‘ India growth slow down is temporary ’

New Delhi (PTI): Moody’s Analytics said India’s domestic economy, rather than trade, is its primary engine of growth and the slowdown in economic activity late last year will only be temporary.

The government data released last week showed India’s GDP growth slowed to a three quarter low of 4.4% in October-December,2022, mainly due to contraction in manufacturing.

While the manufacturing sector contracted by 1.1%, private consumption expenditure slowed to 2.1% in the October-December quarter of current fiscal.

In its report on emerging market outlook, Moody’s Analytics said growth slowed substantially on a year-ago basis, with private consumption lagging overall GDP for the first time since the Delta wave of Covid-19 struck the economy in the second quarter of 2021.

“Our take is that the slowdown late last year will be temporary and even salu-

IN 7TH ROUND India-UK FTA talks covered 11 policy areas

New Delhi (PTI): The seventh round of India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) talks concluded following technical discussions across 11 policy areas over 43 separate sessions between negotiators from both sides last month, the British government has said.

Jio extends 5G coverage to 27 more cities

FTA,” the outcome statement reads.

Top Talking Points

z The government data released last week showed India’s GDP growth slowed to a three quarter low of 4.4% in October-December,2022, mainly due to contraction in manufacturing tary, helping to wring some of the demand-side pressures out of the economy without stopping it wholesale. On the external front, better growth in the US and Europe’s incipient recovery

Indian market large enough for all players: Emirates

New Delhi (PTI): Indian aviation market is “large enough to accommodate all players profitably” and irrespective of what competitors do, the airline is focused on its strategies, leading Gulf carrier Emirates has said amid Air India ramping up its fleet and operations. Emirates flies to nine Indian cities and operates 167 weekly flights to the country.

A senior Emirates executive said the expansion of Air India might push airports to improve their services, which will be a positive development for all other airlines, Indian customers as well as the aviation and travel industries as a whole.

“Air India flying to new international routes might also have a positive (effect) on Emirates. When a new route is operated by an airline, then that could result in increased traffic demand and the particular airline might not be able to cater to the demand.

“As a result, the potential customers will look at other carriers and that can have a positive impact,”

According To Emirates

z Indian aviation market is “large enough to accommodate all players profitably” and irrespective of what competitors do, the airline is focused on its strategies z The leading Gulf carrier flies to nine Indian cities and operates 167 weekly flights to the country

Mohammed Sarhan, Vice President - India & Nepal of Emirates, said.

To a query related to Air India and competition in the Indian market, Sarhan said that competition is there and irrespective of what competitors do, “we are focused on our strategies”. He asserted that “the market is large enough to accommodate all players profitably”.

‘WITNESSING ROBUST GROWTH’

z While the manufacturing sector contracted by 1.1%, private consumption expenditure slowed to 2.1% in the Oct-Dec quarter z The US & Europe are India’s largest trade partners and are important destinations for exports of business services will propel India at the midyear mark,” it said.

The US and Europe are India’s largest trade partners and are important destinations for exports of business services.

In an outcome statement, the Department for Business and Trade did not give any further details on the policy areas covered, but confirmed that the eighth round of talks is due to take place in a few weeks’ time.

“On 10 February 2023, the United Kingdom and the Republic of India concluded the seventh round of talks for an India-UK

“Technical discussions were held across 11 policy areas over 43 separate sessions. They included detailed draft treaty text discussions in these policy areas. The eighth round of negotiations is due to take place later this Spring,” it said. Last month’s session was also conducted in a hybrid fashion, with a number of Indian officials travelling to London for negotiations and others attending virtually. In keeping with the norm so far of alternating locations, the next round is expected to take place in New Delhi towards the end of this month.

New Delhi (PTI): Reliance Jio, the country’s largest telecom operator, on Wednesday announced the launch of its 5G services in 27 more cities of 13 states and union territories to extend its network of ultra high-speed telephony to 331 cities across India.

Jio True 5G is now available in 27 additional cities in states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, UP, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, the company said in a statement.

Starting March 8, 2023, Jio users in these 27 cities will be invited to the Jio Welcome Offer, to experience unlimited data at up to 1 Gbps speeds, at no additional cost, it said.

Sensex rises over 120 points; Nifty closes above 17,750

Mumbai (PTI): Rising for the third straight session, equity benchmark Sensex closed higher by 123 points on Wednesday, propped up by robust fag-end buying in banking and financial stocks amid a bearish trend in global equity markets.

In a largely subdued session, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 123.63 points or 0.21% higher at 60,348.09. During the session, the in- dex touched a high of 60,402.85 and a low of 59,844.82.

The broader NSE Nifty gained 42.95 points or 0.24% to finish at 17,754.40. IndusInd Bank was the

‘GQG PARTNERS LIKELY TO INCREASE ADANI INVESTMENT’

New Delhi (FIB): GQG Partners would likely expand its investment in the Adani group, the fund firm’s founder Rajiv Jain said on Wednesday, a week after its $1.9 billion infusion into the embattled Indian conglomerate. “Chances are we’ll probably buy more because we typically initiate a position and then depending on how things go and how the earnings come through we tend to get it to full size because we’re not at full size at this point,” Jain said.

GQG Partners, co-founded by Jain in 2016, bought shares worth $1.87 billion in four Adani group companies, marking the first major investment in the Indian conglomerate since a short-seller’s critical report in January sparked a stock rout. Jain, based in Florida, flew to Australia this week for talks with investors, which include some of Australia’s largest pension funds. Last week, pension fund investor Cbus Super, with A$71 billion ($46.82 billion) under management, told Reuters they had queried GQG about the Adani purchase.