Economy

Modi Govt @ 8 | A look back at Indian economy’s journey over the last eight years

The universal Aadhaar identity, and widespread use of fintech for direct benefit transfers, made delivery of benefits efficient, and eliminated corruption

Food crisis fuels fears of protectionism compounding shortages

A growing world food crisis is precipitating protectionist moves by countries which are likely to compound the problem and could lead to a wider trade war, business leaders and policymakers at the World Economic Forum said.

Record US reverse repos highlight problem of investing excess cash

The Fed's reverse repo window attracted a record $2.045 trillion on Monday, as financial institutions continued to flood the facility with liquidity in exchange for Treasury collateral. Monday's volume was one of a string of record highs for RRPs

Dollar slides to one-month low as Lagarde comments boost euro

Lagarde's comments implied an increase of at least 50 basis points to the ECB deposit rate and kept speculation alive of bigger rate hikes this summer to fight record-high inflation, partly due to rising energy prices over Russia's war against Ukraine as well as massive public-sector stimulus the pandemic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Softbank chief Masayoshi Son

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met Softbank Corporation founder and CEO Masayoshi Son to discuss the Japanese investment firm’s future participation in Indian technology, energy, finance, and R&D sectors.

'Excise duty cut to help reduce logistics cost; promote exports'

Excise duty cut on petrol and diesel and rationalisation of customs duties on goods such as raw material for plastic and steel will help reduce logistics cost, promote competitiveness of manufacturing and exports of value-added goods, exporters said on Sunday.

Karnataka CM Bommai boasts about Karnataka's number one position in FDI inflow, as he leaves for Davos

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday boasted about the state's number one position across the country in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow, as he departed to the Swiss ski resort town of Davos, to take part in the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

Maharashtra slashes VAT on petrol and diesel

A day after the Centre reduced excise duty on fuel, the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government on Sunday slashed the VAT on petrol by Rs 2.08 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.44 per litre.

Excise Cut: Industry, traders urge states to follow suit and bring more relief to consumers

The traders' body also nudged states to follow the footsteps of the central government and reduce the rates of Value Added Tax (VAT) to provide substantial relief to the public from inflation.

FM rebuts Opposition flak on excise duty cuts, says move does not impact state sharing of taxes

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday rebutted the Opposition's criticism of excise duty cut impacting share of states in central taxes, saying the Rs 8 a litre cut in petrol and Rs 6 reduction in diesel have been done in road and infrastructure cess levied on the two fuels, collection on which was never shared with states.

Cost overruns of Rs 4.83 lakh crore impact 425 infra projects

Reasons for time overruns as reported by various project implementing agencies include delay in land acquisition, delay in obtaining forest and environment clearances, and lack of infrastructure support and linkages

Student admissions | Nine central universities get exemption from UGC's common entrance test

State governments wrote to the Union Education Ministry and sought exemption from CUET this year even as UGC wanted to make CUET-UG mandatory.

Rupee inches 3 paise higher to close at 77.53 against US dollar

The rupee finally ended at 77.53, higher by 3 paise over its previous close of 77.56. According to Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, the lack of dollar demand and rebound in domestic equities augur well for the rupee.

How India can end dependence on Russian weapons

 Switching to Western platforms is too expensive. Instead, the country needs to do the hard work of developing a viable domestic defence industry.

UGC forms committee, finalising rules to allow foreign universities to open campuses in India

The higher education regulator has already been approached by a few foreign institutions to open their campuses in India, says UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar

Exclusive | Commerce Department pushed to keep wheat exports open but agri ministry wanted ban

The government argues the ban will simply redirect Indian wheat to countries that need it most. Officials told Moneycontrol that the decision was deeply unpopular among all stakeholder-ministries. It was chosen by the PMO after no feasible alternative was found to control prices and shore up procurement

Magic prices warned of India’s sticky inflation, so how did the RBI not notice?

Easy-to-remember retail prices are important to both budget-conscious consumers and brands. When a 10-rupee detergent starts selling for 12, policy makers are already looking at entrenched inflation.

Private wheat exports only banned to redirect shipments to nations which need it more: Officials

This comes in the backdrop of wheat production estimated for 2022-23 now falling to 105 million tonnes, from the earlier 113.5 million tonnes estimated.

India's forex reserves fall $1.774 billion to $595.954 billion

During the reporting week, the fall in the reserves was on account of a decline in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, and gold reserves, as per RBI's weekly data.

US Senate confirms Powell for second term as Fed chief in bipartisan vote

Powell, who has been on the Fed's Board of Governors since 2012, was first appointed to head the central bank by Donald Trump, who soon soured on him for a series of rate hikes that irked the former Republican president

India in a relatively stronger position than many other countries: Finance secretary

Saying that the fiscal situation was less challenging last year, T V Somanathan stressed that the government will work on maintaining growth and fiscal stability, while the primary responsibility of controlling inflation lies with the Reserve Bank of India.

Bajaj Finserv Chairman and MD Sanjiv Bajaj elected as new CII president

Industry lobby new office bearers for 2022-23 have Pawan Munjal as President-Designate and R Dinesh as Vice President.

Rupee recovers from all-time low, settles 15 paise lower at 77.40 against US dollar

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened steeply lower at 77.52 against the greenback and plunged to its all-time intra-day low of 77.63.