Economy

The ‘clean banking’ drive has started showing results with public sector banks (PSBs) increasingly adopting prudent business approach, replacing aggressive lending practices, said Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar. “The NPA crisis brought an opportunity for the introduction of responsible and responsive banking. All the PSBs, which [collectively] have about 75% …

With the rupee recently weakening past Rs. 70 to a dollar and hovering about that level since, concerns over the impact of the devaluation on economic indicators are intensifying. Here is what happens when the rupee falls: What happens to inflation? One of the first visible effects of currency depreciation …

India’s current account deficit (CAD) will widen to 2.5% of the GDP in the current fiscal due to the higher oil prices that has been accentuated by rupee depreciation, Moody’s and other experts said. The rupee last week slid to a record low of 70.32 to a U.S. dollar as …

India’s economic growth seems to be back on a recovery path and the country will be on a firm 7.5%-plus growth track this fiscal, former Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Virmani said on Sunday. He further said the U.S.-China tariff war provides an opportunity to increase India’s exports to the …

The government on Sunday clarified that the back-series GDP data purportedly released by it was just a draft using one of the several possible calculation methods, and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation would announce the results when it settled on a final method. “It is clarified through this …

India’s PC shipments notched a healthy 28.1% growth in April-June 2018 to 2.25 million units, buoyed by strong notebook demand, research firm IDC India said. On the pecking order of vendors, IDC said, HP Inc. maintained its leadership with a market share of 31.6% during the quarter followed by Dell …

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel has urged payment system operators to ensure adequate attention is paid to ensuring cybersecurity and redressing customer grievances. “Operators should ensure that no corner is cut regarding cybersecurity — after all, in a network environment we are only as strong as the …

With urban India responsible for an increasingly large share of the national GDP, the Centre now hopes to bring out city-level GDP data. This could help both cities and investors make wise decisions, and also help municipal bodies raise funds for their own infrastructure needs, according to a senior official …

Points to headwinds from elevated global crude prices and minimum support prices for kharif crops as reason. India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised its FY19 economic growth forecast down to 7.2% from 7.4% earlier. It cited the headwinds emanating from elevated global crude oil prices and the government’s decision …

Tea growers see an opportunity to boost the competitiveness of Indian tea in the global market, riding on the rupee’s recent weakness. India’s tea exports remained flat at 46.8 million kg between April and June compared to a year earlier although prices increased marginally. Arijit Raha, secretary general, ITA concurred …

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has upgraded the unified payments interface (UPI) with enhanced security features and overdraft facilities. Unveiling the UPI 2.0 on Thursday, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said that the upgraded UPI was the result of the calibrated approach adopted by RBI in the initial years …

Foreign exchange reserves have declined by $23 billion in the last four months, and stood at $402.7 billion as of the week ended August 3, 2018. The weak trend in the global markets along with the fall in the rupee affected investor sentiment in the equity market as well, with …

Aluminium makers hit by coal shortage, says FIMI Aluminium makers are facing shortage of coal to run their captive power plants which has hit their refinery and smelting operations adversely, according to the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI). Captive power plants of aluminium makers are not getting coal even …

State-run power giant NTPC will soon set up a subsidiary to handle its coal mining operations and also plans to enter commercial coal mining after meeting its requirement, an official said. The power sector behemoth also has a plan to list the coal subsidiary subsequently on stock exchanges. “The NTPC …

Tata Steel Ltd. CEO and MD T.V. Narendran on Wednesday said the steel sector had been witnessing a positive growth and this trend would continue with improving economic activities across the world. Talking to reporters after hoisting the Tricolour on the occasion of the 72nd Independence Day at Tata Steel …

Union Minister Arun Jaitley said India has sufficient foreign exchange reserves to mitigate any undue volatility in the currency market. His comment comes a day after the rupee fell sharply to breach the 70-mark against the dollar for the first time. In a series of tweets, Mr. Jaitley said that …

State-run lender IDBI Bank, which is set to be taken over by the Life Insurance Corporation of India, may face a capital shortfall in the current financial year, its chief executive officer and managing director B. Sriram said in an address to the employees. “While we have met the capital …

While the governments at the Centre and States have taken proactive steps to encourage electric vehicles (EVs), on-ground hurdles such as high levels of corruption at the regional transport offices (RTOs) could hold back the sector, according to Goldie Srivastava, CEO of SmartE, an electric vehicle solution provider that has …

India shipped larger quantities of tea to two neighbouring countries — China and Pakistan — in the first half of 2018, when overall tea exports increased to 112.1 million kg, from 107.1 million kg in the year earlier period. According to data with the Tea Board, total earnings between January …

Inflation at the wholesale level slowed to 5.09% in July largely due to a cooling down of food price inflation, according to official data released on Tuesday. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation was lower than June’s 5.77%. The primary articles category saw growth slowing significantly to 1.73%, from …