Leaders are feeling suffocated in Cong: Amit Shah asks party to self-introspect

New Delhi, Jan 20: Surging inflation and slowing growth are raising serious concerns about the future growth prospects of the economy and as a remedial measure the government should resolve supply-side hurdles and ensure more stringent governance norms, a report said on Monday.

According to the Dun and Bradstreet Economy forecast, even though the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) turned positive in November 2019, it is likely to remain subdued.

"Slowdown in consumption and investment along with high inflationary pressures, geopolitical issues and uncertainty over the recovery of the economic growth are likely to keep IIP subdued," the report noted.

Dun and Bradstreet expect IIP to remain around 1.5-2.0 percent during December 2019.

As per government data, industrial output grew 1.8 percent in November, turning positive after three months of contraction, on account of growth in the manufacturing sector.

On the price front, uneven rainfall along with floods in many states and geopolitical issues have led to a surge in headline inflation even as demand remains muted.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in December rose to about five-and-half year high of 7.35 percent from 5.54 percent in November, mainly driven by high vegetable prices.

"The sharp rise in inflation has constrained monetary policy stimulus while revenue shortfall has placed limits on the government expenditure," Dun & Bradstreet India Chief Economist Arun Singh said.

According to Singh, growth-supporting measures and deceleration in growth are likely to cause slippage in fiscal deficit target by a wider margin.

"The government should focus on taking small steps to address the slowdown; in particular, resolve the supply-side hurdles and ensure more stringent governance norms," Singh said.

Unless these concerns are addressed through a comprehensive policy framework, it will not be easy for India to clock a sustainable growth rate to become a USD 5 trillion economy, he added.

New Delhi, Jan 11: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said that he has never seen innocents like the Indian people, who believe the claims made by the government on the implementation of its programmes. The former Union Minister, addressing a literary event, said, "I have never seen innocents like the Indian people. If something appears on print (and named two newspapers also), we believe it. We believe anything."

Claims like all villages having been electrified in the country and toilets built for 99 per cent of families in India were being believed, he said.

Similar was the case of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or PM-JAY is a flagship health care scheme of the Centre), he alleged.

Stating that his Delhi-based driver's father had to get a surgery done under the scheme, he said, however, it could not be performed.

"I asked him (car driver) if he had the Ayushman card and he showed a card and I told him to take it (to hospital). In hospital after hospital, they said they were not aware of anything like that (Ayushman scheme). But we believe that the Ayushman scheme has come to the whole of India," he said.

Further, he said "we believe that for any disease, treatment will be done (indicating the Ayushman scheme) without shelling out money. We are being innocents."

Many news items and data were contrary to the truth, he added.

Mumbai, Jul 24: Reliance India Limited (RIL) on Friday overtook ExxonMobil to become the world's second most valuable energy company and 46th among the world's largest companies by market capitalisation.

RIL's market capitalisation stood at Rs 14.16 lakh crore (USD 189.3 billion) at market close on Friday. ExxonMobil's current market value is USD 184.77 billion.

"Reliance Industries, with a market capitalisation of USD 189.3 billion now is the second-most valuable energy company in the world. Reliance Industries now stands at 46th among the world's largest companies by market capitalisation ahead of well-known names like ExxonMobil, Abbott Laboratories, Oracle Corp, Chevron and Unilever Plc, and just below PepsiCo," RIL said in an official release.

RIL continued its rally on Friday, notwithstanding overall weak market conditions.

RIL shares made a new all-time high of Rs 2,163 and were last traded at Rs 2,148.8 on NSE with a gain of 4.4 per cent. The market capitalisation of fully paid-up shares stands at Rs 13.62 lakh crore (USD 182.06 billion), the release said.

Reliance partly paid-up shares gained 9.33 per cent on NSE today to last trade at Rs 1289.95. The partly paid-up shares now have a market capitalisation of Rs 0.55 lakh crore (USD 7.29 billion).

"Reliance's share price had touched a bottom of Rs 867 on March 23, 2020, when the total market value of the company stood at Rs 5.5 lakh crore or $73.5 billion. Thus, RIL has added $115.9 billion to shareholder wealth within just four months - one of the highest value creation feats in the world in such a short time," the release said.

Reliance had earlier raised Rs 212,809 crore through Rights Issue, combined investments in Jio Platforms and investment by bp.