Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday said he is resolute in leading the state to its ambitious target of becoming a USD 1 trillion economy as the state government secured investment MoUs worth Rs 3.53 lakh crore (USD 44 billion) this week at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The state also received an expression of interest for an additional Rs 1 lakh crore investment, taking the total to Rs 4.5 lakh crore (nearly USD 57 billion) with a potential to create about two lakh jobs across sectors, including electronics, IT, data centres, gems and jewellery, agriculture, automobile and renewable energy, an official statement said. During his visit here accompanied by Industries Minister Uday Samant and several senior officials, Shinde signed 19 MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding). Presenting Maharashtra as the premier investment hub under the theme "Bringing Confidence during a changing World", Shinde held meetings with a large number of global political leaders, industr

The study by the state-run bank sums the number of employees of close to 3,000 companies in the corporate sector in the past five years

Skymet cites early trends, predict 'normal' monsoon in 2024

The chairman said the decline seen in e-NPS (voluntary accounts) was responsible for the slow pace of enrolments this year

Retail inflation for farm workers and rural labourers increased marginally to 7.71 per cent and 7.46 per cent in December compared to 7.37 per cent and 7.13 per cent, respectively, in November due to higher prices of certain food items. Food inflation stood at 9.95 per cent and 9.80 per cent in December 2023, compared to 9.38 per cent and 9.14 per cent, respectively, in November 2023. Food inflation for farm workers and rural labourers was 5.89 per cent and 5.76 per cent, respectively, in December 2022, a labour ministry statement said. According to the statement, point to point rate of inflation based on the CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index-Agricultural Labourers) and CPI-RL (rural labourers) stood at 7.71 per cent and 7.46 per cent in December 2023 compared to 7.37 per cent and 7.13 per cent, respectively, in November 2023. It was 6.38 per cent and 6.60 per cent for farm workers and rural labourers, respectively, during December 2022. The All-India Consumer Price Index Number for ..

The privatised highway construction model has been a flop, prompting reforms

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Chairman Deepak Mohanty on Friday said the total corpus under the National Pension System and Atal Pension Yojana has crossed Rs 11 lakh crore. The milestone of Rs 11 lakh crore asset under management (AUM) was achieved on January 10, 2024, he told reporters here. The AUM has increased from Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore in 4 months 18 days (August 24, 2023 to January 10, 2024), he said, adding the private sector AUM crossed Rs 2 lakh crore. The authority in September revised the AUM target of Rs 12 lakh crore for the current fiscal. The pension authority is working on a minimum assured pension plan, and it could become a reality in the next financial year if the guarantee issued is resolved. "There are a lot of complications in determining the rate of return, what to set as the bar for return. Fund managers are also thinly capitalised. So, you have to keep a check on their liabilities also," Mohanty said. Asked

India's forex reserves jumped USD 1.634 billion to USD 618.937 billion for the week ended January 12, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had declined sharply by USD 5.89 billion to USD 617.3 billion. The country's forex kitty had reached an all-time high of USD 645 billion in October 2021. The reserves took a hit as the central bank deployed the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments since last year. For the week ended January 12, the foreign currency assets -- a major component of the reserves -- increased USD 1.859 billion to USD 548.508 billion, the data said. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound, and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves. Gold reserves were down USD 242 million to USD 47.247 billion during the week, the RBI said. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

The MSME sector wants Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to come out with a special package for small and medium enterprises to ensure greater availability of institutional credit at competitive rates to enable it to play a bigger role as India moves closer to becoming a USD 5 trillion economy. Sitharaman is scheduled to present the interim Budget 2023-24 in the Lok Sabha on February 1. This will be the last major economic document of the government before the next general elections. The share of MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) sector in the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021-22 was 29.15 per cent. On expectations from the Budget, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) said the relationship between banks and MSME is an uneven one with the balance of power heavily tilted in favour of the lenders. "Lack of competition in the banking sector (75 per cent of banks being public sector) and weak regulatory institutions, which have not .

