By Nantoo Banerjee The best way to stabilise the Indian Rupee is to contain inflation and imports. Simply put: the inflation rate should be below four percent and the country’s massive annual trade deficits need to be reduced to zero. The country should totally focus on making goods in India to reduce avoidable imports and […]
The post Internationalising Rupee Is Unlikely To Stabilise The Currency first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee The European Commission’s decision just ahead of last month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany to mobilise Euro 300 billion (US$340 billion) by 2027 to invest in public and private infrastructure around the world is most welcome though it came several years after a similar initiative by China. With US President Joe Biden […]
The post China’s Nine-Year Old BRI Finally Finds A Challenger first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee It is good to see that a host of large Indian business houses and public sector enterprises have rapidly stepped up imports from Russia taking full advantage of hefty price discounts offered by Russian suppliers on a host of goods in the face of multiple trade sanctions from the NATO countries, European […]
The post Top Indian Business Houses, PSUs Push Up Imports From Russia first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee It is a matter of concern that India, sitting over the world’s fifth largest proven coal reserves of well over 111 billion tonnes, produces only around 800 million tonnes of coal per annum and continues to be a major global coal importer year after year. China, ranked 4th in coal reserves with […]
The post There Is Little To Justify India’s Coal Shortage first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be a very happy person today as his dream to make his home state Gujarat an epicentre of India’s economic development has finally come true. Modi has been relentlessly trying to make Gujarat the country’s choicest investment destination since he became the state’s chief minister in 2001. […]
The post Gujarat Glows As Epicentre Of India’s Development first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee There is nothing to be surprised about the continuous exit from the Indian stock market by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). It has been going on for the last several months. The market is overheated. It has been out of sync with the country’s economic growth since 2017 and corporate performance in general. […]
The post Foreign Portfolio Investors Find Indian Market Hot first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee It is a matter of serious concern that India’s public debt level is among the highest in emerging economies while the country’s debt affordability is among the weakest. Generally, the average threshold limit prescribed for public debt-to-GDP ratio is 77 percent with each additional percentage point of debt costs 0.017 percentage points […]
The post India’s Public Debt Level Is Too High To Become Comfortable first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee China’s fast growing strategic and economic ties with Russia are becoming a major concern for India. Facing the heat of increasing Western financial sanctions on the country apart from large supplies of military and monetary aid from the US-led NATO countries to Ukraine, Russia is fast getting closer to China, the world’s […]
The post Growing China-Russia Ties Put India Under A Trap first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee India’s domestic wheat market is on fire ever since the government said it was targeting record shipments this year after exports from the Black Sea region plunged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Wheat prices in India rose to record high levels in the last three months. In some spot markets, […]
The post Traders Behind Soaring Wheat Prices In India first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee Few will disagree that the US-led 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is using Ukraine to test Russia’s military capability and patience. The increasing supplies of arms, money and even clandestinely despatching soldiers to Ukraine indicate that NATO is fighting a proxy war against Russia cleverly using Ukraine as a pawn. The […]
The post The West Is Using Ukraine To Fight A Proxy War Against Russia first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee No external credit can save Sri Lanka from its current deep financial crisis. The country is simply not in a position to repay its huge outstanding external loans — sovereign or commercial. Tourism, tea and garments export and overseas employment are among its 22.40-million strong population’s key sources of income. Foreign jobs […]
The post IMF Alone Can Save Sri Lanka From Financial Collapse first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee Indian consumers are reeling under high inflationary pressures. The costs of food, clothes, housing, transportation, medicine and healthcare have all gone up by 50 to 60 percent or even more since the middle of last year. The high fuel prices are impacting the prices of almost all commodities and services. The trend […]
The post Union Government’s Price Indexes Are Not Reliable first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee The international financial system governed by western powers no longer offers safety to foreign currency deposits in their chests from other parts of the world. Even foreign private deposits and investments in assets are being frozen. The latest financial sanction imposed on Russia and its oligarchs freezing their accounts may appear to […]
The post Parking Funds In Foreign Banks, Treasuries Now Look Less Safe first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s offer to India to consider a rupee-ruble mechanism to settle trade in goods between the two countries to avoid sanctions imposed by the US-led NATO comes at a time when the Indian economy is reeling under high prices of oil putting the country’s energy security at risk. […]
The post India’s Energy Security Can Not Be Compromised first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee Prices are bubbling up. Food, fuel and fertiliser costs are surging almost daily. Inflation seems to have got a free pass in India. The country’s wholesale price index, which tracks goods at factory gates, rose almost 13 percent from a year earlier in January. The gauge has recorded double-digit increases for 10 […]
The post RBI Has Failed To Check Surging Inflation first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee There were writings on the wall. Only India’s official economists seemed to have failed to read and report to the government. Oil rally was expected to continue through 2022 as demand outstripped supply. By January 29, this year, oil posted its sixth straight weekly gain as a growing global chorus predicted the […]
The post Surging Inflation Can Upset India’s Economy first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee The Russian attack on Ukraine seems to have given a wakeup call to countries in Europe and Asia to substantially step up their annual defence expenditure to protect themselves from possible external assault. Given the ominous security situation in Europe, a number of countries, including Germany, Sweden, Romania, Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands […]
The post Several Countries Plan To Step Up Military Spending first appeared on IPA Newspack.
