- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy and business for Wednesday, October 11, 2023:
Go First, India’s grounded airline, has received an expression of interest (EoI) from Jindal Power Ltd, Reuters reported citing two banking sources and two informed persons. An EoI is the first step in the bidding process and may not lead to a financial bid. “Jindal Power was the sole successful applicant whose expression of interest was accepted by banks,” a banker with a state-run bank that has exposure to Go First was quoted as saying by the news outlet. Jindal, a power generation company, “will be conducting proper due diligence and post which it could submit a formal bid”, the banker said on the condition of anonymity.
The northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has allowed resumption of most production at a plant owned by Marion Biotech, whose cough syrups in Uzbekistan were linked to the deaths of 65 children last year, according to an order seen by Reuters. Marion is among three Indian firms whose syrups the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies linked to the deaths of 141 children in countries such as Uzbekistan, The Gambia and Cameroon since the middle of 2022. “There’s no known case of a lack of quality in other medicines manufactured by the firm,” the drug controller of the Indian state where Marion is based, and which cancelled the firm’s license in March, said in an order sent to the company last month.
India’s decision to remove retaliatory customs tariffs on some US products, including walnuts, has cheered up the California walnut industry, which is hopeful that the move will help it increase its exports to India and further firm up trade ties between the two strategic allies. Two days ahead of US president Joe Biden’s visit to New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit in September, India dropped the retaliatory customs duties on about half a dozen US goods which were imposed in 2019 after Washington hiked its tariffs on certain steel and aluminium products coming from India. Welcoming India’s decision, Pamela Graviet, senior director, Global Programmes, California Walnut Commission and Board, said it is a “positive step” that will improve bilateral trade relations.
Bhupendra Patel, the chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat, on Wednesday held a roadshow organised in Mumbai as a part of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit of next year. He presented the success story of two decades to leading figures from the business and industry, as well as various consulates general of various countries. Around 35 diplomats and more than 350 leaders from business and industry sectors took part in the Mumbai event. Ahead of the Roadshow, Patel engaged in one-to-one meetings with 13 leading industry leaders. Prime minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the summit on January 10.
India has a high debt like that of China but the risks associated with it are not as great as that of its northern neighbour, a senior official from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said, advising India in the medium term to have an ambitious fiscal consolidation plan that brings down deficits. “The current debt in India is also high. It stands at 81.9 per cent of GDP. Compared to China, which is 83 per cent, it is very similar. Also, when we compare India’s debt to the pre-pandemic level in 2019, it was 75 per cent. So it is still quite a bit higher,” Ruud de Mooij, deputy director, fiscal affairs department at the IMF, told PTI in an interview. Mooij said that India’s debt is not projected to rise like in China. It, in fact, is projected to fall slightly by 1.5 per cent to 80.4 per cent in 2028. One of the reasons is that growth in India is much higher, he said.
(With agencies inputs)
