- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy and business for Tuesday, February 20, 2024:
The Indian finance ministry on Tuesday said that the Japanese government has committed a loan of 232.209 billion yen (£1.2 billion) for nine projects related to various sectors in India in the states of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Rajasthan and also the country’s north-east. An agreement to this effect was signed between Vikas Sheel, additional secretary, department of economic affairs, and Suzuki Hiroshi, the Japanese ambassador to India. “The project in Nagaland (in north east India) will help develop tertiary level medical service delivery by developing a medical college hospital contributing towards universal health coverage. A unique project in Telangana will help discover entrepreneurial skills with focus on women and rural population and support business expansion of MSMEs,” it said.
The outlook for the Indian economy appears bright, reiterated the country’s finance ministry in its monthly economic review, supporting its argument saying prospects of healthy Rabi crop harvesting, sustained profitability in the manufacturing sector, underlying resilience in the services sector are expected to support economic activity in the upcoming financial year 2024-25. The bedrock of firm growth could be attributed to underlying strong private consumption. The Reserve Bank of India has forecast India’s real GDP to grow at seven per cent in 2024-25, with risks evenly balanced. Driven by a better-than-expected performance in Q2 of 2023-24 and above seven per cent growth projection for 2023-24, many global agencies have revised India’s growth projection in the upward direction.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its February bulletin, predicted inflation in India to stabilise and potentially decrease in days ahead. It, however, warned of possible renewed pressures from cereals and proteins. Retail inflation dropped to 5.1 per cent in January, down from 5.69 per cent in December and 5.55 per cent in November. Favourable inflation trends create a stable environment for corporate expansion strategies amid an anticipated demand growth, according to the RBI’s ‘State of the Economy’ article. “Core inflation is at its lowest since October 2019 and non-food wholesale price inflation remains in deflation. This should augur well for the input cost outlook and selling prices of manufacturing firms.”
India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, speaking at the inaugural session of the 2nd CII India Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave in New Delhi on Tuesday, said Europe is truly a priority for India. The minister touched upon six broad elements that are driving the world economy — production and consumption, connectivity and logistics, technology, demographics, values and comforts, and the architecture or framework to do business. Emphasising how deep relations between the European Union and India are, he said prime minister Narendra Modi has visited Europe 27 times while he went there 29 times. “He (Modi) has received 37 heads of European governments. I have received 36 of my colleagues during this period. I underline these numbers to emphasise how deep, how sustained and how continuous the relationship has been,” he said.
An indigenously developed digital fly-by-wire flight control computer was integrated into India’s Tejas light combat jet, the country’s defence ministry said on Tuesday, describing it as a “significant development” in the aircraft programme. The home-grown Tejas is a single-engine multi-role fighter aircraft capable of operating in high-threat air environments. It has been designed to undertake air defence, maritime reconnaissance and strike roles. “In a significant development towards Tejas Mk1A programme, the digital fly-by-wire flight control computer (DFCC) was integrated into prototype LSP7 and successfully flown on February 19,” the defence ministry said. The DFCC has been indigenously developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru, for the Tejas-Mk1A version.
Nando’s, the renowned South African restaurant chain which is famous for its mouth-watering flame-grilled PERi-PERi chicken, recently opened its doors in Phoenix Mall of Asia in the Indian city of Bengaluru. This stunning new restaurant, which is the third for Nando’s in the bustling city, was inaugurated by Indian actresses Aindrita Ray and Harshika Poonacha during an event at the Mall of Asia on Tuesday. The grand opening ceremony was graced by the esteemed presence of Sameer Bhasin, CEO of Nando’s India; Anushree Bose, head of marketing; Amit Bhayana, director – operations, and Anshul Aggarwal, deputy manager – marketing. “We are excited to introduce our world-renowned PERi-PERi chicken to the residents of north Bengaluru,” Bhasin said.
(With agencies)
