Summary: Moody's upgraded India in December 2011, moving long term domestic currency government bond ratings and the long term country ceiling on foreign currency bank deposits from speculative to investment grade, and raising short term domestic and foreign currency ratings to a prime category, citing fiscal consolidation measures (fuel subsidy removal, fertilizer subsidy reform) and tax simplification initiatives expected to improve revenues and compliance; other agencies (DBRS, Fitch) had taken supportive actions and the Ministry of Finance and RBI engage regularly with rating agencies.
Summary: 100 percent FDI is permitted in single brand product retail trading under the government approval route, conditioned on single brand, branded manufacturing, international sale of the same brand, foreign investor brand ownership, and, where FDI exceeds 51%, mandatory sourcing of at least 30% of product value from Indian small industries (plant & machinery investment US$1.00 million), with company self certification and statutory auditor verification; applications must specify product categories and obtain fresh approval for additions.
Summary: The National Competition Policy aims to create a framework to secure competitive market outcomes, promote efficiency, protect consumers and inclusive growth by reviewing laws to remove anti competitive outcomes, ensuring institutional separation of policy, operations and regulation, enforcing competitive neutrality, prescribing fair market regulation, enabling third party access to essential facilities on reasonable non discriminatory terms, promoting cooperation in enforcement and establishing a National Competition Policy Council for oversight.
Summary: India proposed a Line of Credit for health infrastructure and offered Indian PSUs for project execution; technical assistance and capacity building measures including textile sector revival, a Rural Technology Park, and a Food Testing Laboratory were announced. India raised concerns about the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act and urged visa facilitation, while Zimbabwe's parliamentary ratification of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement was noted to support investment flows.
Summary: A government-supported three-year programme will deliver design intervention and capacity building for rural craftswomen in selected African countries through beneficiary identification, inbound training by a national design institute, collaboration with a regional NGO, and marketing linkages with established retailers to promote women's economic empowerment via skill enhancement and market access.
Summary: Foreign Direct Investment proposals were processed with differentiated administrative outcomes: 20 proposals were approved across multiple sectors involving equity infusions, joint ventures, subsidiaries, issuance of shares and fund investments, with some approvals granted post-facto. Twenty-three proposals were deferred for further scrutiny; ten were rejected for non-compliance with policy or requests for restricted relaxations. One proposal was withdrawn, one was noted as an intimation, and one was recommended for referral to another ministry for sectoral clearance.
TaxTMI 
of 45
Join Channel
TaxTMI 
