Rupee rises 6 paise to 93.27 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee appreciated by 6 paise to 93.27 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday, driven by retreating crude oil prices and a weakening American currency, amid hopes of a truce in West Asia.
According to forex analysts, crude oil prices hovering below the USD 95-a-barrel level sent positive cues to investors in domestic equities, even though the outflow of foreign capital and demands for dollars from importers resisted a sharp recovery in the rupee.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 93.29 and gained further, trading at 93.27 against the greenback in early deals, up 6 paise from its previous closing level.
On Wednesday, the rupee gained 2 paise to settle at 93.33 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was lower by 0.12 per cent at 97.72.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading marginally up by 0.02 per cent at USD 94.95 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex gained 529.55 points or 0.68 per cent to 78,640.79 in early trade, while the Nifty rose 156.50 points or 0.65 per cent to 24,387.80.
Foreign Institutional Investors were net sellers on Wednesday and offloaded equities worth Rs 666.15 crore, according to exchange data.
Government data released on Wednesday showed that the Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation rose sharply to an over 3-year high of 3.88 per cent in March, driven by a sharp spike in rates of fuel, power and manufactured items amid the West Asia crisis.
Consumer price index-based retail inflation rose 3.4 per cent in March compared to 3.21 per cent in the preceding month, mainly due to an uptick in certain food items, data released earlier this week showed.
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Meghwal, Shah move to introduce bills in LS to tweak women's quota law, set up delimitation panel
New Delhi (PTI): Union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Amit Shah on Thursday moved to introduce three bills in the Lok Sabha to amend the women's quota law and set up a delimitation commission amid protests by the opposition, which termed the proposed legislations anti-constitutional.
Congress' K C Venugopal questioned why proposed changes in the women's quota law were not incorporated when it was earlier passed by Parliament.
"Bills to tweak the women's quota law and set up a delimitation panel are anti-constitutional," he said.
Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav questioned the rush to introduce the bills.
"We are in favour... but why do you not want a Census to be done?" he asked.
Union Minister Home Minister Amit Shah hit back, saying the Census 2027 is on and the Centre has also decided to go for caste enumeration, but reservation based on religion is "unconstitutional".
According to the draft Constitution amendment bill, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats will also be increased in state and Union territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
The seats reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies "shall be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a state or Union territory", the draft bill circulated among Lok Sabha members said.
Several opposition parties on Wednesday decided to unitedly vote against the delimitation provisions in the Constitution amendment bill in Parliament, while asserting that they are not against reservation for women in legislative bodies.
