News digest: India's GDP growth rebounds, fiscal deficit at 96%, and more

Economy rebounds: GDP growth rate rises to 6.3% in September quarter

The country’s economic growth recovered to more than 6 per cent in the July-September quarter, backed by strong manufacturing, allaying doubts about disruptions caused by the goods and services tax (GST). This was a break with five quarters of declining trends in growth, but India remained behind China in economic expansion. Read more

Ready to pay price for reforms, says Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he was willing to pay a “big political price” for ushering in systemic changes in the country. Citing the example of Aadhaar, he said the unique identity number had transformed people’s lives and, in future, it would also work as a “big weapon” in the fight against benami properties. Read more

April-Oct fiscal deficit at 96% of Budget Estimate

The Centre’s fiscal deficit for April-October, the first seven months of the financial year, was Rs 5.25 lakh crore or 96.1 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 5.46 lakh crore. Incidentally, the deficit at the end of August was at the exact same level, which shows the finance ministry, after ‘front-loading’ of expenditure, has reined in spending and plans to do so further in the second half of 2017-18. Read more

RBI likely to maintain status quo in December

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) is unlikely to tinker with the policy rate on the December 5-6 review, as the inflationary pressures and normalisation of policies by global central banks would keep the Indian central bank cautious. 

None of the 10 participants of a  Business Standard poll on monetary policy expected a change in rates next week, with some even cautioning that the rate-cutting cycle could be over for India. Read more

France's Altran buys out Aricent from KKR for $2 bn

The Paris-based technology company Altran said it would buy design and engineering services firm Aricent from a group of investors led by KKR for $2 billion. The US-headquartered Aricent has over 10,500 employees, a majority of whom operate at centres located in India, who cater to the needs of the firm’s global clients. The firm competes with Indian IT service providers such as Wipro, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra to sevice clients globally. Read more