- Thursday, February 27, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Wednesday, July 19, 2023:
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a fresh case related to money-laundering against Naresh Goyal, former promoter of now-defunct Jet Airways and as part of the case against him and others, the agency also carried out searches the same day, the PTI reported citing officials. The latest development followes an ongoing investigation by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation against Goyal. The ED conducted raids in as many as six to seven premises in Mumbai and some other locations as part of an investigation being done under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Former Intel India head Nivruti Rai has assumed the position of managing director (MD) and CEO of Invest India, taking over from Manmeet K Nanda, who served as the ad-interim MD and CEO since March. Rai, a renowned technology leader, has a distinguished career spanning almost three decades at Intel. She led Intel India as country head for seven years, driving significant growth and investment in the country. Her contributions in technology earned her the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar (women power award). Invest India plays a crucial role in implementing government initiatives like Make in India, Startup India, and more, while also assisting investors seeking opportunities in India.
Indian tax officials conducted a routine survey at the office of ed-tech startup upGrad, backed by Temasek, the company reported on Wednesday, Reuters reported. “It’s a routine survey and we are fully compliant and cooperating with the department,” Koell Hemdev, head of legal at upGrad, said in a statement but did not share more details about the visit, the Reuters report added. India’s goods and services tax department, which visited UpGrad, did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment. Backed by Temasek and James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, UpGrad was valued at more than $2 billion last year. It offers online MBA and executive education courses by partnering with universities, both local and foreign.
The government of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday launched a portal — upevsubsidy.in — through which eligible citizens can avail subsidies online. The move came as part of the state’s efforts to promote electric vehicles (EVs). Customers who bought EVs after October 14 in the state will be eligible for claiming such subsidies. Once the application is submitted, the subsidy amount will be transferred to the customer’s bank account after successful completion of a verification process. “Subsidy on EVs will be payable to individual beneficiaries (buyers) on purchase of any single vehicle across vehicle segments. However, purchase subsidy will also be payable to aggregators or fleet operators (buyers), so that a unit can avail subsidy for a maximum of 10 vehicles across vehicle segments,” a release from the government said.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday retained India’s economic growth forecast at 6.4 per cent for the current financial year and 6.7 per cent for the next, saying robust domestic demand will continue to support the region’s recovery. In an update to its Asian Development Outlook, the ADB said inflation is expected to continue to fall, approaching pre-pandemic levels as fuel and food prices decline. It forecast 3.6 per cent inflation this year for developing economies in Asia, and 3.4 per cent in 2024. The Indian economy grew 7.2 per cent in the 2022-23 fiscal ended March 2023. “Asia and the Pacific continues to recover from the pandemic at a steady pace,” ADB chief economist Albert Park said.
The fourth and final meeting of the Employment Working Group (EWG) of the G20 group began in Indore in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, with an aim to find solutions to the current global challenges in the areas of labour, employment and social security of workers, officials said. The meeting will focus on finalisation of the Ministerial Declaration and Outcome Documents, and consolidating efforts of the three previous meetings, they said. Eighty six delegates are participating in the fourth EWG meeting. Arti Ahuja, secretary, Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, chairs the G20 EWG. “We are trying through the EWG of G20 to give the responsibility of mapping the global skills gap to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),” she told reporters on Tuesday.
India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Wednesday said the country should target 100 per cent electrification of two and three-wheelers by 2030. He also said India should target that 65 per cent of its state public transport should be electric by 2030. India requires a clear policy framework to achieve these goals of electric mobility, Kant said. He was addressing a side event organised by the government think-tank NITI Aayog on ‘Policy support and Enablers to Accelerate India’s Electric Mobility during the ongoing fourth Energy Transitions Working Group meeting under India’s G20 Presidency in Panaji. “When India urbanises, our urbanisation should be compact. There should be good livability. In India, we must first go for electrifying two and three-wheeler vehicles,” the former NITI Aayog CEO said.
(With PTI, ANI inputs)
