The liquidity deficit in the banking system widened to Rs 1.22 trillion on Monday, according to the latest data by the RBI

India's current account deficit declined to USD 10.5 billion or 1.2 per cent of the GDP in October-December quarter from USD 11.4 billion in the previous three months and USD 16.8 billion a year back, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday. Net FDI inflow at USD 8.5 billion during April-December 2023 was lower than USD 21.6 billion during April-December 2022, it said. Also, accretion of foreign exchange reserves (on a BoP basis) was at USD 6.0 billion in October-December (third quarter of current financial year that ends on March 31) compared to an accretion of USD 11.1 billion a year ago. The merchandise trade deficit at USD 71.6 billion was marginally higher than USD 71.3 billion during the third quarter of 2022-23. Services exports grew by 5.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis on the back of rising exports of software, business and travel services. Net services receipts increased both sequentially and from a year ago that helped cushion the current account deficit. In t

Various initiatives from the government and growing investment are going to create more job opportunities during the decade, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday. The last decade of the century was marked by a decline in capital formation in the economy and moderation in credit growth, he said at an event here. "Hopefully, those things are a thing of the past. Non food credit growth is now running close to 20 per cent, balance sheets of companies and banks are in good shape and hiring (is showing improvement)," he said. Quoting 2021-22 data, he said, employment in agriculture declined by 15 lakh, manufacturing and services added 37 lakh jobs each and the construction sector generated 19 lakh jobs, he said. "This trend we hope will continue in the future, as indicated by the robust gross value added growth in manufacturing and construction sectors," he said. Talking about various government initiatives for job creation, Nageswaran said, skill developmen

India's engineering exports to Russia doubled to USD 1.22 billion till February during the 2023-24 fiscal, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India said on Tuesday. The shipments to the country stood at USD 616.68 million in the previous fiscal, it said. The exports to the US dipped seven per cent year-on-year to USD 15.95 billion during this period, EEPC said in a statement. In case of China, engineering shipments to that country saw a marginal decline to USD 2.38 billion from USD 2.40 billion in the period under review, it said. Exports to the UAE and Australia, with which India had signed an FTA, remained positive. Till February, shipments to the UAE rose 16 per cent on-year to USD 5.22 billion, while those to Australia was higher by five per cent at USD 1.30 billion. Cumulative engineering exports during April-February (2023-24) stood at USD 98.03 billion as against USD 96.84 billion in the corresponding period a year ago, the statement said. In the last few mont

Persistent intervention by the RBI in the foreign exchange market over the past several months had dampened exchange rate volatility

'India likely to see rate cuts of up to 75 basis points in calendar year 2024'

The regulatory actions would enhance the operational resilience of the system, says the rating agency

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) heightened regulatory scrutiny of lenders will improve governance and curtail exuberant lending but may raise their cost of capital as well as slow loan growth, S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday.

Rajan said it was "nonsense" to talk of that goal "if so many of your kids don't have a high school education" and drop-out rates are high

Agency's projection is lower than the Reserve Bank of India's and the government's growth estimate of 7%

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's visit to Singapore and his meetings with the country's top leadership presented an opportunity to take stock of the progress in several areas of cooperation and further deepen the bilateral Strategic Partnership, an official statement said. Jaishankar was in Singapore from March 23 to 25 during which he called on Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong. They exchanged views on deepening engagement in the identified pillars of bilateral cooperation, including fintech, digitalisation, green economy, skills development and food security, India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Monday. Jaishankar also held discussions with his counterpart Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. He had several bilateral engagements with the leadership and senior ministers of the Cabinet and discussed ways to further the strateg

All 56 economists in the March 15-22 Reuters poll expected the RBI to hold the repo rate at 6.50% at the conclusion of its April 3-5 meeting

Brent crude rose 23 cents to $86.98 a barrel by 0118 GMT. US crude futures climbed 28 cents to $82.23

Bank employees did so without their concurrence to achieve enrolment targets set for them

Both benchmarks fell less than 1% last week versus the previous week. A stronger US dollar, which rose about 1% over the last week, has kept a lid on prices

EAM Jaishankar also engaged in discussions with prominent corporate figures from the country who offered positive feedback on India's growth story

In January last year, 830,047 subscribers joined the EPF. This data is crucial as only the formal workforce enjoys social security benefits and is protected by labour laws

Retirement fund body EPFO added a net 16.02 lakh subscribers in January 2024, according to payroll data released on Sunday. Around 8.08 lakh members were enrolled for the first time in January 2024, a labour ministry statement said on Sunday. The Employees' Provident Fund Organization's (EPFO) provisional payroll highlighted that the EPFO has added 16.02 lakh members on a net basis in January 2024, the ministry said. A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 56.41 per cent of the total new members added in January 2024 indicating the majority of individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers. The payroll data highlighted that approximately 12.17 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, ..

The envisioned project aims to elevate VO Chidambaranar Port into the inaugural transshipment hub on India's East Coast

A combination of policy changes such as bankruptcy law and taxation code and the enabling environment created by the digital public infrastructure has made India an attractive investment destination for the financial technology sector, a senior World Economic Forum (WEF) official said. In a video interview with PTI, Matthew Blake, Head of the Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems at the WEF said India has been one of the best-performing markets in the world and investors have made money here. Blake also struck a word of caution saying that since markets do not move in a purely linear fashion and were prone to "ups and downs", there was a need to educate investors. "So this idea of being an informed investor, a diversified investor, and having access to educational resources to do that is really fundamental artificial intelligence (AI)," he said. "I think a combination of different policy choices that have been made make India quite an attractive investment destination. In addit