Recently, the finance ministry waived off basic customs duty and health cess on imported oxygen and related equipment for three years.
Imports also fell for the eighth consecutive months, down 0.75 per cent to $41.14 billion in January, widening the trade deficit to a seven-month high of $15.17 billion.
India may see a structural shift in supplies of crude oil with Russia emerging as a key source of fuels, a development that reduces New Delhi's dependence on West Asian oil, gives Indian refiners better bargaining power with price-setter Saudi Arabia, and improves overall energy security. The unexpected surge in supplies of Russian crude in the last few months, unthinkable until the war in Ukraine, may also deliver other unforeseen gains such as boosting exports of refined fuels to Europe, which historically has counted on Russian shipments. India has jumped on to the bandwagon of opportunistic buying of Russian crude but if calibrated carefully, Urals crude can be a long-term asset for India refiners.
The project involves development of a military-civil, dual-use airport; international container trans-shipment terminal; a gas, diesel, and solar-based power plant, and a township.
Even if 5G is not launched by operators this year, the handsets market will certainly witness a strong supply ecosystem for 5G ready smartphones in 2021.
Input shortages and low inventories, according to Nomura, will likely lead to production cuts and delayed shipments in the September 2021 quarter.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said inflation management cannot be "singularly" left to the monetary policy as a majority of activities are outside its purview in the current context. Speaking at a seminar organised by economic think-tank Icrier, the finance minister said that both the fiscal policy and the monetary policy have to work together to contain inflation. Consumer price index (CPI) based inflation or retail inflation is ruling above the Reserve Bank's comfort level of 6 per cent since January.
India's exports rose by 43 per cent to $35.65 billion in October while trade deficit widened to $19.73 billion during the month, according to the official data released on Monday. Imports soared by 62.51 per cent to $55.37 billion, widening the trade deficit. Export sectors which recorded positive growth during October include petroleum, coffee, engineering goods, cotton yarn/fabs./made-ups, gems and jewellery, chemicals plastic and linoleum and marine products, the data showed.
The supply shipment is being undertaken in cooperation with the Adani group and Linde company.
Export of mango, especially alphonso, to European countries has been negligible this season; shipments to the Gulf fell 40-50 per cent.
Import segments which recorded negative growth include gold, silver, transport equipment, coal, fertiliser, machinery and machine tools. However, exports of oil seeds, coffee, rice, tobacco, spices, pharma, and chemicals reported positive growth in June.
Though leading brands like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Oppo managed to absorb the initial lockdown shock and resumed their local production back to 60 per cent, they would likely suffer a 20-25 per cent loss of sales in the October-December quarter.
Imports too declined by 16.31 per cent to $37.39 billion.
Exports of cut and polished diamonds during April-May witnessed a 77.42 per cent decline, gold jewellery exports declined 92 per cent and shipments of coloured gemstones also dipped 92.90 per cent.
India's wheat exports could touch a new record of 10 million tonnes in 2022-23, up from a record seven million tonnes in the current financial year, if global market conditions remain choppy and no curbs are imposed on outbound shipments. That is the bullish estimate by officials from global trading firms and market watchers who say the Russia-Ukraine crisis has not only attracted global buyers to India but also pushed the price of Indian wheat from around $320 per tonne (FOB) to over $360 per tonne in less than 10 days. Food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey told reporters that wheat exports till February-end have already reached 6.6 million tonnes and by the end of March, outbound shipments will reach seven million tonnes.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp has pulled out of providing financial services to the Adani group and its Carmichael coal mine in Australia, saying the venture is incompatible with its environmental, social and governance rules.
'Supplies should start moving to the Serum Institute without any impediments.'
The country's exports for the first time crossed the $400 billion mark in a fiscal on healthy performance by sectors such as petroleum products, engineering, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, according to the commerce ministry's data released on Wednesday. The merchandise exports rose by by 37 per cent to $400.8 billion in 2021-22 until March 21 against $292 billion in 2020-21. Previously, the outbound shipments had touched a record of $330.07 billion in 2018-19.
The labour-intensive sector contributes about 15 per cent of the country's overall exports.
The company will, however, not bring its new 5G-enabled Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G) to India and Singapore markets.
