Top News Podcast: Govt clears 3% DA hike; raids on tyre manufacturers; Pak PM Imran Khan loses majority and more

The Union Cabinet approved a hike of 3 percent in Dearness Allowance (DA) for central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners on Wednesday. With the latest increase effective from January 2022, the DA and DR now stand at 34 percent.

In this edition of Top News Podcast, CNBCTV18.com’s Kanishka Sarkar will share the latest on the economy, markets, electric vehicles, salary hikes, Russia Ukraine conflict and more from around the world.

In the stock market, Sensex and Nifty ended higher for the third straight session. Financial, auto and IT shares gained while metal shares suffered losses. Globally, markets sentiment was largely positive on progress in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Sensex rose 740.3 points to end at 58,684 and Nifty50 benchmark settled at 17,472.3, up 147 points from its previous close.

Fuel prices were again hiked today, taking the total increase in rates in the last nine days to Rs 5.60 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 101.01 per litre as against Rs 100.21 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 91.47 per litre to Rs 92.27 according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

On the economy front, Morgan Stanley believes inflation is not a significant problem for India. Jitania Kandhari, deputy CIO, portfolio manager for active international allocation, and head of the macro and thematic research for the EM equity team at Morgan Stanley, said that the peak of inflation is not here yet. She said, “Markets like India do not have such a significant inflation problem. It’s the US and Europe that have more of a problem because of the gas prices.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) conducted raids at the premises of domestic tyre manufacturers, CEAT Limited, Madras Rubber Factory (MRF), and Apollo Tyres, sources told CNBC-TV18. The raids conducted over alleged competition violation and cartelisation, they said.