With nearly 100 countries closing national borders during the past month, the movement of people and tourism flows have come to a screeching halt. The contraction could be even higher if governments fail to provide income support and help boost consumer spending.
'This is happening regardless of the Budget.'
For now, the concerns over bad loans have taken a back seat; a bigger challenge for the banking community is credit growth, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Scouting for resources to meet its fund crunch, Railways is open to the idea of even 100 per cent FDI in its infrastructure development but would keep train operations out of its ambit.
While participation of start-ups in the space sector has largely been minimal so far, their involvement will be key towards building India's very own aerospace companies such as Maxar, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Rocket Labs, according to experts.
One popular strategy is to hire contract workers.
Indian investments in equity and debt account for the second-highest remittances outgo (about a quarter).
RBI also retained its GDP growth forecast at 7.6 per cent
The FPI holding in India's top 100 companies, which are part of the Nifty 100 index, declined to 24.23 per cent on average at the end of March this year, from a high of 27.5 per cent at the end of March 2021. This is the lowest FPI holdings in India's top listed companies in at least three years. A general sell-off by FPIs has weighed on stock prices and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex is down 8.5 per cent, from its 52-week high made in October 2021. Most analysts expect FPI flows to remain weak in FY23 as well, given rising bond yields in the US and an expected earnings slowdown in India due to high inflation and commodity prices.
'The government must keep bad news out of the newspapers. If you have news about a fight everyday, it is not a climate where investment takes place.'
'Long-term retail investors should not worry about these sharp dips and jumps if they have chosen their stocks wisely.' 'Short-term volatility is a given and a rise and fall of two-three per cent should not worry them.'
Mid- and small-cap indices have outperformed the frontline benchmarks - the S&P BSE Sensex (up around 10 per cent) and the Nifty50 (13 per cent) - in the first half of calendar year 2021 (H1-CY21) by rallying 26 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively. The trend, analysts believe, is likely to continue in H2-CY21 as well. The outperformance in H1-CY21 comes on the back of improved earnings and strong inflows from the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in Indian equities. However, good monsoon so far, gradual opening up of the economy and the pick-up in the pace of vaccination provides support to the market.
Experts say a combination of improving asset quality and NBFCs' weak balance-sheets bodes well for both corporate and retail banks.
'Gloom is nowhere in sight, with healthy foreign exchange reserves, a strong rupee, healthy tax collections, corruption and crony capitalism under check,' argues Gopal Krishna Agrawal.
The promoters who own the Leela brand will also be transferring the label to Brookfield for all hospitality businesses.
Why do we need a bad bank, owned by the banks themselves when there are at least 28 ARCs around, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Modi is keen to get more investments into Gujarat.
The growth was led by family-owned companies and business groups with presence in pharmaceuticals, information technology services, and consumer products.
If someone does reduce his contribution, he should scale it back to the 12% level as soon as he can, suggests Sanjay Kumar Singh.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Budget a little more than a month from now. Like any other FM, Sitharaman will depend on her team of bureaucrats and advisors to frame and present the Budget.
The real estate sector might have been caught off guard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, but large listed developers like Godrej Properties and Prestige Estates Projects soldier on undeterred. They aim to have sales bookings of Rs 10,000 crore in the next few years.
Voices from the Treasury are clamouring for lowering rates as this would boost demand.
The upcoming Budget gives Finance Minister Arun Jaitley a chance to let states boost spending.
Lower interest rates needed to boost manufacturing, officials say.
A reversal of policy at this juncture could jeopardise the recent gains on inflation
Domestic factors are a bigger constraint for India's shift to a faster growth trajectory than the global factors, CRISIL's chief economist says.
The need of the hour is to strike a balance between the capability of the conventional and the prospect of the renewable to give a realistic shape to the Prime Minister's vision, says Rajiv Mishra.
India lost around 38.5 thousand hectares of tropical forest in the last decade. Nearly 14 per cent of the country's tree cover! It is one thing for Modi to announce that India will reach a net-zero level of emissions in 2070. But if it is serious, it needs to start today, points out Ramesh Menon.
India's economy is showing signs of slowdown, with hi-frequency indicators like industrial output posting subdued growth and automobile sales touching historical lows.
Parekh says drafting new I-T law is hindered by the lack of experience.
From Hyundai to Tata Motors, automakers are staring at a bleak future. With no succor provided in the Budget, the pain for companies is likely to continue for the next two quarters.
A giant flywheel called hybrid energy wheel can artificially create wind at a speed of up to 150 km to enable wind generators produce 0.25 to 0.5 mw with a small investment of Rs 25 lakh.
'The economy has to become the government's No. 1 priority, which it is not at the moment,' says T N Ninan.
'If the Union Budget can provide incentives for animal spirits to come as well as induce demand stimulus and consumption, the Budget would have done a wonderful job.'
He said the short term macroeconomic priorities of the RBI continue to focus on bringing down inflation towards the government-set target of 4 per cent
India's retail sector has benefited from the rapid growth in e-commerce
At the pre-Budget meeting at Niti Aayog, Modi called for a focussed effort from all stakeholders in order to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy. The participants urged the government to focus on credit expansion, exports growth, governance of PSBs, increasing consumption and job creation.
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Most of the railway-related stocks, which had seen smart gains in the past few days ahead of the Rail Budget, saw profit-booking as Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda presented the Budget.
Sitharaman, who is not known to reply to comments made on her Twitter handle, instantly choose to respond to drug-maker Biocon chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's criticism of lack of fiscal measures to support growth.
The manifesto proposes to launch a Sagar Mala project to set up new ports and upgrading the existing ones and "stringing them together".
