- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Tuesday, September 20, 2022:
The Indian economy should grow at seven percent over the rest of this decade, V Anantha Nageswaran, the chief economic advisor to the country’s finance ministry said on Tuesday, Moneycontrol reported. “Just recently India has surpassed the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest economy in absolute terms,” Nageswaran said at Global Fintech Fest. “While that is a creditable achievement, that is not exactly a surprise. India looks at the moment well poised to repeat a sustained growth rate of around seven per cent for the remainder of the decade as we go into 2023 and beyond.”
The Indian economy is resilient and has shown strength despite weakness across the globe whereas any correction in its equity markets should be utilised as an opportunity to invest for the long-term, said financial services firm Emkay Wealth Management, Asian News International reported. The strength in the country’s economy can be seen in its equity and currency markets as the correction in the Indian benchmark indices and rupee has been quite low compared to the other emerging market economies, it said in a note. “On a closer look at the selling by overseas investors closely, it can be seen that much of it is in the large-cap space and not in the mid-cap or small-cap space,” it added. Currently, western economies have been going through sharp volatility with high energy prices posing challenges to growth. Bucking the global trend, India’s latest GDP data, it said, reflect a resilient and robust economy compared to any of the comparable economies in the emerging markets space.
Indian online gaming platform Winzo has sued Google to stop the tech giant from allowing real-money games for fantasy sports and rummy on its platform, saying that Google’s doing so was discriminatory, a legal filing seen by Reuters showed. Winzo offers paid games in those categories but also in many others, such as carrom, puzzles and car racing, and will therefore not fully benefit from a newly adopted Google policy. For years, Alphabet Inc unit Google allowed no games involving real money in India, but this month said such games for fantasy sports and rummy could join its Play Store marketplace in India as part of a year-long pilot program. Google said in a policy update that those two categories comprised games in which contestants used their knowledge of athletic events and athletes, strategised or memorised the fall of playing cards. It did not mention other game formats and their treatment.
Indian minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday emphasised the need for reduction in logistics costs from the current around 14 to 16 per cent to 10 per cent with “cooperation, coordination and communication” among stakeholders, Asian News International reported. Addressing an industry event titled ‘Climate Goals: Technological Roadmap to Net Zero’, Gadkari said by reducing logistics costs there will be great savings and by which a 50 per cent increase in exports can be achieved which is very important for the country’s economy. Talking about pollution, he said, “We are importing Rs 16 lakh crore (£176 billion) of fossil fuel which is creating a lot of pollution.” He said the decision has been taken to make 27 green express highways to reduce travel time and by end of December there will be new highways wherein travel time from Delhi to Chandigarh will be two-and-a-half hours; Delhi to Amritsar four hours; Delhi to Katra six hours; Delhi to Srinagar eight hours; Delhi to Mumbai 12 hours; Delhi to Jaipur two hours; and Chennai to Bangalore also two hours.
Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called for “less talk” and more co-operation between nations to tackle climate change, bringing the focus on rich countries’ alleged failure to meet their financial commitments to fight global warming, Moneycontrol reported. “I would like to put it on record that…the commitments made by our honourable prime minister in Paris COP-21, most of which have been fulfilled well in advance of the deadline that we had before us, have been done by the sheer drive, political will, and push for renewable energy and so on – but with completely Indian money,” she said on Tuesday during a discussion hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry on financing.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday the central bank is committed to supporting innovation in the fintech sector while keeping in mind consumer protection, Asian News International reported. “I wish to assure the FinTech community that the RBI will continue to encourage and support innovation. At the same time, we would expect the ecosystem to pay attention to governance, business conduct, regulatory compliance and risk mitigation frameworks,” Das said while addressing the Global Fintech Festival (GFF). “The fintech road ahead will witness ever-growing traffic in addition to the large number of existing players who are already there. It is, therefore, imperative that every player on this road follows the traffic rules for his/her own safety and the safety of others,” he said. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) and the Payment Council of India (PCI) organised the event.
Solar energy solutions provider Vikram Solar on Tuesday said it has bagged an order from a US- company for a 350 MW power project, Press Trust of India reported. The order is for supplying solar modules for the project that will be located at Arizona in the US, a company statement said. The new order further strengthens Vikram Solar’s presence in the US and is aligned to the company’s commitment to accelerate the clean energy transition in this market, it said. “We are witnessing an increasing demand for high-quality Indian-made modules in the US aligned to the clarion call of diversifying sourcing policies. We are focused on further strengthening our market share in the US and cater to the utility, commercial as well as residential customers,” Gyanesh Chaudhary, Vice Chairman and MD, Vikram Solar, said.
