have registered the highest BCI in terms of percentage change, the manufacturing sector reflects higher optimism than service sector firms in the present survey.

The regional distribution of responses reflects mixed perceptions. Except the South, the other three regions registered higher level of optimism in the survey.

An increase in production, domestic sales, exports and pre-tax profits is expected. There is also a positive outlook with respect to employment and wages. The prices of inputs as well as the ex-factory prices of outputs are slated to rise.

New Delhi, August 29
As government debates on gas price hike and a new contract for oil and gas exploration, Vedanta Resource today said domestic rates should be linked to international markets and an independent regulator be set up.

Speaking at an Oil & Gas seminar organised by Indian Chambers of Commerce, Vedanta chief executive Tom Albanese said “the current policy environment fostered uncertainty and did not encourage intensified exploration and production of domestic resources.”

He, however, backed the Oil Ministry move to replace the controversial Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for oil and gas exploration with simpler revenue-sharing regime.

The new regime where companies will bid upfront the quantity of oil and gas they will share with the government, will replace PSC regime that allowed investors to recover all their cost before sharing any spoils with the government. This model was criticised by CAG which said it encouraged companies to keep raising cost so as to postpone higher share of profits with the government. — PTI

New Delhi, August 29
Air India's website, which went down two days ago after the airline offered a special fare of Rs 100, was apparently blocked by a few sites in India and abroad for a considerable time.

An unprecedented 80,000 hits a minute were recorded from some sites which blocked bookings by genuine passengers, the national carrier's Information Technology (IT) team found during internal investigations.

The IT team identified at least four sites in India, four in the United States and one in Singapore, which were blocking others from getting into the ticket booking engine, airline sources said.

The massive hits led the website's NIC server to turn erratic, they said. Almost all Indian-government websites are developed and managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Following the massive load on its website, the airline increased the number of its servers from four to eight, the sources said, adding a large number of tickets were sold at the offered rate but did not elaborate.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the national carrier had apologised to its "customers who tried to access our website during the last few hours. We are experiencing some technical problem with our servers and doing everything to minimise the amount of time necessary to restore our website." Air India had on Tuesday announced discounted tickets offer for Rs 100 for a limited period to celebrate its merger with erstwhile Indian Airlines. The bookings can be done till August 31 for travel till September 30 only through the airline's website.

Regarding its celebrations on August 27, Air India condemned "biased" reports that it had spent huge amounts of taxpayers' money on the event. — PTI

Kolkata, August 29
State-owned United Bank of India (UBI) has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court against Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) shortly after the Calcutta High Court division Bench’s judgment was delivered yesterday.

“We filed the caveat against KFA in SC shortly after the Calcutta HC delivered the judgment yesterday”, executive director of UBI D Narang said today.

The division Bench of the High Court dismissed a KFA appeal against UBI and upheld decision of single judge of not allowing the company to be represented by a lawyer.

The order said either KFA chairman Vijay Mallya could appear or send a company representative for the hearing in front of the bank’s grievance redressal panel.

Earlier, UBI had identified Vijay Mallya as a wilful defaulter and asked him to appear before the bank’s panel to hear him out before declaring him as a wilful defaulter.

Mallya later moved the court seeking exemption of his appearance before the panel.

KFA, now grounded, had taken a loan worth Rs 350 crore from the bank.

Several other banks like SBI and PNB were also on the trail of declaring Mallya a wilful defaulter. — PTI 

Kolkata, August 29
Power major NTPC today said it is aiming at 8,000-9,000 MW capacity takeover in stressed power plants but the recent Supreme Court ruling on coal mines may have an impact on the move.

"We have received 34 applications aggregating 55,000 MW generation. But, on a realistic basis, we expect to acquire plants worth 8,000-9,000 MW capacity after due diligence," NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury said here today on the sidelines of the annual conclave on environment and energy organised by The Bengal Chamber.

"However, we have to look into the impact from the ruling of the Supreme Court on coal mines," he said.

"If due to the recent Supreme Court order, sourcing coal or holding a coal block becomes an issue for such power plants, then we must strike off such assets from our takeover list," Choudhury said.

NTPC is looking at power plants which have achieved financial closure or coal linkage, but were facing financial issues to start generation and cost less than greenfield power plants.

"If cost is more than greenfield why should we go for it? There should be some financial advantage," Choudhury said. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Forex reserves down $810.7m to $318.57 billion
Mumbai: The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $810.7 million to $318.579 billion for the week ended August 22, on account of drop in foreign currency assets. — PTI

Govt reduces tariff value on gold, silver
New Delhi: The government on Friday reduced the import tariff value on gold and silver to $420 per 10 grams and $645 per kg, respectively, taking cues from firm global prices. For the first fortnight of this month, the tariff value on imported gold stands at $426 per 10 grams, while that for silver at $650 per kg. — PTI

HTC Mobiles official sponsor of Kings XI Punjab
New Delhi: Mobile handset maker HTC Mobiles on Friday said it has become an official sponsor for Kings XI Punjab, one of the eight cricket teams of Indian Premier League (IPL). "HTC Mobiles, as an official sponsor, will occupy the right chest position on the Kings XI Punjab playing jersey," HTC Mobiles said. — PTI

CPI-IW up 6 points at 252 in July
Chandigarh: The Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) increased by six points from 246 to 252 in July. — TNS