The nationwide lockdown, which has been in place since March to contain the spread of coronavirus, has rendered several unskilled labourers and daily wagers jobless. The IIM-A conducted the survey among 500 households in the city that earned less than 19,500 per month, the release in Ahmedabad stated.
While higher income, educated Indians are financially literate, they aren't really much better off when it comes to planning their financial futures
For all its claims to economic glory, the majority of India's population lives vulnerable lives, a situation that has only worsened over the past 15 years, to the extent that the government now fears to release economic data or even conduct a proper Census, notes Rathin Roy.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday raised the personal income tax rebate limit, doled out sops on small savings and announced one of the biggest hikes in capital spending in the past decade as she did a tight rope walk in the Budget between staying fiscally prudent and meeting public expectations in the year before general elections.
A key trigger for the increased retail participation in equities has been the lockdown triggered by Covid-19 that saw investors channelising their savings to capital markets in search of better return on their investments and the need to increase their disposable income.
Being driven to abandon Indian middle-class values, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
The challenge for the RBI in 2024 is likely to be less about containing elevated inflation and more about curbing excessive financial market exuberance and a 'problem of plenty', notes Sajjid Chinoy, Chief India Economist JP Morgan.
'Several businesses like entertainment, hospitality, travel etc would never be the same again.'
Cash deposits of up to Rs 2.5 lakh by housewives post demonetisation will not come under I-T scrutiny as the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held that such deposits cannot be treated as income of the assessee. Ruling on an appeal filed by an individual, the Agra bench of ITAT said the order would act as a precedent for all similar cases. The appellant, a housewife Uma Agrawal of Gwalior, had declared total income of Rs 1,30,810 in her income tax return filed for fiscal 2016-17.
The farm sector has been resilient to the COVID-19 shock and is estimated to grow at 3.9 per cent this fiscal, the Economic Survey said on Monday, while suggesting to the government to give priority to crop diversification, allied farm sectors and alternative fertilisers like Nano urea. The Economic Survey 2021-22 also pitched for increasing agriculture research and development (R&D) and organic farming, besides use of new technologies like drones. "The performance of the agriculture and the allied sector has been resilient to the COVID-19 shock. ...Growth in allied sectors including livestock, dairying and fisheries has been the major drivers of overall growth in the sector," the Survey said. The agriculture sector has experienced buoyant growth in the past two years.
'As the Aisi Taisi Democracy folk so aptly put it, time to choose who will s**** us most', says Geetanjali Krishna.
Vodafone's Kisan Mitra will provide a spectrum of services for India's small farmers, simple mobile service interventions that can increase a farmer's income by Rs 8,000 per year.
The Income Tax department Wednesday conducted searches at the premises of Bengaluru-based pharmaceutical company Micro Labs Ltd, the manufacturers of Dolo-650 tablet that was widely used by COVID-19 patients during the last over two years, on charges of alleged tax evasion. Officials said the department is looking at financial documents, balance sheets and business distributor networks of the company as part of the searches. The PTI has sent queries on the action to the company and a response is awaited.
India could gain four times over by winding up dysfunctional subsidies.
With raw material prices rising sequentially in Q4 FY23, margins of fast moving electrical goods (FMEG) companies could witness pressure as they refrain from hiking prices and demand remains soft. Transition to a new regulatory regime-fans moved to new BEE standards from January 1-poses additional risk for firms. Business depends on volume trends in summer for key sub-segments, which account for a significant chunk of the sector's overall sales pie.
'Revision of the base year for both CPI and GDP are long overdue.' 'The basic data that went into the 2011-2012 series were mainly from surveys done in 2011 or earlier.' 'We have since seen the emergence of new sectors like platform-based work and online marketing.' 'The employment surveys and the consumption surveys need to reflect these adequately.'
India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with the top 1 per cent of the population holding more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021 and the bottom half just 13 per cent, according to a report. The report, titled ' World Inequality Report 2022', has been authored by Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab, and coordinated by several experts, including French economist Thomas Piketty. It further said India is now among the most unequal countries in the world.
Almost three months after announcing his new party, former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy on Monday announced 'football' as its poll symbol, the first list of candidates, and also manifesto, ahead of the assembly elections due by May.
Though COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown left a trail of economic devastation on most countries, India can potentially build upon three positive aspects - push in the rural economy, stronger federalism and a huge consumption base, former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao Rao has said. In his foreword on a Telugu book titled "Maandhyam Mungita Desam" (Nation in Recession) authored by Tummala Kishore, he said the challenge for the government in the months and years ahead is clear: to put the economy back on a healthy growth trajectory and ensure that growth is inclusive, with lower income households too enjoying the benefits of rapid growth.
