Business confidence in India Inc rose to a five-quarter high in December quarter of FY26, amid further reform expectations and steady domestic demand, a survey by industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) showed. The CII Business Confidence Index (BCI) rose for the third consecutive quarter to 66.5 in the December quarter from 66 in the preceding September quarter.
With the Union Budget three months away, major industry chambers have submitted to the government proposals on common taxes, seeking simpler compliance and a quicker resolution of tax disputes.
In a double-dose bid to boost growth and employment prospects, the Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a Rs 2.07 trillion outlay for a research development and innovation (RDI) Scheme to fund private sector innovations, and an employment-linked incentive (ELI) to create over 35 million new jobs over the next two years.
'We have to retain some fiscal headroom without compromising on the promised fiscal consolidation roadmap.'
Following the lacklustre growth numbers in the second quarter (Q2FY25), economists believe the upcoming Union Budget for 2025-26 should focus on reforms that will stimulate consumption, manufacturing and spur employment. India's growth unexpectedly slowed to 5.4 per cent in the second quarter, due to low capital formation, weak consumption, besides adverse weather impact.
Tata Sons will likely choose Singapore as a "key partner" for its semiconductor plans, a senior minister from the city-state said on Friday. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran earlier in the day, Singapore's minister for home affairs and law K Shanmugam said semiconductors was a "big discussion" point during the meeting. "If they (Tatas) want to, they can do business with anybody in the world.
Industry leaders on Thursday mourned the death of Ratan Tata saying with his demise India has lost a visionary who shaped its industrial and philanthropic landscape. Tata was a truly remarkable business leader who placed the country before business interests, and whose vision was truly transformational for a country and its people, TVS Motor Co Chairman Emeritus Venu Srinivasan said in a statement. "Mr Tata was a truly remarkable business leader, the likes of whom nations get only once in a century," he added.
Whether it's Carrefour, Ford, or other foreign majors, they are ready to adjust their strategies and design their plans in a way that would address the Indian consumption story.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has called for speedy implementation of key railway projects, such as the Dedicated Freight Corridor, high-speed rail corridors, rolling stock and other capacity enhancement works.
Recovery from the second wave of the pandemic in April-May is expected to be swifter as compared to the first wave in 2020, according to the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) chief executive officers (CEOs) poll of 119 top corporate. During the second wave, the lockdowns were largely designed to limit social gatherings and impact on economic activities was restricted. This helped arrest the impact of the second wave on economic growth, according to a survey conducted by the industry lobby group Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). About 59 per cent of the CEOs polled expect the recovery in sales to be better than in the first wave for their companies, while 46 per cent of them expressed a similar trend for their respective industry sectors.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday said it believes that India-US bilateral economic ties would be a high priority for President Joe Biden-led administration in America. "The Indian industry feels that with President Biden and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi at the helm, the two countries would play a strong role in re-shaping the global economic agenda together," CII president Uday Kotak said. Congratulating Biden on assuming charge as the 46th President of the US, Kotak said, "President Biden's experience in re-building the US economy during the Great Recession would help strengthen the US and global economic recovery in the aftermath of the pandemic."
The halt in the RBI's monetary tightening drive comes after 13 hikes since March, 2010.
'This has become a necessity now to kick start the investment cycle'
Expressing dissatisfaction over the RBI decision to keep interest rates unchanged, India Inc today said rate cuts were needed to make the industry invest more and drive economic growth.
Olympic Gold Quest, an initiative to support talented Indian sportspersons in their quest for Olympic medals, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industry, on Friday, to promote sports at the grassroots level through the involvement of corporates.
Demanding bold actions from the government and the Reserve Bank of India exclusively aimed at salvaging the economy, the chamber expressed hope the political leadership, across party lines, would converge and their actions would be 'swift and decisive'.
High interest rates have been discouraging fresh investments and dragged industrial production down for nearly two years now.
The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to provide Rs 30,600 crore government guarantee for security receipts issued by the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) as part of resolution of bad loans, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. The proposed bad bank or NARCL will pay up to 15 per cent of the agreed value for the loans in cash and the remaining 85 per cent would be government-guaranteed security receipts. The government guarantee would be invoked if there is loss against the threshold value.
Cash reserve ratio is the amount of funds banks need to park with the apex bank in cash.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations president A Sakthivel said the quotations from the Chinese suppliers do not reflect the real value of the dollar, hurting the Indian interests.
Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII said: "This move will bestow the benefits of information technology to the common man and will also help establish citizenship, thus enhancing security at various levels. This would further bring transparency in different delivery channels, help in mapping diverse requirements of the nation and, in turn, assure better planning and strategisation for the country."
CII opines that a global discussion on the crisis might help building stronger information netwrorks on consumption and production so that corrective measures can be taken across the globe to avert such a crisis. It also advised to develop global food management system under Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Encouraged by softening inflation, the RBI on Thursday decided to cut the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.75 per cent with a view to boost growth.
The launch of e-RUPI, a person- and purpose-specific digital payment solution, by the government is expected to completely negate any pilferage and will ensure full benefit to intended beneficiaries, India Inc said on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched e-RUPI, which is aimed at improving transparency and targeted delivery of benefits. PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sanjay Aggarwal said that the move is a significant step to enhance the digitisation process of the country.
India has emerged as one of the top three choices for investments in the next 2-3 years, with more than two-thirds of respondents in a survey of multinational companies (MNCs) citing the country as their number one choice for future investments. According to the FDI survey released on Tuesday by CII in association with EY, about half of the respondents see India amongst the top three economies or leading manufacturing destinations of the world by 2025.
16 national and regional industry bodies and sectoral business lobbies video-conferenced with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday and raised key concerns facing Indian industry in the wake of the 21-day lockdown over coronavirus.
Industry had sought this 3-month extension, specifically for players struggling to collate the information that are required to be disclosed in the GST forms.
The summit would be held from November 4-6.
Swiss entities keen to invest in India, says envoy .
CII hopes that the RBI would not wait for the next quarterly review but intervene sooner if the economic condition warrants a mid-course correction.
It bounced back from the historic low of 41 recorded in the April-June quarter, during the initial days of the pandemic and lockdown.
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme will help eradicate poverty and curb corruption at the grassroot level, industry said.
India Inc raised various issues to increase trade flows in sectors like pharmaceuticals, banking, energy and infrastructure
The main purpose of the meeting is to assess their views on reforms that are required to attract long-term capital into the country.
India's GDP estimates for 2020-21 show that the economy is expected to perform much better than earlier projections by different agencies, indicating a sustained V-shape post-lockdown recovery, experts said. The first Advance Estimates (AE) by the National Statistics Office (NSO) has projected a contraction of 7.7 per cent in the real GDP during 2020-21. This was better than the projections by certain international agencies like the IMF and World Bank.
France has now over-taken the UK as India's most visited European nation
India's economy is likely to grow in the range of 4.5 to 5 per cent during the second half of the current fiscal, a CII survey said.
Reversing a six month declining trend, WPI inflation moved up marginally to 0.11 per cent in December mainly because of increase in prices of food items.
Economists polled in a recent survey by Ficci unanimously felt that the rupee will continue to be under pressure in 2018-19