Lower supplies for the second consecutive week finally led to the coupons on state debt to fall from the two-year high at the latest auction held on Tuesday, and the weighted average cut-off eased by 7 bps to 7.65 per cent. For the past two weeks, despite poor supplies states were forced to offer very high returns, which had touched 7.72 per cent last week, the highest in the past two years. Nine states raised Rs 19,200 crore by selling state government securities on Tuesday, 32 per cent lower than the amount indicated for this week in the auction calendar. Following this and the dip in the core-CPI inflation, the weighted average cut-off dipped to 7.65 per cent from a high 7.72 per cent last week, despite the weighted average tenor increasing to 16 years from 11, Icra Ratings chief economist Aditi Nayar said in a note. Moreover, she said the spread between the cut-off of the 10-year state bonds and the 10-year benchmark G-sec yield declined to 50 bps from 54 bps last week. So far

Li said China, with a rapidly urbanizing population of 1.4 billion people, would play an important role in boosting aggregate global demand

RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma has said that capacity utilization has been slowly increasing and private capital expenditure would pick up in the coming years. Varma further noted that in the last couple of years, the government has shouldered the burden of investment, while private capital expenditure has been muted. "At the same time, capacity utilization has been slowly creeping up and it is approaching levels that prompt the private sector to undertake capital expenditure at least in some sectors," he told PTI. Moreover, Varma, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad said large public sector infrastructure investment of the recent years has the potential to crowd-in private sector investments. "On the whole, I am hopeful that private capital expenditure would pick-up in the coming years, and pick-up the baton from the public sector," he said. Asked whether India can escape the middle income trap, Varma said it is imperative that

Despite various challenges arising out of geopolitical tension and tight financial conditions in major advanced economies, India's engineering goods exports recorded a year-on-year growth of 10.20 per cent to USD 10.04 billion in December 2023. While this represents a strong rebound, the sector still faces uncertainties due to the prevailing global economic conditions, an EEPC official said. "It has been a challenging period for engineering exporters. Tensions in Europe and now in West Asia have posed significant downside risks," Engineering Export Promotion Council of India Chairman Arun Kumar Garodia said. "Projections indicate a potential slowdown in global growth in 2024, and factors such as high interest rates and low consumer spending are expected to continue affecting the sector this year," he said. Considering these factors, EEPC maintains a cautious optimism and hopes that geo-political tension will ease, leading to an improvement in the global macroeconomic situation, ...

As nearly 3,000 global leaders assembled here to discuss challenges and crises facing the world, the host World Economic Forum on Tuesday said trust and cooperation are a must in a connected yet divided world. It said the most challenging issues before the world including on security, climate and cyber fronts are not limited by borders and they travel without passports, but cooperation was still possible and was happening. WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said this occasion should be used as an opportunity to rebuild trust in each other. At the first plenary of the WEF Annual Meeting 2024, Schwab said the world today may be more connected geographically but it is also a lot more divided and fragmented. "We are also seeing unprecedented risks on technology front," he said. "Let's use this meeting to rebuild trust in each of us for the future of humanity," he said. WEF president Borge Brende said, "We have nearly 3,000 participants from more than 125 countries here at

Traders and processors will benefit from a zero base import tax until the end of March next year, according to a finance ministry notification

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday asserted that India can become a five trillion dollar economy much before 2028 and said the country's energy transition needs to be done in an orderly manner to safeguard the interests of its large population. Puri, the minister for petroleum and natural gas as well as housing and urban affairs, said India is aware of its commitments towards sustainability goals and will meet all the targets in time while meeting the requirements of a growing economy. He was speaking at a CII-EY breakfast session on 'accelerating India's energy transition towards sustainable economic growth' on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024. "I don't think we need to wait till 2028 to become a five trillion dollar economy, and if you look at what is happening, it should happen much before 2028," he said while listing various macroeconomic parameters. "I also think that the transition has to be orderly because transition by nature has to ha

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) added 15.92 lakh new members in November 2023, according to provisional payroll data released on Tuesday. Around 20,830 new establishments were registered and brought under the social security umbrella of ESIC in November ensuring more coverage, the labour ministry said in a statement. The data shows that more jobs were generated for the youth during the month as out of the total 15.92 lakh employees added, 7.47 lakh, which constituted 47 per cent of the total registrations, were up to the age group of 25 years. Net enrolment of female members was 3.17 lakh in November 2023, according to the data. A total of 58 transgender employees were registered under ESI Scheme in November. It shows that ESIC is committed to delivering its benefits to every section of the society, the ministry stated. The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise.

Move seeks to ensure adequate quantities for ethanol blending and keep inflation in check

44% of global business leaders expressed a similar opinion about the economy in their countries or territories

Imports from the US grew by 33 per cent, followed by Germany at 27 per cent and the Netherlands at 20 per cent

On Jan. 2, the government had lifted the windfall tax on petroleum crude oil to 2,300 rupees a tonne from 1,300 rupees a tonne

Around 80% of India's goods trade with Europe, estimated at nearly $14 billion a month, normally passes via the Red Sea, according to government estimates

Merchandise imports, meanwhile, grew 8.45 per cent to $58.25 billion, boosted by gold imports

The fall in US Treasury yields and foreign portfolio investor (FPI) inflows further aided rupee and bonds

'Ten years of this growth we have seen, at least another five years of a strong majority government will end up institutionalising those policies to a fair extent,' Bajaj said in an interview in Davos

This is the second consecutive month that the wholesale inflation rate had remained in the positive territory after it had recorded deflation for seven consecutive months until October 2023

U.S. yields eased last week after December producer prices data fell unexpectedly, raising bets of an early interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve

The exports of computer software and services, including IT enabled services and BPO, logged 12.2 per cent growth during 2022-23 to touch USD 193 billion, according to estimates by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). The IT software/services chunk accounted for the bulk of this at USD 126 billion, followed by BPO services (USD 52 billion). "In value terms, export of the IT/ITeS/and BPO during 2022-23 is estimated at USD 193 billion, up from USD 172 billion estimated in the year 2021-22, registering a growth of 12.21 per cent, which is mostly contributed by IT software/services at USD 126 billion, followed by BPO services (USD 52 billion), software products development (USD 5.1 billion), engineering services (USD 9 billion)...," Sandeep Narula, Chairman of ESC said in a release. Narula said the growth of BPO services at 14.63 per cent and 13.33 per cent growth of IT products are good indications since global trading of these segments would go up ...

As many as 2,975 government recognised startups have been granted income tax exemptions so far, a senior official said on Monday. Under the Startup India , the government provides income tax exemption. Joint Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sanjiv said that as on December 31 last year, 1,17,254 startups have been recognised by the department. "The number of startups getting income tax benefits was 1,100 till March 2023 and now it has increased to 2,975 startups," he told reporters here. He added that they are in the process of formulating a standard operating procedure for examining and fast-tracking applications for granting eligibility certificates. This certificate is required to claim tax exemptions. The Startup India Action Plan was announced in 2016.