NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, July 19 (Reuters) – India’s government
appears set to relax heavily criticised sourcing rules for
retailers, anxious not to scare off IKEA — one of the few big
name firms that has said it will invest in the country — or any
others willing to follow.

India kicked open the door to foreign retailers in January
when it removed an investment cap for single brand chains to set
up shop but then shot itself in the foot by imposing a
requirement that companies had to source 30 percent from small
local firms.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s exports fell nearly 5.5 percent in June due to weak demand from Europe and the United States, a trade ministry official said, adding pressure on Asia’s third-largest economy.

Imports also fell sharply, however, thanks in part to lower global oil prices, and narrowing the trade deficit to $10.3 billion compared to the previous month, something of a silver lining that may help assuage concerns about India’s balance of payments.

NEW DELHI, July 13 (Reuters) – India’s exports fell nearly
5.5 percent in June due to weak demand from Europe and the
United States, a trade ministry official said, adding pressure
on Asia’s third-largest economy.

Imports also fell sharply, however, thanks in part to lower
global oil prices, and narrowing the trade deficit to $10.3
billion compared to the previous month, something of a silver
lining that may help assuage concerns about India’s balance of
payments.

NEW DELHI/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – India has rebuffed a request by IKEA IKEA.UL to relax rules on buying goods locally, a government source said on Friday, raising the prospect of a delay in the world’s largest furniture maker entering the Indian retail market,

IKEA, famous for its self-build flatpacks and huge stores, said last month it would invest 1.5 billion euros ($1.86 billion) and open 25 outlets, throwing a lifeline to the government in India where economic growth has slowed sharply.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is going through its worst patch of economic growth in nine years, which has seen the rupee slide to record lows against the dollar and investors clamouring for greater policy action from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government.

Amid the slowdown comes a change of guard at the finance ministry, with Pranab Mukherjee resigning on June 26 to run for president. Singh has taken charge of the portfolio, raising investor hopes he will push through long-pending reforms to prop up India’s flagging economy.

NEW DELHI, June 27 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
summoned officials on Wednesday to formulate an economic revival
plan in part addressing problems in tax policy and said he also
wanted to revive the “animal spirit” of Indian economic growth.

Seeking to overcome pessimism about Asia’s third-largest
economy, Singh, in remarks released by his office, stressed that
improving investor sentiment was a top priority.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday kicked off a push to revive the country’s flagging economic growth and reverse a “climate of pessimism” among investors in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Singh took over the running of the Finance Ministry on Tuesday after Pranab Mukherjee resigned to prepare to run for president in elections in July.

NEW DELHI, June 27 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on Wednesday kicked off a push to revive the
country’s flagging economic growth and reverse a “climate of
pessimism” among investors in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Singh took over the running of the Finance Ministry on
Tuesday after Pranab Mukherjee resigned to prepare to run for
president in elections in July.

BALLIA, India (Reuters) – In a wheat field near the mighty Ganges river stands a cracked foundation stone surrounded by nibbling goats and farmers driving their cattle in the baking sun.

Unveiled more than four years ago, it’s all that remains of an ambition to build India’s longest expressway, an eight-lane, 1,050-km (650-mile) road that would have run through Uttar Pradesh state and connected one of the country’s most backward regions to the doorstep of the nation’s capital.

BALLIA, India, June 26 (Reuters) – In a wheat field near the
mighty Ganges river stands a cracked foundation stone surrounded
by nibbling goats and farmers driving their cattle in the baking
sun.

Unveiled more than four years ago, it’s all that remains of
an ambition to build India’s longest expressway, an eight-lane,
1,050-km (650-mile) road that would have run through Uttar
Pradesh state and connected one of the country’s most backward
regions to the doorstep of the nation’s capital.