-The Hindu The Finance Minister must move to an expansionary fiscal stance that prioritises job creation, public service provision It is that time of year in India, when all eyes and ears turn to the Finance Minister to learn what she will unveil in the annual Union Budget. But it is a moot point whether, even in a year of the novel coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, that speech will be of...

-The New Indian Express Which means sometime last year, when crude was averaging $25 a barrel, petrol should have sold for Rs 50 a litre. Nearly two-and-a-half years ago, when global crude oil prices were around $75 a barrel, petrol was selling at Indian pumps for Rs 75 a litre. Today, when crude oil prices have fallen to $52 a barrel, petrol prices have hit an all-time high of Rs 86 or...

-Livemint.com Correcting import-duty anomalies will attract foreign firms to set up assembly bases here and lift our global competitiveness A steady decline in import tariff rates in manufacturing industries had been an important feature of India’s economic reforms during the 1990s and 2000s. The average import tariff rate was reduced from about 84% in 1990 to the lowest-ever level of 8.6% in 2010. Consequently, imports of goods plus services as a percentage...

Just before Dhanteras and Diwali this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the November edition of its monthly bulletin. The latest RBI Monthly Bulletin says that the GDP has contracted by -8.6 percent in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020-21 (i.e. July-September, 2020) as compared to the gross domestic product (GDP) during the corresponding period last year. It may be noted that India’s GDP shrunk by -23.9...

Often exports made by a country to the rest of the world are seen in a positive light by us. It is because exports not only earn precious foreign currencies (that can be used for importing goods and services or simply be used for building forex reserves), it also helps in generating effective demand for goods and services produced in that country and hence, contributes to economic or GDP growth....