While the economy will wait for a rate cut in December, the banking industry should be happy with the wave of liberalisation -- a big push for growth in bank credit, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Since the Indian government reduced GST on small cars on September 22, the small car segment's share in Maruti's overall sales has risen to more than 25 per cent, up from 16.6 per cent earlier in FY26.
Leading brokerages have revised their charges with the true-to-label norms by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) kicking in from Tuesday.
In a continued push to spiritual tourism, there will be a focus on destinations related to the life and times of Lord Buddha.
'The statistical confidence bands of the fan charts of the forecasts will provide a better sense of the potential variability of outcomes.'
Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha budgets maintain revenue surpluses despite welfare schemes while Rajasthan and West Bengal face high debt, fiscal deficits and low capital outlay.
There are some apparent paradoxes visible in the data from the first quarter of 2025-26 (Q1FY26). The gross domestic product (GDP) delivered a positive surprise with 7.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth.
The Budget estimate of fiscal deficit for the next financial year has been underestimated by nearly 0.9 percentage point of Gross Domestic Product, or about Rs 51,000 crore. This is because the estimates for revenue collections in the Interim Budget for 2009-10 do not reflect the full impact of the duty concessions announced by the government since December 2008. The Budget estimate for fiscal deficit in 2009-10 put it at 5.5 per cent of GDP.
As per the Interim Budget 2024-25 document tabled in the Lok Sabha, the government is not expected to receive any money from monetisation of public assets in the current fiscal.
Daily essentials and food products will be cheaper from Monday, as leading FMCG companies have slashed prices, extending GST cut benefits to consumers.
The Centre's fiscal deficit touched 74.5 per cent of the annual target at the end of January 2025, according to the data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Friday.
From the Sensex firms, Tata Motors jumped the most by 5.54 per cent, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank, Trent, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank. However, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement and Tata Steel were among the laggards.
The draft National Code Against Age Fraud in Sports (NCAAFS) 2025, which mandates penal action against violators and calls for AI-based bone assessments to accurately determine an athlete's age, is set to become a policy soon with the sports ministry planning to send it for cabinet approval next week.
India's goods exports rebounded in July after two months of contraction, with outbound shipments rising 7.3 per cent to $37.24 billion, led by a surge in exports to the United States before the country's reciprocal tariff kicked in and bolstered by a recovery in exports to other key markets.
India will miss its revised divestment target for the second time in the past eight years by a wide margin, as the government may not be able to raise an expected over Rs 60,000 crore from the IPO of insurance behemoth LIC in 2021-22. Since the Modi government came to power in 2014, it was only in the financial year 2019-20 that it failed to achieve the revised CPSE divestment target of Rs 65,000 crore. The mop-up during the year was only Rs 50,304 crore. In the ongoing financial year 2021-22, the government was all set to go ahead with the share sale of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) this month and draft papers for the same were also filed with markets regulator Sebi.
This would lead to a further upward revision in the gross domestic product estimate for the year to more than 9.5 per cent. The quick estimates released on May 31 had pegged the GDP growth for 2006-07 at 9.4 per cent.
After a subdued first quarter of 2025-26 (Q1FY26), banks are now betting big on the festive season, rolling out attractive loan offers to boost credit growth in the second half of the current financial year (H2FY26) - a trend likely to be further accentuated by the second-order effects of the good services tax (GST) cuts.
'I will not be surprised if there is a 7 per cent handle in front of the decimal place for the full financial year.'
The government on Wednesday said the total tax collections--both direct and indirect--for 2010-11 have exceeded even the revised estimate on the back of strong economic activities.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish details of deleted names from the voters list in Bihar, along with reasons for non-inclusion, to enhance transparency in the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
Ahead of Union Budget, the government on Thursday said it hopes to exceed the indirect tax collection estimate of Rs 3.36 lakh crore for this fiscal in view of the buoyancy in the economy.
The Indian economy is projected to grow at 6.2 per cent in 2025-26, slower than earlier estimated rate of 6.5 per cent, due to escalated trade tensions and global uncertainty, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday. "For India, the growth outlook is relatively more stable at 6.2 per cent in 2025, supported by private consumption, particularly in rural areas," IMF said in its World Economic Outlook (WEO).
