The ongoing West Asia conflict is expected to severely impact the supply of affordable housing in India, as rising input costs further erode already thin developer margins. Fluctuations in crude oil and gas prices, coupled with higher freight costs, are driving up prices of essential construction materials like cement and steel, making new projects increasingly unviable for developers.
The new scheme may be announced before the Lok Sabha elections.
Not a single retail outlet ran dry. Every household that wanted a cylinder got one. India faced neither a 1991 moment nor a 2013 one. Macroeconomic stability held. This was not an accident, and it was not luck alone. It was the work of a government that chose to act as it had during the pandemic -- deliberately and gradually, building one measure upon another rather than reaching for a single dramatic lever, explains V Anantha Nageswaran, chief economic advisor to the Government of India.
The conflict may disrupt Budget 2026-2027 projections, squeezing revenues and raising subsidies, prompting fiscal adjustments and potential reforms, echoing lessons from the Covid-era shock, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Restoring weighted tax deductions and adopting a petty patents regime can foster firm-level innovative activity critical for competitiveness, points out Nagesh Kumar.
55 million people already in the social security net
The housing stock demand may increase further
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's biggest challenge will be to find a new growth driver, particularly against the backdrop of a global economy ravaged by heightened uncertainty and fragmentation, financial markets on a precipice, and global commodity prices on a continued uptrend.
The new credit-linked subsidy programme, called Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme, was approved at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The financial implication of the new scheme, to be implemented over a four-year period, is estimated at Rs 4,485 crore (Rs 44.85 billion), Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters.
Investors and startup executives are calling for extending the period for an entity to be recognised as a startup from 10 to 15 years for deep-tech companies.
Realty players want single window clearance for all affordable projects, reports Karan Choudhury.
India has managed high government debt-to-GDP, a slowing domestic revenue engine, lower household savings and a more hostile geopolitical environment separately in the past. But together, they threaten to undo the growth narrative on which today's optimism rests, warns Debashis Basu.
Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi claimed in a social media post that the website of the Ministry of Food Processing shows the CM's wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma's firm Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd has received Rs 10 crore as part of credit credit-linked subsidy.
As the Union Budget 2025-2026 (FY26) inches closer, the Indian real estate industry is seeking stamp duty cuts, revised home loan limits and updated affordable housing norms through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY), single-window clearance and eco-friendly policies, among others. Industry leaders and consultancy firms, including Anarock, Raheja, Gaurs, Kanodia Group, Reach, Urban Space, Justo and Eros Group, have shared their expectations.
According to the third batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha, approval is being sought for gross additional expenditure of over Rs 1.58 lakh crore.
Mortgage lender HDFC on Wednesday said it has approved the highest ever retail home loans of over Rs 2 lakh crore in 2021-22. The demand for these loans was from across the country, HDFC said in a statement. HDFC managing director Renu Sud Karnad said, "In over four and half decades, I have not seen a better time for the housing sector than now due to lower interest rates, stable property prices, government's thrust on affordable housing, improved affordability, favourable demographics, increasing urbanisation and rising aspirations." The residential real estate segment will continue to see strong traction going forward, as the demand for housing is not just pent up demand but is a structural one, she said.
With funds more readily available, Fitch expects a portion of stalled housing projects to resume construction, and this will feed into its forecasts for India's buildings sector growth in the short term.
'That way you're not hostage just to US sort of exports to India.'
The government is working to provide healthcare schemes to poor people under the Jan Dhan initiative.
Gogoi and Sarma have been locked in a war of words on 'X' since Wednesday on the issue of the chief minister's wife's company allegedly being given a credit subsidy of Rs 10 crore.
The banks argue since the scale of credits is unforeseen, they will have to bear an unknown cost of servicing these accounts.
Housing finance major HDFC on Monday reported a 16 per cent growth in standalone net profit to Rs 3,700 crore for the January-March quarter, helped by record loan sales on the back of benign interest rates and the resultant fall in cost of funds along with the near-total repayments that culled provisions and credit costs. For the full year, the company, which is working on a reverse merger with its banking subsidiary, has booked a net profit of Rs 13,742 crore, up from Rs 12,027 crore in FY21, vice-chairman and chief executive Keki Mistry said on Monday in an earnings call with analysts. On a consolidated basis, net profit for the quarter surged 21.6 per cent to Rs 6,892 crore on-year and for the full year it jumped 21 per cent to Rs 22,595 crore, Mistry said and guided towards better days.
