'When resources are few; when frugality demands repairing a broken thing rather than replacing it with a brand new and expensive option, enterprising commoners in rural and urban India improvise on a daily basis and solve their problems with whatever they have,' observes Shivanand Kanavi.
Reducing it to 1.3% would lead to savings of Rs 70,000 crore over 5 years
With automation taking place at a much faster pace across industries especially in the tech space, domestic software firms that employee over 16 million are set to slash headcounts by a massive 3 million by 2022, which will help them save a whopping $100 billion mostly in salaries annually, says a report. The domestic IT sector employs around 16 million, of them around 9 million are employed in low-skilled services and BPO roles, according to Nasscom. Of these 9 million low-skilled services and BPO roles, 30 per cent or around 3 million will be lost by 2022, principally driven by the impact of robot process automation or RPA. Roughly 0.7 million roles are expected to be replaced by RPA alone and the rest due to other technological upgrades and upskilling by the domestic IT players, while it the RPA will have the worst impact in the US with a loss of almost 1 million jobs, according to a Bank of America report on Wednesday.
Overall, the populist/ electoral elements in the budget have remained measured with the finance minister being clearly aware of a higher-than-expected rise in oil prices, less-than-planned tax revenues and the wider deficit for FY 17/18, constraining his margin of maneuver, says Claude Claude Smadja.
Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, zooming 7.57 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, L&T, ITC and HCL Tech.
'Health will continue to be at the centre of the government's attention as it underpins economic recovery and our collective well being.'
Available data obscures the true stress in bank books, and the pandemic will result in balance sheet impairments and capital shortfalls at lenders, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday. Balance sheet impairment and capital shortfalls will be more evident once the regulatory reliefs are rolled back, Das said in the bi-annual Financial Stability Report, asking lenders to augment capital.
In a country that is often focused on the ways in which it falls short, the start of a year is a good time to remind oneself of such positives, observes T N Ninan.
The transformational reforms like GST, Bankruptcy Code and recapitalisation of banks, Black Money Act, demonetisation, flexible inflation targeting and adoption of fiscal discipline (FRBMA), etc, have temporarily and purposefully pulled us back only to propel us forward with greater velocity, Rajiv Memani.
Shah said India's goal is to become a $ 5 trillion economy in the next five years and without contribution from the energy and petroleum sector, this goal can't be achieved.
Moody's Investors Service has warned that India, along with the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are highly vulnerable to volatile food and energy prices in the Asia-Pacific region as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt supplies and raise the cost of agricultural products, especially cereals and vegetable oils, as well as fertilizers and other agricultural inputs. This is so because these countries have a higher weighting of energy and food prices in their consumer price index (CPI) baskets, Moody's said in its report released on Tuesday. The weighting of energy and food in overall Indian CPI stands at over 55 per cent.
Corporate India handed over an average increment of 8 per cent in 2021, and early estimates reveal that average increment for 2022 is expected to increase to 8.6 per cent in line with a healing economy and improving confidence, according to a Deloitte survey. As per the second phase of Deloitte's Workforce and Increment Trends survey 2021, 92 per cent companies gave an increment in 2021 at an average of 8 per cent, compared with only 4.4 per cent in 2020, where just 60 per cent companies had extended a pay hike. For 2022, average increment is expected to increase to 8.6 per cent, at par with the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the survey said, adding that about 25 per cent companies surveyed have projected a double-digit increment for 2022.
'While most companies were bullish before the second wave of double-digit sales growth in FY22, that may not be the case now.'
Growth in India will pick up from current levels, says LEO Puri, managing mirector, UTI Asset Management Company.
Modi is also scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Xi on Tuesday.
The government has been taking steps to promote cashless or digital transactions to take India towards a less-cash economy
Tamil Nadu secured investments worth Rs 1.44 trillion on Monday by signing of memoranda of understanding (MoU) with 60 companies, laying of foundation stones and inauguration of new projects.
