Newsmakers: Arun Jaitley on GST Bill, retail inflation at 5.18% and more

FM Arun Jaitley hopes progress on GST, bankruptcy bill this session
The government hopes to pass the landmark Constitution Amendment Bill for a national Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as the bankruptcy and insolvency bill in the second half of the Budget session beginning April 20, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. The GST bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and is pending ratification by the Upper House, where the ruling NDA does not have a majority. After it is approved by the Rajya Sabha, the legislation needs to be ratified by half of the 29 states so as to roll out GST possibly by October 1.

Morgan Stanley revises India growth estimate for 2016 to 7.5%
Morgan Stanley revised its growth forecast for India for 2016 to 7.5 per cent from 7.9 per cent previously and noted that the country's economy is expected to see tepid recovery largely owing to external factors. According to the global financial services firm, though the domestic macro environment has been improving steadily in the last two years, the pace of growth recovery has been slower than anticipated, held back by external factors. "We are revising down our growth estimate for 2016 to 7.5 per cent from 7.9 per cent previously and for 2017 to 7.7 per cent from 8.0 per cent," Morgan Stanley said in a research note.

Retail inflation falls to three-month low in February
After rising for five months in a row, retail inflation in February fell to 3-month low of 5.18 per cent as food prices including vegetables, pulses and fruits became less costly. Retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was at 5.69 per cent in January this year. In February last year, it stood at 5.37 per cent.

Mallya a Congress' baby; UPA forced bank to give him loans: BJP
Hitting back at Congress for questioning whether the Centre would seek Vijay Mallya' s deportation, BJP said the industrialist was a "Congress' baby" and accused the previous UPA dispensation of helping him by forcing a bank to provide a loan of Rs 3,100 crore despite his company's poor finances. "Mallya is a Congress' baby. When his company (Kingfisher Airline) was on the verge of closure, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggested such private companies should be helped. The government pushed banks to give him a package of Rs 3,100 crore," BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said, adding Congress should come clean on its "deals" with him.

Wipro wins IT deal from Danish energy firm
Global software company Wipro has announced winning a multi-year contract to develop a new IT platform for Danish energy firm NRGi's operations. "We have won a multi-year engagement with NRGi, one of the top five utility providers in Denmark, to transform its customer relations management (CRM), billing and service bureau operations," the company said in a statement. The northern European state is opening up its energy sector and tweaking its regulatory policy to ensure transparency for consumers, energy suppliers and utility firms in a competitive market.