Special Issue | Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | 26th July 2024
Expenditure control is the key to Budget’s fiscal mathematics Budget 2024-25 shows how the government has kept a tight leash on its own expenditure. Total expenditure in 2024-25 at Rs 48.2 lakh crore is about 14.77 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). Year-on-year, this represents a rise of only 8.5 per cent […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | July 2024
Pre-Budget signals on fiscal prudence and capex increase In the run-up to the presentation of the Union Budget for 2024-25 on July 23, various signals are coming out from North Block on the overall stance and approach of what would be Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first Budget in the third term of the Modi […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | June 2024
Govt finances pose fresh fiscal challenges for forthcoming Budget The Centre’s finances for 2023-24 have got better. Not only is the fiscal deficit for last year is now estimated at 5.6 per cent, lower than the Budget estimate of 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), its total receipts, net revenue collections and […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | May 2024
RBI windfall for Govt: Wait for the July Budget An unexpected decision by the central board of the Reserve Bank of India on May 22 has dramatically improved the state of the Union government’s finances. The RBI board decided to transfer a record surplus of Rs 2.11 lakh crore to the Union government for […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | April 2024
India growth gets a leg-up from IMF, World Bank & ADB India’s economic growth forecasts have seen a series of upgrades by several international multilateral institutions. These forecasts have bolstered the numbers that the National Statistical Office (NSO) of the Union government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have put out. NSO has […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | March 2024
FM outlines a nuanced economic policy approach Statements of a country’s finance minister often say a lot about the state of the economy and its direction. In recent media interactions, Union finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has made many an important observation on the government’s economic policy stance on key issues. On the question of […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | February 2024
GDP growth number could bring more cheer to economy The second advance estimates (SAE) of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023-24 were released on the last day of February and the numbers there provided an unexpected and remarkable boost to sentiments about the Indian economy. These estimates showed that the economy’s size this […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | January 2024
Budget challenges arise from India’s latest GDP numbers In the run-up to the presentation of the Interim Budget for 2024-25, the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) latest data on India’s economic growth contained many messages for policy makers and observers of the Indian economy. Gross domestic product or GDP, according to NSO, was expected to […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | December 2023
Report on economy exudes confidence and optimism The Union finance ministry’s latest half-yearly report on the state of the Indian economy in 2023-24 presents a picture of confidence and optimism. The report notes that the Indian economy should comfortably achieve an annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent in 2023-24. There could be risks […]
Indian Economy Review by AK Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard | November 2023
Fiscal deficit in 1st half of 2023-24 contained at 4.9 % of GDP On the last day of November, two sets of data were released by the Union government– one by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and the other by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The CGA data provided a glimpse of the […]