Backed by high traffic growth, India will need more than 2,500 new aircraft deliveries by 2042, Darren Hulst, Boeing vice-president of Commercial Marketing said on Friday. Addressing a press conference, Hulst said to meet rising passenger and cargo demand, South Asian carriers are projected to quadruple the size of their fleets over the next two decades and they will require more than 2,705 new airplanes to address growth and fleet replacement. "Over 92 per cent of that (2,705) or over 2,500 (aircraft India will need) by 2042. It is based on the (forecast given in) middle of the last year," he told reporters. "We project that carriers here (South Asia including India) will need more than 2,700 aircraft deliveries by the year 2042," he said, adding a similar composition of the fleet with more than 2,300 single aisle, nearly 400 wide body aircraft for long haul. According to Boeing, India is the only large economy, a large market in Asia that has evolved to pre-pandemic levels both .

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will opt for a further reduction in fiscal deficit to 5.3 per cent of India's gross domestic product in the upcoming budget for FY25 despite poll pressure, a foreign brokerage said on Friday. The government will meet the FY24 commitment to reduce the important number to 5.9 per cent, BofA Securities said in a note. "We see Centre's fiscal deficit to consolidate further to 5.3 per cent of GDP, despite poll pressure," its analysts wrote in a note. The government will opt for continuing with its strategy of consolidating fiscal deficit through capital expenditure driven growth instead of expenditure compression, it said. The brokerage said digitization-led formalization has aided the fiscal math through tax buoyancy on one side and reducing wasteful expenditure (subsidy leakage) on the other. The government had earlier committed to reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent by FY26 as part of its glide path to gradually reduce the gap, which is seen

The country's wheat production is expected to be good this year amid higher coverage, according to Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda. The sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, that began in October has been completed. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab are the top three states having the maximum area under wheat coverage. "As per the sowing data, wheat has been covered in more area and we expect good production this year," Munda told PTI. As per the ministry's data, the total acreage under the wheat crop remained higher at 336.96 lakh hectares till the last week of the current rabi season of the 2023-24 crop year (July-June), as against 335.67 lakh hectares in the year-ago period. On January 3, Food Corporation of India Chairman and Managing Director Ashok K Meena indicated that the country could achieve a new record in wheat production at 114 million tonnes in the ongoing 2023-24 crop year provided weather conditions remain normal. Wheat production stood at a record

The cooperation between India and Singapore in the field of green finance has a promising future, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery has said, asserting that the two countries can work within the framework laid out in the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration on sustainable finance. The three-day Singapore visit of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog's vice-chairperson came under the Distinguished Visitors Programme (DVP) of Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It aimed to strengthen bilateral ties and foster mutual cooperation across all levels, according to the foreign affairs ministry here. India and Singapore can make something quickly and important happen in terms of green finance-climate finance within the framework that has been laid out in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration on sustainable finance, he said after concluding the visit to understand thinking among planners in the city-state. Adopted on September 9 last year, the G20 New Delhi Leaders'

Japanese drinks maker Suntory is prioritising expansion in India while taking a cautious stance on business in China

India on Thursday announced here a new alliance for global good, gender equity and equality, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, with the WEF Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab offering to partner this initiative with full support. The announcement was made at an India Reception on the sidelines of the WEF Annual Meeting, hosted by apex industry chamber CII and attended by union ministers Smriti Irani and Hardeep Singh Puri as well as WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab, among others. The idea of this alliance emerged from the G20 Leaders' Declaration and India's abiding commitment to the cause of women-led development as propounded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said. As a follow-up to the activities of the Engagement Group and initiatives under the G20 framework, the Business 20, Women 20 and G20 EMPOWER, this alliance aims to take forward the commitments of the G20 leaders for the benefit of t

GCCs are offshore units of multinational corporations that operate across the globe

Widely regarded as transient, these shocks appear to have imparted volatility and persistence to food inflation which averaged 6.7 per cent during April 2022 to November 2023, it said

Das said the central bank had not mandated any number on credit deposit ratio, and neither do they propose to

It says headline inflation must align with 4% target by second quarter

Swaminathan highlighted that the aforementioned remark was the central bank's expectation from the top management and board of regulated entities