- Thursday, February 27, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Monday, July 24, 2023:
Tesla has planned to meet India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal in July regarding building a factory for a new $24,000 (£229) car, informed sources told Reuters. The factory would produce low-cost electric vehicles for both the domestic market and export, the source added. This represents Tesla’s change of direction after facing obstacles in reducing import taxes on EVs last year. The upcoming meeting marks a significant engagement between Tesla and the Indian government since Tesla chief Elon Musk’s pledge to invest in the country during his meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi in the US in June.
More than four crore (40 million) income tax returns (ITRs) for the 2022-23 financial year have been filed so far in India and about seven per cent of these are new or first-time filers, Nitin Gupta, chairperson of Central Board of Direct Taxes, said on Monday. He said that more than half of these ITRs have been processed leading to 80 lakh (eight million) refunds till now. The “shortage of manpower at every level was impeding our efforts to give even better results”, Gupta said and urged finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for a “quick approval” of the department’s cadre-restructuring proposal. The chairperson was speaking at an event in New Delhi to mark the 164th Income Tax Day where Sitharaman was the chief guest. The CBDT is the administrative authority for the Income Tax Department.
Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said both the country’s public and private banks have been asked that harsh steps should not be taken when it comes to repayment of loan and that they should handle such cases with sensitivity. She said this while making an intervention during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the Indian parliament on a question related to repayment of loans taken by small borrowers. “I have heard complaints about how mercilessly loan repayments have been followed up by some banks. The government has instructed all banks, both public and private, that harsh steps should not be taken when it comes to the process of loan repayment and they should approach the matter with humanity and sensitivity in mind,” Sitharaman said.
India’s Reliance Industries, in collaboration with Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure, will invest up to Rs 10 billion (£95.2 million) rupees to build data centers in India, responding to the rising demand for online services. The company confirmed this on Monday, Reuters reported Initially, Reliance will invest about Rs 3.78 billion (£36 million) in units of Mercury Holdings SG Pte, a joint venture between Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty. The JV is constructing data centres in Chennai and Mumbai. Reliance pledges to invest the remaining Rs 6.22 billion (£59.2 million) in equity and debt securities of the JV when required. The market for India’s data centres is projected to grow 40 per cent annually, attracting $5 billion (£3.8 billion) in investments by 2025.
Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest automaker, has issued a recall for 87,599 vehicles (S-Presso and Eeco) manufactured between July 5, 2021, and February 15, 2023, due to a suspected defect in steering tie rod parts. The company said that in rare cases, this part might break, impacting vehicle steerability and handling. “It is suspected that there is a possible defect in a part of the steering tie rod, used in such vehicles, which is a rare case, may break and affect vehicle steerability and handling,” Maruti Suzuki said in the release. Affected vehicle owners will receive communication from Maruti Suzuki’s authorised workshops for free inspection and replacement of the faulty component. The recall became effective from Monday.
Indian industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla has said that India’s economic outlook is significantly optimistic, attributing it to the Narendra Modi government’s focus on infrastructure and practical policies, leading to increased private sector capital expenditure, PTI reported. In his address to UltraTech Cement shareholders, Birla emphasized that India is not just a spectator in the global economic arena but a charismatic leader. “With a government-led push to infrastructure investments and pragmatic policies such as the production-linked incentives scheme, private capex has seen a surge. This rise triggers a multi-year boom, providing valuable support to economic growth in the face of softening global demand,” he said.
(With agencies inputs)
