The 11th TiECon Delhi 2011 that begins in the capital on Friday promises action packed two days with keynote addresses by the UK High Commissioner to India Sir Richard Stagg, Secretary, Ministry of Communications and IT Mr. R Chandrashekhar and Secretary, Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Mr. Uday Kumar Varma.

While Nokia India’s MD D Shivakumar will deliver the first Prof CK Prahalad memorial lecture. The other speakers of note include Mr. Ronnie Screwala, Founder and CEO UTV group.

The Indian Rupee came 8 paise down to Rs 44.43 against the US dollar on Monday, July 25, 2011. The Indian currency was down at 44.43 per dollar, whereas last week it was 44.35/36 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange
(Forex). Possibility of the US debt crises reasons out the weak opening of the Indian stocks in early trade.

According to a Forex dealer, oil-refiners were the main reason which has affected the rupee value against the dollar. In Asian trades, crude oil has gone down due to the expected US default.

According to an adviser to the administration, headline inflation is likely to come down to near 7% as compared to 8.31% during February in the coming weeks.

C Rangarajan, chairman, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, anticipates the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation to drop to about 7% by April end.

The annual rate of inflation of the country was recorded 8.31 per cent (provisional) during February of the current year. The recorded rate of inflation was based on the wholesale price index (WPI). For the similar month in the preceding year, it was recorded 9.68 per cent.

The official wholesale price Index for all commodities has gone up by 0.1 per cent in the month under review. The wholesale price Index for all commodities was recorded 146.0 (provisional) in this month. Last year, in the month of February, it was recorded 145.9 (provisional).

The inflation of the nation has been recorded 7.51 per cent in the month of February this year against 9.42 per cent in the same month last year.

After posting a weak growth of 2.5% (revised from 1.6%) in Dec’10 , the Industrial growth recovered to 3.7% in Jan’2011 on the back of better manufacturing output mainly in the consumer goods segment. It is high base effect which pushed IIP growth in a slowdown phase since Nov’2010. Cumulative growth for the period Apr-Jan’2011 stands at 8.3% as against 9.5% in the corresponding period previous year.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has suggested Reserve Bank of India to take strong steps on inflation. According to the recent reports, finance ministry wants RBI to keep a strict check on inflation.

Finance ministry's concern comes at a time when RBI is about to announce its mid-quarterly review of the monetary policy on March, 17. RBI has raised key policy rates 7 times in one year from March, 2010 to control inflation. Its efforts counted and finally inflation graph started showing a negative path recently.

Chairman of India's leading conglomerate Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani is highly optimistic about economic growth in India. In a recent conference, he gave his opinion about the future and Indian economy and said Indian economy would reach a whooping $5 trillion mark by 2022-2025.

ICICI Bank chairman, K V Kamath has also positive thoughts about Indian economy. He also said India would be $5 trillion economy by 2022. These business leaders, among others, gathered at Institute of International Finance (IIF) to attend a discussion.

Speaking at the discussion meeting, Mukesh Ambani said, "India will be a USD 5 trillion economy by 2022-25. There can be a debate whether it would 2022 or 2025."

Indian Government has no plans of freeing diesel prices seeing current inflation. Denying all considerations about government's favor of freeing diesel prices, Indian chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu told reporters that inflation is still in "uncomfortable zone" so freeing the diesel price will risk more to this.

Speaking to reporters at a CII event, Basu said, "I am not of the view that diesel price deregulation is inevitable and that is the position taken by petroleum ministry right now. Given the inflationary situation right now, we don't want to do that".

Indians may soon be paying Goods and Service Tax (GST). Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee is very keen to get this bill passed. According to reports, finance ministry is on its way to introduce the Goods and Service Tax bill to public.

For this, the government has planned to bring Goods and Service Tax constitutional amendment bill for the Cabinet approval coming Thursday.

Once this bill gets approval from the Cabinet, this will be presented before the assembly. Business news channel CNBC-TV18 reported that a cabinet note has been circulated to all ministries about GST amendment bill.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee described loyal taxpayers as engines of economy. Speaking to Indian Revenue Services probationers, he insisted them to treat taxpayer as a client not as enemy.