China on Monday said Sri Lanka has allowed its satellite and missile tracking ship to berth at the Hambantota port on Tuesday, but declined to reveal details of talks with Colombo leading to the bankrupt island's government reversing its earlier stand to defer the high-tech vessel's entry.
Though exports to Hong Kong, a major destination for India's polished diamonds, have resumed, the industry is currently sitting on an inventory worth around $2.3 billion.
Since 2013-14, buffalo meat had been the largest export item in the agri commodity basket for a few years. Since the coronavirus outbreak in January, Indian exporters have received no fresh orders from Southeast Asian and West Asian countries, which cumulatively contribute nearly 65 per cent of India's overall buffalo meat shipment.
In his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, Modi hailed the potential of India and said the basis of its strength is the country's farmers, artisans, weavers, engineers, small entrepreneurs, the MSME sector and people from many different professions."
Essar group on Friday announced the signing of a USD 2.4 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) deal to sell certain ports and power infrastructure to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel in one of the largest post-pandemic merger and acquisition deals in India. In a statement, the Ruia-run firm said the deal also envisages a 50-50 joint venture between Essar and ArcelorMittal for building a 4 million tonnes a year LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Without giving details, it only identified certain ports and power infrastructure that are primarily captive to operations of the Hazira steel plant, which was acquired by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) in 2018-19, as part of the deal.
Out of 30 key export sectors, as many as 22 showed negative growth in September.
'By the end of 2022, we expect the installed base of 5G smartphones in India to reach 80-85 million.'
After staging a strong recovery from COVID-induced slowdown in 2021, India's exports are likely to extend the growth story to the New Year also on increased demand in the global markets, boost in domestic manufacturing due to production-linked incentive schemes and implementation of some interim trade pacts. Expectations of positive growth in the country's exports are also backed up by the outlook of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which predicts a 4.7 per cent expansion in the global merchandise trade volume in 2022. Exporters believe that the outbound shipments would cross $400 billion mark in this fiscal going by the current momentum and may reach $475 billion in 2022-23.
Imports too contracted by 28.72 per cent to $31.16 billion. Dip in exports and imports narrowed the trade deficit -- the difference between imports and exports -- in March to $9.76 billion, the lowest in the last 13 months.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, and the two leaders had a detailed discussion on the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
The wait for the new iPhone is over as the tech giant Apple officially launched its new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro on September 14.
Nepal's decision to ban the import of non-essential items amid depleting forex reserves may hit Indian exports. The country's central bank - Nepal Rastra Bank - last week instructed commercial banks not to open letters of credit (LCs) for importing non-essential items. This is to prevent further decline of the country's foreign exchange reserves. However, it has not issued any formal communication yet.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday reported a 66 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 487 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2021, as production was affected by the ongoing semiconductor shortage. The rise in commodity prices also had an adverse impact on the company's earnings.
Sectors with positive growth during the month include rice, iron ore, oil seeds, oil meals, meat, dairy and poultry products, pharmaceuticals, coffee, engineering goods, and plastic.
E-commerce firms Amazon, Flipkart, and others are expected to witness blockbuster festival season sales of around $9 billion this year, surpassing pre-pandemic sales of $5 billion in 2019. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to e-commerce, with more consumers shopping online at a higher frequency than last year, observed analysts. This year's festival sales (gross merchandise value or GMV) are expected to grow 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $4.8 billion during the first week of the season and potentially clock over $9-billion GMV during the whole festival month, revealed consulting firm RedSeer's e-commerce festival season report.
The Sri Lankan government has appointed an advisory committee comprising eminent economic and fiscal experts to provide guidance on addressing the current debt crisis and engaging with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders as the country struggles to combat the unprecedented shortage of foreign reserves.
India has sent a team to Kabul to oversee the delivery of India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and hold discussions with the Taliban over the aid provided by New Delhi.
China on Tuesday said the activities of its high-tech research vessel will not affect the security of any country and should not be 'obstructed' by any 'third party', as the ship berthed at Sri Lanka's strategic southern port of Hambantota amid Indian and United States concerns.
The US-based company, in collaboration with partners like Wistron and Foxconn, had recently started assembling iPhone 11 in India.
But this could be shortlived as the rise has been buoyed on Chhattisgarh assembly poll freebies