'During his stint as prime minister, he got 270 million people out of poverty.' 'This, according to the World Bank, is the fastest compression of poverty anywhere in the world.' Arvind Mayaram, the former finance secretary, recalls his encounters with Dr Manmohan Singh.
In its highest ever reduction in seller fees, ecommerce giant Amazon India has introduced zero referral charges on over 12 million products on its platform that are priced below Rs 300. The move is aimed at boosting seller growth on Amazon.in and supporting hundreds of thousands small businesses across the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India will become the growth engine for the world in the coming years, and the ease of doing business has improved with "mission-mode" reforms being undertaken by his government. Speaking at the BRICS Business Forum Leaders' Dialogue in Johannesburg, Modi also said India soon will become a $5 trillion economy.
The volume growth of India's FMCG industry has slowed down in the March quarter to 5.1 per cent, driven by increased consumer purchases of small-value packs, according to the latest report from data analytics firm NielsenIQ. Volume growth is slowing across categories, and non-food segments are still outpacing food in the FMCG sector.
From a high over 9 per cent gross domestic product growth for many years prior to the 2008 crisis, the economy grew 6.5 per cent last year and is projected to slow down further to a decadal low 5.5 per cent or even lower this fiscal.
In its latest interim Economic Assessment report released today, OECD said a moderate expansion is under way in most major advanced and emerging economies.
The deportation of Indians from the United States, deaths in the Maha Kumbh stampede and the joint Parliamentary committee report on the Waqf bill were among the issues that led to heated exchanges and some disruptions in an otherwise smooth first part of the Budget session that ended on Thursday.
India's consumer digital economy which was pegged at $85-90 billion in calendar year 2020, is expected to become a $800 billion market by 2030, according to reports released by consulting firm RedSeer at its flagship event Ground Zero 5.0. The digital economy includes 60 per cent of travel, 40 per cent non-grocery retail, 30 per cent of education, 25 per cent of food and beverages services and 6 per cent of pharma/grocery going through digital channels by calendar year 2030. Online retail is set to become the third-largest market by scale by CY30 with an annual gross merchandise value (GMV) of $350 billion in CY30, said RedSeer.
Government's push for Make in India which focuses on select 26 sectors and improving the 'ease of doing business' will aid the manufacturing/industrial growth.
India and the United States will be signing a new defence framework during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing visit to the US, which will give a further fillip to the partnership between the two countries, a senior White House administration official said on Thursday.
Various government agencies have predicted that the economy would grow at 7 per cent or above while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council is expected to review the economic growth forecast of 8 per cent. The mid-year review of the economy tabled in Parliament on Tuesday said that the country should be prepared for a growth rate of around 7 per cent in 2008-09.
The economy is expected to grow by 3.2 per cent in 2010, Al-Mansouri said while addressing at the opening session of the UAE-Azerbaijan joint committee in the UAE capital on Monday.
India, the world's third largest oil consuming and importing nation, spent 112.5 billion euro (about Rs 1.5 lakh crore) on buying crude oil from Russia since the start of the Ukraine war, a European think tank said on Thursday. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) released a report on payments to Russia for fossil fuels since February 24, 2022. "According to our estimates, since the beginning of the war, Russia earned EUR 835 billion in revenue from fossil fuel exports," it said.
The Indian economy, severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. However, India is likely to bounce back with an impressive 8.8 per cent growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest growing emerging economy, surpassing China's projected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, the IMF said in its latest 'World Economic Outlook' report.
'A few answers for the reason of the crash will be known -- whether it was a technical fault, design issue, human error etc.'
Hailed as the architect of India's economic reforms, former prime minister Manmohan Singh in one his last interviews had said in 2019 that the country's economy was 'over-regulated', the government exerted control and interferences were aplenty with even regulators having 'morphed into controllers'.
Bollywood's biggest stars arrived at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on May 1 to take part in the inaugural edition of World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025.
