The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
The government is drawing up a relief package for industry with steps such as relaxation of asset-classification norms by banks, thus allowing companies to delay the repayment of loans, and tax holidays for the worst-hit sectors like aviation and hospitality. But it might not be enough to stop more bankruptcies from getting filed.
'The PSBs ended up recording Rs 7,709 crore losses in the March quarter compared to the Rs 11,688 crore profits of their private peers,' reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government has decided to spend big on infrastructure across a wide variety of sectors to give a greater impetus to the economy which is recovering from the impact of Covid-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.
Chinese shares opened lower, with the Shanghai Composite Index down 1.8% and the CSI300 index down 2.2%.
PowerGrid was the top loser in the Sensex pack, slumping over 4 per cent, followed by ONGC, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, L&T, Asian Paints and Bajaj Auto. NSE Nifty tanked 258.40 points to 14,359.45.
Sun Pharma was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, soaring around 6 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's, Titan and TCS. NSE Nifty surged 121.35 points to 14,617.85.
'In 2022, active management, long-short strategies, multi-asset strategies, and asset allocation strategies need to be considered to meet long-term investment goals.'
India is on track to register its entire 1.25 billion population using its Aadhaar digital ID.
Bank stocks have underperformed in the second quarter of FY'14 with the BSE Bankex declining 18 per cent compared to fall of 1 per cent in the BSE 30-stock index, Sensex, during this period.
Broader market underperformed the headline indices with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap finishing in red
The 30-share Sensex ended in the red.
The system envisaged under the FRDI Bill, if implemented properly, would help improve the efficiency of capital allocation without harming consumers, and without risking the stability of financial firms, says Ajay Shah.
India's manufacturing sector activities lost further growth momentum and fell to a seven-month low in March as demand was constrained by the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a monthly survey said on Monday. The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell from 57.5 in February to a seven-month low of 55.4 in March. However, the latest reading was indicative of a substantial improvement in the health of the sector that outpaced the long-run series average, it said. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
Lenders are not enthused because, as brokers, their responsibility towards policyholders will be higher than corporate agents.
Ahead of the Union Budget for 2023-24, Budget makers have welcomed the global consensus view that India will remain one of the bright spots in calendar year 2023. But there is some alarm over the grim global situation and how that might impact the Centre's projections and assessments for next financial year. The big global headwinds include a deep and sustained recession in the West, including India's biggest trading partners in North America and Europe, continuing volatility in commodity markets, and renewed Covid-19 fears, as lifting of strict curbs by China could potentially lead to a massive spread again.
'80% of the rural and urban population don't have enough purchasing power.'
India's macroeconomic situation is certainly better than what it was a year ago, eminent economist Pinaki Chakraborty said on Monday, while expressing hope that the country will be back on the path of economic growth if there is no major third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with PTI, Chakraborty, who is the director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), said that inflation may remain at an elevated level as there was a significant fiscal and monetary expansion in the last 18 months. "The current macroeconomic situation is certainly much better than what it was one year back. We are seeing recovery in most sectors," he said. Chakraborty noted that COVID-19 vaccination has been going on at a very fast rate in India.
Low consumer demand, a slide in investments and troubles in the banking sector should prompt the government to recalibrate taxes and expenditure. It is also important to ramp up spending on health care and education, says CII president Sumit Mazumder.
Leaders of several opposition parties were stopped by the police at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi as they took out a protest march from Parliament House to hand over a complaint to the Enforcement Directorate on the Adani issue.
Barring one, three are debt-free and sitting on large cash reserves.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government would infuse Rs 20,000 crore into public sector banks (PSBs) in 2021-22, to meet the regulatory norms. For the current financial year also, the government had made a provision of Rs 20,000 crore for recapitalisation.
India's manufacturing sector activity hit the highest level in eight months in July, driven by a significant rise in business orders, a monthly survey said on Monday. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose from 53.9 in June to 56.4 in July, reflecting the strongest improvement in the health of the sector in eight months. The July PMI data pointed to an improvement in overall operating conditions for the 13th straight month.
In order to achieve $5 trillion GDP by FY'25, India needs to spend about $1.4 trillion over this period on infrastructure, according to the Economic Survey. During financial years 2008-17, India pumped in about $1.1 trillion on infrastructure. However, the challenge is to step up infrastructure investment substantially, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said.
Why are investors gung-ho about State Bank? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'We need to further catalyse economic growth and the government needs to increase revenue,' says G K Agarwal, BJP's national spokesperson on economic affairs.
'LIC's proposed investment will come out of what is technically called the 'policyholders funds'.' 'As the name implies, these monies belong to policyholders; that is, you, me and 25 crore others who have taken a total of 30 crore policies from LIC.' 'It is not the government's or LIC's money to play poker with,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
'Given the worries about sluggish growth, rising interest rates and likely volatility, it's quite logical to infer that the SIP route could be the preferred way of investing.'
In her first address to the joint sitting of Parliament as the Budget session began, she said 'Amrit Kaal', described by the government as the 25-year period culminating in the centenary of India's independence, is the time to build an India which is 'aatmanirbhar' (self reliant) and also fulfils its humanitarian obligations.
Tax benefit on WFH expenses, regulatory clarity on cryptos figure high on their wish list.
The economic impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on emerging economies will depend on a mix of government restrictions, public comfort with social interactions, and capacity of governments and central banks to provide additional policy support to the private sector, Moody's Investors Service said on Wednesday. The emergence of the new variant poses new risks to the global economic growth and inflation outlook, as concerns mount about the variant's health risks and several countries have imposed new travel restrictions in recent days. These restrictions will likely increase over the coming weeks until scientists learn more about the variant, it said.
Multi-core loan default accused and promoter of Rotomac Group 73-year-old Vikram Kothari died in a freak accident at his Kanpur residence on Tuesday morning. According to reports, the erstwhile stationery czar sustained grievous head injuries after slipping in his bathroom and later succumbed to his injuries. He was reportedly alone at his Tilak Nagar residence at the time of the incident. Vikram, also known as 'India's Pen King', was accused in a bank loan scam worth thousands of crores pertaining to Rotomac Global, which exported writing instruments overseas.
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.
As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
Unlike the race to buy airwaves by telecom companies, airports by infrastructure companies and city gas networks by energy companies, the race to develop super apps by consumer-facing companies in India has not brushed up against any regulatory issues. Officials at the ministry of electronics and information technology and at other regulators are happy they do not have to meddle in who among the Tata group, Reliance Industries Ltd, Flipkart or Paytm will manage to build an app that sweeps in customers. Unlike separate apps a customer uses on her mobile to order groceries, buy food or airline tickets or just make payments, a super app can perform all these functions.
sharper-than-expected economic recovery back home, analysts say, can fuel a further rally in domestic cyclicals, industrials, and financials as global central banks continue with their easy money policy.
Two French sports retailers - Go Sport and Decathlon - are all set for battle royal to grab market share in India. Both are competing with sports goods makers Nike, Puma and Adidas and footwear major Bata. While Decathlon is already in India for some time, Go Sport opened its first super store in Navi Mumbai recently.
Six months into his new role, Vishal Wanchoo, president and chief executive officer, GE, South Asia, speaks to Jyoti Mukul about how its horizontal business lines of additives and digital are playing across its verticals.
The best possible way to deal with job uncertainty is accepting the fact that it could happen to anyone and if it does, then it is important to work on a multi-pronged strategy on how to get through it in the best possible manner, advises Sumit Sabharwal.
Reliance was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging over 3 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy, Maruti and ITC.