India's economic growth may slow down to a little over 8 per cent while inflation is likely to be above the comfort level at 6.6 per cent with an upward bias next fiscal, a senior economist from global banking major HSBC said on Wednesday.
Ahead of India's annual budget presentation next week, IMF's chief economist Gita Gopinath has favoured the extension of the pandemic support measures, thrust on investment in infrastructure and expanding health sectors programmes like Ayushman Bharat, and a very credible divestment path for commercially viable companies. The Indian government has provided a lot of schemes for small and medium enterprises, most of which is in the form of liquidity support, Gopinath told PTI on Tuesday. "And you want to revisit it and see how effectively that is working and see whether additional support may need to be provided," she said while responding to a question on her recommendations to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, ahead of her presentation of the annual Union Budget on February 1. It would be a good time for banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to raise capital given the attractiveness of financing conditions at this point, she said.
The lawmakers seem as uninterested as those who use the railways.
'India's output contraction in the previous year was among the worst in the world!'
'I can't help it if people don't love the minorities, the Dalits and Adivasis; they are as much of this country as any other Indian.' 'If I love them, it does not mean I do not love my country.' 'It is ironic and funny that they have laid such severe anti-national charges against me.'
In a major decision that will inject new vigour into print media, the government on Thursday allowed India editions of foreign magazines with news and current affairs content with 26 per cent foreign direct investment.
The message for 2024 is that the man on the street is not going to be euphoric if the G-20 crowns Modi as king-emperor for 2023, or if India sends its first man to space just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Even a 'temple consecration' in Ayodhya, or a Uniform Civil Code, or both of them together, may not have enough electoral purchase if fuel and commodity prices are not rolled back, and money-in-the-pocket does not fatten, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
As some BJP pollsters concede, the Modi leadership's sweeping success in elections 2019, especially across central India, owed not to Hindutva ideology, but to welfare schemes, all of them borrowed from Tamil Nadu, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
All of India welcomes the Light Combat Helicopter into the Armed Forces arsenal and wishes it a safe tenure and happy shooting. May it rule the skies and ensure that the enemies are given a fitting reply when the need arises.
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday raised India's growth projection for the current fiscal to -7.7 per cent from -9 per cent estimated earlier on rising demand and falling COVID infection rates. "Rising demand and falling infection rates have tempered our expectation of COVID's hit on the Indian economy. S&P Global Ratings has revised real GDP growth to negative 7.7 per cent for the year ending March 2021, from negative 9 per cent previously," S&P said in a statement. The US-based rating agency said its revision in growth forecast reflects a faster-than-expected recovery in the quarter through September. For the next fiscal, it projected India's growth to rebound to 10 per cent.
The Left parties attacked the government's policies and said the country was heading towards an economic emergency.
Panagariya also stressed that India must continue the liberalisation of its top tariff rates and the country should not revert back to import substitution.
His faith in India remains unshaken but steel magnate Lord Swraj Paul has little doubt that it will suffer badly in the current global economic meltdown, a view contrary to that of many economists who feel that the country's strong domestic economy will help it deal with the crisis.
A day after the Congress brainstormed over its electoral reverses, senior leader M Veerappa Moily on Monday said Sonia Gandhi should take "full control" of the party with a free hand to change non-performing leaders, and asserted that a "mere culture of tweets and social media propaganda" would not take the organisation forward.
The latest rate cut has not yet trickled down to consumers.
How many hours of work does it take to buy a half a litre of beer at a retail outlet?
More than 127 million new bank accounts have been opened.
Gokarn was the first Indian central banker who regularised warnings to the government, through the monetary policy statement, on the need to reduce fiscal deficit.
It would be larger than even in the pandemic year of 2020-2021, notes Mahesh Vyas.
