Wholesale price inflation shows modest monthly rise; primary articles, fuel & power and manufactured goods drive mixed index movements.
Wholesale Price Index for March 2013 rose to 170.6 and annual inflation based on monthly WPI was 5.96%. Primary Articles increased modestly with minerals and selected non food items contributing; Fuel & Power rose slightly due to aviation turbine fuel and diesel, while Manufactured Products recorded a marginal rise with mixed subgroup performance. Detailed subgroup indices, month over month changes, year on year rates and six month trends are provided in annexures.

International investment partnership to develop industrial townships and IT collaboration with Russia, accelerating project-level ministerial cooperation.
Designating Russia as a principal partner for industrial townships under the National Manufacturing Policy, the note prioritises ministerial monitoring of projects and expanded trade and investment cooperation across sectors including energy, pharmaceuticals, IT & ITES, minerals, infrastructure, aviation, power, shipbuilding, bio and nanotechnologies, fertilizers, chemicals, agrifood, automobile, diamonds, mining and steel. It requests expedited Russian details on IT innovation policy-management, software development, commercial terms and tax incentives-to enable Indian participation on the Russian technology platform and stresses cooperation opportunities in BPO/KPO, business software, techno parks, e governance, tele medicine and IT training.

Strategic partnership in higher education expands joint research, supervision and academic exchanges between India and Germany.
A jointly funded strategic partnership will intensify India-Germany higher education cooperation by establishing joint research projects with joint supervision, and by expanding student and academic exchanges; it also promotes German language teaching in Indian schools and specific thematic collaborations including basic research partnerships, industry-academia applied research models, social science research cooperation, and ICT-enabled intercultural and comparative linguistics work.

Trade facilitation must include special and differential treatment and an LDC package to ensure equitable benefits.
Demand for internal balance in the Trade Facilitation proposal requires special and differential treatment for developing countries, LDCs and small and vulnerable economies, coupled with technical and financial assistance. The statement urges inclusion of an LDC Package with Duty Free Quota Free market access in the Bali outcome, endorses G-33 flexibility for public stockholding to protect subsistence farmers, and stresses upholding multilateralism and the WTO rule-based regime.

Institutional recognition: Bill proposes declaring National Institute of Design an institution of national importance with corporate status and academic powers.
The Bill proposes declaring the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad an institution of national importance and constituting it as a body corporate with powers to promote design education, conduct research and training across design disciplines, confer honorary degrees and other academic distinctions, and foster industry academia interaction through personnel exchanges and sponsored research and consultancy. The Parliamentary Standing Committee invites written memoranda and may hear oral evidence; submitted memoranda will form Committee records and remain confidential until the Committee's report is presented to Parliament.

CENVAT Credit misuse exposes fraudulent paper invoice scheme enabling inadmissible credit and revenue loss.
Investigations allege large scale evasion of central excise duties via fraudulent issuance and misuse of CENVAT Credit, where goods were supplied to re rolling mills for cash without bills while cenvatable invoices were issued to furnace units, enabling inadmissible credit through coordinated paper transactions and a dealer manufacturer nexus.

IP flexibilities for developing countries support affordable healthcare and urge binding protection for traditional knowledge internationally.
Developing-country IP flexibilities are defended as necessary to reconcile international intellectual property commitments with affordable healthcare and public-interest concerns, asserting that national law should balance exclusive rights with user interests; separately, protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge is urged through a comprehensive digital library and advocacy for a binding treaty, alongside accession to the multilateral trademark mechanism to simplify cross-border trademark registration.

Corporate governance excellence recognised with national awards to best governed companies and practitioner honours.
ICSI conferred its National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance for 2012 naming Indian Oil Corporation Limited and HCL Technologies Limited as Best Governed Companies, honoured the Company Secretaries of the awardees for their governance contribution, presented a Life Time Achievement Award to Shri Deepak S. Parekh, and issued Certificates of Recognition to five other companies as part of the award programme at the 2nd CSIA International Corporate Governance Conference.

Shareholding threshold relief reduces filing burdens and clarifies intra group and joint control exceptions for combination filings.
The amendments to the Combination Regulations expand exemptions from mandatory notice by removing filing obligations for small incremental share acquisitions by significant minority holders and for mergers where one enterprise controls the other or group entities control each other; they also clarify that intra-group relaxations exclude jointly controlled enterprises and consolidate Schedule I exemptions for certain current asset acquisitions into one category.

