businessline's State of the Economy Podcast

If 2022 was marked by aggressive rate hikes by global central banks, the rate hike cycle is beginning to slow this year and many economies are now pausing the rate hike cycle. In this State of Economy podcast, Mr Indranil Pan, Chief Economist, Yes Bank, speaks with Lokeshwarri S K, Senior Associate Editor about the possible trajectory for Indian and global interest rates.  Mr Pan thinks that decli...

The Vande Bharat train has created a huge sensation across the country since the first service was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route. The train manufactured at Integral Coach Factor in Chennai is an example of the ‘Make in India’ success story. The latest inauguration of the train service was between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod in Kerala by Prim...

India is working extremely hard to transition to sustainable energy. Should we be satisfied with the country's development so far when we consider India's aspirations for the clean energy transition, such as the prospects for green hydrogen electric vehicles and carbon capture? Or should the nation make more direct efforts? In this podcast, Karthik Ganesan, Fellow and Director of Research Coordina...

It's nearly a year since we had a new entrant in the financial services arena - account aggregators. Meant to digitalise, simplify and reduce the time involved in the processes of financial transactions Account aggregators were seen as the next UPI moments in the financial world. Today we have with us Tejinder Singh, chief business officer at CAMSfinserv to take us through the journey of this expe...

Apple has been ramping up and scaling up its presence in India over the last few years.  Apple CEO Tim Cook has been placing some bets on manufacturing, engaging with developers, and most recently, opening our free retail outlets. The tech giant decided to open its retail stores in Mumbai and Delhi.  How has Apple’s growth trajectory been in India? Does the country provide Apple with a great oppor...

The textile sector, one of the oldest industries in the country, still continues to be critical for the sustainability of the Indian economy. Contributing about 2% to India’s GDP, the labour-intensive sector, is the second largest employer in the country after agriculture. India is also a major exporter of textiles, accounting for 8–9% of total exports.   However, given the Covid-19 scenario and t...

India's agricultural exports have defied the odds, overcoming the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic slowdown. This success can be largely attributed to the Agricultural Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).  How did the organisation boost sales?   In this episode, M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, talks about India’s agricultural export performan...

The recent monetary policy has surprised many with the fact that RBI decided to pause the rates. But for investors in debt and depositors is -is this the real end of this rate-hiking cycle? Or should we all be prepared for rates to go up a little more as the RBI has left the window open now saying that if inflation goes up, then they may consider further rate hikes?  In this episode, A. Balasubram...

Major events that occurred in the start-up world in March put founders and investors on alert. There was a lot of worry and uncertainty following the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, a favoured banking partner for many start-ups.   SVB had exposure to at least 21 start-ups in India as of December 31, 2022, when it had approximately $209 billion in assets and approximately $175.4 billion in total acc...

Unseasonal rain and oil production cuts pose a new challenge to inflation and the overall economy. At the same time, considering the retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index is still over the upper tolerance level,  there is a strong possibility of another round of interest rate hikes.   How is India's economy likely to fare in the coming quarters and would the RBI's Monetary Policy Committe...

Direct-to-Consumer or D2C gained popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic when governments issued lockdown orders to stop the spread of the virus. As a model, D2C brands deliver products to their customers directly via digital channels and without a middle distribution channel. This is one of the reasons why D2C brands became the darling of customers during the pandemic. In this episode of State of...

With digital markets growing exponentially around the world in the last two decades, different countries have looked at regulating them in different ways. India is no exception. The government is expecting India’s digital markets (value of goods and services through digital channels) to touch $ 1 trillion by 2025-26 and the stakeholders demand an effective regulatory mechanism that would help nurt...

Padma Bhushan awardee Kirit Parikh feels that it is imperative that CNG and PNG consumers get natural gas at affordable rates, as it not only supports efforts to reduce CO2 emissions but is also economically viable in many cases compared with other fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel. A government-appointed committee headed by Parikh recently submitted a report to the Oil Ministry on fixing the...

We fill out a lot of forms, there are so many KYC procedures we go through, we share our phone numbers today, pretty much with everybody, whether it’s to buy a toy at the toy store, opening a bank account, to a diagnostic center for a blood test. Our ID’s are also sort of sought out from hotel booking to anything related to GST, bank statements, and so on. Where does one draw the line with respect...

The Centre is pushing for regional air connectivity of smaller towns that are of importance. However, one of its policies could stop the industrial town of Hosur in western Tamil Nadu and bordering Karnataka of being deprived of having a new airport. The current policy does not allow new airports within a 150 ­km radius of an existing airport. Unfortunately, Hosur is just 74 km from Bengaluru's Ke...

The last 12 to 13 months have been tumultuous for the wheat market, particularly in India for many reasons. The procurement of wheat by the Food Corporation of India was as low as 47% of the 43.44 million tonnes it procured in 2021. How is the current fiscal playing out for the flour mills in India and what is the outlook for the next fiscal? In this podcast, Subramani Ra Mancombu speaks to Pramod...

The recent 5G rollout marks another turning point for India’s telecom market. However, the telecom sector has been going through a major financial crisis. With a combined debt of around Rs 5 lakh crore, the operators are finding it tough to keep up the investment needed to roll out a network. While the operators have increased tariffs to mop up cash, this has led to services becoming unaffordable...

It is widely believed that small towns will power India's growth story in the future and that tier II and III towns are aiding the economic recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This shift from urban areas to rural areas poses a set of new challenges for marketers - how can brands reach out to their customers? What are the best means to do so?  In this episode of State Of The Economy...

The macroeconomic conditions have made it difficult for Indian startups to secure funding, with private equity (PE) and VC investments declining by 63% year-on-year in January 2023. To navigate this funding crunch, startups have had to resort to cost-cutting measures, like shutting down business verticals, employee layoffs and much more. Further, as VCs adopted a more cautious approach, several ca...

Over the past week, the Indian government has released data on several fronts on how the economy is performing. However, the data does not reveal any set pattern -- some figures look encouraging, while others don’t. So, what is the big picture? In the first episode of the State of the Economy podcast, businessline’s Associate Editor Shishir Sinha talks to Rajani Sinha, Chief Economist, CARE Rating...