- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Friday, December 29, 2023:
India’s exports to Australia went up by 14 per cent to reach $5.8 billion (£4.5 billion) in April-November in the current fiscal on account of healthy growth in various sectors such as engineering, pharma and electronics, a senior official said on Friday. Additional secretary in the commerce department, Rajesh Agrawal, said businesses of India and Australia are gaining from the interim free trade agreement, implemented on December 29 last year. He also said negotiations to widen the existing trade agreement into a comprehensive deal are “progressing well”. “We expect to have some negotiations on rules of origin during January. That is one area where we have to work out detailed product-specific rules, and it takes time,” Agrawal noted.
The finance ministry of India expects the country’s GDP growth rate in 2023-24 to “comfortably” exceed its forecast of 6.5 per cent, following a successful run in July-September. “Risks to growth and stability outlook mainly emanate from outside the country. Nonetheless, the Indian economy is expected to comfortably achieve a growth rate upwards of 6.5 percent in 2023-24,” officials from the finance ministry’s department of economic affairs said in the half-yearly economic review report, which was released on Friday, Moneycontrol reported. Data released last month by the statistics ministry showed India’s GDP growth rate came in at 7.6 per cent in July-September, higher than economists’ expectations of 6.8 percent.
Airlines are rapidly increasing their flying capacity to Ayodhya, the holy town in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where a grand Ram Temple will be inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi on January 22, from different cities of the country. According to a Times of India report, Air India Express will operate daily flights to Ayodhya’s Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, which Modi will inaugurate on Saturday (30), from cities such as Bengaluru and Kolkata. Air India Express chief commercial officer Ankur Garg told the news outlet that the new non-stop flights between Ayodhya and Delhi, Bengaluru and Karnataka underscore the airline’s steadfast dedication to expanding connectivity throughout India.
India’s eight core industries sustained growth but at the slowest rate since May this year, according to official data. In November, the index for these industries increased by 7.8 per cent, a significant decline from the 12 per cent growth in October, as reported by the country’s ministry of commerce and industry. Positive growth was observed in the production of coal, electricity, fertilizers, natural gas, refinery products, and steel. The index evaluates the collective and individual performance of core sectors, constituting 40.27 per cent of the weight of items in the Index of Industrial Production.
Reliance Industries on Friday announced its pioneering achievement as the first Indian company to chemically recycle plastic waste-derived pyrolysis oil into International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC)-Plus certified circular polymers. Termed CircuRepol (Polypropylene) and CircuRelene (Polyethylene), the company’s inaugural batch of ISCC-Plus certified circular polymers has been shipped. The milestone underscores Reliance’s dedication to curbing plastic waste and endorsing the circular economy in India, showcasing its commitment to sustainability through innovative approaches such as chemical recycling for a greener future.
(With agencies)