Prime Minister Modi, who is in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, penned an op-ed on the vibrant relations between India and Japan in the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Even as India's internet base continues to widen, with the country set to have over 900 internet users by 2025, a parallel rise in cyber threats has become a matter of huge concern. Experts say that the sudden surge in digital adoption left little time to develop a cybersecurity backbone for the country. This has put large amounts of data at risk.
While most economies contracted in the second quarter of 2020, the Chinese economy grew by 3.2 per cent.
India's T20 squad will undergo a major transition in the next two years with senior players such as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin gradually eased out, BCCI sources said.
AI and machine learning will only continue to grow in 2022, with a significant increase in the demand for such roles, notes Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster.com.
'I believe the modified scheme is much more beneficial and simpler.'
The group has called for a retaliatory tariff action against India, if New Delhi does not roll back the 'unilateral and discriminatory' equalisation levy or Google Tax.
The focus of the Union Budget is on providing basic amenities to the poor, middle class and youth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday, and asserted that it is imperative that India becomes self-reliant.
Initial share sales are set to dazzle the Dalal Street in 2022 too as companies are expected to garner up to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the New Year, continuing with the bullish momentum after 2021 turned out to be the best IPO year in two decades for the Indian market. Excessive liquidity and increased retail investor participation ensured a persistent euphoria in the Initial Public Offer (IPO) space wherein companies mopped up more than Rs 1.2 lakh crore this year even as pandemic gloom shadowed the broader economy. In 2022, the higher amount of funds through the primary market will be largely driven by the mega IPO of state-owned Life Insurance Corp (LIC).
It is imperative that young aspirants consider career options that will guarantee job security -- roles that are centred around technology.
There has been a stellar rise for the Indian markets this far in calendar year 2021 (CY21) with the S&P BSE Sensex surging over 19 per cent. The gain in mid-and small-cap indices on the BSE has been sharper with both these indexes surging around 38 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively during this period. Rampant spread of Covid pandemic's Delta variant and the ensuing lockdown and mobility curbs across India, rising prices key commodities, including crude oil and its impact on inflation, possibility of tightening of policy stance by major global central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) have been some of the key headwinds that the markets successfully negotiated during this period.
The average housing prices declined by 2-7 per cent year-on-year during July-September in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad on lower demand amid COVID-19 pandemic, according to Knight Frank India. Prices, however, increased in Bengaluru and Hyderabad by 3 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, during July-September 2020 compared with the year-ago period. Chennai saw the maximum fall of 7 per cent, followed by Delhi-NCR and Pune at 5 per cent. Rates dipped 3 per cent each in Kolkata and Ahmedabad, while Mumbai witnessed 2 per cent price correction.
Expect heightened volatility and stress to hit the markets. Caution may be the need of the hour, alerts Akash Prakash.
Terming infrastructure as the "backbone" of any nation's development, Goyal while presenting the interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha said India aspires to be a USD 10 trillion economy in the next eight years, and on the anvil is next generation infrastructure of roads, railways, seaports, airports, urban transport, gas and electric transmission and inland waterways.
'It says, we are not just an overseas player -- we are Kia India and here for good'
None of the Big Tech companies or tycoons appears to be playing a meaningful role in the testing, spread, cure, or eradication of the virus or even in contact tracing so far, says Prosenjit Datta.
The tour is aimed at boosting India's economic engagement with these nations and inviting more investment.
The currency market won't care for our moans, groans, cries and sighs. The rupee will find its own level, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Stressing the need to make evidence-based policy formulation an integral part of governance, the prime minister said auditors must resort to technical tools to iron out any chances of fraud in organisations and give a new identity to new India.
Money is being released and the government knows it will have to front-run private investment.
Here's the full text of address to the nation by President Ram Nath Kovind on the eve of the Republic Day 2022.
Watal panel had suggested an independent payments regulator be set up.
Monetising online readership, a deeper focus on content and getting revenue from the reader are ways to make the business future-proof, observes Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
