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ROUNDUP

Factory output slips into negative zone, shrinks 0.8% Panel to inspect falling
in April no. of tribunals in country

Industrial production shrank 0.8% in April, the first time in three months, on The government has constituted an
the back of poor show by manufacturing and capital inter-ministerial
goods sectors. Factory output measured in terms of the group to look at
Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew 3% in April last reducing the
year, data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) number of tribu-
showed. nals in the coun-
try, as it aims to
The central bank maintained status quo on policy rates in its monetary policy make dispute resolution simpler. The
review, claiming sharper-than-anticipated upsurge in inflationary pressures. The group will submit its suggestions af-
IIP had registered a growth of 2% in February this year. The provisional esti- ter studying a report from the Indian
mates of 0.1% growth in March this year were revised slightly upwards to 0.3%. Law Institute and responses from
state governments.
Manufacturing sector which constitutes over 75% of the index, contracted 3.1%
in April this year, compared to a growth of 3.9% in the year-ago period. Minister of state in the prime minister's
office Jitendra Singh placed this infor-
Patent office issues norms for startups mation in the Lok Sabha in response to
a question. India has a large number
Indian Patent Office has issued guidelines for facilitators and of tribunals managed by different min-
start-ups with respect to filling and processing of applica- istries, with different structures and
tions for patent, designs and trademarks aiming to encour- often disparate powers.
age budding entrepreneurs and boost innovation.
SEBI relax REIT rules to
As per the guidelines, a start-up willing to file a patent application for an inven- woo investors
tion will have to select a facilitator who would help in preparing the request and
also assess the patentability of the invention as per acts and rules, the Controller With an aim to make REITs more at-
General Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, according to a public notice. tractive to in-
vestors, mar-
Ministry wants to build 10,000 local grids powered by kets regulator
renewable energy SEBI plans to
relax its norms
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy aims to foster development of to allow these
10,000 mini or micro grids powered by renewable energy sources within five
years, to reach electricity to the 237 million Indians who have no access to elec- Trusts to invest more in under-con-
tricity today. struction assets and have a larger
number of sponsors.
The Ministry has put out its draft National Policy on Mini/Micro grids for public
comments, in which it says that with costs of power generated by renewable SEBI had put in place its regulations for
sources such as wind and solar coming down, RE-based mini/micro grids are a Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
"durable solution" to provide electricity to the thousands of dark villages of In- in September 2014, but these Trusts
dia. A mini or a micro grid is a network of power cables that reach electricity have not generated enough interest
from a source-such as a small solar power plant - to homes in a particular area, among investors and industry players
such as a village or a group of villages. who have been seeking further mea-
sures to make them attractive.
Textiles export finishes at USD 40 Billion; short for FY
16 target While the government has already
announced various taxation related
Textiles exports for the 2015-16 fiscal stood at USD 40 bil- and other sops for REITs, SEBI has
lion, falling way short of the USD 47.5 billion target, a se- now decided to further amend its
nior official said. "The quantum of shipments from the tex- regulations by taking into account
tiles sector during 2015-16 was USD 40 billion," Joint Sec- representations received from vari-
retary in the Textile Ministry Sunaina Tomar said. ous quarters.

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