Technology and creativity are generally perceived as two opposing poles, where the former represents logic and science and the latter embodies philosophy and art. However, with a deeper gaze and further exploration, a strikingly different reality can be discovered. Art is the output of a creative mind and we humans pride ourselves on being the …
Come September and Dr. Urjit Patel completes one year in office. The year gone by has been eventful, to say the least. Let us not forget that even as the RBI Deputy Governor, Dr. Patel was a man of few words and was rarely seen giving public interviews or issuing macroeconomic statements. A lot of …
On the 28th of February, the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) released the GDP estimates for the 3rd quarter ended December 2017. Of course, these estimates are subject to revision at a later date. As per the second advance estimates for the third quarter, the GDP growth stood at 7.2%, which is higher …
A popular joke ahead of the Union Budget is that the text of the Union Budget 2018 will be substantially shorter and hence the budget speech could be over in less than 1 hour. Each year, a good part of the Budget speech was devoted by the finance minister to elaborate on the changes in …
The trade data that came in for the month of August continued the trend of monthly trade deficit staying above the $11 billion mark. For the first five months of the fiscal, the trade deficit has come in at $63 billion and India looks set to cross $150 billion of trade deficit for the full …
The second part of the Economic Survey for the fiscal year 2016-17 presents a fairly mixed picture of the Indian economy. There have been some positives in the form of lower inflation and the implementation of GST, both of which could have long-term positive implications for the Indian economy. On the downside, the Economic survey …
CPI inflation for the month of July 2017 came in almost 90 basis points higher at 2.36% compared to 1.46% in the month of June 2017. Of course, the July inflation is still sharply lower than the 6.07% recorded in July 2016 but at a time when the inflation is going through a structural shift, …
The index of industrial production for the month of May came in at 1.7% continuing its downward trend over the last one year. As the chart below depicts, the IIP number has virtually fallen in tandem with the manufacturing growth, which remains the largest component of the IIP. In fact, it would be interesting to …
The Union Budget speech would be typically divided into two parts. The first part would contain all the government allocations and resources and the second part contained the key changes pertaining to direct and indirect taxes. Effective July 2017, most of the indirect taxes including excise duty, VAT, CENVAT, Sales Tax and Service Tax were …
Over the last few weeks there have been some key data points that have raised concerns over the pace of rate cuts adopted by the RBI. It may be recollected that back in February 2017, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had shifted its monetary stance from “Accommodative” to “Neutral”. Over the last few quarters there …
