No need for panic on Rupeee dip, RBI will take necessary action: Chidambaram

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New Delhi: Expressing unhappiness over decline in the value of Rupee, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said there was no need for panic and the Reserve Bank will take action when necessary.
"We are watching the situation, RBI will take whatever action it has to take. We have good economic advisors. We will (do) whatever has to be done ... My request is you should not react in panic, its happening around the world," he said while replying to a query on Rupee slide at a press conference here.
The Rupee touched an all-time low of 59.98 in the intra- day trade on Friday. The Reserve Bank has reportedly intervened in the market to check rupee slide. Observing that India is not insulated from what is happening in the other countries around the world, Chidambaram said, "We are not happy, we are unhappy (over) what's happening. "But that's an impact that every currency in the world (is facing) because of certain announcements made by the US Federal Reserve."
The fall in currencies of emerging markets, including that of India, is being attributed to the statement by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the US Fed may start scaling back its monetary stimulus programme later this year.
The Minister said: "why should there be such a reaction in the world market. Obviously that money which is being pulled out from all emerging markets will ultimately have to find a place."
Chidambaram further said that statement of US Federal chief Ben Bernanke was misunderstood by the markets. "It is my view that just as Mr Bernanke's statement was misunderstood a month ago, yesterday's statement (too was) being misunderstood", the Minister added. 
Next: Proposed FDI cap review by Cabinet in 3rd week of July: FM

Proposed FDI cap review by Cabinet in 3rd week of July: FM
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet is likely to take up the proposal of hiking FDI ceiling in various sectors later next month, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said. "FDI cap review may come up before Cabinet in third week of July," he said replying to query on when the government will take a call on raising FDI ceilings. Seeking to promote India as an investment destination, the Finance Ministry earlier this week proposed sweeping changes in the FDI regime, favouring higher sectoral caps in almost all sectors including defence, multi-brand retail and telecom.
Virtually calling for doing away with the 26 per cent ceiling, a committee headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram recommended that Foreign Direct Investment limit be raised to 49 per cent in almost all sectors through automatic route.
The Mayaram-headed panel suggested that FDI in defence be raised to 49 per cent under the government approval route, from 26 per cent at present.
Besides, it has proposed to increase FDI cap to 74 per cent in the multi-brand retail trading under the government approval route.
It also proposed raising the cap to 49 per cent under automatic route in sectors like single-brand retail, existing pharma companies, power and commodity exchanges, PSU banks, tea plantation, print media, PSU petroleum refinery, asset reconstruction companies, stock exchanges, insurance, depositories and clearing corporations and satellite services.
As regards courier services, the Mayaram panel said FDI up to 100 per cent be allowed under automatic route. In the civil aviation sector, the committee suggested 100 per cent FDI in non-scheduled air transport services under the automatic route as against the current 49 per cent.
The proposed policy, sources said, will be discussed amongst top ministries during the first week of July. Government is keen on increasing FDI ceilings to attract more overseas investments and finance the widening current account deficit (CAD), the difference between inflows and outflows of foreign exchange.
India's CAD, which touched a record high of 6.7 per cent of GDP in the October-December quarter, is likely to be around 5 per cent for the entire 2012-13 fiscal. As per RBI, India can sustain CAD of about 2.5 per cent.
Economic growth rate, meanwhile, slipped to a decade low of 5 per cent in 2012-13, while FDI inflows declined by 38 per cent to USD 22.42 billion.