With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
A combination of externalities such as global trade wars and slowing growth, continuing glitches in accessing offsets under the GST regime, which has created a liquidity crunch for smaller exporters, and the growing competitiveness of smaller countries are causing the slowdown.
A slew of challenges that are yet to be resolved include the lack of consensus between the Centre and states over the GST exemption threshold limit, dual control over scrutiny and assessment
The Biden administration should expect continuity in Iran's policies under Raisi. This may not necessarily mean that strengthening of ties with the West will be Raisi's top priority, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
''Even without major reforms, with a business as usual scenario, and with current inflation trends, we should be clocking around 11 to 12 per cent nominal growth.' 'That is not happening and is a source of worry,' Rathin Roy tells Arup Roychoudhury.
Its governing allies are not happy on the economy and complain of ignored concerns but find themselves unable to be assertive.
Government strategists are trying to ensure that the requisite 16 of the 31 states ratify the Bill by the end of this month
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian says that he hopes GDP growth will be at the upper end of the 7-7.5 per cent range.
The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has pointed out that these firms pose a threat to domestic manufacturing and retailing as they do not pay relevant taxes such as GST, giving them a huge edge over local players.
De-scaling of businesses, job losses and subsequent impact on disposable incomes has created negative sentiment among traders, business owners and workers alike, says Abhishek Waghmare.
It is worth reconsidering if this fascination with either having a single party majority or Modi's leadership or, indeed, both, is such a great idea for India, says Udit Misra.
Non-performers were not punished, performers were not rewarded, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
'Who sent Masood Azhar back to Pakistan? Who bowed down to terror and released him? Not the Congress, but it was the BJP government'
'The macro-economic stresses -- high interest rates, rupee depreciation and capital flows -- have receded now.' 'Interest rates have come down, inflation is down and the rupee has bounced back.' 'If oil prices continue at this level, there will be no vulnerability.' 'Growth is a different story.'
'Too much energy these three years has been invested in turning the party into an election-winning machine.' 'To recover its mojo, the Modi government needs a more impressive set of economic figures to flaunt,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The two governments have already set a target of increasing bilateral trade in goods and services to $500 billion.
'India missed the software products revolution (and now is in danger of missing the platform revolution), complacent that we are the software experts of the world based on IT services prowess,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
Talking corporate heads are a barometer of the business community's engagement with the economy. If they have nothing to say now there should be cause for concern.
Earnings growth is expected to accelerate as lingering toxic effects of note ban ease off and GST settles down. However, stock valuations are high and that means market is also overdue for correction, says Devangshu Datta.
10 central trade unions have called a nationwide shutdown against 'anti-worker policies' of the central government. Apart from being successful in Bengal, Kerala and NE states, the bandh has also got support from Cong leader Rahul Gandhi and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
'This country today is demonstrating to the world the true meaning of federalism, the true meaning of working in partnership between the central government and the state governments.'
The shift was sudden, quite unlike Shukla's departure from North Block, which had been anticipated for some months even before Singh''s first Budget.
Besides advancing the presentation of the Budget to perhaps the first week of January, , there are four new initiatives that could be rolled out from the next Budget, says A K Bhattacharya.
Clamping down on the delays in repatriating foreign exchange earnings, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tightened norms for special economic zones (SEZs), asking them to realise and bring back full value of goods and services to India within a year from the date of export.
Rahul Gandhi thinks his imaginary Congress is the silver bullet; Narendra Modi thinks he himself is the silver bullet; Arvind Kejriwal seems to think that neighbourhood councils are a silver bullet. But none of them is right, says Mihir S Sharma.
US India Business Council president Ron Somers wrote in an article that India is not only the world's third-largest economy but is also a stabilising force in a region known to be a 'tough neighbourhood'.
CAF Bill's fate to be decided on Monday
Addressing a joint session of Parliament on Monday, President Pranab Mukhejee spelled out the Narendra Modi's government's agenda. Here are the highlights of his speech,
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
The Nifty has gained 2.6% so far this week, while the Sensex has climbed 2.85%
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
'Challenges will come but we will stay the course. No big step can be taken if one is afraid of criticism. We will not flinch from criticism,' says Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.
Arun Jaitley is on a 10-day trip to the US.
'Modi should not feel shy of proclaiming as the meaning of secularism regard for all religions in proportion to their numbers in tune with the spirit of democracy and adopting it as State policy,' says B S Raghavan.
Opposition party is unlikely to block Bills for GST, insurance and e-auction of coal mines.
Consensus building is likely to be the biggest casualty.
The bill was taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha after the Speaker rejected Opposition demands to refer the key reform measure to a parliamentary Standing Committee.
'We are looking at the Budget with the hope that it will address all issues even at the cost of exceeding the fiscal deficit target.'
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
'To become more Indianised we had to be more colourful,' Rahil Ansari, Audi's India head, tells Ajay Modi.
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