Under capital expenditure, Rs 48,614 crore has been set aside for aircraft and aero engines while Rs 24,390 crore has been allocated for the naval fleet.
The 50 per cent US tariff on Indian goods pose a downside risk to growth but the impact is expected to be short-lived for the economy, and consumption demand could see an uptick after the new goods and service tax (GST) rates are implemented which could even offset the external uncertainty, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran reckoned on Friday.
State governments have requested the Centre for export incentives, lifting of import duty in the case of cotton for the textile sector and GST exemptions.
'The US reciprocal tariff has added another element of uncertainty and the central bank may prefer to wait and get further clarity.'
Pakistan has approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a USD 7 billion loan to upgrade a major railway line after China apparently declined to support the project. The development of Mainline-I (ML-I) railways between Peshawar and Karachi is stuck due to a lack of funds.
The Social and Educational Survey, popularly known as the 'caste census' in Karnataka, commenced on Monday, with enumerators going door-to-door to collect data.
In a big push to the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the government has nearly doubled (increase of 81 per cent) the allocation in five key industry segments from Rs 8,405 crore in the Revised Estimate of FY24 to Rs 15,198 crore in the Interim Budget for FY25. The segments cover over eight PLI schemes, including mobile phones, IT hardware, pharma (PLIs for medical devices, intermediates and pharmaceuticals), food processing, telecom hardware and, auto and auto components. In FY24, DPIIT officials, however, said that the disbursements would be much higher at around Rs 11,000 crore than what has been budgeted for the year.
With the price of gold entering a strong bull run, gold-loan non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are under the spotlight, even though their performance is not directly linked to gold price. Muthoot Finance outperformed in the April-June quarter (Q1) of 2025-26 (FY26), with its assets under management (AUM) growing 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) and 42 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), an improvement of 88 basis points (bps) Q-o-Q in net interest margin (NIM), and a fall in credit cost. Gold AUM rose 40 per cent Y-o-Y and 10 per cent Q-o-Q. The company recorded recoveries of 350 crore, including 100 crore from an asset reconstruction company (ARC), resulting in a 100-bp Q-o-Q yield increase.
Gross GST collections rose by 9.1 per cent to about Rs 1.84 lakh crore in February, boosted by domestic consumption and indicating potential economic revival. As per the official data released on Saturday, on a gross basis, mop up from Central GST stood at Rs 35,204 crore, State GST at Rs 43,704 crore, Integrated GST at Rs 90,870 crore and compensation cess of Rs 13,868 crore.
The road ahead will require navigating complex financial challenges while fostering job creation and sustainable development in the region.
India's extreme poverty rate declined sharply to 5.3 per cent over a decade from 27.1 per cent in 2011-12 even as the World Bank revised upwards its threshold poverty line to $3 per day.
India's industrial production growth accelerated to a 4-month high of 3.5 per cent in July this year due to good performance of manufacturing sector, according to official data released on Thursday. The country's industrial output earlier recorded this level of growth at 3.9 per cent in March 2025.
The central government's fiscal deficit during 2023-24 at 5.6 per cent of the GDP was better than previous estimates of 5.8 per cent on account of higher revenue realisation and lower expenditure, according to official data released on Friday. In actual terms, the fiscal deficit -- or gap between expenditure and revenue -- was Rs 16.53 lakh crore, or 5.63 per cent of the GDP, which grew 8.2 per cent in 2023-24.
'Returning Indians can leverage their international skills and the strong funding environment for start-ups here.'
What has surprised the industry is that the Bill has been tabled without any consultation. Critics warn the ban on real-money gaming could fuel black markets, endanger 200,000 jobs and billions in tax revenue.
India fully utilised its military modernisation budget in 2024-2025 -- the first time in five years -- and signed a record Rs 2 trillion defence contracts.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday allocated nearly Rs 12,544 crore to the department of space as India plans a human spaceflight -- Gaganyaan -- next year and sets out to explore the moon and neighbouring planets.
The Centre may overshoot the Rs 56,260 crore target for dividend receipts from central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs) set for FY25 and is likely to end up getting around Rs 65,000 crore this financial year, according to a senior government official. This excludes dividend from nationalised banks and financial institutions. As on October 21, the Centre collected Rs 28,913 crore as dividend and other investment from CPSEs, accounting for over 50 per cent of the Budget Estimate for FY25.
