Inflation seen inching up in March, but still below RBI target: Report

Agencies
April 9, 2019

Bengaluru Apr 9: India’s retail inflation is expected to have accelerated in March on slightly higher food prices but remain under the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4 per cent, a Reuters poll predicted.

If the forecast is realized, March will be the eighth month in a row with below-target inflation, giving the RBI room to squeeze in another rate cut this year.

According to the median consensus of over 40 economists polled by Reuters between April 4-8, consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 2.80 per cent in March, up from 2.57 per cent in February.

Forecasts ranged between 2.43 per cent and 3.10 per cent.

“Headline CPI inflation will have remained low in March, even if, as we suspect, it rose slightly as food inflation continues to pick up. In particular, the sharp fall in vegetable inflation over recent months appears to have bottomed out,” said Shilan Shah, senior India economist at Capital Economics.

Food prices, which constitute nearly half of India’s CPI basket, declined 0.66 per cent on-year in February compared with a drop of 2.24 per cent in January.

Oil - India’s biggest import item - has risen over 30 per cent this year and is currently trading at around USD 70 per barrel.

“Transport and utilities - which are clearly being driven by the rise in oil prices - are (also) driving headline inflation higher on a year-on-year basis,” said Prakash Sakpal, Asia economist at ING.

At its April 4 monetary policy meeting, the RBI lowered borrowing costs for the second consecutive time to spur growth, bringing the repo rate to 6.0 percent.

The rapid policy easings come just weeks before voting begins in a national election, the results of which will be announced in May.

“The growth argument is not strong for easing policy just yet. Growth is slowing indeed, but it is not just India, it is slowing everywhere. (But) India still has very strong domestic demand,” said ING’s Sakpal.

According to a Reuters poll last week, economic growth is forecast to average 7.2 per cent over the coming year.

But while inflation is predicted to rise to the RBI’s target this year, just under half of economists polled by Reuters last week predicted another rate cut.

“The RBI will almost certainly follow up its cumulative 50bp of rate cuts this year with further loosening, perhaps as soon as June,” said Shah at Capital Economics.

“But with core inflation still elevated, we think that further policy loosening will prove to be a policy mistake.”

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News Network
January 17,2020

New Delhi, Jan 17: A Delhi court Friday issued fresh death warrants for February 1, 6 am against the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora was hearing a plea by one of the four death row convicts in the case, Mukesh Kumar Singh, seeking postponement of the date of his execution scheduled for January 22.

Earlier in the day, the Tihar jail authorities sought issuance of fresh death warrants against the four convicts.

Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed told the court that Mukesh's mercy plea was rejected by President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday.

The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Bhopal, Mar 4: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister  Kamal Nath on Tuesday asserted that there was no threat to his government.

Nath's comments came when he was asked about reports of alleged 'poaching' attempts being made by the opposition BJP in the state.

“The legislators are telling me that they are being offered so much money. I am telling the MLAs to take it, if they are getting this free money,” Nath told reporters here on the sidelines of a programme.

Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Monday alleged that his party MLAs were being offered “huge money by BJP leaders” as part of the saffron party's “poaching” attempt to destablise the Kamal Nath government.

When Nath was asked about any threat to the stability of his government in Madhya Pradesh, he said, “There is nothing to worry about.”

Reacting to Nath's statement, state BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told PTI that his party has nothing to do with the allegations.

“In fact, these speculations and allegations are part of the internal bickering of among Congress leaders to get nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls,” he said.

After Digvijaya Singh's remarks on Monday, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements to create sensationalism.

“Speaking lies to create sensationalism is Digvijaya's habit. Probably some of his (Digivijaya's) works were not done and he wants to create pressure on the CM to get them done,” Chouhan alleged.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

Mumbai, Jul 13: In a significant landmark, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has achieved a doubling-rate of 50 days for COVID-19 cases, a top official said on Monday.

This was possible because of the civic body's 'open testing policy', implying tests without prescriptions, making it the only city in the country to implement it.

"After the open testing policy, our testing has gone up from 4,000 to 6,800, daily. But the total positive cases have come down from 1,400 to 1,200 now," BMC Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal told IANS.

Of these 1,200 positive cases, the symptomatic cases are less than 200, so the BMC needs only 200 beds daily, the civic chief said.

Even the BMC's discharge rate now stands at 70 percent, and on Sunday, after allotting beds to all patients, there were still 7,000 COVID beds plus 250 ICU beds lying vacant, said Chahal.

For this achievement, Chahal gave the credit to the entire 'Team BMC' where - despite losing a little over 100 officials to the virus - civic officials and other Corona warriors are engaged 24x7 in controlling the pandemic for over four months.

Since the first case was detected in Mumbai on March 11 (after the state's first infectees in Pune on March 9) and the state's first death notched in Mumbai on March 17, the current Maharashtra Covid-19 tally stands at 2,54,427 cases and fatalities at 10,289, while Mumbai has recorded 92,988 cases with a death toll of 5,288.

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