'By November 2020, men recovered most of their lost jobs, but women were less fortunate: 49 per cent of the job losses by November were of women.' 'The recovery has benefited all, but it benefited women less than it did men,' notes Mahesh Vyas.
'The COVID-19 pandemic is going to send an unprecedented number of low-income households deep into poverty,' says Geetanjali Krishna.
Global oil prices have slumped and India has access to larger amounts of discounted Russian crude oil, yet refiners are not passing on their savings to consumers
Would there have been an incomparable batsman named Sachin Tendulkar had Doordarshan not telecast Guide one summer afternoon? A fascinating excerpt from Abhishek Mukherjee and Joy Bhattacharjya's must-read book, The Great Indian Cricket Circus.
'No one seems to have looked at the extent of money that is being borrowed by individuals, and the rising levels of household debt.' 'At their present rates of growth, personal loans in India could well become the largest category of bank credit in just two or three years,' cautions T N Ninan.
In India, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (northern India), where topography and meteorology concentrate pollution from energy, mobility, industry, agriculture, and other activities, the researchers said.
Rinku Singh has become a household name after his sensational power hitting in IPL to help Kolkata Knight Riders clinch victory from the jaws of defeat against Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday.
The central government is on track to meet its fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of the GDP for 2022-23 on the back of strong growth in revenue collections, the World Bank said in its India Development Update on Tuesday. High nominal GDP growth in the first quarter supported strong growth in revenue collection, especially Goods and Services Tax (GST), despite tax cuts on fuel. Notwithstanding an increase in spending due to expanded fertilizer subsidies and food subsidies for vulnerable households in response to the commodity price shock, the government is on track to meet its FY22/23 fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of GDP and the general government deficit is projected to decline to 9.6 per cent from 10.3 per cent in FY21/22 and 13.3 per cent in FY20/21.
The forthcoming budget needs to delay fiscal consolidation, instead should focus more on supporting the pandemic battered-economy and boost consumption demand by offering income tax soaps and cutting fuel taxes, says a report. In a pre-budget report, India Ratings said it expects the new budget to consolidate and strengthen the plan set out in the last budget, rather than trying out new things by continue with the revenue and capital expenditure pattern of FY'22 to provide stability and consolidation to the past/ongoing efforts, and to focus on boosting demand by generating employment opportunities in areas/sectors that have been impacted more by the pandemic. The report therefore expects the finance minister to delay fiscal consolidation and make it to be a gradual and calibrated process, thus ensuring the necessary fiscal support that the economy needs is available till the recovery acquires its own momentum.
'Make sure you provide enough support (income, nutrition, healthcare, and housing) to migrants stuck (and their households), so they are not compelled to seek work or migrate back.' 'Otherwise, the risk of contagion is extreme.'
Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said India will grow to be among the top three economies in the world in the next two decades and per capita income would more than double. At a fireside chat with Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, he said India's middle-class, which is about 50 per cent of the nation's total number of households, will grow three to four per cent per year.
There are millions of Indian women who avoid the responsibility of managing their finances due to a variety of reasons, including cultural and social conditioning.
Prospective buyers must make a well-considered decision regarding whether this is the right time to buy a house, particularly with home loan rates at near-peak levels, and the risk of job losses looming in many sectors.
Despite the large economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the markets have recovered sharply even though the performance among individual stocks has been quite polarised.
The middle class is a big force to fulfil dreams of a prosperous and developed India and our government has taken many decisions to empower it, the prime minister said.
This survey also shows how things have moved forward since the last large-scale sample survey conducted by NSSO in 2012-13
The Indian economy is likely to grow at over 7 per cent in the current fiscal year, former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Wednesday, while observing that the growth rate should sustain next year too provided the forthcoming Budget does not have any negative surprises. Panagariya further said recessionary fears have been around for a while but so far neither the US nor the EU has gone into recession. "From the viewpoint of India, in terms of headwinds originating abroad, the worst is probably behind us," he told PTI.
'The cracks I saw yesterday were the largest I have seen in my life. We are scared.'
One of the mistakes most homemakers make while thinking about financial planning is looking at immediate goals, says Amar Pandit.
The real estate market has seen a decline in affordability due to the recent rise in median loan rates as a result of the 50 basis points (bps) hike in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). A cumulative increase of 0.95 per cent in median home loan rate has impacted the purchase affordability and purchase decisions of homebuyers, according to the Affordability Index by Knight Frank. The Affordability Index tracks the EMI (equated-monthly instalment) to income ratio for an average household.
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