Onions available online for Rs 9 per kilo

New Delhi: High prices are making people shed tears for onions before they are even chopped, but now a website is offering the bulbs at prices as low as Rs 9 per kilogram.

Beginning on Thursday Goupon India, a shopping website, which offers a daily deal on best local goods, services and events has tied up with a Delhi-based wholesaler to deliver onions for the next seven days to customers in 78 cities across the country.

"It is a very simple deal. We are a deal site and in current situation where onions prices are skyrocketing we are offering onions at Rs 9 per kg. The onions will be home delivered to buyers," Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India said.

The deal is scheduled to be online for the next seven days and customers would be able to get their onions within 10 days of placing their orders.

"We plan to sell 3,000 kilograms of fresh onions per day. This is so that we can ensure the quality of the products. We have tied up with a large onion distributor in Delhi and will be using multiple logistic partners to deliver the onions to customers," Warikoo said.

Onions, packaged in special moisture free wraps would be couriered to buyers by companies like Blue Dart, which is a partner of Groupon. Only registered users of the site would be able to avail the deal with only one deal available per user.

The company says it expects more than 20,000 people to avail of the onion promotion.

"We are fairly confident that people will buy. The offer will last till the onions last," Warikoo said.

Since the last one and half months, retail price of onions have skyrocketed up to Rs 80 per kg in most parts of the country.

Groupon India is part of a 48-country portfolio of Groupon Global spanning 200 million subscribers and over USD 5bn in annual sales.

The site, offers "collective buying power to offer unbeatable prices and provide a win-win for businesses and consumers and delivers over 650 daily deals globally."

New RBI chief Rajan raises hopes with action plan

Mumbai: New Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief Raghuram Rajan kicked-off his term with a bang, announcing a spate of measures to support the embattled rupee and unveiling a raft of steps to liberalise financial markets and the banking sector.

In an unexpectedly detailed and wide-ranging briefing, Rajan outlined plans to attract more funds from overseas by subsidising hedging costs for banks and making it easier for importers and exporters to hedge currency risk.

He made clear his intention to liberalise markets, including pushing for more rupee trade settlement, introducing new financial products such as overnight interest rate swaps and removing curbs on opening new branches by Indian banks.

"Some of the actions I take will not be popular," said Rajan, who famously predicted the global financial crisis and took over at the central bank in Mumbai on Wednesday after nearly a year as chief economic advisor in the finance ministry in New Delhi.

His forceful debut, which contrasted with more circumspect public comments in recent months, drew rave reviews from central-bank watchers.

A. Prasanna, economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, said he expects bonds, the rupee and Indian stocks, especially those of banks, to react positively on Thursday.

"Overall, the way and kind of steps he has announced will instill confidence in the market, which was in short supply."

A prominent former International Monetary Fund chief economist, Rajan, 50, succeeds Duvvuri Subbarao at the helm of the Reserve Bank of India. He enters office in the eye of a financial storm as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis since 1991, which has sent the rupee skidding by some 20 percent this year.

"The governorship of the central bank is not meant to win one votes or Facebook 'likes'. But I hope to do the right thing, no matter what the criticism, even while looking to learn from the criticism," he told reporters.

Many critics and investors have complained about what they viewed as inconsistent communication and insufficient action from policymakers as economic growth has crumbled to a four-year-low of 4.4 percent in the June quarter and as the rupee last week hit a record low.

"Expectations were quite high from him and he has gone far beyond expectations on day 1," said Barclays economist Siddhartha Sanyal. "The fact that he has come with such pointed steps in mind shows that we will see more concrete steps very soon."

Earlier on Wednesday, the rupee rallied after suspected dollar sales by the central bank and after Reuters exclusively reported that the RBI was considering a plan that would help lenders raise money from expatriate Indians. Rajan, in his remarks, outlined the plan to attract more funds from non-resident Indians (NRIs) as part of a broader push to lure inflows.

The rupee recovered sharply from a day's low of 68.62 per dollar to close at 67.065.

Under the plan, the central bank will offer a swap window to banks for fresh dollar deposits mobilised from non-resident Indians. India has the world's second-biggest diaspora, according to the Ministry of Overseas India Affairs, and the country has turned to overseas Indians for help in past financial crises.