He said, "The assessee is no longer considered an adversary; committed taxpayers are the engines of our economy and therefore important clients of Revenue Department".

Finance minister was addressing probationers at Parliament House Complex in New Delhi. He deemed that comfort zone of taxpayer should be considerably enhanced, while at the same time punishing serious offenders and evaders.

The one concern that has proved to be an over-riding factor in formulating this year’s budget is inflation. Nearly all the things done by the finance minister, and even things not done by him, has an explanation based on that one single concern.

This is the sharpest fiscal correction tried to achieve by any government in the last twenty years. One is advised not to go by the headline numbers of 5.1% fiscal deficit for this 2011 and 4.6% for 2012.

The Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has assertively announced that he desires to put through a strong message regarding reforms via the Budget covers the Indian art market. One of the announcements made by the FM today made it easier to conduct exhibitions related to art work being imported from abroad.

This Union Budget had a lot to offer to India Inc this time. The first of course was the fact that the companies are not sure that GST (Goods and Services Tax) will be implemented anyhow. But, whether it was because of inflation or for something else, the finance minister continued to keep service tax at 10 per cent.

But what was able to get the highest applaud from the industry was the thing that the surcharge tax has been kept at 5 per cent as against 7.5 per cent previously. This directly means that Indian companies are now going to have more money in their pockets.

The Union Budget 2011-12 presented today by the Finance Minister seems balanced and growth oriented. Agriculture, Infrastructure and Social sector have been the focus areas. The budget has sought to promote growth with an inclusive agenda. Consequently, substantial plan outlay has been devoted to social and rural development. The Finance Minister expressed his concern over the problem of generation and circulation of black money in the Budget Session and announced the implementation of a Five Fold Strategy to deal with the problem. Besides this the Budget 2011-12 laid the foundation for the roll out of DTC and GST. Proposed increased exemption limit was in-line with market expectations.

The Union Budget 2011-12 presented today by the Finance Minister seems balanced and growth oriented. Agriculture, Infrastructure and Social sector have been the focus areas. The budget has sought to promote growth with an inclusive agenda. Consequently, substantial plan outlay has been devoted to social and rural development. The Finance Minister expressed his concern over the problem of generation and circulation of black money in the Budget Session and announced the implementation of a Five Fold Strategy to deal with the problem. Besides this the Budget 2011-12 laid the foundation for the roll out of DTC and GST. Proposed increased exemption limit was in-line with market expectations.

“The budget 2011 has exceeded expectations in terms of rural development, education and agriculture. It is commendable that the economy has seen a growth rate of over 9%. This budget will provide an impetus to inflation control.

“This financial budget, there is nothing to add to the IT/ Telecom industry. FM also didn’t talk about the IT exemption under STPI, which most of the IT leaders expected. The increase in MAT by 0.5 % is very marginal. This year the prime focus of the budget seems to be controlling fiscal deficit.”

Being one of the quickest to save power, LED lighting can reduce dependence on fossil fuels to a large extent. LED lighting is also the fastest way to VIRTUAL POWER GENERATION by saving existing usage. The FISCAL incentives will go a long way in making these high tech systems acceptable by users.

The LED lantern is the only lighting system which is affordable to people denied access to GRID power. Any small incentive from Govt will make their affordability and penetration levels better.

During his budget speech, Mr Pranab Mukherji pleaded for help from Lord Indra and Goddess Laxmi. It leaves me to reckon that with his budget also, he expects the Industry and the corporates also to look up to the almighty heavenly Gods rather than to expect any help from government!! Though his task of delivering a growth oriented budget was made tougher by the rising inflation concerns, but he could have definitely restrained from pleasing the individual tax payers at the expense of the growing and promising industry, especially sectors like textiles.

Expressing satisfaction over the various proposals of the Budget, Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej said: "I think it was a very well balanced Budget and growth oriented. It will be very good for the economy. The decision to formally introduce the constitutional amendment for GST is a very good one."

He said increase in limit for income tax exemption for tax payers will add to consumption "which is desirable".