Feb 1-15, 2022 - Vol 2, Issue 14
INDIA NEWS
MAKE IN INDIA
MAKE IN INDIA
As world economies restart their engines in a bid to regain lost ground due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India too shows signs of economic buoyancy and promise. India’s Make in India initiative holds a key to the global economic revival, something that should interest Australian government ministries, corporate sector, entrepreneurs, institutions seeking R&D collaborations and Australia Inc in general, among others. India assumes greater importance as several major world economies including American, Japanese, German, British and South Korean look to move out and diversify their businesses from China. India has jumped to 63rd rank in the World Bank’s Ease of Development 2020 report, and has also been ranked as the 9th largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment destinations in 2019 by the World Investment Report 2020 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
State of the World address: Modi showcases India as future tech & economic powerhouse
New Delhi, January 18 (IANS): Virtually delivering the 'State of the World' special address to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Davos Agenda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 17 underlined the role played by India in handling the Covidtriggered crisis and managing the vaccination drive, while touching upon the need to reshape and restructure international organisations. Armed with data, figures and facts on the Covid-19 pandemic, Modi presented India as not only a future technology and economic powerhouse of the world, but also showcased the country as an indispensable member of the world community. Without naming the UN, he also demanded restructuring and reforms in international organisations. "We have not just set a record of
administering 1.6 billion Covid vaccine shots, but also stood with the countries which were in need during the pandemic. India always follows the vision of 'One Earth, One Health', and supplied Covid vaccines to more than 150 nations along with life-saving drugs," the Prime Minister said.
up with a suggestion for the world in dealing with challenges like climate change, saying that time has come for the world to start thinking about its life-style, which is damaging the global environment, whereas Indian culture still banks on its age-old traditions of preserving nature.
"India's health professionals, who are always regarded for their sensitivity, went on to win the hearts of the people. Our 5-million software professionals did not let the world stop digitally by working day and night tirelessly," Modi said in his speech.
The Prime Minister underlined that India always advocates growth, which should be green, clean, sustainable and reliable.
Presenting India as one of the world's future tech and economic powerhouse, Modi elaborated the economic and tech reforms taking place in the country, saying that gone are the days when India's business space was badly disrupted by government control, as the present government has removed more than 25,000 such hurdles to start a business in India. "Today, India is the land of more than 60,000 registered startups, 80 unicorns, country of more than 4 billion UPI transactions, and a nation with 6 lakh villages connected digitally and spending about $1.3 trillion on connectivity," Modi said. The Prime Minister also came
"Through the International Solar Alliance and COP21, the world witnessed India's commitments towards saving the Earth," he said. Without naming the UN, he said when such organisations were formed, the world was different, but now over the years, things have changed and "it is the call of the day that all the democratic countries should come together and make the changes for a better tomorrow". Besides PM Modi, the Davos summit was also attended by Japan PM Kishida Fumio, Australian PM Scott Morrison, Indonesia President Joko Widodo, Israel PM Naftali Bennett, China's President Xi Jin Ping and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, along with top industry leaders, international organisations and civil society groups.
71% jump in India's gems and jewellery exports IANS
in 2020. Compared to the same period before the Covid pandemic struck, the gems and jewellery sector registered a growth of 3 per cent over $28 billion achieved in April-December 2019. In December 2021 alone, India exported gems and jewellery worth $2.99 billion, registering a growth of 16.38 per cent over $2.57 bn in December 2020.
New Delhi, January 25 (IANS): India's exports of gems and jewellery shot up by a whopping 71 per cent during the first three quarters (April-December) of the current financial year, over the same period of the previous year. The sector clocked $28.9 billion exports as compared to $16.9 billion during the same period
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With record exports already achieved during the first three quarters of the current financial year, the sector has already surpassed $26.02 bn exports registered during the last FY (2020-21) and is likely to better the previous high of $35.89 bn scaled during the FY (2019-20). The gems and jewellery sector made up 9.6 per cent share of India's entire exports basket
during the period (AprilDecember 2021), accounting for the third largest commodity share, after engineering goods and petroleum products. The top 5 export destinations in April-November 2021 were the US (38.7 per cent), Hong Kong (24.6 per cent), the UAE (11.9 percent), Belgium (6.6 per cent), and Israel (3.9 per cent). Gems and jewellery industry contributes about 7 per cent of India's total GDP and employs the largest skilled and semi-skilled workforce of more than 50 lakh workers. More than 450 organised jewellery manufacturers, importers, and exporters are based in Surat, making the Gujarat city the jewellery manufacturing hub of the world.
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IMF projects India's growth rate at 9%, highest among major economies
United Nations, January 25 (IANS): India's economy is projected to grow by 9 per cent in the next financial year (FY23), retaining its position as the fastest-growing major economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported on January 25 citing its expectations of higher investments and consumption due to credit growth and better financial sector performance. IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update released in Washington said that India's gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to again increase next fiscal by another 9 per cent, before moderating to 7.1 per cent in 2023-24.
The Update raised the growth projection for the current fiscal by 0.5 per cent from the 8.5 per cent projected in its WEO released in October last year.
expected to decline relatively quickly, and the Omicron effect will fade starting in the second quarter," she wrote.
Globally, the Update expected growth to moderate from 5.9 last year to 4.4 per cent this year, 0.5 per cent lower than the 4.9 per cent in the October WEO, and go down to 3.8 per cent next year. "The global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected," the Update said. While it said that a factor was the reimposed mobility restrictions in many countries as a result of Omicron, it blamed the higher broad-based inflation due to rising energy prices and supply disruptions and developments in the US and China, the world's two largest economies, whose growth projections were cut.
The upward revision is unrelated to the Covid-19 developments, it said.
"In the case of the United States, this reflects lower prospects of legislating the Build Back Better fiscal package, an earlier withdrawal of extraordinary monetary accommodation, and continued supply disruptions. China's downgrade reflects continued retrenchment of the real estate sector and a weakerthan-expected recovery in private consumption," the IMF said.
India and Japan are the only major economies to have their growth projections raised from that made in October last.
The IMF cut US growth projection for this year by 1.2 per cent from the 5.2 per cent in the October WEO to 4 per cent.
Japan's growth projection was increased by only 0.1 per cent from 3.2 per cent in October to 3.3 per cent.
China's growth projection for this year was cut by 0.8 per cent from 5.6 per cent in October - to 4.8 per cent.
Even though the report lowered India's growth estimate for the current fiscal to 8.5 per cent from October's 9 per cent, the country will still be the global growth leader.
While India's projected growth at 9 per cent sounds impressive, in reality it will have to make up for the shrinkage of 7.3 per cent - a negative growth - it recorded in 2020-21.
This WEO Update is the last directly overseen by Gita Gopinath as the IMF's economic counsellor and director of its research department.
The IMF prognostications for India's growth are better than those made by the United Nations earlier in January.
"India's prospects for 2023 are marked up on expected improvements to credit growth -- and, subsequently, investment and consumption -- building on better-than-anticipated performance of the financial sector," the report said.
She was promoted to the No. 2 spot at the IMF as its First Deputy Managing Director recently. In a blog accompanying the Update, Gopinath sounded optimistic about the future with Covid variant Omicron's effects likely receding in the second quarter of this year. "The new variant appears to be associated with less severe illness than the Delta variant, and the record surge in infections is
The UN's World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report said that on a fiscal year basis, India's economy shrank by 10.6 per cent in 2020-21. It was projected to grow 8.4 per cent in the current fiscal, and moderate to 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal and to 5.9 per cent in 2023-24. But in the UN's projections also, India will be the fastest-growing major economy this year.
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