Cites Apple, Foxconn success stories on China Plus One; Calls to strike a balance between importing goods and FDI from China

Industry bodies on Monday expressed confidence that India's GDP growth will surpass the 6.5 to 7 per cent forecast by the Economic Survey, and hoped that the upcoming Budget will roll out measures to help unlock the country's growth potential. Reacting to the Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled in Parliament, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, stated that it is "pragmatic" in its approach and offers a futuristic vision to move India boldly towards achieving the developed economy status by 2047. "The survey is positive about the India growth story, and I am confident that India's GDP growth for FY25 will surpass the forecast given in the Survey and basis certain conditions, it has the potential to be at 8 per cent," CII President Sanjiv Puri said. Echoing similar sentiments, President of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sanjeev Agrawal said the Survey conservatively projects a real GDP growth of 6.5-7 per cent, with risks evenly balanced and market expectations on the higher

The disclosure on KYC costs comes as the RBI has been cautious about KYC risks and has emphasised well-defined norms for market players

"Even as developed nations prepare to impose a carbon tax at the border on imports coming into their countries laden with carbon, they are ramping up energy demand like never before," said the Survey

Social media, unhealthy food impacting workers

The Survey said the global trade outlook for 2024 remains positive, with merchandise trade expected to pick up after registering a contraction in volumes in 2023

"A large proportion of Indian international traffic for the long haul goes through connectivity hubs in the Middle East and Southeast Asia"

The survey notes that official statistics play a pivotal role in addressing societal challenges and promoting inclusive growth

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Monday said that households are investing more in financial assets and their market value are not captured in the national income data. The Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled in Parliament, said that registered investor base at NSE has nearly tripled from March 2020 to March 2024 to 9.2 crore as of March 31, 2024, potentially translating into 20 per cent of the Indian households now channelling their household savings into financial markets. Addressing reporters, Nageswaran said, "households are not in distress" and they are investing in financial assets which have done very well. Also, savings in physical assets have improved and gone up from 10.8 per cent in fiscal 2020-21 to 12.9 per cent in 2022-23. "Especially in last 4 years the foray of retail investors into stock market through SIPs and mutual funds has been quite prolifically documented. Our national income data do not record this at market prices and that is the reason why there

US smartphone major Apple assembled 14 per cent of global iPhones in India in FY24 and the country's ranking in global electronics export improved by four positions, Economic Survey 2023-24 said on Monday. The Survey, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamn, said that the mobile phone segment within the electronics sector has experienced the maximum growth with exports to the US rising from USD 2.2 billion in the financial year 2022-23 to USD 5.7 billion in FY24. "Apple assembled USD 14 billion worth of iPhones in India during FY'24, constituting 14 per cent of its global iPhone production," the Economic Survey said citing third-party data. Foxconn has started production of Apple mobile phones in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it added. "India's share in world electronics exports has improved from 0.63 per cent in 2018 to 0.88 per cent in 2022. As such, India's exports (ranking) rose from 28th in 2018 to 24th in 2022 in global electronics exports. The share of ...

The government has decided to allocate 5 per cent of Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) for research and development of telecommunications technology, said the Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled in Parliament on Monday. At present, the government has a corpus of around Rs 80,000 crore collected under USOF which has now been renamed as Digital Bharat Nidhi. "Telecommunication technology development requires significantly large and patient capital for R&D and commercialisation. To address this, the government has decided that an allocation of 5 per cent of annual collections from Universal Services Obligation Fund would be made available for funding R&D in the telecom sector," the survey said. According to the survey, the Telecom Technology Development Fund formulated in 2022 has seen significant participation from startups, MSMEs, academia and industry. The survey said the government dedicated '5G Test Bed' to the nation in 2022, providing an end-to-end testing facility, ...

Public policy should pay particular attention to boosting the tourism sector, Survey notes

Going forward, the demand for housing is expected to be driven by affordability and increased access to credit, it said

The Reserve Bank should stop looking at food inflation in deciding interest rates and the government should explore giving coupons or direct cash transfer to poor to deal with higher food prices, the pre-Budget economic survey said on Monday. While the inflation rate has moderated in recent months, the RBI has refrained from cutting benchmark interest rates -- which decide the rate at which home, personal and corporate loans are given by banks -- citing elevated food inflation. India introduced the inflation-targeting framework in 2016 under which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is mandated to keep retail inflation at 4 per cent, with a margin of 2 per cent on either side. The benchmark policy rates are decided bi-monthly by the RBI on the basis of movement in consumer price index, which includes food, fuel, manufactured goods and select services. "India's inflation targeting framework should consider targeting inflation, excluding food. Higher food prices are, more often, not ...

The survey states a rise in enrolment in higher education has been witnessed between FY15 and FY22, driven by underprivileged sections such as SC, ST, and OBC

As such, out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a percentage of THE has come down from 64.2 per cent in FY14 to 47.1 per cent in FY20

Even as experts acknowledge the challenge, they also point to a rising trend in the number of psychiatrists due to an increased number of postgraduate seats in recent years

Green steel will play an important role in reshaping the future of the industry as the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, the Economic Survey for 2023-24 has said. The concept of green steel promotes the production of steel using green energy sources and minimizing the usage of fossil fuels. "As the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, green steel is poised to play a pivotal role in reshaping the future of the steel industry," said the Survey tabled in Parliament on Monday. India's steel sector accounts for 12 per cent of India's greenhouse gas emissions with an emission intensity of 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel compared to the global average of 1.9 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel, it said. The Survey also said that India remained a net importer of steel during the first, second and third quarters of FY24 because of price differentials between international and domestic prices of finished steel. Low prices in the international markets led to reduce

Foreign investors have poured money into India's markets this year as they look for alternatives to Chinese equities and after JPMorgan announced the inclusion of India's bonds into its key index

The report also anticipated the UAE could become a hub for sourcing India's capital goods and intermediates for further value-added exports to other African and European destinations