Economic Growth

US GDP grows less-than-expected at 1.5% despite strong consumer spending

US economic growth slowed to 1.5% in the second quarter as weaker net exports offset robust consumer spending and strong AI-led business investment

Ageing challenge & opportunity: How active seniors can fuel economic growth

Senior living facilities are coming up in almost all the big cities of India, with Pune and Coimbatore having taken an early lead

Green taxonomy urgently needs green capital for India's net-zero ambitions

India's Climate Finance Taxonomy can define green activities, but affordable capital for MSMEs will determine whether the country's green transition succeeds

Half a lifetime after the 1991 reforms: Lotuses bloom in muddy waters

Thirty-five years after the 1991 reforms, India has grown dramatically but unfinished reforms, weak public services and job creation remain major challenges T N Ninan

Improving investment climate: Reforms at the state level can drive growth

NITI Aayog's investment index highlights wide disparities among states, underscoring the need for governance reforms, stronger institutions and balanced regional growth

Govt unveiling affordable housing plans in Varanasi as realty prices soar

Varanasi's property prices are soaring as VDA rolls out land pooling, new townships and affordable housing projects to support the city's rapid urban expansion

AI boom fuels 'K'-shaped growth, widens global divide: Moody's Analytics

The global economy is witnessing 'K' shaped growth where the artificial intelligence boom pushes some countries and industries ahead, leaving others behind, Moody's Analytics said on Thursday. In its Global Economy Outlook, Moody's Analytics said it expects global growth to slow to 2.5 per cent in 2026 and pick up to just 2.8 per cent in 2027. It said that booming demand for artificial intelligence has saved the global economy from a sharper slowdown, but geopolitical risks, stretched asset valuations, and volatility in financial markets could easily flip the outlook from slow growth to recession. "The global economy is running at two different speeds. In some segments, growth is holding up better than expected, courtesy of the AI boom. .. But economies and industries less plugged into the AI boom have struggled," Moody's Analytics said. The agency said AI boom has driven a surge in data centre investment, exports in Asia's tech-heavy economies, and stock market valuations across t

Bank of Baroda raises India's FY27 GDP growth forecast to 6.6-6.8%

The public sector lender has raised its FY27 growth forecast by 40 basis points, citing easing oil prices, improving monsoon conditions and resilient economic indicators

Can India innovate? The innovation gap starts with its largest companies

India has the talent and startup momentum, but unless its largest companies invest boldly in R&D, the country risks falling behind in global innovation

The missing human growth factor: Bridging India's human-capital deficit

Human capital - not geography, culture or natural resources - now explains why some nations become wealthy while others remain stagnant

Reality check: From UP to TN, 5 states promise to chip in combined $5 trn

Rupee depreciation and slow growth weigh on states' ambitious economic goals

The capex fault line running via Indian states: Odisha leads, Punjab lags

While Odisha commits 6.5% of its economic output to infrastructure, Punjab and Kerala are trapped by welfare and interest bills

Middle class growth engine of India, 500 cities to be economic hubs: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday described the middle class as the growth engine of India and said nearly 500 cities are poised to emerge as the country's next centres of economic activity. Participating in a panel discussion on 'How to promote the rise of a new middle class' at the Rencontres Economiques d'Aix-en-Provence, a major economic forum of France, Sitharaman said 31 per cent of India's population is middle class as of today. Since India opened its economy, the middle class is growing at an annual rate of 6.3 per cent, she noted. "We think 93 per cent of all spending in India will be because of the middle class or the slightly affluent consumers...and again, this middle class is not concentrated in our metropolitan cities...India's model has resulted in the development in such a way that the middle class is present not just in big cities but they are on the contrary in these tier two, tier three cities," the finance minister said. The distribution of wealth is

Best of BS Opinion: Weather risks, state finances and Trump's economics

Today's opinions examine monsoon uncertainty, RBI's NBFC framework, worsening state finances, Donald Trump's economic approach and the future of modern feminism

India's vision of Viksit Bharat needs building institutional architecture

India's path to becoming a high-income economy hinges on building strong, accountable institutions that can harness demographic, energy and AI opportunities

Karnataka must move away from subsidies to growth-enabling reforms

The multicultural life of the young in Bengaluru today represents India's greatest cosmopolitan and sophisticated culture, surpassing that seen in even Mumbai in some respects

Best of BS Opinion: Hope is not a strategy, capacity is

From geopolitics and women's empowerment to manufacturing, the rupee and technology, lasting progress depends less on hope and more on building capacity

India Inc's Q4 scorecard: Strong finish to FY26, but can the momentum last? | Indian Economy

India Inc ended FY26 on a strong note. In Q4FY26, listed companies posted 15.1% profit growth and 11.4% revenue growth, while profit margins hit a five-year high of 11.3%.

A growth surprise: Healthy Q4 GDP print lends cushion amid hazy outlook

India's economy grew 7.8% in Q4 FY26, beating forecasts, but risks from the West Asia crisis, higher oil prices and a weak monsoon cloud the outlook

India's flailing, failing cities are the biggest threat to Brand India

A deeper analysis will tell you that most of these disasters took place in what might be described variously as unauthorised, illegal or irregular buildings and areas