With the shifts in global economic order, political landscape and social behavior all taking place simultaneously, it is safe to say we have only begun to get a glimpse of what the other side of the pandemic has in store for humanity. While an industrial revolution was already in progress, the pandemic has accelerated the process and created even more complications.
Demand was subdued despite both input and output prices declining for a second straight month, signaling easing in overall inflation, which would give the central bank room to ease policy further. The RBI has already taken a series of aggressive policy actions, including a cumulative rate cut of 115 basis points, since the lockdown was imposed on March 25.
India's infrastructure output, contributing nearly 40% in industrial production, contracted 38.1% in April from a year earlier, the worst performance in years, government data showed on Friday.
Aadhaar-based authentications touched a record high in April and May, topping 120 crore this month, as the government rolled out direct benefits to people using the Aadhaar platform under the PM Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP).
Predicting recovery graphs, economists add cool shapes to plain vanilla V or U trajectories. There’s the Swoosh, a recovery pattern that looks like Nike’s famous logo. There’s the smoking pipe graph. There’s a W, Z and an L. Entirely predictably, because they can never agree on anything that’s important, different economists are championing different shapes, including in India.
It will be a while before we get back anywhere near the 7-8% growth of the go-go years.
India called for effective use of flexibilities inherent in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) to ensure access to essential medicines, treatments and vaccines to all at affordable prices, especially in the context of the Covid-19.
The day-long virtual event on the theme 'Getting Growth Back' will also witness participation from top corporate honchos like Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal, ITC Ltd CMD Sanjiv Puri, Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar, Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO and CII President-Designate Uday Kotak and CII President Vikram Kirloskar.
In March, the CBIC said the corporate debtors shall be liable to obtain new registration through IRP or RP.
In order to exhibit the model stretches of national highways as per norms, NHAI plans to develop 57 stretches of NH (1,735 kms) across the length and breadth of the country near each state capital, the NHAI official said. These model stretches will serve as a platform to instruct the highway engineers.
Taxpayers including individuals, Hindu undivided family, professionals and businesses, will be able to avail benefits of savings or investments made between April 1 and June 30, following the extension timelines provided by the finance ministry owing to Covid 19 pandemic.
DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said the ecommerce is a fast emerging sector and it is difficult to predict where it will go in the next couple of years. The country do not have e-commerce policy and now the department is currently working on this, he added.
"#JUSTIN Southwest #Monsoon2020 finally arrived on the mainland of India, #Monsoon arrived on Kerala before the actual onset date. All the onset conditions including rainfall, OLR value, wind speed, are met. Finally, the 4-month long festival begins for Indian. #HappyMonsoon (sic)," the private forecaster tweeted.
"We now believe that we should implement an intelligent lockdown exit strategy as the discussion has moved from debate between lives and livelihood to also between lives and lives as an elongated lockdown will only prolong irreversible growth collapse," SBI's research report 'Ecowrap' said.
With support from India under its ‘Development Partnership’ programmes, a number of old railway links are being revived, such as the Chittagong-Dibrugarh line, while new ones such as Mongla Port-Khulna, Agartala-Akhaura are also being developed.
According to the GST framework, large companies cannot claim credits unless their suppliers and vendors have paid the tax. Section 16 of the GST law says that if a vendor does not pay GST to the government, input tax credit will be denied to the buyer.
To face a downturn with a stubbornly elevated cost of borrowing is a recipe for a vicious cycle in which the economy produces and earns little, consumes less, and fetches meager taxes for the government.
The core sector contracted by a record 38% in April as the lockdown hit all eight infrastructure sectors, according to data released separately. Cement output fell 86% while fertilisers and crude oil shrank 4.5% and 6.4%, respectively, in April.
This is the second consecutive contraction in the key economic indicator.
In the last financial year, India attracted USD 14.67 billion in FDI from Singapore, whereas it was USD 8.24 billion from Mauritius, according to the data of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). In 2018-19, Singapore's FDI aggregated at USD 16.22 billion, while that from Mauritius it was USD 8.08 billion.
The training will encompass modules on corporate etiquette, improving inter personal skills, making impactful presentation including other necessary soft skills needed by the industry. The training module is available in two languages, Hindi and English, on the NCS portal.
Indian traders have decided not to do trade with China through Lipulekh pass this year as a precaution against COVID-19. They conveyed their unwillingness to participate in the annual exercise during a preparatory meeting. Officials said there has been no word so far from the Centre as well on border trade as the lockdown against coronavirus continues.
Farmers are trying to lure migrants back by offering them rail tickets and other incentives. Many farmers in Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are trying to mobilise local labourers to prepare nursery beds and sow paddy, which is a very labour-intensive task.
