Indian Economy Review | June 2020
H I G H L I G H T S Moody’s paints a gloomy picture S&P softens the Moody’s blow Growth may recover, but indebtedness will rise Different strokes from Moody’s and S&P China story remains unscathed Booster dose for Indian agriculture Freeing up inter-state farm trading Leg-up for contract farming, with pre-fixed farm prices […]
Indian Economy Review | May 2020
Surprises galore in the Modi package The Narendra Modi government sprang a series of surprises on almost every commentator and critic, who had been wondering how it would meet its commitment of rolling out as large an economic package as Rs 20 lakh crore to counter the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the economy. On […]
Indian Economy Review | April 2020
Making growth forecasts post-Covid becomes more difficult How serious will be the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on India’s economic growth? The range of estimates on India’s growth of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020-21 is quite wide and, therefore, puzzling. It is difficult to state with certainty at this point in time which forecast […]
Indian Economy Review | March 2020
Corona response; impact on the economy What appeared very distant just two months ago became a danger signal next door within a few weeks and has now engulfed the whole nation as a full-blown crisis with an unprecedented impact on the country’s health and economy. On January 30, the first Coronavirus case was confirmed in […]
Indian Economy Review | February 2020
Coronavirus impact: No signs of an improvement in economic outlook The economic outlook showed no signs of any improvement in February. The impact of the outbreak of coronavirus, starting from Wuhan in the Hubei province of China and now threatening to engulf many other countries, will be felt not just in terms of the loss […]
SPECIAL ISSUE: Union Budget Review by Mr A K Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | February 2020
REVIEW OF THE UNION BUDGET 2020 The maths behind the headline fiscal deficit number Extra-Budget borrowing up, raising both transparency and concern A big jump in disinvestment target, making execution the key Banking on non-tax revenues again, but worrying drop in PSU dividends Tax initiatives: Away from exemptions, but dividend tax for recipients Concerns over […]
Indian Economy Review | January 2020
Mixed signals for the financial sector; more resilient but NPAs may rise While many banks have begun reporting better financial performance (ICICI Bank declared a 158 per cent jump in its net profit for the third quarter of 2019-20, for instance), the overall prospects for India’s financial sector appear to be quite mixed. A quick […]
India Economic Review | December 2019
Growth worries persist, but where are the green shoots? Managers of the Indian economy so far have had no respite from worries over an economic slowdown. On November 29, the Central Statistics Office released the gross domestic product (GDP) numbers for July-September 2019, which placed growth at 4.5 per cent, a six-year low. Coming on […]
India Economic Review | November 2019
Privatisation gets a boost, but a few areas of concern The Narendra Modi government has now sent out signals that it is not averse to the idea of privatisation in a few select cases. On November 20, the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs took three important decisions. One, it approved privatisation of three state-controlled […]