Economic Policy

More than Rs 40,700 crore sanctioned under Stand-Up India Scheme in 7 years

The scheme aims to promote entrepreneurship at the grassroot level focusing on economic empowerment and job creation and has been extended up to the year 2025

'Kerala faced economic hardships due to Centre's unfavourable policies'

Kerala experienced economic hardships due to the unfavourable policy measures taken by the central government, State Finance Minister K N Balagopal said on Friday. Balagopal, who met the media here on the last day of the 2022-23 financial year, said there was a shortage of Rs 40,000 crore in this financial year due to the policies of the Centre. He also said that despite the adverse situations, Kerala managed to perform well in terms of income and expenditure. "Everything including salary, pension and loan repayment were paid correctly. The project cost of local bodies is over 96 per cent. Many panchayats have spent 100 per cent of the fund allotted, and the treasuries functioned without any hitch," Balagopal said. He said judicious financial management helped the state to perform well despite constraints. "Due to the unfavourable policy measure of the Union government, Kerala experienced huge economic hardships. There was a shortfall of Rs 40,000 crore this financial year due to

Eco Survey paints a bright medium-term outlook after an unpredictable year

It says once the global shocks of the pandemic and 2022's unpleasant spike in commodity prices fade away, the Indian economy is likely to record a faster growth during the rest of this decade

German economy shrank 0.2% in Q4 compared to Q3, worse than expected

Germany's economy shrank by 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three-month period, official figures showed Monday. The performance by Europe's biggest economy was worse than expected. Gross domestic product shrank for the first time since the first quarter of 2021 largely because of a decline in consumer spending, which had supported the economy in the first nine months of 2022, the Federal Statistical Office said. The drop followed GDP growth of 0.5 per cent in the third quarter and 0.1 per cent in the second quarter. The statistics office said in mid-January, before it had full December economic data, that the economy appeared to have stagnated in the fourth quarter. Monday's announcement prompted it to revise last year's full-year growth figure down to 1.8 per cent from the 1.9 per cent it initially reported. Germany's annual inflation rate rolled back from a peak of 10.4 per cent in October to 8.6 per cent in December, but galloping prices remain a ma

EAM Jaishankar arrives in Sri Lanka to finalise plans on debt restructuring

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived here for a much-anticipated visit to Sri Lanka to finalise a debt restructuring plan to help Colombo carve out path from its worst economic crisis

We count a lot on India's G-20 leadership: IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva

At a time when the world is faced with continued economic slowdown and social distress, the international community counts a lot on India's leadership of G-20, IMF MD said

Pak PM on two-day visit to UAE to ramp up bilateral economic, trade ties

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif travelled to the UAE on Thursday on a two-day visit aimed at ramping up bilateral economic and trade ties, just days after the country's powerful Army chief General Asim Munir concluded his trip to the Gulf emirate. Sharif is leading a delegation of key ministers on his third visit to the UAE since becoming prime minister in April last year. He was received by UAE's Minister for Economic Affairs Touq Al Mari at Abu Dhabi airport. "My visit to the UAE is aimed at building on the conversation I have had with H.H. President Sheikh @MohamedBinZayed. We share a resolve & understanding that the continuous efforts need to be made to further strengthen trade, investment & economic relations," Sharif tweeted after landing in the UAE. Pakistan's Foreign Office said on Tuesday that Sharif will meet the UAE president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed with a particular focus on advancing economic, trade and investment ties between the two countries. "The two .

Yoginder K Alagh (1939-2022): An exceptionally generous economist departs

Born in pre-independence India, Alagh has left behind a rich legacy in the world of economic policymaking

Centre pushes for reviving export commissioner posts for boosting trade

The export commissioners will be expected to operate under clear targets to expand exports from their states

Bet on infrastructure funds to gain from government push: Experts

High cost of capital, change in policy key risks for these funds

New UK PM Sunak faces dose of reality as economic, political woes mount

The new premier, Sunak's economic policy is set to face scrutiny as the Bank of England delivers what could be its biggest interest-rate hike in more than 30 years

RBI Monetary Policy: Repo rate up by 50bps; here's how it will impact you

On Friday, RBI increased the repo rate by 50 basis points taking the key repo rate to 5.9%; here is why it should matter to you

Government approves 22nd tranche of electoral bonds; sale from October 1-10

Ahead of assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the government on Thursday approved issuance of 22nd tranche of electoral bonds that will open for sale on October 1. Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding. State Bank of India (SBI), in the 22nd phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches from October 1-10, the finance ministry said in a statement. The authorised SBI branches include those in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai. Assembly election dates for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are likely to be announced in few weeks. The 21st tranche of bond sales took place from July 1-10, 2022. Sale of the first batch of electoral bonds happened from March 1-10, 2018. SBI is the only authorised bank

UK PM Liz Truss defends decisive action of mini-budget amid market turmoil

British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday defended her government's controversial mini-budget which has triggered widespread economic turmoil and insisted that it was the decisive action needed for long-term growth. In her first round of interviews with local BBC radio stations around the country since the tax-cutting and high government, borrowing measures were tabled by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the House of Commons last week, the recently elected leader insisted "controversial and difficult decisions" needed to be taken to improve the situation in the UK. Truss was keen to keep the focus on the largely welcome action taken to freeze fuel bills for households and businesses amid spiralling global energy costs in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. "We had to take decisive action to help people through this winter and next winter, said Truss. I understand that families are struggling with their fuel bills and we had to take urgent action to get our economy growing and g

Old economists, old ideas, bad policies

Big data is being put to extensive use for microeconomic analysis. Older economists to whom the government pays attention are quite clueless about these forms of analysis

Policy debate: Decoupling freebies from politics

Freebies pose serious fiscal challenges, but they need an economic policy response

Did India err by walking out of IPEF's trade pillar?

Given that India is currently negotiating trade deals with the UK, Canada and EU, is the decision to stay out of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework a step in the wrong direction? Find the answers here

Long Covid costing Australia's economy $3.6 bn annually, says report

Australia has announced a parliamentary inquiry into long Covid, with the aim of developing a clear definition of the illness and gauging the scale of its impact on the country's 26 million people

A quarter century of public-private partnership

With the government aiming to channel private capital to monetise brownfield operating assets, PPP may well be set to see a revival

Russia unveils economic development plan until 2030, focus on sanctions

The growth of the Russian economy will be driven by domestic demand, both from investors and consumers, the ministry noted