After declining to a three-year low in FY24, the private sector investment is expected to fall further in the current financial year, India Ratings said in a research note.. The investments in the private sector are likely to plummet to below 11 per cent of the GDP in FY25, based on the trends from the latest national accounts data and company fillings, it noted.
The silver lining in the GDP number is the manufacturing sector.
Demystifying the Chinese economy, a noted economist has said the Asian giant is living on 'borrowed growth' and this "surreal economy cannot continue indefinitely."
Indian drugmakers supply 47 per cent of the generic medicine requirements in the US, and tariffs would have increased prices in the US domestic market for patients, who are already dealing with drug shortages.
Budget 2025 lays down a transformational roadmap for India's digital and economic future, focusing on AI-driven enterprise modernisation, workforce skilling, and sustainable innovation. With bold investments in AI, digital infrastructure, and ease of doing business, the government has set the stage for businesses to scale, innovate and compete on a global level.
Religious tourism witnessed 1,439 million tourists in 2022, generating Rs 1.34 trillion in revenue.
'India won't take anything from Pakistan lying down.'
Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, once hailed as rising stars in India's clean energy sector, are now facing serious regulatory action.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the government will arrange identity cards and registration on the e-Shram portal to assist 1 crore gig workers. Presenting the Union Budget 2025-26, the finance minister also said a scheme for the socio-economic upliftment of urban workers will be implemented.
The "weaponisation" of economic activity - through tariffs and sanctions - is now a reality, with countries leveraging these tools strategically, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue recently.
India will surpass China as the world's fastest growing economy in the next 2-3 years, says RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani.
India would remain among the fastest growing economies of the world in the medium-term as the country has posted a real GDP growth at 6.9 per cent in 2004-05, according to Reserve Bank of India.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, the international rating agency, has said that India is the second-fastest growing economy in the world with an average growth rate of more than 8 per cent over the past three years.
India is set to surpass China as the fastest-growing economy in Asia next year on the back of increasing consumer demand and public investment in infrastructure, global research firm Credit Suisse has said.
Last week, the India Meteorological Department downgraded its monsoon forecast to 'below normal'. This has led to fears whether it would affect agricultural output and bring down India's growth in the current fiscal. The agriculture sector contributes around 17 per cent to the gross domestic product and employs around 60 per cent of the nation's total workforce.
Painting a rosy picture, the Asian Development Bank on Tuesday forecast that the Indian economy would grow by 6 % in 2003 and 6.3% in 2004, and said fiscal deficit of the Centre and states would start falling after the elections next year.
'The finance minister has done as much as she can when you look into the fiscal constraints she had.'
S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday said the impact of the US reciprocal tariff will be limited on India as the economy is domestically oriented with less reliance on exports. YeeFarn Phua, Director, Sovereigns and International Public Finance Ratings, Asia-Pacific S&P Global also said India will clock a 6.7-6.8 per cent GDP growth over the next two years.
There is a "misperception" among the administration around deregulation, wherein digitisation is confused with deregulation, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday. Speaking at an event organised by alternative investment industry's lobby grouping IVCA in Mumbai, Nageswaran stressed that what is essential is to do away with needless regulations, whether they are to be complied with online or offline.
Quick commerce (qcom) industry is poised to lead gig workforce hiring in 2025, propelled by a surge in demand for faster deliveries, expansion by existing players, entry of new competitors, and evolving consumer preferences in the post-pandemic era, according to industry experts. The qcom industry currently employs nearly 260,000 people - around 200,000 delivery personnel and 60,000 dark store workers, according to TeamLease Staffing.
India's economy is likely to grow by 6.5 per cent in the current and the next financial year, an EY report said, attributing lower than anticipated expansion in the September quarter to fall in private consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation. Real GDP growth eased to a seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent in July-September -- the second quarter of the current 2024-25 fiscal year.
'India is the only country whose economy is strong and growing fast.'
World Bank on Monday said it expects Indian economy to grow by 8 per cent this fiscal but asked the government to open up more sectors for foreign direct investment, encourage private sector participation and improve infrastructure.