Service tax evasion: intelligence led probes uncover non deposit, false records and failure to file returns, prompting raids and enforcement action.
DGCEI registered intelligence led service tax evasion cases against M/s Shiv Vani Oil and Gas Exploration Services Ltd., which admitted non deposit of service tax, and against multiple sub contractors of a major construction division, alleging receipt but non deposit of service tax, failure to file ST 3 returns, and manipulation of work order and contract value records; searches and inquiries were conducted at construction division and subcontractor premises and aggregate evasion estimates were reported in the release.

Inter-Ministerial Committee to accelerate manufacturing in MSME sector constituted, chaired by DIPP Secretary and member secretaries.
An Inter-Ministerial Committee is constituted to accelerate manufacturing in the MSME sector and to examine suggestions from stakeholder consultations on exports and sectoral growth. Chaired by the Secretary, DIPP, it includes Secretaries from MSME, Labour, Food Processing Industries and Textiles and may associate additional members. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises will service the Committee, which is to consolidate inputs and submit its recommendations within one month.

Financial sector legislative reform: government places FSLRC report in the public domain, enabling public access to reform proposals.
The Central Government placed the report of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, submitted March 22, 2013 and comprising two volumes, in the public domain on the Finance Ministry website, providing public access to the Commission's legislative reform proposals for the financial sector via the Finance Ministry online portal.

Service Tax e filing: offline ST 3 utility released; taxpayers must update registration to enable filing by the deadline.
The modified Service Tax Return (ST 3) for July-September 2012 is available as an offline e filing utility on ACES and must be downloaded from the Downloads section or via RET -> e Filing -> Download eFiling Utility; consult the FAQs under Help before filing. After upload, return status can be checked under RET -> e Filing -> View XML Status and viewed later via 'View Original ST3'/'View ST3'. Registrants added on or after 01.07.2012 labeled 'All Taxable Services - Other than in the Negative List' must amend registration online to select specific services before filing ST 3 for July 2012 onwards.

Interest rate revision for small savings schemes announced, with annual notification and rates effective from start of the financial year.
Interest rates for small savings schemes are revised and will be notified annually before each financial year, with the revised, scheme-specific rates taking effect from the commencement of the financial year to reflect the compounding or payment mechanisms built into each instrument.

Inquiry into lobbying activities: committee met company representatives and will await their responses before further proceedings.
Inquiry into alleged lobbying activities by a multinational retailer: a single-member Inquiry Committee chaired by Justice Mukul Mudgal met with company representatives and counsel to clarify queries, and decided to await the companies' written responses before convening further proceedings.

Interest subvention extension increases subsidised credit access for exporters by expanding eligible sectors and subsectors.
The Interest subvention scheme reduces exporters' credit costs and has been expanded from Handlooms, Handicrafts, SMEs and Carpets to include Toys, Sports Goods, Processed Agricultural Products and Readymade Garments, and was further widened effective 1 January 2013 to cover a comprehensive list of engineering subsectors, thereby enlarging the eligibility framework for subsidised export finance.

Anti-dumping investigation on solar PV modules from selected countries initiated under trade remedial procedures to assess dumping.
Initiation of an anti-dumping investigation was announced for imports of solar cells, whether assembled into modules or panels or on substrates, originating in or exported from specified foreign sources, commenced under Notification No.14/5/2012-DGAD dated 23rd November, 2012, as communicated by the Minister of State; the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties will examine alleged dumping and possible trade remedial measures.

Foreign investment automatic route allows full FDI for oil and natural gas projects, subject to sectoral regulatory framework.
Full foreign direct investment is allowed via the automatic route for exploration, marketing and related infrastructure in the oil and natural gas sector, including pipelines and LNG regasification, subject to the existing sectoral policy and regulatory framework and the government policy on private participation in exploration and discovered fields, and thus does not envisage separate government approval for bringing such FDI into companies engaged in these activities.

Policy repo rate cut leaves limited room for further monetary easing amid high food inflation and external risks.
Reduction of the policy repo rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility and corresponding adjustments to reverse repo, Marginal Standing Facility and Bank Rate are the principal monetary actions, supported by active liquidity management (including open market operations and prior CRR reduction) to anchor money market rates and ensure credit flow. Persistently high food-driven headline inflation, divergence between wholesale and consumer prices, latent administered-price pressures, and a large current account deficit limit the headroom for further monetary easing despite growth concerns.

Preference for domestically manufactured electronics in government procurement, conditioned on manufacture in India and WTO exemptions.
Preference is granted for domestically manufactured electronic products in government procurement-covering Desktop PCs, Printers, Laptops and Tablets-applicable across Ministries/Departments and agencies for government use (excluding Defence) and not for commercial resale or production for sale; eligibility depends on manufacture in India and the scheme is presented as consistent with WTO commitments due to GATT exemptions and India's non participation in the Government Procurement Agreement.