IPA Staff
16614 stories by IPA Staff
Plans To Boost Indian Railways’ Operational Revenue Likely In FY2026
NEW DELHI: The surge in budgetary allocations over the recent years has increased the pace of the railways’ capacity building and all-round modernisation of the country’s rail transportation infrastructure. But whether this would suffice to produce the revenue streams for it to gradually reduce the reliance on taxpayer’s monies...
Private Banks Outrun Public Sector Peers In Priority Lending Benchmarks
MUMBAI: For the first time, private sector banks as a group met priority sector lending targets, including sub-targets for major heads in 2023-24, particularly in agriculture, according to central bank data. Although all bank groups managed to achieve their stipulated overall targets and sub-targets, private sector banks did better...
Higher FCNR Rates Fail To Bring In The Moolah
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) move to draw capital flows by allowing banks to offer higher interest rates for foreign currency deposits for a specific period appears to have had few takers in the three weeks since the plan’s announcement. Bankers said the rupee’s recent sharp fall...
Indian Pharma Improves Compliance With USFDA; Fewer OAI Cases In 2024
MUMBAI: Indian pharmaceutical companies have made major strides in adhering to stringent US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) norms in 2024, with data suggesting a decline in the number of adverse classification outcomes of inspections across biologics, drugs, and devices. In 2023, the USFDA conducted 225 inspections, which led...
How Dr. Manmohan Singh Reset A Floundering Indian Economy
By Anjan Roy Thirty-three years are half a lifetime. Thirty-three years ago, Dr Manmohan Singh stepped into a high-profile limelight, well after his formal retirement from a senior government job. When he died last Friday at the age of 92, he was considered India’s greatest finance minister and the...
Multiple Records Across Several Segments Make 2024 A Year Of Gold
By K Raveendran The year 2024 marked a historic period for gold, perhaps fit to be called the ‘Year of Gold’ due to the yellow metal’s remarkable performance across various metrics. Total demand for God surpassed an unprecedented US $100 billion, underpinned by robust investment activity and a supportive...
Jobs And Enterprises Rose In Informal Sector In Survey Year 2023-24
By Dr. Gyan Pathak India’s jobs market deterioration and failure of the government in decent job creation have sharply pushed up the number of jobs and enterprises in the informal sector, the technical term for which is ‘Unincorporated Sector.’ The Annual Survey of ‘Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) 2023-24’ found...
DOGE Against MAGA Is Gathering Fire Under Donald Trump’s Nose
By Sushil Kutty This was bound to happen: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy ganging up against President-elect Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters. The two technocrats have their egos hanging from the tips of their noses. Imagine if Vivek Ramaswamy had won the Republican presidential nomination instead of Donald Trump! Now,...
Election Fever Grips Delhi As AAP And Congress Size Each Other Up
By Mriganka M Bhowmick Election fever has begun to grip Delhi as the state prepares for its upcoming elections. Though small in size, Delhi holds significant political importance, influencing perceptions across the country. In recent years, it has drawn national attention due to the intense political rivalry between the...
Peshmerga Making Solid Contributions To Stabilise A Volatile Region
By Manish Rai While on my recent visit to Iraqi Kurdistan, I visited several frontline positions of the Peshmerga forces, where they are facing the Iraqi Army and active ISIS cells. Firstly, I visited Brigade 14 headquarters near Dibak, approximately 60 km from the Kurdistan capital, Erbil. There, I...
China Is Alive To Challenges Of Changing Economic Landscape
By Tirthankar Mitra The Chinese economy continues to be in the news. Now, in a significant change to its fiscal strategy, a record of $411 billion treasury bonds will be issued next year. Such a bonds issue is not new to China, but the sheer magnitude of the effort...
BSP Supremo ‘Behen Mayawati’ Finally Wakes Up To Revive The Dalit Party
By Pradeep Kapoor Will the recent mobilisation of party workers all over the country by the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati, to protest the alleged degrading comments on Dalit icon BR Ambedkar by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, help the revival of the BSP? Known for...
2024: Few Positives, Some Negatives, And Judicial Change Of Guard
By Indira Jaising This year began on a positive note. A Bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan delivered the judgment setting aside the remission granted by the government of Gujarat to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The case was of great significance not only...
Rural, Urban Food Spending Rises Amid Inflation Pressure
NEW DELHI: The share of monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) on food items edged up slightly in both rural and urban areas during the August 2023–July 2024 (2023-24) period compared to the previous year, according to the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES). However, experts note that the...
Trump Tariffs To Define Global Trade In 2025, India Has Fingers Crossed
NEW DELHI: The liberal use of threats of tariffs by US President elect Donald Trump before his inauguration in January puts all forecasts of how world trade would shape up in the coming year difficult but Indian exporters are mostly positive about the prospects and their biggest worry stems...
Q2 FY25: Current Account Deficit At 1.2% Of GDP; BoP Surplus At $18.6 Billion
NEW DELHI: India’s current account deficit (CAD) marginally narrowed to $11.2 billion or 1.2 per cent of GDP during the July-September quarter of financial year 2025 (Q2FY25) from $11.3 billion or 1.3 per cent of GDP a year ago, amid a rise in service exports. Sequentially, the CAD widened...
Another Stellar Year Likely For Initial Public Offerings
MUMBAI: After a record Rs 1.6 lakh crore raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2024, more companies are expected to tap the primary market in the coming year, despite the not-so-rosy outlook for equities next year. Experts anticipate companies to mop-up around Rs 2 lakh crore with the...
FMCG Companies Bet On Premium Trend Amid Demand Slump
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The FMCG industry does not see a full revival in urban demand to set in until at least mid-next year. This is even when companies are betting on premiumisation to derive growth from the bigger cities, where consumers are seeking high-quality products and convenience to partly make...
