India Archives - Page 12 of 25

Why India Must Engage Pakistan’s Middle Class – Now

In the long run, India’s economy cannot grow in an unstable neighbourhood; as such building friendly relations with Pakistan is essential. Yet for too long, India’s approach to Pakistan have been fundamentally wrong; rather than engaging only with the liberal elite or the hard-line conservatives, India should build ties with Pakistan’s oft-forgotten middle class – who yearn only for economic progress.

All too often, India’s strategic approach to Pakistan is pulled in opposite directions by polarised sections of the establishment.

World Bank Slashes India’s Forecast For 2013, Sees Better Growth Next Year

The World Bank has cut its forecast for India’s economic growth from 6.1 percent to 4.7 percent in this fiscal year, citing a sharp slowdown in manufacturing and high interest rates as the key factors driving down investment.

In its India Development Update report released on Wednesday, the bank warned that “high headline inflation, an elevated current account deficit, and rising pressure on fiscal balances from the depreciation of the rupee” continued to be major risks for the Indian economy.

India To Regulate “Rent-A-Womb” Industry: Report

The Indian government is drafting a new law that would make it tougher for foreigners to hire surrogate mothers in the country, according to a Reuters report on Monday, as concerns grow over whether the unregulated industry was exploiting women in poverty.

Heavy Tobacco Use To Kill 1.5 Million Indians A Year: Report

The widespread consumption of tobacco in India is expected to cause the deaths of around 1.5 million Indians a year by 2020, according to a new report by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITCP), calling on authorities to better enforce existing smoke-free laws and to raise the price of the product in order to discourage over-consumption.

India’s Economic Troubles “Overplayed”, Says World Bank Chief Economist

The gloom and doom surrounding India’s economic crisis has been “overplayed”, said chief economist at the World Bank Kaushik Basu on Monday, dismissing rumours that that India will need to seek a line of credit from the International Monetary Fund to help fix the economy.

Sloppy Policymaking Behind Asia’s Worst Performing Currency

Despite widespread investor concern, the Indian rupee, already Asia’s most volatile and worst-performing currency, continues to be weighed down by rising pessimism in Asia’s third largest economy, which is growing at a decade-low rate of 5 percent amid worsening public finances.

As John Maynard Keynes once famously stated, ‘When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?’

India To Launch $22bn “Right-To-Food” Programme

The Indian government on Wednesday approved an ambitious $22 billion food security programme that will guarantee cheap food grains for nearly 800 million citizens; a move which critics say is a populist measure that will weigh on the country’s strained public finances.

“The cabinet has unanimously approved the food security ordinance,” Food Minister K. V. Thomas told reporters in New Delhi. The interim Food Security Ordinance is expected to become law this week but must be ratified by Parliament in its next session.

India Economic Forecast

After nearly a decade of rapid GDP growth, peaking at 11.228 percent in 2010, India’s economy has slowed significantly – plagued by stalled reforms, huge corruption scandals and bureaucratic inaction. In 2012, India’s GDP growth rate (constant prices, national currency) was just 3.986 percent, below the 5.5 percent estimate earlier in the year as well as a revised 4.9 percent target forecasted in October 2012.

Energy Diplomacy: India’s Great Balancing Act

In its relentless quest for energy to fuel its booming economy, India, the second largest buyer of Iranian oil, has struck a neat diplomatic balance: Delhi has managed to maintain friendly ties and oil shipments from Tehran without antagonising Washington, while keeping Baghdad on the hook as it takes the necessary steps to fill the gaps left by international sanctions on the Iranian regime.

Have India’s Ponzi-Styled Reforms Run Out Of Steam?

Noam Chomsky once said that ‘reform is a change that you’re supposed to like. So as soon as you hear the word reform, you kind of reach for your wallet and see who’s lifting it’.

This statement is all the more true given that economic reform does not mean the same thing across the world. Not all countries choose to take the IMF-driven, Washington Consensus path of economic reform. China’s ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is the clearest example of this.