- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are some news in brief related to Indian economy and businesses for Friday, August 26, 2022:
Air India will restore salaries that were cut in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic from September 1, according to a communication, Press Trust of India reported. The loss-making airline, which was taken over by Tatas in January this year, has also decided to revise crew layover allowances and meal arrangements from September 1. In the communication to the employees, Air India CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said the airline “will be restoring the salary reduction for all employees with effect from September 1, 2022”. While the airline has much to do to return to profitability, “sunsetting most of the COVID measures is an important and welcome milestone”, he said.
Highlighting the recovery of the economy and flow of investment post-Covid pandemic, Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow at 7.4 per cent in the financial year 2022-23 and will continue at the same level in the next fiscal. Speaking at an event in New Delhi, Sitharaman said, “India is still the fastest growing economy. We are definitely at the range of 7.4 per cent (GDP). The level will continue even the next year.” She said the government’s estimation is based on developments. She emphasized that global agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have also projected India’s growth to be the fastest for the next two fiscal years.
India’s foreign exchange reserves fell $6.687 billion (£5.7 billion) to $564.053 billion (£480 billion) in the week ended August 19, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. In the previous week ended August 12, the reserves declined $2.238 billion (£1.9 billion) to $570.74 billion (£485 billion). The drop in the reserves during the week ended August 19 was due to a fall in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) and the gold reserves, as per the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI on Friday.
India’s former chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian has been appointed as executive director (India) at the IMF. Subramanian is a professor at the Indian School of Business. As the chief economic advisor to the Indian government from 2018 to 2021, he formulated crucial policies that helped India emerge from the once-in-a-century Covid crisis. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Subramanian to the post of Executive Director (India) at the IMF, with effect from November 1, 2022 for a period of three years or until further orders.
Logistics firm Delhivery on Friday announced its plans to hire over 75,000 staff for seasonal jobs over the next one-and-a-half month and expand its parcel sortation capacity by 1.5 million shipments per day, PTI reported. Of these, over 10,000 people will be off-roll employees across Delhivery’s gateways, warehouses, and last-mile delivery, the company said. The hiring is aimed at meeting the expected higher volumes in both parcels and express part-truck load business during the festive season, it added. The company’s fully-automated mega gateway, which is equipped with the automated parcel and hub sortation at Tauru became operational in April this year.
Essar on Friday announced signing definitive agreements with Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel for certain ports and power infrastructure assets which are primarily captive to Hazira steel plant operations. According to the company, the deal also envisages a 50-50 joint venture partnership, for building a 4 MTPA LNG terminal at Hazira, Gujarat, between Essar and ArcelorMittal. Rewant Ruia, Director, Essar Ports and Terminals Limited, said “With this deal, which yields a multifold return on our investments, Essar Ports and Terminals has unlocked value for all its stakeholders and will continue to focus on building new and modern core infrastructure assets in India and overseas.”