International Finance Corporation will put in $200 million and HDFC will contribute $600 million to create $800-mn corpus for affordable homes
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new job creation scheme by giving subsidy to those establishments that make new hires. The subsidy would be to cover for retirement fund contributions by employees as well as employers for two years, she said. Employees contribution (12 per cent of wages) and employer's contribution (12 per cent of wages) totalling 24 per cent of wages would be given to establishments for two years, she said. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, every Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)-registered establishment taking new employees would get this subsidy.
Recognising job creation for the youth as the foremost challenge for the economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced a comprehensive Prime Minister's package to facilitate the employment and skilling of 41 million youth with a central outlay of Rs 2 trillion over the next five-year period. The package will consist of five schemes and initiatives - three focused on jobs and two on skilling.
Government gives 3 months, starting June, for the 20 districts to be covered under its direct benefits transfer scheme.
To help revive the economy battered by COVID-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a slew of measures, including Rs 1.1 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme for improving health infrastructure, and enhancing the limit under the ECLGS by 50 per cent to Rs 4.5 lakh crore for the MSME sector facing liquidity crunch. Sharing the details of stimulus package, the finance minister said this comprises eight relief measures and other eight measures to support the economic growth. She announced Rs 1.1 lakh crore loan guarantee scheme for COVID-affected sectors, including health sector, which includes guarantee cover for expansion or for new projects. Besides, she said, additional Rs 1.5 lakh crore limit enhancement done for Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) scheme.
Industry body CII has pitched for a reduction in personal income tax rates, decriminalisation of the goods and services tax and a relook at the capital gains tax rates as part of its agenda presented to the government for the forthcoming Budget. Arguing that the GST law already contains adequate penal provisions for deterrence against evasion of taxes, CII has suggested decriminalisation of GST law. Also, the applicability of prosecution provisions should not be based on the absolute amount of tax evasion but should be based on real intent to evade the taxes and a certain percentage of the tax payable, it stated.
Govt expects to save Rs 10,000 crore through this move.
An increase in the farmer income support scheme PM Kisan Nidhi, the introduction of a 'robot tax' to fund reskilling of people who lose their jobs to artificial intelligence (AI), and a reduced income-tax (I-T) to bring relief to the middle classes - these are some of the items in the Budget wish list submitted by Sangh Parivar affiliates to Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman. Representatives of the affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), such as the farmer organisation Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS); trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS); Laghu Udyog Bharati, which works for micro and small industries; and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), which works on economic and policy issues, met the FM and other officials over the last couple of weeks as part of the pre-Budget consultations.
Domestic cooking gas consumers in Delhi and Mumbai will from Wednesday get cash subsidy for buying cooking gas refils as the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) Scheme will be extended to 105 more districts.
More than half of the total subsidy provisioning, amounting to 54 per cent, is going towards food subsidy, which is estimated at Rs 184,220 crore for 2019-20 - a 7.5 per cent increase over the revised estimates for 2018-19.
Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs. In a pre-budget virtual meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector," the exporter's body said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced income tax relief for the middle class, a Rs 2 lakh crore outlay for job creation schemes over the next five years and a spending splurge for states run by her party's new coalition partners as she unveiled the Modi 3.0 government's first budget after the general elections.
The issue was first raised by Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha during Question Hour, when he asked Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan if the land in the Kaliabor area was allotted under the state's 'Basundhara' scheme.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against the LIC seeking a ban on its new scheme in Bangalore, alleging it is aimed at propagating the Aadhar card and helping Nandan Nilekani who is contesting Lok Sabha elections from there.
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
Country's biggest mortgage lender HDFC on Tuesday announced a festive offer in line with peers like SBI with home loans starting from 6.70 per cent. Last week, SBI as part of festival bonanza offered a concessional home loan rate of 6.70 per cent under its festive offer. This was followed by other lenders like Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda.
While sale of residential properties increased only marginally despite plethora of steps taken by the government through the year, office space leasing rose 40 per cent to touch an all-time high of 46.5 million sq ft -- a trend that drew investors to lap up India's first Real Estate Investment Trust at an issue size of nearly Rs 5,000 crore.
India's exports may have touched an all-time high of $422 billion in 2021-22 but recession in key western markets and geo-political crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war are expected to impact the growth of the country's outbound shipments in 2023. All the global trade promoting factors like political stability, movement of goods, adequate availability of containers and shipping lines, demand, stable currency and smooth banking systems are in disarray. Adding to the woes, COVID cases have again started rising in countries like China, Japan, South Korea and the US.
