According to Nielsen, rural growth has plunged to a low 5 per cent in the third quarter of quarter from a high 20 per cent a year ago. This has for the first time in seven years rural growth has fallen below urban levels.
Covid-19 pandemic that brought life to a near standstill in 2020 has left Indian adults poorer by 6.1 per cent in 2020, suggests the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2021. Wealth per Indian adult in 2020, according to the report, dropped to $14,252 by 2020-end compared to pre-pandemic levels. On a cumulative basis, Credit Suisse estimates the drop in the wealth of Indian adults at $594 billion.
deputy minister for Rural and Regional Development Zainal Abidin Osman said Malaysians of Indian origin were better off than the indigenous Malays.
The research also suggests that they are willing to cut their savings to retain their expenditure growth at previous year's levels.
Lenders have lined up a number of home loan products that can fit every aspirant's annual income.
Universal basic income or social security? Economist Nitin Desai feels we need a blueprint for universal health care and pensions to help the vulnerable section.
As a well-wisher of the Indian Statistical System and part of the system for more than 37 years, Sunil K Sinha, former DG and CEO of NSSO, offers suggestions to improve data quality.
How long will the RBI allow the government to borrow cheaply? A change in policy direction will see rates climb and bond values fall. Investors in debt funds are therefore at risk, as are people invested in the heated stock market, warns T N Ninan.
The growth opportunity for a business, people running the business, governance structure at a company, technology adoption and the firm's belief in frugality are the list of priorities which should be considered before choosing a stock to invest in, Jhunjunwala said.
Business activity contracted in Q2 FY20, the first contraction since 2013-14 and the second since the 2008 global financial crisis, report, Abhishek Waghmare and Anup Roy.
'The roadmap ahead seems very difficult especially in the rural areas where there is very poor infrastructure, vaccine reach and hesitancy.' 'These are a deadly cocktail for the next wave.'
The government should set up agricultural co-operatives in every cluster of villages and in respective districts on a war-footing within a time limit. We should involve the services of our military personnel who retire at a young age with several years of working life still left in them and would be happy to contribute to nation-building, recommends Atul Gupta.
The BJP's manifesto for UP elections promised many things. But, given the state's precarious financial position, fulfilling these promises is likely to prove tricky, says Ishan Bakshi.
The pandemic should force you to take a hard look at the downside risks that could jeopardise your finances.
However, the income profile shows a classical pyramid-shaped society with only 600,000 households earning above Rs 18 lakh per annum, according to the Mr and Mrs India survey by brokerage firm CLSA Asia Pacific Markets.
While the rich are buying expensive luxury vehicles in Patna, the poor continue to suffer. The pandemic, discovers M I Khan, has cast new light on the stark economic divide in the capital city of Bihar, India's poorest state.
The ongoing key reforms such as sops for manufacturing, easier labour laws, wooing FDI inflows and privatisation will help improve productivity and support long-term growth at 7.5-8 per cent levels, which if played out well, can help India contribute 15 per cent of global GDP growth by FY2026, says a report. According to a report pencilled by the India economist at UBS Securities, Tanvee Gupta Jain, the country has the lowest manufacturing costs among peers, even though China retains significant ecosystem advantages and despite that India and Vietnam appear most likely to benefit from a shift out of China.
In India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, more than 50 million persons in each country were estimated to be without handwashing access, according to the study.
With India's gross domestic product growing at about seven per cent yearly in the past 10 years, its per capita income has grown by 9.11 per cent annually from $439 per person in 1999 to $1,050 per person in 2009.
The Union Budget, despite being constrained by a high fiscal deficit, gave some relief to the Rs 3-8 lakh income group.
The multilateral lending agency said India's growth would ease to 8.2 per cent this financial year (2011-12) against 8.5 per cent a year ago, as high inflation had cut into disposable income and hence demand.
For maintaining sustained demand in domestic consumption and household investment, the economy must generate enough jobs in the formal sector,says Shubhashis Gangopadhyay.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election triumph two months ago and his promises of economic revival buoyed business confidence and India's financial markets, Bhatnagar and millions like him remain pessimistic and anxious about the future.
India Ratings and Research on Friday revised down India's FY22 real GDP growth forecast to 10.1 per cent, from earlier projection of 10.4 per cent, citing the second wave of COVID-19 infections and slower pace of vaccination. At a time when large parts of the country are experiencing tremendous pressure on medical infrastructure, the agency said it expects the second wave to start subsiding by mid-May. Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank maintained its 10.5 per cent GDP growth estimate, but Governor Shaktikanta Das has flagged the rising cases as the biggest impediment to recovery.
The origin of the challenge is the so-called "fresh start" process. Many in the MFI industry apprehend that such a law in India will encourage small unsecured borrowers to default and destroy the credit culture. So, while'Fresh start' is a welcome step as it will free up the debtors from the archaic laws of the colonial era, debtors need handholding and counselling to prevent any misuse, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Moreover, about 21 million people in the US rely on alternative financial services, despite having bank accounts.
Banks are in the process of getting a board-approved restructuring framework in line with the RBI's framework and eligibility defined by the central bank.
The United States is stronger and more prosperous than it was eight years ago, US President Barack Obama has said, attributing it to a series of steps taken by him during his two four-year terms.
Social e-commerce platform Meesho is set to disrupt the food and grocery market by offering free home delivery on all orders in over 200 below Tier 1 cities in a year's time, in the first phase. It is also disrupting the monetization model by focusing primarily on advertising revenues rather than commissions from sellers, as distinct from its competitors. The move is expected to challenge the big players in the sector which include Jio Mart, Tata's Big Basket, Amazon, Grofers, and others, many of which have minimum prices for free delivery.
There have been demands from bankers and insurers to hike the tax exemption limit from Rs 100,000 per annum to encourage household savings.
'... the government provides adequate cash and kind support for the poorest of the poor for survival... ...conditional cash and skilling support for the economically poor to raise their incomes to adequate levels... ...and make functional arrangements for providing unemployment allowance to the vulnerable poor during disasters like the present one.'
The official also said that these verifications are being sought to be done online and any person of up to 70 years of age, who has deposited more than Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, has to go to I-T department website and explain the source of deposit.
The wave of enthusiasm for digital technology had faded as we'd grown more and more worried about what smartphones and social media were doing to society and to us as individuals. Now that switchback ride between hopes for the technology and fear of it seemed to have taken us on another upward path, as the virus made us fall back in love with it. Read on for an intriguing excerpt from Rory Cellan-Jones's Always On: Hope And Fear In The Social Smartphone Era.
The report also points out that a larger section of the poor and vulnerable households achieve middle-class status in urban areas in India despite the presence of a large urban informal sector.
Business Standard presents expert views on what changes can help improve the prospects of various asset classes.
He also said that although India got independence much before Goa became free, people of the country could not enjoy at that time as they felt uneasy thinking that one part was the country was still under foreign rule.
Even as Pranab Mukherjee rises to present the Union Budget in Parliament at 11 am on Monday, a nationwide survey reveals that most Indian households think this annual exercise has no significant effect on their daily lives.
Once the new rules kick in, you will have less cash-in-hand and may feel tempted to scale back on savings and investments.
Nachiket Mor is a man of ideas. He is so passionate about his projects that sometimes he overpromises and fails to live up to expectations.
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