The central bank will also offer forex swap into rupees at a concessional rate below market levels for banks who raise dollar funds through overseas borrowings.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Rajan's arrival has been welcomed by some traders, who hope for a fresh approach to the RBI's controversial bid to defend the rupee by tightening cash conditions and raising short-term interest rates. Those measures have pushed up borrowing costs even as economic growth sputters and have shown little success to date in braking the rupee's descent.

Among Rajan's measures, he said banks should gradually be allowed to decrease their mandatory holdings of government securities, which would free up capital for lending.

He also said new bank licences should be awarded on an ongoing basis. The central bank is now in the process of awarding the first new bank licences in a decade.

Rajan also proposed the issue of inflation-indexed bonds linked to the consumer price index, an indication that the central bank may soon shift its inflation benchmark from the wholesale price index.

"He didn't take cover saying that he will first overcome the current problems and then take steps. He thinks both can be done simultaneously," Prasanna if ICICI Securities said.

Rajan also pushed back the date of the RBI's next monetary policy review by two days to September 20. That will give the central bank more time to consider the outcome of what is expected to be a pivotal two-day meeting of the US Federal Reserve, ending on September 18.

The prospect that the Fed will soon unveil a plan to start winding down its monetary stimulus is weighing on emerging markets, with India faring worse than most because of a lack of confidence it can address its hefty fiscal deficit and its record current account deficit.

In a reminder of the uphill task Rajan faces, a report on Wednesday showed that activity in India's services sector shrank in August for the second straight month for its lowest reading in four years, the latest indication that growth in Asia's third-largest economy is still slowing.

"The biggest positive in this entire speech is the confidence. I think there will be decisiveness in the way things move, which will spread to the markets as well," said Ananth Narayan G., co-head of wholesale banking for South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.

Parliament approves amendments to SEBI Act

New Delhi: Parliament Thursday approved amendments to the SEBI Act that will widen the pool of eligible candidates for the post of presiding officer at the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

The Rajya Sabha Thursday passed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Amendment) Bill, 2013 which was earlier approved by the Lok Sabha.

SAT adjudicates upon appeals against the decisions of capital market regulator Sebi.

Presenting the Bill today in the Upper House, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the post of the SAT presiding officer had been vacant for some time and the government tried to find a judge as per the qualifications but was not successful.

In this regard, the government had issued an ordinance.

Chidambaram said that after the ordinance, the position had been filled up.

The government in July had appointed JP Devadhar, a former Justice at Bombay High Court, as the SAT Presiding Officer.

The new Bill would replace this ordinance.

The post of SAT presiding officer was vacant since November, 2011. Since suitable candidates could not be immediately found, Sebi Act was amended by an ordinance to include sitting or retired High Court judges with at least seven years' experience as one of the qualifications for the post.

India to unveil steps to cut fuel consumption on Sept 16

New Delhi: The oil minister will come up with some plans for lowering fuel consumption on September 16, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said on Friday, in a bid cut the country's import bill amid a sharp fall in the rupee.

Asia's third-largest economy could announce a steep hike in diesel prices later this month as it looks at measures to cut oil costs by nearly USD 20 billion after the rupee's slide has left India facing an oil bill potentially 50 percent higher than on May 1.

"No matter what happens, we will have to cut down on fuel consumption," Khurshid told business channel CNBC TV18. "You can't keep subsiding costs of fuel and not restrict the use of the fuel."

Khurshid said increasingly people are realising the "inevitability" of moving away from government-controlled prices.

"That's beginning to happen, but has political implications," he said.

Sensex up over 150 points, trading above 19K-level

Mumbai: The rupee on Friday strengthened further by 20 paise to 65.81 against the dollar in early trade, largely supported by recent RBI measures.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index Sensex rose by 163.71 points to 19,143 in late morning trade. Similarly, the wide based Nifty rose 16.15 points to 5,509.

The domestic currency had gained 106 paise to close at 66.01 yesterday against the dollar after steps taken by new RBI Governor Raghnuram Rajan to attract US currency inflows.

To support the rupee, RBI announced steps such as enhanced limits for exporters to re-book cancelled forward exchange contracts and a special concessional window to swap foreign currency non-resident (FCNR) deposits.

Dealers said besides increased dollar selling by exporters, a higher opening in domestic equity market and dollar's weakening against some currencies overseas helped the rupee rise.