Foreign exchange

The ever-increasing import bill of edible oil has become a chronic problem for India with edible oil being the third largest among imported goods in India, next only to crude oil and gold. There are structural issues in production, productivity, and trade of edible oils. These energy-rich crops are grown in energy-starved conditions where more than 70% of the area under cultivation is rain-fed and often cultivated with low-quality seeds in a fragmented landholding and outdated agri-management practices. It further studies the trade liberalisation measures of a liberal trade policy regime, lower import duties, duty-exemptions under free trade agreements, and changes that India has witnessed in consumption as well as retail of edible oil.

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With the astronomical rise in the volume of transactions and multiple layers of financial operations, there is vast scope for reducing transaction costs and counterparty obligations and minimising financial risks by converting gross obligations into net. The Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL) has assumed this role and within a little over a year has emerged as a major facilitator of transactions in gilt-edged debt, inter-bank forex market and money market instruments.

History marches on. Consider the colourless budget the union finance minister presented on the last day of last month. Even he could not but admit the sorry reality of the economy having come to a screeching halt.