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By Nantoo Banerjee

By Nantoo Banerjee Much of BJP’s chances to return with clear majority to Lok Sabha after next year’s national election may depend on how the party fares in eight state assembly elections during this year.  They offer a big test for BJP. Only two of the eight states — Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh — are […]

The post Return To Lok Sabha With Clear Majority May Not Be Easy For BJP In 2024 Polls first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee With government banks and financial institutions involved in massive funding in the lately stock-crashed Adani group enterprises, legislators from India’s main opposition parties are understandably concerned. Last week, even the Supreme court sought to know from the government and market regulator the steps needed to improve the regulatory and statutory mechanisms to […]

The post Debt-Heavy Adani Group May Take Time To Overcome That Sinking Feeling first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The Russia-Ukraine war will complete a full year on February 23, this year. And, there is no sign of the war coming to an end any time soon. In fact, the armed conflict between the two East European neighbours is becoming deadlier by day. As of January 29, this year, the UN […]

The post West Unlikely To Stop Fuelling Russia-Ukraine War Soon first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The massive boost in infrastructure spending proposed in the 2023-24 budget is expected to be the biggest growth driver of the county’s economy with several sectors such as steel, coal, power, engineering, automobile and banking are expected to do well. The infrastructure spending along with the focus on tourism, urban development covering […]

The post 2023-24 Budget Provides Big Boost For Industry, Tourism first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The best thing the Narendra Modi government’s last full budget before the next Lok Sabha election can do is to focus primarily on job creation and provide attractive incentives to large industrial investments to help push quality employment. The government has done reasonably well in the infrastructure investment sector, despite various constraints […]

The post Union Budget 2023-24 Should Focus On Jobs first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s year-end assurance that China is ready to work with India for the “steady and sound growth” of bilateral ties and it is committed to upholding stability at the border areas where a stand-off has prevailed since 2020. The statement, believed to have been meant for an international […]

The post No Need To Trust In China’s Assurance To Work With India first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is rather depressing to note that the unemployment rate in the country reached 8.30 percent in December, the highest over the last 16 months. In urban areas, the unemployment rate exceeded 10 percent. The number of people looking for jobs last month increased to 40.48 percent, the largest in 2022, reported […]

The post Surging Imports Are Behind India’s Growing Unemployment first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is a pity that the government could not think of a better “new year gift for the country’s poor” than continuing to feed 81.35 crore Indians with free food grains for another year till December 31, 2023, under a 10-year-old National Food Security Act (NFSA), at a cost of over Rs.200,000 […]

The post Free Food Supply To India’s Poor Won’t Help Eradicate Poverty first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The capital budget for Indian Navy needs a rapid escalation in the coming years for its fleet expansion and modernisation to become a strong force to deter the growing threats from the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the world’s largest naval power in size, in the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions. The […]

The post Indian Navy Needs Big Expansion To Take On China In Indo-Pacific Region first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The West Bengal government’s latest decision to take over 395 acres of prime industrial land lying idle at Uttarpara, near Kolkata, under CK Birla-controlled Hindustan Motors Limited (HM), for gainful use is most welcome. The giant HM factory has been closed since 2014. It may be high time that the state, starved […]

The post It’s Time To Unlock Lands Held By Closed Industrial Units first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Few manufacturing industries in India have done as consistently well as the drug industry over the last four decades. The Indian drug industry is currently ranked the world’s third largest in pharmaceutical production by volume. The production has been increasing rapidly supported by rising domestic consumption and exports. The industry has been […]

The post India Is Fast Emerging As World’s Major Pharmacy Hub first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee India may rank lowly at 104th position on the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) men’s table, dropped from 94th in 1996, its enthusiasm over the game is probably among the highest in the world. Over 300 million Indians, numbering close to the entire population of the United States, are watching on […]