By Nantoo Banerjee The US-led western trade, economic and financial sanctions on Russia seem to be working instantly, but less to the discomfort of Russia than the rest of the world. The sweeping sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have led to a massive spurt in global oil and gas prices — over 20 percent […]
The post Sweeping US, EU Sanctions Hit World Economy More Than Russia’s first appeared on IPA Newspack.
ECONOMY BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY BULLION MERCHANTS
By Nantoo Banerjee
Swiss banks may not be too happy with India’s latest round of searches for big Indian accounts there. But, largely impoverished India’s endless gold hunt, especially at a time when the global economy and trade are shrinking and stock markets around the world are going topsy-turvy following economic slow-down in China, has placed the Geneva-based World Gold Council on top of the world. India’s gold import last month hit a new 120-day high at nearly $4 billion while all other imports to the country shrank by over 15 per cent in value. The massive gold import by bullion merchants, mostly from Mumbai and Ahmedabad, widened the country’s trade deficit to $11.7 billion in just one month. In the pre-reform period, India’s annual trade deficit rarely topped $5 billion. During the current financial year 2015-16, t
STRATEGICALLY TWO COUNTRIES NEED TO BE CLOSER
By Nantoo Banerjee
Trust is the key. Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe seems to have finally recognized that India could be fully trusted with technology transfer and large fund investments. It may have taken almost a quarter of a century since Osamo Suzuki chose India for small car production in equity collaboration with the government-owned Maruti Udyog for Japan to finally trust India to engage itself with the country for civil nuclear cooperation. But, Japan today is convinced that slow-and-steady-moving democratic India is probably the most trusted country for economic and technology cooperation outside the USA. The huge $12-billion Japanese long term soft credit commitment for a single project in India – the 550 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train service – along with proposal of technology transfer in defence production among 14 other ec
BUT, CONGRESS CHIEF MUST EXPLAIN LAND GRAB CHARGES
By Nantoo Banerjee
One would expect a late Indira Gandhi’s daughter in law to show greater respect to her mother in law by respecting the democratic system and to judicial summons instead of loudly protesting against them in Parliament to stop its normal function. The massive land grab charges against the president and the vice-president of the party pending before the court need to be fought there legally and not in Parliament. Indira Gandhi fought her election perjury case in the Allahabad high court, which she lost in the end, instead of trying to stall Parliament proceedings using her party representatives. The Delhi high court has found substance in the massive land grab allegation against the Congress president, her son and associates. They were directed to appear before the trial court. Like good citizens, they should have
INDIA IS NOT MAKING ENOUGH FOR ITSELF
By Nantoo Banerjee
Notwithstanding the GDP growth projection of 7.5 per cent for the current fiscal, India’s $350-billion export manufacturing is fast shrinking. The export downtrend continued for 11 months in a row toll October. There is no immediate sign of improvement. Making in India does not seem to make much sense at least for Indian exporters at this moment. With export orders shrunk and prices falling in the global market, India’s export manufacturers are in a quandary. The loss of exports during this financial year could be close to $80-90billion. The export earnings could at best reach $270 billion. This could mean a massive loss of production and jobs in the export sector. The country would be lucky if it ends 2015-16 with a 20 per cent loss of export earnings compared to the last year.
Unfortunately, around 4
OFFICIALS NOW WANT TO INTRODUCE HEALTHY SNACKS FOR RICHER KIDS By Nantoo Banerjee However laudable may be Union Minister Maneka…
