The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
has given new generation private-sector banks a breather of
two to three years to meet their priority-sector lending target
of 40 per cent.
After suffering a trade-deficit
with China for years, India is finally hopeful of reversing
the trend this year with the figures for the first four months
of 2001 registering a surplus of $ 60 million.
Annual inflation rate, after
a three-week fall, was up 0.13 percentage points to 5.16 per
cent for the week ended June 30 even as fuel products remained
firm for the last 15 weeks.
The new “Pharmaceutical Policy
2001” is expected to boost the powers of the National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority (NPPA), the country’s apex drug pricing body.
