Page 23 - India Economy

India trade talks 'continue as before' amid Canada allegations: Britain

The UK government said on Tuesday that the "serious allegations" over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada will not impact its own ongoing trade negotiations with India. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesperson at 10 Downing Street was asked about the impact the issue may have on India-UK relations after a government spokesperson said the UK remains in "close touch" with the Canadian authorities. It follows Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's statement in Parliament on Monday that it is pursuing "credible allegations" of "potential" Indian links to the killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Chief of Khalistan Tiger Force and a designated terrorist. Canada also expelled an Indian diplomat. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi on Tuesday strongly rejected the claims as "absurd and motivated" and dismissed a senior Canadian diplomat in a reciprocal move. "We are in close touch with our Canadian partners about these serious ..

Govt may soon tweak PLI schemes for pharma, textiles to boost investment

The government may soon tweak the production-linked incentive scheme for pharmaceuticals, drones and textiles sectors to encourage investment and boost manufacturing, an official said. These sectors have been identified after inter-ministerial consultations on the performance of the scheme for various products. The official also said that disbursement of production-linked incentives (PLI) for white goods (AC and LED lights) would start this month and that would push the amount of disbursement, which was only Rs 2,900 crore till March 2023. The scheme was announced in 2021 for 14 sectors such as telecommunications, white goods, textiles, manufacturing of medical devices, automobiles, speciality steel, food products, high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell battery, drones and pharma with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore. "We have identified the sectors. We are going to send the combined note to seek approval of the Union Cabinet. The changes include extending some ti

Trade talks between India, Canada have taken hit amid rise in tensions

On Tuesday, New Delhi dismissed the allegations as "absurd", and asked Canada instead to crack down on anti-India elements operating in its territory

Subsidy of Rs 150 cr distributed under PM's Employment Generation Programme

In the presence of KVIC Chairman Manoj Kumar, these fundamental agreements were signed with Prasar Bharati, NBCC (India) Limited, and Digital India Corporation, said an official statement

Rising ownership costs to hurt commercial vehicle volume growth: Fitch

The ratings agency said increasing regulatory requirements, elevated inflation and high interest rates have pushed up the ownership costs, thereby weighing on purchase decisions

Net direct tax collection rises 23.5% to Rs 8.65 trn in April-Sept

The tax collection includes corporate tax of 4.16 trillion rupees and personal income tax of 4.47 trillion rupees, said the statement from Ministry of Finance

Stabilising core inflation shows easing price pressures in economy: RBI

Vegetable prices eased in August and brought down retail inflation to 6.8%. This is likely to continue in September, the Reserve Bank of India said in its monthly bulletin

RBI bought net $3.47 billion in spot foreign exchange market in July

The RBI said it purchased $5.32 billion and sold $1.84 billion in July. In June, the central bank had bought a net of $4.50 billion in the spot market

India has lower deceased organ donation rate than peers, shows data

Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka top deceased organ donor transplantations

Facing economic slowdown, PM not worried about unemployment: Youth Congress

The country is facing an economic slowdown but the prime minister is "not worried about employment for the youth", the Indian Youth Congress alleged on Sunday. Srinivas BV, the organisation's national president who led a protest at the Indian Youth Congress' office in central Delhi, said, "We mark this day -- September 17 -- as 'national unemployment day.' Scores of youngsters are unemployed across the country and yet the Centre and the prime minister refuse to acknowledge the problem." September 17 is the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who turned 73 this year. Srinivas further alleged that crores of people applied for central government jobs in the past nine years and "yet, a large number of youngsters are unemployed". "Every sixth graduate of the country is unemployed, 22 crore people applied for central government jobs in nine years. We appeal to Prime Minister Modi to pay some attention to the unemployed youngsters of the country and take some concrete steps for thei

PM Vishwakarma Yojana to benefit 3 million families: Ashwini Vaishnav

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the very important 'PM Vishwakarma' scheme...Around 30 lakh families in the country will be benefitted from this scheme," Vaishnav said in Bhubaneshwar

