'The fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent of GDP seems achievable.'
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the residential property market during the April-June period last year but sales have improved in affordable homes segment since July onwards, reflecting economic recovery in the real estate sector, according to the Economic Survey. The National Housing Bank's (NHB) Housing Price Indices (HPIs) are a broad measure of movement of residential property prices observed within a geographic boundary. The NHB-RESIDEX captures two housing price indices -- HPI@ Assessment Prices and HPI@ Market Prices - Under Construction Properties based on the data available for 50 cities with quarterly updation.
Gandhi said just like the Constitution, the "caste census" is a policy framework and a guide for the Congress.
The government today extended the tenure of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Virmani by three months on a temporary basis, said a finance ministry spokesperson. His current two-year term came to an end on Tuesday.
He argued that if inflation is low, stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target, why has the RBI not revised downward the bank rate fixed in June 2023?
Rumours in the bureaucracy on his successor include the names of Sajjid Chinoy of JP Morgan, Rathin Roy of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse and the principal economic advisor, Sanjeev Sanyal.
Resolving the TBS challenge comprehensively would require 4 Rs: Recognition, recapitalisation, resolution and reform.
The Economic Survey 2007-08 has some interesting insights for infrastructure aficionados.
"Another major policy issue in the trade sector which created a lot of heat was that of SEZs... Some fundamental policy changes are needed for the merchandise trade sector and these include checking the proliferation of SEZs," the pre- Budget Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, said.
Yashwant Sinha has concluded that with the Economic Survey the government has accepted economic defeat as it is unable to sustain high growth.
As per the survey, the trade sector that comprises wholesale and retail grew by 4.8 per cent to Rs 14.79 lakh crore (Rs 14.79 trillion) in 2012-13, accounted for 15.8 per cent share in the gross domestic product.
As the poverty rates in the country declined below 5 percent in 2024, a research study by State Bank of India also highlighted that the extreme poverty in the country has been reduced to minimal.
The Survey shows fiscal consolidation despite slowdown in growth.
'There's a misconception that all Rs 1 lakh crore will be spent immediately, leading to higher consumption of FMCG goods, travel, and vehicle purchases.' 'While some of this money will go toward consumption, not all of it will.' 'The impact depends on where people deploy their savings.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the securities transaction tax (STT) will be increased on futures and options (F&O) trade from October 1 to discourage retail investors from investing in the risky instrument.
The Economic Survey 2009-10 on Thursday made out a strong case for liberalising foreign direct investment policies for health insurance, rural banking and higher education, stating FDI can boost trade in services.
The next government in these states may find it tough to push economic growth through long-term reforms, which would be necessary.
The 2005-06 Survey tabled in Parliament said the Indian industry needed to be unburdened from high level of taxes and distortive exemptions that provided perverse incentives.
At the same time, the survey also suggested broadening the long-term debt markets by liberalising the investment norms for insurance and pension funds and said that the government could consider a guarantee mechanism for credit enhancement of long-term infrastructure debt.
The Economic Survey said that a number of indicators -- GDP, IIP, credit, investment and capacity utilisation, point to a deceleration in real activity since first quarter of 2016-17 and a further deceleration since the third quarter.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with her team of bureaucrats, delved into the fine print of the 2024-25 Budget documents in a press conference, detailing the government's road map on bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and bold tax measures.
Questioning the relevance of the minimum support price regime in the politically sensitive farm sector, the Economic Survey on Wednesday recommended a broad-based agricultural development programme.
'It has the potential to sow seeds of furthering discord when the direction of the discourse is aimed at propagating the perceived supremacy of 'cultural nationalism' from a distant past over the prevailing dominance of 'Constitutional nationalism',' argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th RBI governor at a time when headline retail inflation has shot up to 6.2%.
South Indian filmmakers have kept their focus on the single-screen cinemagoer. They have kept their finger on the pulse of the single-screen cinema fan, who goes to movies once a month or more, to forget his weekly chores, explains Ambi Parameswaran.
The Economic Survey has suggested that Contract Law should also be amended, which would help in utilising such labour mainly in non-core activities. In addition, the survey has observed that labour laws should be applicable to companies that pay wages to contract labour.
Stating that the food subsidy bill is becoming "unmanageably large", the Economic Survey 2021 on Friday suggested the government to increase the selling price of foodgrains provided through ration shops to over 80 crore beneficiaries. Foodgrains via ration shops are supplied at highly subsidised rates of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains through Public Distribution System (PDS) as per the National Food Security Act (NFSA). "While it is difficult to reduce the economic cost of food management in view of rising commitment towards food security, there is a need to consider the revision of central issue price (CIP) to reduce the bulging food subsidy bill," the survey said.
One could argue that India is not troubled in the same way as China is by a declining population and structural problems in real estate/construction and finance. But India has serious trade and fiscal imbalances, and excessive dependence on capital expenditure by the government, points out T N Ninan.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
TCS, Wipro and Infosys dropped by up to 4.47 per cent, dragging down the BSE IT index by 2.96 per cent
'I am optimistic about the Budget because of the fiscal discipline the government has committed to.'
A cross-country comparison shows that India currently has the lowest number of taxpayers.
Marketmen feel the reformist wishlist prescription for the government for next five years though presents a good road-map for future growth but is hard to implement. The Economic Survey mooted the idea of doing away with cess, surcharges on taxes and initiating reforms in petrol pricing and financial sector, besides recommending a disinvestment target of Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) annually.
The Economic Survey prescribed on Thursday a new bankruptcy law for ensuring speedy disposal of insolvency petitions. Tabled in parliament, the survey called for a new bankruptcy law to 'ensure speedy and effective bankruptcy so as to save/preserve assets for alternative use.'
The government should lift the ban on futures trading on rice, sugar, tur and urad and decontrol sugar sector, saying the resultant price discovery would help farmers and other stakeholders, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
The central government spent a budget estimate of 19.46 per cent of its total expenditure (both plan and non-plan) in 2009-10 on social services, including rural development, against 10.46 per cent in 2003-04, the Survey tabled in Parliament said on Thursday.
The rupee had depreciated sharply during the last six months of 2011. It had reached a peak of Rs 43.94 to the dollar on July 27, 2011, and hit a low of Rs 54.23 on December 15, 2011.
'... and without necessarily calling them Economic Surveys.' 'One should stick to the main focus, which is to give people a good perspective on how the economy is doing.'
The headline inflation is expected to decline to 6.2-6.6 per cent in March 2013.
As a new initiative for promoting highway development, the mode of engineering procurement and construction contracts is being brought in, it said.
