Indian govt’s National Telecom Policy aims for 100Mbps broadband speed and teledensity of cent percent by 2020

India releases National Frequency Allocation Plan for spectrum management
The government has released National Frequency Allocation Plan-2011 (NAFP). NFAP-2011 is a policy document which contains spectrum allocation for various radio communication services/applications in different frequency bands. This document provides the basis for development, manufacturing and spectrum utilization activities in the country, both for government and private sectors.

The plan was released here today by Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology to ensure its efficient and effective management. Speaking on the

Indian govt liberalizes foreign institutional investment in long-term corporate debt to give push to infrastructure sector
The Indian government in consultation with the regulators had raised the limit for foreign institutional investment (FII ) in long-term corporate bonds issued by the companies in the infrastructure sector from US$ 5 billion to US$ 25 billion.

As per the SEBI circular, investments under this scheme were allowed in listed and unlisted bonds that had a minimum residual maturity of five years and these investments were subject to a minimum lock-in period of three years. The scheme was conceived and operationalized to open new channels of funding for the infrastructure sector while deepening the

Indian govt targets to achieve direct tax to GDP ration of 7.62 percent by 2014-15
The Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that during 2010-11, the income tax department exceeded the revised Budget Estimates by collecting more than US$ 97 billion (Rs.4.46 lakh crores.) He said that the collection of direct Taxes has almost doubled in the last four years. This has been possible due to rationalization of tax structure, improvement in tax administration, better tax payers’ services and commendable efforts put in by the officers and employees of the Income Tax Department, the Minister added.

Mukherjee said that the 13th Finance Commission has projected direct tax re

17 US financial institution sued by US govt for sub prime crisis
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions, certain of their officers and various unaffiliated lead underwriters. The suits allege violations of federal securities laws and common law in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities (PLS) to the Enterprises. The agency said it was taking action against banks, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC. The agency says they misrepresented the quality of the mortgages they sold during the housing bubble. The values plunged as the US was engu

India’s corruption perception index falls, mjuntion launches movement for efficiency and transparency (MET)
India’s ranking in Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International has fallen significantly from 70 to 87 out of the surveyed 178 countries in a span 4 years from 2006 to 2010. The integrity score for India is a dismal 3.3 on 10, 10 being the highest. Additionally, Washington D.C. based research group Global Financial Integrity (GFI) records that India has lost over US$125 billion in illicit outflows between 2000-2008. Contrary to the expectations that a growing economy will create better infrastructure and better standard of living, the gini coefficient , which measures income ineq

Ratan Tata says, "corruption has become worse and if you choose not to participate in this, you leave behind a fair amount of business"
Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons, has expressed concern over rising corruption that hit businesses. "I think corruption has become worse and if you choose not to participate in this, you leave behind a fair amount of business," Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata said at an event on 'Higher Ambition/How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value', organised by Harvard Business School in Mumbai. He said there is no short-cut to becoming a billion-dollar company other than doing things the right way.

He added that unlike in 1991, corruption is now not only seen in the grant of licence approvals,