Overseas investors have poured in more than Rs 18,000 crore (about USD 3.4 billion) into the Indian equity market so far this month despite macro economic concerns.

With this, the total foreign investment in the country’s equity market has reached Rs 79,554 crore ($14.72 billion) since the beginning of the year.

During May 2-24, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs 56,767crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs 38,250 crore , resulting int a net inflow of Rs 18,518 crore (USD 3.4 billion), according to the data available with market regulator Sebi.

Apart from equity, FIIs have also poured in Rs 9,255 crore (USD 1.74 billion) into the debt market during the month taking the total investment to Rs 27,334 crore (about USD 5 billion) in the segment so far this year.

As on May 24, the number of registered FIIs in India were 1,764 and total number of sub-accounts were at 6,384 .

 ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, has proposed a pay hike of over 20% to its top management team just months before issue of new bank licences to corporate houses by the Reserve Bank of India.

The board of directors have rewardedChanda Kochhar, the managing director and chief executive offer of the bank with a 20.75% salary hike to Rs 5.12 crore in 2013. The board has also decided to raise the minimum and maximum range of monthly supplementary allowance for Kochhar to Rs 10-18 lakh from about Rs 8.70 lakh per month.

Other directors have also got pay hikes of over 20%. NS Kannan, the chief financial officer, received a 26.17% hike which is the steepest hike among the top brass at the bank. K Ramkumar, executive director and head human resource at the bank received a 24.78% hike of Rs 3.56 crore.

The salary of Rajeev Sabharwal, executive director and head of the bank’s retail banking and rural initiative that’s been the driver of profit for the March quarter increased by 20.56% to Rs 3.20 crore. The steep hike comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India and the government are considering fresh banking licences to select corporates.

Pillorying the government of the day for pervasive corruption is the easy thing to do, whereas it might just be an escapist option. It helps those of us who are neither in politics nor in the government to pretend that we are not tainted, and therefore have the right to point fingers at politicians, who we assume are not. The truth, as recent events have brought home forcefully, is that corruption has permeated fields that have nothing to do with politics and government.

The cricket establishment is a disgrace, and now suspected of far worse than the misdemeanours of the Indian Olympic Association, for which that body has suffered the deserved misfortune of being thrown out of the international Olympic movement. If it is spot fixing in cricket, it has been widespread doping in wrestling; problems persist in half a dozen sports bodies, whose recognition the government has withheld. You could argue that it is politicians who mostly run the sports bodies, except that none of the people around Mr Kalmadi were from the world of politics. In any case, the cricket boss is a businessman. >> Read More

Overseas investors have poured in nearly Rs 12,000 crore (about $2.2 billion) into the Indian equity market so far this month.

With this, the total foreign investment in the country’s equity market has reached Rs 73,029 crore ($13.5 billion) since January.

As on May 10, the number of registered FIIs in India were 1,770 and total number of sub-accounts were at 6,407.

During May 2-17, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs 37,997 crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs 26,005 crore — a net inflow of Rs 11,993 crore ($2.2 billion), according to the data available with market regulator SEBI.

FII net investments had plunged to the lowest level in 16 months during April, attracting net inflow of Rs 5,414 crore. >> Read More

Income Tax Department slaps Rs 582 crore tax demand notice on Infosys

 Income Tax department has slapped a fresh $106 million (about Rs 582 crore) tax demand notice on Infosys, for 2009 fiscal, adding to the tax woes of India’s second largest IT firm. 

The Bangalore-based software services exporter is already contesting additionalIncome Tax demands of $214 million (about Rs 1,175 crore) for four fiscals years beginning 2005 and said it will take legal recourse against the fresh tax demand notice as well. 

“The company has received the assessment order from the Income tax authorities for fiscal 2009 on May 2, 2013 along with a demand order for an amount of $106 million,” Infosys said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. 

In the filing Infosys added, “As the company is contesting this position like earlier years, the appellate authority would be approached within the time limit prescribed under the relevant law.”  >> Read More

Third round of spectrum auction is not going to happen before this year end. In February, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had decided that a separate auction will be held for the balance of spectrum in 1,800 MHz band in compliance with the direction of the Supreme Court in its order dated 15-2-2013. But the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom has not come out with any specifics and dates till now due to differences between its members.

According to an official source, there are differences between the members of the EGoM which needs to be thrashed out first and the auction will not happen before year-end. “Some members feel that the price (base price) issue needs to be referred back to Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and the others think that is not required since referring it back to Trai will lead to cartelization as has happened in the last two auctions,” the official added. >> Read More

- For Rs. 12,000-15,000 crore

- To be issued in tranches

- First tranche on June 4, 2013 for Rs. 1000-2000 crore

Pursuant to the announcement made in the Union Budget for 2013-14 to introduce instruments that will protect savings of poor and middle classes from inflation and incentivise household sector to save in financial instruments rather than buy gold, RBI, in consultation with Government of India, has decided to launch Inflation Indexed Bonds (IIBs).

2.  For appropriate price discovery and market development, it is however, necessary to issue comparable instruments through auctions to the institutional investors such as Pension Funds, Insurance, and Mutual Funds etc.  This will create demand for IIBs and help in making them tradable in the secondary market.  It is therefore proposed to issue initial series for all categories of investors including institutional investors and, later, another series, exclusively for retail investors. First series of IIBs would be issued in first half of the current financial year.  To target greater retail participation for this series also, it has been decided to enhance the non-competitive segment for retail and mid-segment investors to 20 per cent from the present level of 5 per cent applicable to auction of usual GoI securities.

3. The details for first series of IIBs are as under: >> Read More

State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri today said Non Performing Assets (NPA) remained an area of concern for the Indian banks.

He attributed the build up of NPAs in the banking sector to the general slowdown in the domestic economy over the last couple of years, which had seriously impaired the repayment capacity of borrowers.

Giving the example of the textiles hub of Kanpur, Chadhuri said there was general sickness in industry. “While disbursing loans, the bank had anticipated timely repayment by industry. But, the borrowers are not able to repay,” he said adding even the occupancy rate of hotels had come down drastically, signifying a slowdown. >> Read More

Anticipating a fall in interest rates, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) withdrew money from bank deposits and expanded investment in mutual funds by as much as 13 times to Rs.13,458 crore in the fiscal year ended 31 March from Rs.1,101 crore a year ago.

Pawan Kumar Bansal, under fire over his nephew’s alleged involvement in bribery for a top railway board posting, resigned today as Railway Minister.

According to sources and TV reports, Bansal sent his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this afternoon.

The sources said Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge may be country’s new Railway Minister. >> Read More