Top headlines: India's economic growth forecast, tech sector layoffs & more

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ADB retains India's economic growth forecast at 6.4% for current fiscal

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday retained India's economic growth forecast at 6.4 per cent for the current financial year and 6.7 per cent for the next, saying robust domestic demand will continue to support the region's recovery. In an update to its Asian Development Outlook, the ADB said inflation is expected to continue to fall, approaching pre-pandemic levels as fuel and food prices decline. It forecast 3.6 per cent inflation this year for developing economies in Asia, and 3.4 per cent in 2024. Read more....

At halfway mark, more technology sector layoffs in 2023 than in 2022

More people working in India’s technology industry have lost their jobs in the first six months of 2023 than the corresponding period in 2022. A total of 10,774 employees have been laid off in the first six months this year in India, according to data from Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking job cuts in the technology sector. This is nearly two-thirds more than 6,530 job losses over a similar period in 2022. Read more....

Reconstituted committee on official statistics to settle data controversies

Amid a raging debate on the quality of official data and the sampling methodologies followed, the government has renamed and expanded the scope of an existing standing committee headed by former chief statistician of India Pronab Sen. The Standing Committee on Economic Statistics (SCES) — constituted in December 2019 — has been turned into the Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS). It will have a two-year tenure for the chairman and its 16 members. Read more....

Intelligence just got real: IT companies hard-pivot to Generative AI

Technology services provider Infosys has announced it is entering into a framework agreement with one of its existing strategic clients to provide artificial intelligence (AI) and automation-led development. It revealed that the agreement would also entail modernisation and maintenance of services. It is expected to come with a total client spend target of $2 billion for five years. 

The company, which will announce its results on July 20, clarified that it was a closure of an old deal. It, however, refrained from disclosing the name of the client. Read more....

It's 'Modi vs INDIA': Battle lines drawn for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls

It will be the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, versus the National Democratic Alliance, or NDA, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the alliance of 26 Opposition parties announced after their two-day meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Sources in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Congress claimed their leaders, Mamata Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi, respectively, were the first to suggest the new canny acronym of the alliance. Another leader attributed it to “teamwork”. The battle in 2024, Rahul said, was to defend the idea of India. He said the fight is INDIA versus Modi, INDIA versus the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Read more....