Mint India’s rural borrowers and small businesses owners may have easier access to credit with public sector banks (PSBs) planNINg to increase financing to these segments, after the Union finance ministry urged lenders to improve their credit-deposit ratio. The C-D ration indicates how much of a banks' deposit base is being utilized for extending loans. The development may help expedite the revival of the rural economy, which is struggling to reach pre-covid...

Urgent action needed to curb deadly air pollution in South Asia A new report by the World Bank states that NINe out of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution are in South Asia. Ambient air pollution is a public health crisis for South Asia, not only imposing high economic costs but also causing an estimated 2 million premature deaths each year. The health impacts of air pollution range...

- Financial Express The Union Government will present its NINth and last full budget before national elections in early 2024. But none of the growth engines inspire optimism, Santosh Mehrotra writes in Financial Express.  Nearly 60 percent of India's GDP is accounted for by private onsumption expenditure. However, since demonetisation consumer expenditure has been tepid as job growth fell sharply. Per capita consumption in 2022-23 is just above the level of 2019-20.  Private...

-Hindustan Times The meeting came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over the Joshimath land subsidence issue and reviewed the situation with Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has held a high-level review meeting on the land subsidence activities in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath and a team of central agencies and experts are assisting the state government to prepare short, medium and long-term remedial measures to deal with...

-Newsclick.in The yawNINg merchandise trade deficit is occurring not because of any economic boom but in the midst of creeping industrial stagnation. India’s current account deficit for the second quarter (July-September) of 2022-23 has reached a massive $36.4 billion, which is 4.4% of the gross domestic product, higher than at any time in the last NINe years. It is only in October-December 2012 that the absolute level of the current account deficit...