'We currently have new proposals worth Rs 1.48 trillion in the pipeline.'
The NDA released its manifesto for the Bihar assembly polls, promising jobs, infrastructure development, and social welfare programs.
The government is finalising a major GST overhaul with automated refunds, pre-filled returns, and analytics-based scrutiny to simplify compliance and boost liquidity for MSMEs.
The services sector employs 188 million people but remains highly informal, trapping most workers in low-wage jobs without social protection.
'Corporates now have multiple funding sources beyond banks, and many are sitting on large cash reserves.'
The idea is to establish a robust and forward-looking legal framework that addresses the financial stress of power distribution companies, which are facing losses of over 6.9 trillion, while curbing high industrial tariffs that, according to the government, have affected competitiveness, constrained economic growth, and slowed the transition to clean energy.
India's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) - which contribute over 45 per cent to outbound shipments - are facing a major disruption following the United States (US) decision to impose 50 per cent additional tariffs on the country's exports. MSME industry bodies have raised an alarm over the deep impact, seeking immediate government intervention.
'If the near-term economic pain is absorbed more by those who have the ability and the financial strength to do so, then small and medium enterprises in downstream industries will emerge stronger from the trade imbroglio.'
'As the team builds, each of them will bring in a different perspective, new thinking.'
Opening up the corner office is fine, but will the government be able to attract talent without giving a market-rate salary?, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Part-I of this three-part series dives into Delhi-NCR's SPR, Sohna, Dwarka Expressway, and Jewar Airport leading the charge.
The UK government on Sunday announced that it will support "iconic British brand" Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) with a loan guarantee of up to 1.5 billion pounds to give certainty to the Tata Motors owned carmaker's supply chain following a devastating cyber-attack. The loan will come from a commercial bank, backed by the Department for Business and Trade's (DBT) Export Development Guarantee (EDG), provided by export credit agency UK Export Finance, to be paid back over five years.
The US's recent 50 per cent tariff on Indian exports will have a trickledown effect on India's affordable housing, potentially derailing demand as well as supply in this segment, according to experts. Pointing to worker incomes and jobs in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that typically make up majority of the customer base of affordable housing, would take a hit in the near terms due to the tariff change, further crippling India's affordable housing sector, already reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Defence Procurement Manual 2025 lays down the guiding principles for revenue procurements in the defence ministry worth around 1 trillion in a financial year.
These changes certainly bring India's GST a lot closer to what an ideal GST would look like, points out Karan Bhasin.
The final approval for the acquisition of 97 LCA Mark 1A fighters was given by a high-level meeting on Tuesday and will pave the way for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to produce the aircraft, defence sources told ANI.
The deal is expected to help HAL to get its complete requirement of 212 GE-404 engines in continuity, avoiding any types of delays in engine supplies.
'Given the lag in transmission, further softening of lending rates may happen in the coming months.'
'It must become faceless, just as the entire direct tax assessment system has already become fully online, without any human intervention in the normal course,' recommends A K Bhattacharya.
The life and non-life insurance industries are hopeful of a reduction in the goods and services tax (GST) on health and life insurance premiums, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech on Friday, announced GST relaxations aimed at providing relief to ordinary citizens, farmers, the middle class, and the small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.
The next generation GST reforms would 'absolutely' set an economy open and transparent with further reduction in compliance burden and benefiting small businesses, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.
Businesses are testing new markets, tapping into domestic demand, and pushing the government for relief.
'Ek baar aap GST dekh lo!' - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gentle nudge to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in December last year sparked the beginning of a mammoth exercise to overhaul the tangled goods and services tax regime. And the final outcome is a significantly simplified system with lower tax rates and easier compliance for businesses.
India Inc, which is sitting on cash balances of 13.5 trillion, is using the funds to meet capital expenditure as well as brownfield expansion, resulting in 'anaemic' demand for bank loans, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman CS Setty said at an event on Monday. He added that a slowdown in corporate credit is mainly due to lack of demand.
Japan is expected to increase its investment target in India from the earlier 5 trillion yen ($34 billion) to almost 10 trillion yen.
For kids in the United States, the tariff imposed by the Donald Trump administration on countries like China may no longer be a child's play, as toy prices are predicted to touch record highs this Christmas season. However, for India's toy export industry, which was ready to take giant strides in the sector by bagging heavy orders from the US retail giants like Walmart, Amazon, and Target Corporation, gaining from the China-Plus-One policy, the US tariffs came as a heavy jolt.
Simplifying GST rates, removing exemptions, easing disputes, and speeding up refunds can boost investment in India and offer the best reply to Trump's tariffs, observes V S Krishnan, former member, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
'Due to tariff uncertainty, automotive customers reduced their steel uplift by almost 15 per cent.'
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.
A new global study on Wednesday listed India among the top fintech hotspots alongside the US and the UK. The World Economic Forum study, released at its Annual Meeting of New Champions in China's Tianjin, also said the fintech sector growth is stabilising amid strengthening profitability and inclusion.
In trade negotiations, as in chess, sometimes you need to accept a temporary disadvantage to secure a better long-term position, points out Sonal Varma, chief economist (India and Asia ex-Japan) at Nomura.
The famous 'tareekh pe tareekh' dialogue from the Hindi movie Damini captures where we are now.
If India caves in to US pressure as Trump hopes it will, he will further try to blackmail it into submission, points out Ramesh Menon.
The orders issued this month have selected ministries ranging from home affairs under Amit Shah to rural development, headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, to move to Building 3 -- currently named CCS-03 -- on Kartavya Path. The scale of the shift will be even larger than when most of Lutyens' Delhi's present crop of government buildings came up in the early 1930s.
'India is a big market for StanC, and it is also fastest growing economy in the world.'
US-based retail giant Walmart will connect one lakh more MSMEs in the next three years to its supplier development programme in India, a company official said here on Thursday. The programme, Walmart Vriddhi, has partnered with Ideas to Impact Foundation (i2i), which will enable more MSMEs to expand their access to both national and international markets, helped by the combined strengths of Walmart's global supply chain and Flipkart's e-commerce capabilities.
Over 40 per cent of MSMEs are owned by entrepreneurs from other backward castes.
In Q1FY26, the bank reported fresh slippages of 8,200 crore, up 71 per cent Y-o-Y and sequentially. Of this, 7,500 crore is from the retail segment.
There is a need for real-time or near real-time credit reporting, instead of the current fortnightly system, to improve underwriting precision, enable timely reflection of borrower actions such as loan closures or repayments, and deliver a superior consumer experience, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), M Rajeshwar Rao said on Wednesday.
'The next decade will be even more transformative,' says Prime Minister Modi. 'We are moving from digital governance to global digital leadership.'
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