China’s plenum in Oct

BEIJING: China’s Communist Party will hold a full meeting of its central committee in October to set the course of the world’s second-largest economy for the next five years, state media reported Monday. Market economics have played an increasingly important role since reforms began under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, in a system dubbed ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, but the country is still guided by a series of five-year plans. The central committee meeting, or plenum, will be the fifth since President Xi Jinping ascended to power as the ruling party’s general secretary in 2012. The Fourth Plenum held last year focused on the legal system, while the Third Plenum in 2013 was centred on economic reforms. China’s next five-year plan will run from 2016 to 2020, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Fairfax to expand

MUMBAI: Fairfax India Holdings, a fund set up by Canadian investor Prem Watsa to target Indian assets, on Monday said it would buy a 74 per cent stake in commodities storage and services firm National Collateral Management Services (NCMSL) for about $126 million. The deal, valued at about INR eight billion, is expected to be completed in 2015, Fairfax said in a statement. NCMSL, which is hoping to benefit from a boost to India’s underdeveloped agricultural storage industry under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for food security, will continue to operate independently under Chief Executive Sanjay Kaul, Fairfax said.