The Indian economy has "some bright spots and a number of very dark stains" and the government should target its spending "carefully" so that there are no huge deficits, noted economist and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Sunday. Known for his frank views, Rajan also said the government needs to do more to prevent a K-shaped recovery of the economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Generally, a K-shaped recovery will reflect a situation where technology and large capital firms recover at a far faster rate than small businesses and industries that have been significantly impacted by the pandemic.
The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index rose sharply from 34.2 in July to 41.8 in August, the highest since March, before the escalation of the pandemic.
The oil crisis could not have come at a worse time for the Modi government as its tax collection has fallen short of its 2020-2021 target by Rs 5.2 lakh crore.
The share of total health expenditure as part of the gross domestic product (GDP) went down to 3.3 per cent in 2017-18 from 3.8 per cent in the previous two years, according to the national health account data released on Monday by the health ministry. The share of government expenditure as part of total expenditure as well as GDP has gone up from from 3.78 per cent to 5.12 per cent between 2013-14 and 2017-18, which could also explain a decline seen in out of pocket expenditure in 2017-18. Health ministry also emphasised the increase in the government health expenditure as part of the total GDP from 1.15 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.35 per cent in 2017-18.
'When you need to revive the economy, when you need to revive aggregate demand, you cut taxes.' 'But what's this government doing?' 'It's increasing taxes for the middle class and the vast majority of the poor on fuel, which has a ratchet effect on most other products.'
The People's Bank of China cut its daily reference rate for the currency by a record 1.9 per cent, the biggest loss since January 1994.
No longer Bengal's finance minister, Amit Mitra, Mamata's principal chief advisor, will still advise and aid the 'chief minister and finance department on all matters relating to management of state finance', represent the 'state government in national and international events/meetings/committees' and examine 'important proposals/files and policy issues relating to financial matters referred to him for advice/views'.
Since 2012, 44 Indians have been anointed as grandmasters -- the highest achievement in chess, points out Arvind Subramanian, economist and former chief economic adviser to the government.
Retail sales of cars are back to January 2018 levels in August 2021. Two-wheeler retail sales are 22 per cent lower, nearly four years down the line.
The rupee has depreciated 10.5 per cent against the dollar this year, making it Asia's worst-performing currency.
With economic activity buoyed by expectations from the new elected government of "Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is benefiting from a 'Modi dividend'," the Bank said in its twice-a-year South Asia Economic Focus report on Monday.
A look at six indicators shows all of them have collapsed from positive growth in April to contraction in September.
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Leasing of office spaces witnessed a sharp uptick in the July-September period at 12.5 million square feet across top eight cities on better demand, especially from the IT sector, with economy coming back to normalcy and corporate workforces slowly returning to work from office, according to Knight Frank India. The gross absorption of office space stood at 4.7 million square feet in the corresponding period of the previous year and 3.6 million square feet in the previous quarter, according to Knight Frank's India Real Estate Update - Q3 2021 that was released on Monday through a video conference. The consultant noted that the total office transactions of the eight India markets in Q3 2021 have improved and reached 83 per cent of the 2019 quarterly average level.
'If Indian armed forces entered Pakistan and succeeded in inflicting major damage on the Pakistani army and occupied territory in the Pakistani heartland, there is reason to think the Pakistani military would use some nuclear weapons against the incoming Indian forces to compel India to stop.'
A federal body began a hearing on the impact of Indian trade policies on US businesses wherein American bodies and advocacy groups slammed India for its trade practices, alleging they hit their jobs and business.
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The RBI has bought Rs 124.62 billion worth of bonds since its announcement on Aug. 20 that it would occasionally buy bonds to relieve some of the cash tightness in the banking system.
In the 2020-21 Budget, the prime minister and the finance minister are keen to stamp their narrative, after various rollbacks following the previous Budget, said top government sources. Besides the scheduled meetings, the sources said, the Prime Minister's Office is expected to hold several meetings with top secretaries and officials on various ongoing schemes, their performance and also how some of them could be tweaked for better results.
In India, bond yields have fallen nearly 70 basis points in the last one year.
