Major investments to drive state's economic growth and job creation, says CM

India has eliminated extreme poverty, a commentary authored by economists Surjit Bhalla and Karan Bhasin in a leading American think-tank The Brookings Institution said, citing the just released consumption expenditure data for 2022-23. In the article, the two noted economists cite the data to say real per capita consumption has grown 2.9 per cent per annum since 2011-12, with rural growth at 3.1 per cent being significantly higher than urban growth of 2.6 per cent. Also, there has been an unprecedented decline in urban and rural inequality. The urban Gini declined from 36.7 to 31.9; the rural Gini declined from 28.7 to 27.0. The Gini coefficient, or the Gini index, measures the inequality of income distribution, whereas a higher value closer to one (or 100 per cent) represents greater inequality. "In the annals of inequality analysis, this decline is unheard of, and especially in the context of high per capita growth," the article states. High growth and a large decline in inequa

A tripartite agreement between TIPRA Motha and the governments of Tripura and India was signed on Saturday in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to bring a "lasting solution" to the problems of the state's indigenous people. With the signing of the agreement, the government has respected history, corrected past wrongs and accepted the present reality to proceed towards a brighter future, Shah said. "I assure all stakeholders of Tripura that you won't have to fight for your rights anymore. The government of India will be two steps ahead in creating mechanisms to safeguard your rights," he said at an event held at North Block here. The home minister said no one can change history but everyone can learn from their past mistakes and move ahead. He said the Tripura Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, popularly known as TIPRA Motha, and all tribal parties have played a constructive role and the BJP government in Tripura also worked sincerely towards this agreement. Sha

Countries agree to renew the e-commerce moratorium until next ministerial

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil development projects worth more than Rs 34,800 crore in Bihar on Saturday. Besides, the PM will unveil multiple projects in the oil and gas sector, worth about Rs 1.48 lakh crore, spread across various states from here, an official statement said. This will be Modi's first visit to Bihar since the BJP-led NDA got a shot in the arm with the return of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U). The PM will unveil multiple development projects worth Rs 21,400 crore in Aurangabad around 2.30 pm. He will then travel to Begusarai where he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of projects worth more than Rs 13,400, the statement said. From the function in Begusarai, he will unveil the oil and gas sector projects which are spread across Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Punjab and Karnataka along with the KG Basin. Modi will dedicate the 'first oil' from the KG Basin to the nation and will flag off the first crude oil tanker

Emphasisng the importance of securing their well-being, Goyal stated, "I think that India has successfully delivered on the issues that were our role and has achieved the outcomes that we expected"

The rupee appreciated by 0.1 per cent against the US Dollar in the week on the back of foreign inflows

Road transport is estimated to account for over 70 per cent of domestic freight demand

The ministry made the announcement on the day when it launched the second round of auction for the 18 strategic mineral blocks valued at Rs 30 trillion

The ongoing WTO 13th ministerial conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi, which was supposed to end on February 29, has been extended by a day due to the logjam over key issues

The manufacturing sector, too, gathered momentum in February on the back of expansion in new export orders and easing of pricing pressures

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said many countries are negotiating to start trade in rupee as the country's fundamentals are strong and the Indian unit has been "mostly stable" against most of the international currencies. Addressing the Pandit Hriday Nath Kunzru Memorial Lectures 2024 at JNU, Sitharaman also said India has opened up every sector for private investments and will extend fiscal and policy support to sunrise sectors like artificial intelligence, semiconductors and manufacturing using innovative tools. "Indian Rupee being mostly stable against most of the international currencies except for the US dollar, where it had volatility. But even in that case, compared to many other currencies, the Indian rupee has been far more stable even against the US dollar. "And therefore, you find countries today wanting to have trade relations built on rupee trade," said Sitharaman while addressing students and professors at her alma mater. "As a central university, JNU

Coal-producing states earned a revenue of Rs 1.52 lakh crore in the last nine years from royalty, District Mineral Foundation (DMF) and National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET). State-wise and year-wise data indicate that the coal mining sector is a very significant contributor to the revenue of states including Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, the Coal Ministry said in a statement. "During 2014-2023, total revenue from royalty, DMF & NMET of all coal-producing states through coal mining sector is Rs 1,52,696 crore," the ministry said. The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of the revenue from coal mining during 2014-2023 was 13.80 per cent, it said. Coal mining sector has proved to be a big booster for economic growth of the states that produce fossil fuel. State governments are entitled to receive 14 per cent of royalty on the sale price of coal and 30 per cent of the royalty as contribution towards the proposed district mineral foundations (DMFs)-- which ..

India's forex reserves jumped by USD 2.975 billion to USD 619.072 billion for the week ended February 23, the Reserve Bank said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had dropped by USD 1.132 billion to USD 616.097 billion. For the week ending February 23, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by USD 2.405 billion to USD 548.188 billion. 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 increased by USD 472 million to USD 47.848 088 billion during the week, the RBI said. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were up by USD 89 million to USD 18.197 billion, the apex bank said. India's reserve position with the IMF was up by USD 9 million to USD 4.839 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed. India's forex reserves hit an all-time high of USD 645 billion in

Government data showed fertiliser subsidies in the October-December quarter declined by nearly 70% to 307 billion rupees ($3.7 billion) from the same period a year ago

The average monthly gross collection for the current fiscal stood at Rs 1.67 lakh crore, exceeding Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the last fiscal

The latest PMI figure comes a day after the National Statistical Office (NSO) data showed that India's GDP grew by 8.4 per cent in the October-December quarter

Adani group will invest about Rs 75,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh in power plants, building Mahakaal Expressway, and setting up cement grinding units in coming years, a top group executive said on Friday. The apples-to-airport group has already invested almost Rs 18,000 crore in the state and will continue investing in diverse sectors, said Pranav Adani, Managing Director (Agro, Oil and Gas) and Director of Adani Enterprises at the Regional Industry Conclave here. "Currently, our presence in Madhya Pradesh spans a wide range of sectors - from roads, cement, and natural resources to thermal power, renewable energy and power transmission," he said. "Our faith in your (chief minister Mohan Yadav's) visionary leadership will see us investing close to Rs 75,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh," he added. He, however, did not indicate a time frame for the investment. Of this, the group will invest Rs 5,000 crore in building the Mahakaal Expressway from Ujjain to Bhopal, through Indore. "We will

The GDP growth for the current financial year could be within striking distance of 8 per cent, a study by the State Bank of India (SBI) said on Friday, a day after India posted an 8.4 per cent growth in the December quarter, and revised upwards the estimates for the preceding two quarters. "The third quarter GDP numbers jolted the psyche and cognitive framework of most in markets, while sweeping some by a pleasant surprise. Clearly, right policy prisms and perspectives can trump irrational expectations bordering fault lines," SBI said in its research report 'Ecowrap'. It noted that defying all estimates, the economy grew 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2023-24 after exhibiting more than 8 per cent growth in the preceding two quarters. The buoyancy in indirect tax mop-up (32 per cent year-on-year growth), gap between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Value Added (GVA) growth widened. "For fiscal 2023-24 GDP growth is expected to increase 7.6 per cent and GVA growth by 6.9

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