'I would like to convey the message to your readers that the prime minister himself is directly seized of the situation on the ground. He periodically reviews the situation on the ground and how it is moving forward, taking inputs from economists, business leaders, chambers of commerce.'
The agency welcomed the Rs 1.70-lakh crore package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier in the day but said more measures like loan forbearances for small businesses and households are necessary.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to announce a package for border districts of Jammu and Kashmir when he travels there on Tuesday along with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on a two-day visit.
'It may sound like sacrilege, but does it really matter if the global raters downgrade India for fiscal slippage?' asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
They were the source for entry-level recruitments in the IT industry before the job market crash.
To boost Make in India in defence production, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said foreign direct investment limit in defence manufacturing will be hiked to 74 per cent from 49 per cent while some weapons and platforms will be banned for imports.
'The real estate sector has been badly bruised because it has become too reliant on funding from NBFCs, including housing finance companies. 'When the NBFC industry was rocked late last year by a large default, the real estate sector was hit hard. 'An intricate web of links between rural incomes, construction activity and shadow banks are fuelling the economic slowdown', says Pranjul Bhandari.
The government is expected to dole out some populist policies, especially for the rural / farm sector while presenting the interim budget, given that the country is heading towards general elections over the next few months.
About 50,000 truckers, most of whom are single-truck owners, could be thrown off their businesses due to the recent fuel price hike. "Already the vehicle supply on the road is higher than the requirement. "With the fuel price hike, fleet owners will look to cut down fleet size wherever needed and due to this, small single-truck owners could be at the receiving end," Ashok Goyal, managing director at BLR Logistiks (I) Ltd said. The company has a fleet of 500 vehicles of all types-small, medium and large with pan-India presence.
After the Kerala government declared the coronavirus outbreak as a 'state calamity', as the three positive cases were detected from Thrissur, Alapuzha and Kasaragod, tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran admitted that the sector had suffered a hit. The sector had aggressively launched promotional advertisements in the domestic and international markets after the floods to revive the sector. However, all the efforts took a beating, with mass cancellations of hotel bookings after the outbreak of the infection in the state was reported.
'The outlook for private investment, which has been such a weak link for India for so long, remains challenging.'
In an interaction with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on the impact of lockdown on India's economy, Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, said India tried to implement a hard lockdown which was still porous and ended up with the worst of both worlds.
At the best, the so called Rs 1.25 lakh crore package will not provide anything more than Rs 10,368 crore as additional or incremental resource to the state, said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
Nobody bothered to articulate the upsides; instead, the four-year tour of duty and denial of life-long pensions got played up.
Job-seekers for government and related opportunities found that their future was at risk, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
The slowdown had been brewing since 2016 but was intensified further by several disruptions in the past two years including demonetisation.
With the world's worst pandemic outbreak scarring nascent economic recovery, the government may at the beginning of the unlock phase announce another stimulus package for the most hit sectors such as small business and self-employed, Bernstein said. The brokerage in a note said its macro index suggests a deterioration in economic activity during April/May. "Energy consumption has moderated, with power down over 4 per cent and oil consumption down over 16 per cent in May so far (all 2-year CAGR). "E-waybills are down 16 per cent, suggesting the impact of scale down in factory production for some product categories, owing to the shut down in retail outlets.
Replying to a short duration discussion on COVID-19 management in Rajya Sabha, the minister said technology transfer to several companies has started and they will begin production in the coming days to reduce vaccine shortage in the country.
'By the time the goods that were sent from December onwards reached stores in Europe, they became dead inventory as the stores there were closed by then.' 'Those that were in the warehouse there also became dead inventory. Those that reached the ports there also became dead inventory.' 'And what Tirupur produced in March is still here, and they have also become dead inventory.'
There is disquiet and discomfort in the citizenry that can be touched and felt. No one is talking, but then, the Indian voter has not talked much -- with the conviction that all that goes up has to come down, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'There is a lot of interest from potential clients who have remained away from the markets in past years.' 'They are evaluating whether this is a good time to enter, especially since there are very few alternatives to earn meaningful returns.'
'When you start distributing wealth, you end up distributing poverty.'
The Congress on Tuesday termed as rhetoric and hollow on specifics the prime minister's address to the nation, saying there was no mention of a financial package or concrete steps to revive the economy.
This was the one Budget that required radical departures on all these fronts, when it had none, asserts, Shreekant Sambrani.
'One cannot take it that the economy has recovered, and the GST payment has increased because of that, or that production is back to January 2020 level.'
For deciding which vehicles are to be scrapped, the setting up of fitness centres and regulating them would be a humongous task.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
And the only answer one can think of is that this is being done to preserve the image of toughness and 56 inches and all the rest of it, notes Aakar Patel.
Stating that India's economic stimulus was not adequate, Banerjee said, the measures did not increase consumption spending of lower income people as the government was not willing to put money in the hands of the low income population.
Bajaj Finance was the top loser, tumbling 4.68 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and HCL Tech. NSE Nifty crashed 290.70 points or 2.43 per cent to 11,680.35.
'The stimulus message was tagged on to what was meant to be an exhortation to self-reliance, glossing over the near impossibility of merging the immediate requirement of relief for a huge population and a questionable strategy for the future trajectory of a large economy aspiring to superstardom,' points out Shreekant Sambrani.
Whether it took the corona crisis to bring about the transformation, or otherwise, the change ought to be welcome, notes Virendra Kapoor.
Assocham president Niranjan Hiranandani said his talks with government officials showed dues to industry and states were pending in the form of refunds of income tax, value-added tax, and GST, and compensation, payments to discoms in the power sector, fertiliser subsidies, etc.
'These Harvard University-educated people, with knowledge limited to the small states there, apply it in a huge country like India, which is not practical at all.'
Under fixed-term employment, workers are entitled to all statutory benefits available to a permanent worker in the same factory. However, employers may not give notice to a fixed-term worker on non-renewal or expiry of his or her contract.
The government has to cover a lot of ground if it wants to achieve the target of generating 10 million new jobs in the sector over the next three years, says Shyamal Majumdar.
VIL pegs dues at Rs 21,533 cr, less than half of DoT estimate. During a meeting with Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made it clear that the government is against a monopoly in the telecom sector, and wants Vodafone Idea to survive and remain invested in India.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
Colleges are witnessing more offers, with better salary packages. Median salary packages offered have improved over last year.
On Tuesday, Modi will share his views with India Inc on 'Getting growth back'.
