Food inflation eases to 16.81%

NEW DELHI: Food inflation softened to 16.81 per cent for the week ended January 9, led by lower fruit and vegetable prices, although pulses and potatoes continued to cost dearer.

For the week ending January 2, food inflation (prices of non-processed food articles) stood at 17.28 per cent.

According to the government data, on year-over-year basis prices of vegetables rose by 7.95 per cent and that of fruits by only 3.73 per cent.

While milk prices soared by 13.95 per cent over last year and is expected to surge further on lower availability.

"We are facing insufficient availability of milk, specially in northern India. In October, we had taken a decision to raise the price. Today, there is a demand that we should hike the price," Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar had said yesterday.

Potato remained expensive during the period rising as much as 49.31 per cent from last year, followed by prices of pulses which jumped by 47.90 per cent.

The inflation for primary articles, which include food and non-food items, stood at 13.93 per cent in the reporting week over the previous year.

On weekly basis, the price index for food articles fell marginally by 0.1 per cent on account of decline in prices of vegetables (2.6 per cent) and other food articles (2 per cent).

‘RBI should slash interest rate’

NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (PTI): The Commerce Ministry wants the Reserve Bank to reduce interest rate for dollar credit in its forthcoming monetary policy to help sustain the fledgling recovery in the exports sector.

“We are expecting that the Reserve Bank will bring down the interest rate for export credit in its quarterly credit policy review,” a Ministry official said.

The apex bank is slated to announce the third quarter monetary policy on January 29.

India’s patience not unlimited: US

NEW DELHI, Jan 20 – The US today made it clear that India’s patience would be “limited” if it faces a Mumbai-type attack again as it warned that Lashkar-e-Taiba was working in league with al-Qaeda to destabilise the region and provoke an Indo-Pak military confrontation, reports PTI. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who discussed the serious threat posed by terrorism to the region with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister A K Antony, emphasised the need for “high level of cooperation” from all countries to defeat the “syndicate” of terror, including the LeT, the Taliban and the Tehreek-e-Taliban under the command of al-Qaeda.

He said the syndicate had “home and safe haven” in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas and that there was need to recognise the magnitude of threat to the entire region.

“While al-Qaeda is operating in Afghanistan along with the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban is focusing on Pakistan. The Lashkar-e-Taiba is focusing on Pakistan as also India,” Gates told reporters here winding up his two-day visit.

“The success of any one of them is success for all... Victory for one is victory for all. These groups operate under the umbrella of al-Qeada from North West Frontier Province (of Pakistan) and Waziristan,” he said.

“Under the umbrella, they intend to destabilise not only Pakistan, but the entire region by provoking confrontation between India and Pakistan through terror attacks. This is a very complicated issue and very dangerous for the entire region as a whole,” he added.

To a question, Gates said that it would “not be unreasonable to assume that India’s patience will be limited” if there is a repeat of 26/11.

Federal Bank denies acquisition by IDBI Bank

Kerala-based Federal Bank today denied reports on a takeover move on the bank by IDBI Bank which appeared in a section of the local print media. In a statement issued, the bank clarified that the reports are factually incorrect. It further said that the Federal Bank has not been approached in this regard by IDBI Bank nor has any due diligence been carried out.

Reports in a section of the media indicated that IDBI Bank has ‘zeroed in’ on Federal Bank and that the due diligence process in this regard had been completed.

BS