China's economic slowdown continues, real estate at persistent risk

The US-based news daily reported that the construction sites around China appear visibly less busy and construction of apartment towers has faltered because of falling apartment prices

Weekend Bites: FM's wish, 15 yrs since Lehman fell, Taper Tantrum, Apple

In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views

India's forex reserves decline to 11-week low of $593.90 billion: RBI

The changes in foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in the RBI's reserves

We see signs of buoyancy in the economy, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Inflation a permanent challenge; won't sit back, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Govt further cuts stock limit on wheat traders, retailers amid price rise

The government on Thursday further reduced the stock limit on wheat traders, wholesalers and big chain retailers to 2,000 tonnes from 3,000 tonnes with immediate effect amid uptick in prices. Announcing the decision, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said: "Keeping in view of recent uptick in the prices, we have had a review of the stock limits and effective today the stock limit on traders, wholesalers and big chain retailers stand reduced to 2000 tonne." Three months back on June 12, the government had imposed a stock limit of 3,000 tonnes on these wheat players till March 2024. The stock limit has been reduced to 2,000 tonnes as the government found there is an "an uptick in the wheat prices on the NCDEX by 4 per cent to Rs 2,550 per quintal in the past one month." "Although there is adequate availability of wheat in the country, I think there are some elements which are trying to create some artificial scarcity," Chopra told reporters.

Corporate tax collections seen in line with budget estimates: Ajay Seth

Corporate tax collections between April and July fell 10% to 1.76 trillion Indian rupees ($21.20 billion) from a year earlier, government data showed

JCI expected to procure at least 50% more raw fibre in the FY'24: Offical

The Jute Corporation of India (JCI) is expected to procure at least 50 per cent more raw fibre in the current jute year (2023-24) than the previous year, in the wake of a bumper season of the crop, a senior official said on Wednesday. The JCI is mandated by the government to carry out Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for raw jute from farmers. This year, the average MSP price is Rs 5,050 per quintal. "In the current jute crop year of 2023-24, which began on July 1, raw jute procurement is very high. As of mid-September, we have already procured 2.30 lakh quintals. We expect the operation to run for the entire year and the total procurement to be over 50 per cent, or 6-7 lakh quintals over the previous year," JCI General Manager K Mazumdar told PTI. In the last fiscal jute season, the JCI procured a record 4.34 lakh quintals of jute. "This year is a bumper jute crop and production is expected to be 91 lakh bales," Mazumdar said. He said that 110 direct JCI procurement centres

CEA rejects 'statistical discrepancy' criticism on Q1 growth numbers

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has rejected criticism of 'statistical discrepancy' in the first quarter GDP data, saying when the same statistical authority reported the severest contraction in the first quarter of 2020, the naysayers had called it credible as it suited their narrative. "In Q1 of 2023-24, the discrepancy of 2.8 per cent has a plus sign. This indicates that the expenditure side has explained only 97.2 per cent of the income side. It does not mean that the 2.8 per cent that has yet to be explained does not exist," Nageswaran said in an op-ed article. "It exists and lends itself to being explained in subsequent quarters. Similarly, the preceding eight quarters have shown negative discrepancies. It means that the expenditure side has been over-explained and needs to be reconciled," the article co-authored by senior government economist Rajiv Mishra said. Over a long period, the negatives and positives offset each other, it said, adding that between 1Q FY12

India's forex reserves jump by $4.03 billion to $598.89 billion: RBI data

India's forex reserves jumped by USD 4.039 billion to USD 598.897 billion for the week ended September 1, the Reserve Bank said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had dropped by USD 30 million to USD 594.858 billion. It can be noted that in October 2021, the country's forex kitty had reached an all-time high of USD 645 billion. The reserves took a hit as the central bank deployed the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments since last year. For the week ended September 1, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by USD 3.442 billion to USD 530.691 billion, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves. Gold reserves were up by USD 584 million to USD 44.939 billion, the RBI ..