The decline in exports is mainly on account of poor demand in India's key destinations -- the Europe and the US -- and it may take some more months for the situation to improve. The demand scenario is "not looking very good as far as Europe is concerned, and the US also we have seen a decline in demand. "For the next 2-3 months, I think the demand scenario does not look very optimistic," DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade) Santosh Kumar Sarangi told reporters.
Elections are not won or lost by expounding on such macro-economic matters. For the aam admi, what matters in manifestos are promises that will improve their quality of life, notes Vinayak Chatterjee.
Confident of securing a massive majority in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday outlined his vision for his next five-year term saying the Modi 3.0 government will put all its might to strengthen the foundation of 'Viksit Bharat' or a developed nation.
Monalisa Mondol, a law student from Tripura, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar what she would like to see in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget.
As India's investment rate is estimated to decline this financial year, industry chamber CII has asked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to give a boost to investments in the forthcoming Budget, but economists believe a rollback of stimulus may continue.
The agreement has ended a wartime standoff that had threatened food security in several countries and cleared the way for exporting tons of Ukrainian grains.
Modi held a "productive meeting" with his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed Ali on a day when BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders officially endorsed Ethiopia's entry into the bloc.
Union Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the country's foodgrain production in the Kharif season is likely to surpass the previous record of 212 million tonnes in 2001-02.
'When you do some job for a few hours, you are hardly earning enough to survive.'
Domestic automobile retail sales rose 10 per cent in June driven by sales growth across various segments, including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, automobile dealers body FADA said on Thursday. Total retail sales last month rose to 18,63,868 units from 17,01,105 units in the year-ago period. Passenger vehicle retail sales increased 5 per cent to 2,95,299 units as against 2,81,811 units in June 2022.
Admitting that persistent inflation, especially in the food sector, is a cause of concern, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday emphasised on increasing the country's agricultural production to enhance food security.
India recorded economic growth of 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2023-24 against 13.1 per cent in the year-ago period, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) data released on Thursday. India remains the fastest-growing major economy as China's GDP growth in the April-June quarter was 6.3 per cent.
The government has granted Geographical Indications (GI) tag to various products, including Gamosa of Assam, Tandur Redgram of Telangana, and an apricot variety of Ladakh. The commerce and industry ministry said on Wednesday that the total number of GI has reached to 432. "Famous Gamosa of Assam, Tandur Redgram of Telangana, RaktseyKarpo Apricot of Ladakh, Alibag White Onion of Maharashtra have got their GI tags," it said.
Also, the monsoon this year may end up being the driest since 2015, which recorded a rainfall deficit of 13 per cent, they said.
Scientists had earlier said the cyclone pulled the moisture and convection, impacting the intensity of the monsoon and delaying its onset over Kerala.
'All imaginary figures are pushed by government bureaucrats.' 'They never showed that the production of wheat was less this time.'
The country can expect normal rainfall during the southwest monsoon season as a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and a lower snow cover over the northern hemisphere are likely to counter the evolving El Nino conditions, the India meteorological department (IMD) said on Tuesday.
So far, the drones that were considered important for the agriculture sector were nature-made winged-insects - a key component of the bee-based natural pollination cycle. The new-age drone is a whirring machine with rotors that can help farmers plan and grow and manage their crops. For the farm sector in India, which has had low levels of mechanisation, the impact of drones can be tremendous. The use of drones can help it leapfrog to modernisation in the same way that mobile phones helped India overcome its traditional lack of connectivity.
In keeping with the Trusts' objectives, the initiative was underpinned by an attempt to determine how over-nutrition was impacting citizens at a mass scale.
In a major development, India and the US have agreed to end six trade disputes at the WTO through mutually agreed solutions, while New Delhi will remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples.
Ahluwalia said the government has taken steps to push the infrastructure sector and there are signs of improvement in the core sector production performance of steel, power, coal and cement during July and August.
'In light of the events in Israel, Foreign Minister Cohen decided to cut short his diplomatic visit to India and return to Israel after the meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that will take place today'
The country's wheat output is estimated to drop by about 3 per cent to 106.41 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year (July-June) from the previous year, agriculture ministry said in its latest estimate released on Thursday. The production is, however, lower by 4.61 per cent from the earlier estimate of 111.32 million tonnes projected for the 2021-22 crop year, the data showed. Wheat production stood at a record 109.59 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year.
India needs to make use of this opportunity to significantly enhance its exports especially in information and communications technology and the automotive sector.
The government has removed restrictions on exports from the farm sector, apart from doing away with the registration requirement for exports of non-basmati rice and pulses in packages of five kilos.
Droughts and declining productivity of staple crops are turning farmers to short-duration vegetable crops. The movement has made India second largest producer of vegetables.
Credit ratings agency Moody's on Monday said the Reserve Bank of India's recent move to hike short-term borrowing and lending rates to tame inflation will put pressure on overall deposit and interest rates.
While drought in about half of the country, including producing regions of north-western India, hampered the sowing process, with areas under the paddy crop declining by about six million hectares, floods in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra damaged the standing crop.
How should one billion Indians, for whom deprivation has become an inescapable way of life, join us in celebrating 75 years of Independence? And where do we go from here? asks Kalyan Singhal.
Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Agriculture, Hukum Dev Narain said all efforts would be made to achieve the foodgrain production target of 220 million tonnes set for this year.
She maintained that the allocation for increasing agricultural productivity and irrigation, among several other subjects, were too less to usher in any significant growth.
'We will test the waters, ferret out information through our business correspondents, and only then open a branch'
The southwest monsoon season concluded on Saturday with India receiving 'below-average' cumulative rainfall -- 820 mm compared to the long-period average of 868.6 mm -- in an El Nino year.
The economy may grow by around 7 per cent this financial year as estimated by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), say economists with various organisations. The first advance estimates for 2023-24 will be released on Friday by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO), an exercise done for calculating ratios such as the fiscal deficit. The interim Budget will be presented on February 1.
The fear that the recent rise in the inflation rate will scupper their chances of re-election has led the United Progressive Alliance government to blame the usual suspects: hoarders, monopolists, and of course, foreigners. So bring back discredited policies: raid hoarders, torment speculators and ban export of agricultural products.
Agriculture output has been reduced due to adverse impact of shortfall in rain or floods in some parts of the country.
Domestic-focused agricultural chemical (agrochem) companies could face near-term headwinds, given the worries on the El Nio effect on monsoons, higher inventory, and pressure on margins. Some of these were reflected in the October-December quarter (third quarter, or Q3) results of companies and may impact them in the current quarter (fourth quarter, or Q4) as well. Nuvama Research pointed out that the sector witnessed mixed performance during the quarter as global agrochem and domestic fertiliser companies maintained growth momentum, while adverse agronomical conditions and excess channel inventory weighed on domestic market volume offtake.
