Table of Contents
Oil Prices on the Boil
- Jumped $3 on Friday
- Stoking fears of a supply disruption
- India: fuel prices are already at a 13-month high.
- The rupee lost about 0.60% or 44 paise to close at 71.80 per dollar.
- India’s fiscal deficit will face threat if price escilates further.
- India imports 84% of its oil
- Nearly 60% of it from the Middle East
- September 2019: drone attack on the Saudi facility
- India’s extended neighbourhood
- Welfare of nearly 10 million Indians in the Gulf.
- $40 billion remittances comes from this region.
Oil Prices on the Boil
- Litigation settlement scheme in the upcoming budget.
- It will allow companies to put an end to legacy tax disputes by paying a portion of the money demanded by the revenue department.
- Estimated 500,000 cases have been pending in the courts and quasi-judicial forums.
- The total value of these disputes is pegged at Rs 7-8 lakh crore
- A government task force had recommended the litigation settlement scheme in July last year.
- Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had set up a panel to help reduce tax litigation in February last year focused on resolving pending direct tax disputes urgently.
Make in India
- US – China trade war may be partly responsible for the economic slowdown globally.
- It presents an opportunity for India.
- What was lost by China, was gained by India.
- Samsung shifted its base to Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
- Samsung lost no time in setting up its world’s largest mobile factory in Noida.
- Close to 30% of the smartphones manufactured in the world would then be expected to be exported from India soon.
- China continues as being the ‘world’s factory’
- US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF): 200 US companies are seeking to move out
- India needs to reform: land and customs reforms
- Strengthen its supply chain model.
- There are a few salient features that gives India an edge over China.
- India-US relations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump are strong and relatively stable.
- India boasts of a majority young working population out of its total of about 130 billion.
- India and the US can sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) to have more access to each other’s markets
- Domestic market that can swallow a large percentage of manufacturing goods.
- ‘Predicted Manufacturing Competitiveness’ index: India is expected to jump six ranks to No. 5 in the 2020
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