Explore Business Standard
Associate Sponsors
Co-sponsor
Business
Targeted congestion pricing in dense business districts, combined with demand-based parking management, can reduce traffic, speed, and emissions as seen internationally, according to the Economic Survey 2025-26. The survey highlighted the steps taken by Singapore and London authorities to tackle congestion. The Economic Survey noted that there are several varying estimates of the loss in productivity across cities, resulting from traffic congestion. A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report on Delhi's congestion troubles stated that an unskilled worker stands to lose between Rs 7,200 and Rs 19,600 per year due to congestion, it said. Similarly, skilled and highly skilled workers can lose as much as Rs 8,300-23,800 and Rs 9,000-25,900 a year, respectively. A working paper by the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) estimated the loss of productive hours due to the late arrivals caused by traffic congestion to be around 7.07 lakh hours in 2018 for Bengaluru city,
Rising for the third consecutive quarter, CII's Business Confidence Index climbed to a five-quarter high of 66.5 in Q3 FY26, driven by optimism around demand, profitability, and investment conditions, the industry lobby said on Sunday. Domestic demand remains the key driver, with two-thirds of firms reporting higher demand in Q2 FY26 and 72 per cent expecting further growth in Q3 FY26, aided by GST rate cuts and festive consumption, the industry body said in the survey. CII-Business Confidence Index (BCI) is based on a sample survey of firms covering all industry sectors, including micro, small, medium, and large enterprises, from different regions. The survey also enumerated responses across industry groups, both in the public and private sectors, engaged in the manufacturing and services sectors. It was conducted during the first to third week of December 2025, covering more than 175 firms of varying sizes. Moreover, investment and hiring intentions remain robust. Notably, 69 pe
With India making a power-packed presence here for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, consultancy major BCG's India Head Rahul Jain has said the Davos takeaway for the Indian business leaders is very clear that the competitiveness now comes from combining cost, scale and resilience. Jain also said that India is very likely to become the world's third-largest economy by around 2030, which is a key India-related topic of discussion here during the summit. "The key question is whether growth can be further accelerated to reach this milestone as early as 2028, and achieving this faster trajectory will depend largely on accelerating the manufacturing sector further from roughly 15-17 per cent of GDP today to 20 per cent and beyond," Jain told PTI. "In that sense, the issue is less about if and more about when," he said. Jain, who is here for the five-day WEF Annual Meeting beginning Monday, said investments in sunrise sectors, such as clean energy, electronics, and semiconductors,