The labour force at large has turned less needy, due to various government financial incentives and freebies.
Pushed by rising prices of essential kitchen items, the retail inflation rose to an eight-month high of 7.34 per cent in September, making the RBI's task to push growth by reducing the interest rate even more difficult in coming the days. The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation was 6.69 per cent in August and 3.99 per cent in September 2019. Inflation has been hovering above 4 per cent since October 2019.
Compared to equity funds, debt funds are lower risk profile and are usually suitable for investors for very short term.
India's dependence on imported crude oil to meet domestic demand has been a matter of concern for years. Delivering the inaugural address at the global energy summit - Urja Sangam - in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for enhancing domestic oil and gas production to cut the import burden. He aimed at lowering it by at least 10 per cent by 2022 - to coincide with the platinum jubilee of India's independence. But this target is far from being achieved and the country's import reliance has only risen.
The record contraction in the growth rate of eight core sectors will have its impact on IIP.
Since April, India has seen multiple strains of the coronanavirus sweep the nation, upending life and businesses alike. Out-of-home retail and discretionary categories such as durables, auto, fashion, lifestyle, hospitality, food services, travel, and tourism have been the worst-hit as Covid cases remain high, leaving state governments with no option but to curtail mobility and economic activity.
Outlay for infra is also expected to see a significant increase in view of the government's Rs 111-trillion investment plan under the national infrastructure pipeline to develop social and economic infrastructure over five years.
Rating agency ICRA on Wednesday revised down its credit growth outlook for banks to 2-3 per cent for the current fiscal, and said the coronavirus pandemic-driven stress may leave 3.1-3.7 per cent of assets into bad loan list by March.
The ministry of health and family welfare spent Rs 3,948 crore in May this year compared to Rs 7,816 crore in the corresponding month of the previous year. On the other hand, at Rs 12,930 crore, the expenditure had risen almost 200 per cent in April against Rs 4,327 crore in the corresponding month of 2019-20.
Brent crude oil price surged 4 per cent on Friday, following tension between Iran and the US. Airlines, however, have been unable to pass on the price increase to customers due to the soft demand.
To make possible discretionary spending including capex and that on welfare, the government decided to borrow more than planned in FY21 -- Rs 12.7 trillion.
Loans, cash credits, and overdrafts at the end of December 22, 2017, stood at Rs 81,287.32 billion, against Rs 73,340 billion in the year-ago period.
To counter the pandemic, air transport was suspended from March 25 till May 24 which rendered zero traffic at AAI airports. Even after resumption of flights, traffic is yet to pick up at airports due to quarantine measures implemented by states and an overall fear of flying.
Imports too declined 26 per cent to $29.47 billion in August, leaving a trade deficit of $6.77 billion.
Fertiliser production dropped sharply by 11.5 per cent, crude oil by 5 per cent and natural gas by 0.9 per cent in October over the year-ago month
Mop up grows 10% y-o-y at Rs 1.05 trillion, almost equal to levels in February before a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic
Inflation in food articles during May stood at 1.13 per cent, as against 2.55 per cent in April.
India's factory output climbed 22.4 per cent in March, benefiting from the base effect of the lockdown-marred month a year back as well as a turnaround in the manufacturing sector, while retail inflation slipped to a three-month low of 4.29 per cent in April. The high positive annual growth in the index of industrial production (IIP) in March 2021 came on back of a contraction of (-)0.9 per cent and (-)3.4 per cent in January and February 2021 respectively, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Wednesday. This turnaround was led by recovery in the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors.
RRBs were formed under an Act to provide credit to small farmers, agricultural labourers and businesses in rural areas.
Airlines sought a limited period concession of the standing rule of slot allocation, which mandates that firms must operate at least 80 per cent of their allocated slots.
Sectors with positive growth during the month include rice, iron ore, oil seeds, oil meals, meat, dairy and poultry products, pharmaceuticals, coffee, engineering goods, and plastic.
As per commerce and industry ministry data, food inflation fell to 4.91 per cent in March from 7.79 per cent in the previous month.
The fiscal deficit rose primarily on the back of lower non-tax revenues, which came in at 60 per cent of full-year target, compared with 62.4 per cent for the same period last year.
WPI inflation, which was in the negative zone from November 2014 to March 2016, has been on an upward trend for the seventh straight month
The net NPA ratio declined to 3.7 per cent in September 2019 from just below 4 per cent in March 2019, reflecting increased provisioning.
RBI had on February 12, 2018 issued a circular saying that lenders have to provide for resolution plan within 180 days in case of large account of Rs 2,000 crore and above.
With the government looking to divest loss-making steel assets, significant interest from secondary players is most likely this time apart from the anticipated list of large integrated primary steel producers, said industry experts. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), NMDC Integrated Steel Plant (NISP)-Nagarnar, Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd and three units of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) - Alloy Steels Plant, Durgapur; Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant, Bhadravati; and Salem Steel Plant, Salem - constitute the divestment list. All the three units of SAIL have been loss-making for more than five years.
An expected withdrawal of FIIs from the market likely to weaken the rupee against the dollar.
In the first two months of the current fiscal, Indian exports of finished steel reportedly grew by almost 76 per cent on a YoY basis and China alone accounted for close to 60 per cent of the increase.
The inflation in the food basket spiked to 7.89 per cent in October 2019 as against 5.11 per cent the preceding month.
The retrenchments at the company promoted by Mumbai BJP chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha come at a time when the economic growth has dipped to a six-year low of 5 per cent, which has led many to fear if the spectre of job losses across sectors awaits next.
Kerala Tourism has drawn up God's Own Country 2.0 and the department is going all out to repair the state's image and infrastructure. Apart from being a damage control exercise, it is also an opportunity to reimagine the state as a tourism brand.
India Ratings expects long products demand growth to be sharp, supported by a demand push from the government-led infrastructure investments in affordable housing, railways, rural electrification and road networks.
To meet the revised estimates for 2019-20, the central government will have to garner Rs 5.03 trillion in total revenues in March, which has seen the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic so far and the resultant lockdown.
'The real lifting of the economy will happen only if this momentum sustains in the coming months.'
In a short span of time, with the help of Amazon, Cloudtail was able to devise a model that could protect it from the vagaries of online retail business.
Costlier vegetables slowly pushed retail inflation, which had remained well within the Reserve Bank's comfortable level of 4 per cent during most part of 2019, peaked to more than three-year high of 5.54 per cent in November.
The spreads between state development loans and equivalent-maturity government papers have started widening, and market participants don't expect them to contract anytime soon. The rise in spreads is a direct measure of market displeasure than a rise in yields.
Axis Bank and ICICI Bank consumed 37-59 per cent of their operating profit for COVID-19 provisioning, while the figure is 24 per cent in case of Kotak Mahindra Bank and 10-12 per cent for IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank.
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