The credit support under special liquidity facility will be extended to state cooperative banks, regional rural banks and micro-finance institutions. The NABARD has already disbursed an amount of Rs 720 crore to state coperative and regional rural banks, he said, adding that disbursements to MFIs will commence shortly.
The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Indian Industries Association (IIA) accounted for three lakh jobs each, while NARDECO and Laghu Udyog Bharati accounted for 2.5 lakh jobs each, UP MSME minister Sidharth Nath Singh said.
During the discussion, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, highlighted the various initiatives undertaken by the government, including the production linked incentive scheme and scheme for promotion of manufacturing of electronic components and semiconductors.
"The decision to open the remaining shops in the malls, will be taken soon, after taking into account the guidelines of the health ministry," the ministry said in a statement.
Covid-19, has led the Indian infrastructure industry to ask the government for big spends so that projects can re-start and jobs can continue to be created. While the announcement of the Rs. 20 lakh crore stimulus package and the report by the task force on National Infra Pipeline (NIP) layoung out a Rs. 111 lakh crore investment for FY2019-2020 to FY2025 are encouraging, industry insiders are waiting for details to feel assured.
The two countries have been negotiating a trade package to iron out certain issues and further boost two-way commerce.
Businesses providing services of everything from technology to travel and trade were the first to be hit by lock down. Unlike manufacturing-heavy economies like China and South Korea, in India, the services sector accounts for 55% of gross domestic product -- and the slump in output has had ripple effects on jobs and economic growth.
The median forecast from a Reuters poll of economists put annual economic growth at 2.1% in the March quarter, lower than 4.7% in the December quarter. Forecasts ranged between +4.5% and -1.5%. Economists expect the fiscal year that began in April will see the worst economic contraction in four decades.
The floor rate for Category I foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), which includes pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, has been set as 0.1% of the assets under management, lower compared to private equity funds, alternate investment funds and Category II FPIs.
The 17.3 million e-way bills generated so far this month are about twice the 8.6 million filed in April. The e-way bill is a document that’s required under the goods and services tax (GST) regime to transport goods.
Under the Maharashtra state road improvement project, two major district roads and 11 state highways, with combined length of 450 km will be upgraded to two-lane standard across seven districts.
Weather conditions are "very likely to become favourable from June 1, 2020" for the monsoon onset over the southern state of Kerala, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.
This was the first meeting of the FSDC, which comprises RBI Governor and other financial sector regulators, since the coronavirus outbreak.
The five pillars of Atma Nirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) are economy, infrastructure, system, vibrant demography and demand.
"The Lockdown has to end. What we really need now is prepare for tracking any outbreak and quickly bringing it under control. That has to be our strategy going forward. You cannot go on increasing the lockdown," Mazumdar-Shaw told.
With this appointment, the lab-to-land innovation company engaged in potato research, cultivation and marketing, is moving a step closer to its vision of improving India’s agricultural yield. Utkal Tubers is committed to innovate and promote sustainable agriculture and improve farmer income.
“While April was a washout with a 60% decline, the fall in exports in May will be 30-35%,” Goyal said at the Digital Summit on Exports organised by CII via video conferencing.
All macroeconomic indicators so far project a sombre picture for the economy.
Brazil's Marcos Troyjo will succeed India’s KV Kamath as president of the New Development Bank (NDB). Elections for the post were held during a special meeting of the bank’s board of governors on Wednesday.
The possibilities include listing some of their Indian entities or creating a holding structure outside India. These companies and their tax consultants are studying ways to minimise their tax outgo, experts said.
A week after markets regulator Sebi asked companies to disclose in detail their estimated and expected losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, disclosures by some of the leading corporates show that loss of revenue, along with the availability of labour and logistics challenges, top the list of hurdles.
Govt plans to register them to enable access to social security and health benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation. The steps are seen to be crucial as the current legal framework is inadequate, something that was exposed by the exodus of migrants, with absence of any kind of record of employment.
S&P Global Ratings on Thursday forecast Indian economy to contract 5 per cent in the current fiscal as the lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed economic activity severely.
Some 122 million Indians were forced out of jobs last month alone, according to CMIE data.
“The HACCP code for export of shrimp has been changed in November. It has not yet been updated by the concerned government department that decides about incentives,” he added.
Deputy Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Chowna Mein and the Vice-Chancellor of Assam Agriculture University (AAU), Jorhat, Prof Ashok Bhattacharya have agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for GI Registration of Khamti Lahi Rice, Tawang Maize and Adi Ginger (Kekir).
"More liquidity needs to be pumped in the market to boost the coronavirus-hit economy and states should come forward with Rs 20 lakh crore, while another Rs 10 lakh crore can be harnessed from public-private investment," Road Transport, Highways and MSME Minister Gadkari said.
