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.
Human Development -- a measure of a nation's health, education, and average income -- has declined for two years in a row.
US President-elect Joe Biden plans to increase the number of high-skilled visas, including H-1B, and eliminate the limit on employment-based visas by country, both of which are expected to benefit tens of thousands of Indian professionals impacted by some immigration policies of the outgoing Trump administration.
Mercedes-Benz India, BMW India and Audi India have lined up over 50 new model launches as they seek to recoup previous year's loss in volumes, reports Shally Seth Mohile.
Biden's proposal also sets aside USD 20 billion for a national vaccination programme and USD 50 billion to scale up coronavirus testing.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday kept the key repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent in view of rising inflation and faint signs of economic growth amid the gradual lifting of coronavirus related countrywide lockdown.
The RBI's mistake may have been in interpreting its mandate to maintain retail inflation at 4%, with 2% leeway in either direction, as being a mandate that permitted it to do nothing even when inflation was at or near the upper bound of 6%, observes T N Ninan.
Could it have been more reformist? Of course, but this is an election year Budget, observes Akash Prakash.
The economy hasn't gathered even half the traction that some of us assumed it would just a year back.
"The Union Budget represents the aspirations of 130 crore Indians and lays out the path towards India's development. I invite you all to share your ideas and suggestions for this year's Budget on MyGov," the PM said according to a statement posted on his official website on Thursday.
'Milking poorly performing or easily marketable assets is the way to deliver more money for key programmes,' says T N Ninan.
The last three prime ministers who served full terms started out in their early 70s. Mr Modi is younger and fitter than all of them. But he needs to find it in him to change course if he is to beat the odds, notes T N Ninan.
China's economy is in transition, with rising wage costs and massive overcapacity.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her fourth Budget in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Department of Economic Affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty said that equity capital flows have been positive this year.
You have to really bungle to produce 5.7 per cent growth under the conditions this government is currently facing, says Mihir S Sharma.
This year, festive sales are expected to push up the annual gross merchandise value of e-commerce companies to around $38 billion, a 40 per cent growth over the previous year.
When he speaks of them, it is either in denial or to highlight successes that are only part of a larger story that is worrisome in its totality, observes T N Ninan.
There was no clear winner between former chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Tuesday after the UK's prime ministerial candidates went head-to-head in their first television debate as finalists and clashed fiercely on their economic policies and tax plans.
'Rather than cutting and pasting from advanced economies, we should use basic economic principles to think about what is right for India at the stage of development at which we are,' says Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
'A strong foreign exchange reserve is the best safety net against global spillovers.'
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.
To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
Joseph Stiglitz says India should not bothered on inflation and instead focus on rapid growth.
'We see the defence industry as one of the leading sectors, which will significantly contribute to the growth of the Indian economy, but more importantly, bring atmanirbharta to national security.'
Banks should neither be timid nor adventurous while lending as the loans of today should not become NPAs of tomorrow, he said.
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.
PSU divestment, LIC IPO, fiscal deficit: Budget 2021 marks a clear change in the Modi government's stance from fiscal conservatism to growth orientation.
The outcome is beyond the market's expectation and will be a sentimental boost, say analysts.
'IIM Ahmedabad has seen one of the best placement seasons ever and this change can be attributed to the markets opening up after the pandemic.'
'In the overall global portfolio, India's weighting has come down in the past seven months.'
India has made it clear to China that peace and tranquillity in border areas is essential for the development of overall bilateral ties and the relationship has to be based on the 'three mutuals' of respect, sensitivity and interest, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday decided to leave benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 per cent but maintained an accommodative stance as the economy faces heat of the second Covid wave.
Renowned Indian environmental economist and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) goodwill ambassador Pavan Sukhdev has won the 2020 Tyler Prize, regarded as the 'Nobel Prize for the Environment', for his ground-breaking "green economy" work. Sukhdev, 59, who will receive the award alongside conservation biologist Gretchen Daily, has been acknowledged for his work on bringing the economic consequences of environmental degradation and loss to the attention of corporate and political decision-makers.
He wants Jaitley to give investors more clarity on policies
If Walmart is spinning success stories of Indian manufacturers in global markets, Amazon is taking 'Make in India' to the world, bolstered by its 'Global Selling Programme'
Indian equities are no longer cheap vis-a-vis global markets, and only a short distance away from being the most expensive they have ever been.
'Nationalism built on divisiveness cannot strengthen the country, or help the economy improve its performance,' points out T N Ninan.
For the first time in our economic history a government has thought about more than 50 per cent of our economic activity instead of the five per cent represented by the Sensex companies, observes IIM-B professor R Vaidyanathan.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
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