NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the decision to scrap high-value bank notes will give the economy a further boost, and would provide long-term benefits, including forcing the country's vast shadow economy into the open.

The defence of his radical move to abolish 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, in an interview to a magazine released on Thursday, comes after the decision has disrupted the daily lives of hundreds of millions of Indians as banks have struggled to swiftly expand the circulation of new bills.

The supply of coal to the power sector by the state–owned CIL saw a fall of 6 per cent at 33.7 million tonnes last month even as the government claimed in October that the demand for the fossil fuel has started picking up.

The despatch of dry fuel by Coal India Ltd (CIL) to the power sector in November last year stood at 35.9 million tonnes (MT), according to government data.

In a move to widen the ambit of the domestic capital markets, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday issued guidelines for the introduction of trading in interest rate options, effective January 31, 2017. While options trading has been in place in the equity market and was introduced in the commodities market in September, derivative trading with interest rates as the underlying has been limited to futures so far.

1.5 core LPG connections have been issued to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) households under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme, the petroleum ministry said on Thursday.

The PMUY is an ambitious social welfare scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1 2016 from Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh. According to the official release, the target fixed for the current financial year under the scheme has been achieved within a span of less than eight months.

Even as 50 days have passed since the announcement of demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, cash crunch continues as only 35-40% of the 2.2 lakh ATMs in the country are dispensing cash, according to leading deployers. What has increased woes of many people is the fact that most of the ATMs are dispensing only Rs 2000 notes. Moreover, banks are yet to start over-the-counter payments in Rs 500 notes properly. Reason: The number of Rs 500 notes available is very less and it would take more time for the situation to normalise.

State-run BSNL is planning to take on lease about 15,000 point of sale machines to enable more customers to use digital methods of bill payment, and sees digital transactions accounting for up to 40% of all bill payments by March 2017, nearly double of current levels.

"We are in the process of leasing about 15,000 point of sale (PoS) machines to be used by customer service centres so that electronic payment can be encouraged.

GE Power India surged 7% to Rs 485 on the BSE in intra-day trade after the company received contract worth of Rs 271 crore from Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) for supply of components and services for 2 thermal power projects in Tamil Nadu.

“The company has been awarded a contract worth approximately Rs 271.1 crore (i.e. approximately US $ 40 million) by Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) to supply components and services for the supercritical steam generator island packages,” GE Power India said in a BSE filing.

Reliance Industries (RIL) hit a two-month high of Rs 1,084, up 1.8% in intra-day trade on Friday, extending its Thursday’s 1% gain on the BSE after the company said it commissioned the first phase of Para-xylene (PX) plant at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

The stock was trading at its highest level since October 21, 2016. It hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,129 on September 26, 2016 in intra-day trade.

Mumbai: A sudden spurt in buying at the fag end of the trading lifted markets higher on Thursday as the Sensex rebounded over 155 points to end at almost two-week high of 26,366 as December derivatives contracts expired amid recovery in the rupee.

The broader NSE Nifty,too, regained the key 8,100-mark. The rupee strengthened by 18 paise against the dollar at 68.06 (intra-day), which helped sentiment improve. Marked by volatility, the rally was supported by gains, mainly in consumer durables, oil and gas, metal, auto, power, IT and PSU stocks, which turned attractive at current levels after recent losses.

Why were Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes demonetised by the government? Fifty days after the government announced that these notes would cease to be legal tender, Reserve Bank of India feels that the reasons behind the sudden announcement cannot be made public.

The monetary policy regulator also refused to give any details about the time it will take to replenish the currency notes. “The query is in the nature of seeking future date of an event which is not defined as information as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act,” RBI said in response to an RTI query.

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