oppn parties Is The Economic Slowdown Intensifying?

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Is The Economic Slowdown Intensifying?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2019-03-05 16:18:57

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
The Indian economy is slowing down. Latest figures for the October-December quarter released by the Central Statistics Office confirm this. GDP has grown at only 6.6 percent in the third quarter this year, forcing a revision of the full year estimates to just 7%. This means that the last quarter growth will be just 6.5%, the lowest in 7 quarters. Full year gross value added (GVA) will only be at 6.85% which means that for three consecutive years, India will have a sub-7% GVA growth.

The drastic fall in agriculture and fisheries, from 4.2% in July-September to 2.7% in the third quarter is a cause for worry. Given the acute farm distress, falling rates show that the distress will intensify. This also means that rural incomes are falling and consumption will go down. Couple this with the reported shortfall in the sowing of the rabi crop and there is no doubt that farmers will continue to bear the brunt for a longer than expected time. Consumption spending data from the hinterland shows a drastic fall in demand.

Manufacturing is not rosy either. GVA in this sector has gone down to 6.7%. It was 6.9% in the second quarter and a robust 12.4% in the first. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) shows the growth at 2.7% and it is drastically down from the 8.7% achieved in the same quarter last year. Only gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) expanded by 10.6% against the 10.2% logged in the second quarter. Fresh and big investments from the government are also not expected as it is in the last leg of its term and has already gone beyond its fiscal deficit targets.

These figures, when juxtaposed with the slowdown in China and Europe, the upcoming general election in the country and the worsening relations between India and Pakistan, do not raise hopes of an early economic recovery. With inflation in check, it is now upon the RBI to give a push to investment by making a bigger rate cut than the token 0.25 percentage points it made the last time. But one feels that in the absence of a huge rise in demand for goods and services, any rate cut will not cut much ice with investors. Since demand is not going to rise in a hurry, we are in for a period of consolidation. Things will probably improve from the second quarter next year with a new government in place and buoyancy for the September to November festival season.

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