The post India Must Spend Big On Sports To Build Global Reputation first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The government may disagree, India’s economic performance in the last eight years has proved to be rather lacklustre. It has been facing a real challenge from the ever expanding black economy, substantially eating up the revenue income of both the national and state governments. Unaccounted money with the rich is hurting the […]

The post India’s Uncontrolled Black Economy Is Choking Real Economy first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Global investment banker Morgan Stanley may have predicted the current decade as India’s following economic slowdown in China. But, the Indian economy is not growing as fast as it should. Large foreign direct investments (FDI) seem to be fighting shy of India’s highly price sensitive economy. The complexities of an uncertain and […]

The post India Needs Large FDI Inflow To Become Factory To World first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Indian Rupee (INR) is constantly depreciating against the US Dollar (US$). If the trend continues the exchange rate of INR vis-à-vis US$ may touch Rs.100 for a dollar before the end of this financial year. It could be a matter of great concern if India continues to import heavily from US$ trade […]

The post Rising US$ Could Be Bad News For Import Happy Indian Economy first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Last month, the alleged murder of a 19-year-old girl receptionist, Ankita Bhandari, in the Vanantara resort in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttarakhand’s Pauri district sparked massive outrage across the country. The girl went missing on September 18 following which a missing complaint was lodged by her parents without any avail. The girl was […]

The post India’s Politicised Police Is Mostly Busy Protecting Ruling Party Concerns first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It may be early to predict the future of Vedanta-Foxconn’s proposed $22-billion joint venture project in India for an integrated display and semiconductor fabrication ecosystem. The promoters have already got themselves enmeshed in a political controversy over a sudden change in the project location — from Maharashtra to Gujarat. Significantly, the location […]

The post Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductor Fab Project Must Work first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The skyrocketing wealth of Ahmedabad-based business tycoon Gautam Adani in the last three years may be exciting news for shareholders of Adani group companies, but the same can’t be said about lenders to those enterprises as the liabilities don’t match with their real assets. According to the latest Forbes real-time billionaires list, […]

The post Inflated Stock Prices Are Behind Gautam Adani’s Massive Wealth Spurt first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Nothing has grown more steadily in democratic India than political corruption ever since its independence. Ironically, the news of political corruption consumed more media space than any other line of stories since 1948. Yet, such news had hardly much impact on political parties and their indulgence to corruption. Most of the political […]

The post Political Corruption Is Eating Into Heart Of Indian Economy first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is good to know that Russia and India are in an advanced stage of discussion on accepting each other’s debit and credit cards. Should the two countries agree, Indian ATMs (automated teller machines) will soon accept Russian MIR cards. And, Indian RuPay cards will be accepted in Russia. Further, the two […]

The post Indian ‘RuPay’ And Russian ‘MIR’ Look For New Opportunities Together first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee   Some may disagree but India has failed to cash in on its spirited struggle for freedom from over-a-100-year-old British Raj to convert the country into an abode of peace and prosperity for its citizens in the last 75 years. Official claims apart, India continues to be a poor country with almost […]

The post India Lacked Policy Focus For Growth With Equity, Grass Root Development first appeared on IPA Newspack.

  By Nantoo Banerjee   Why is it a matter of such a tearing hurry for Indian Railways that it has to rush to China to import 39,000 wheels while the same could have been locally produced? The Railways were well aware of the shortage of wheels for Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches for passenger […]

The post Chinese Exporters’ Dragon Grip Entangles India first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The Supreme Court verdict, last week (July 27), upholding the validity of inquiry, arrest and bail provisions of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), could not have come at a more appropriate time when as many as 122 sitting and ex-legislators are facing money laundering cases […]

The post SC Verdict On PMLA And ED’s Power Comes At A Crucial Time first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is a matter of great concern that for the country’s millions of educated youth, degrees and certificates have become as useless as wastepapers as they fail to provide jobs and help brighten their future. Going by the official records, in the academic year of 2018 about 64.7 lakh students passed out […]

The post Rising Jobless Educated Youth Outpace India’s Economic Growth first appeared on IPA Newspack.