The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is preparing to introduce options contracts and allow the entry of financial institutions in the Indian commodity derivatives market. Detailed guidelines and necessary amendments in the law are currently being worked out to implement these measures in the coming months. The purported objectives behind these measures are to deepen the Indian commodity derivatives market by allowing the entry of financial institutions (such as mutual funds, banks, insurance companies, alternative investment funds…
By Myriam Vander Stichele | Guest Blog | March 27, 2017
The health spa and casino complex in Baden-Baden in Germany was the venue for two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors held on 17 and 18 March. Baden-Baden is better known as a luxurious spa town with expensive shops and Konditoreien (pastry shops), where rich Russians and others like to spend their (laundered or tax evaded) money. However, the G20 ministers and governors did not come to clean up the place, although that could have easily been…
By Biswajit Dhar and K.S. Chalapati Rao | Guest Blog | March 14, 2017
The Second Advance Estimates of National Income, 2016-17 produced by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) show that demonetisation has had no impact on the country’s economic growth. According to the CSO, Indian economy grew by a healthy 7% in the third quarter of the current financial year, quite contrary to even the expectations of even the Finance Ministry. The Economic Survey had observed, “demonetisation has had short-term costs”, which “real and significant”, and added that the costs would be…
With the UK government preparing to trigger Article 50 of Lisbon Treaty – the formal process to exit the European Union – later this month, let us explore the opportunities and challenges of its future trade relations with the EU and the rest of the world. Post-Brexit, there are numerous policy options available to the country to establish its new trade relationships with the rest of the world. In fact, Brexit provides an excellent opportunity to the UK to…
This letter is addressed to you as DG, WTO on the occasion of your visit to India. This is being sent collectively from civil society groups, including farmers, workers, people living with cancer, HIV and HCV, health groups, retailers, and grass-root constituencies in India who are calling on you for a change in approach in the WTO negotiations, by advancing its development mandate rather than pursuing a trade agenda essentially for increasing the stranglehold of the dominant corporations.
