PRI ECO GEN NAT
.NEW DELHI DEL44
BIZ-TOLL-GADKARI
Govt working on uniform toll policy to provide relief to commuters on National Highways: Gadkari
By Bijay Kumar Singh
New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) The road transport ministry is working on a uniform toll policy to benefit national highway users, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.
Gadkari also asserted that now India’s highway infrastructure matches that of the US.
“We are working on a uniform toll policy. It will address the problem faced by the commuters,” he told PTI in an interview, without elaborating further.
Gadkari was responding to a question on simmering discontent among users of National Highways on account of high toll charges and sub-par road-user experience.
The longest-serving road transport and highways minister said that the ministry has decided to initially implement a barrier-less global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based toll collection system on national highways.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Gadkari said, has been taking the complaints made by commuters on social media very seriously and is taking strong action against contractors involved.
At present, while private cars constitute about 60 per cent of the traffic on national highways, the share of toll revenue from these vehicles is barely 20-26 per cent.
Toll charges have increased on highways even as more and more stretches have come under the tolling system over the past 10 years, often leading to rising user discontent.
Total toll collection in India touched Rs 64,809.86 crore in 2023-24, a 35 per cent rise over the previous year. The collection was Rs 27,503 crore in 2019-20.
All user fee plazas on National Highways are established as per the provision of National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008 and the respective Concession Agreement.
Gadkari expressed confidence that in the current financial year, the highways ministry will surpass the previous record of 37 km per day highways construction in 2020-21 financial year.
Around 7,000 km highways been constructed so far in the current financial year. Traditionally, the pace of highways construction is higher in the February-March period.
The pace of highways construction in the country has touched a record 37 km per day in financial year 2020-21.
The highways ministry had constructed 13,435.4 kilometres in 2020-21; 10,457.2 km in 2021-22; 10,331 km in 2022-23, and 12,349 km in 2023-24.
Gadkari also said this financial year, the ministry will award highways projects of 13,000 km.
The ministry had awarded highways project of 8,580.5 km in 2023-24. The pace of highway project awards has slowed down considerably in the absence of a new scheme to replace the Bharatmala Pariyojana.
According to Gadkari, under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, the ministry had the power to award highway projects of up to Rs 3,000 crore, now the ministry cannot approve any fresh projects under the Bharatmala Pariyojana.
“For any project worth above Rs 1,000 crore, now we need to take the approval of the Cabinet. So, we have sent projects worth Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000 crore to the Cabinet for approval,” he said.
“Once we get clearance, we will start working on those projects,” the minister added.
With an aim to reduce delay cost overrun and disputes, an inter-ministerial panel that appraises major highway projects has told the ministry to accept bids only after acquiring 90 per cent of the land required for the projects and getting all statutory projects such as forest and environment.
“This condition has affected the pace of award of highway projects,” Gadkari said.
The government approved Bharatmala Pariyojana in 2017, covering a length of 34,800 km to improve connectivity and reduce logistic costs in the country.
As of October 31, 2024, projects covering a total length of 26,425 km have been awarded and 18,714 km has been constructed.
India has the second largest road network and its National Highways span a total length of 1,46,195 km, forming the primary arterial network of the country. PTI BKS BKS
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0302 1542

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NEW DELHI DEL12
BIZ-ECONOMY-RBI MPC MEMBER
Budget 2025-26 needs to focus on capex, infrastructure spending: RBI MPC member Nagesh Kumar
By Bijay Kumar Singh
New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget for financial year 2025-26, needs to focus on capital expenditure and infrastructure spending to boost economic growth and make it more sustainable, RBI Monetary Policy Committee member Nagesh Kumar said on Sunday.
The eminent economist noted that sustaining infrastructure expenditure and building it further would be very helpful for creating a much more robust trajectory of economic growth for India.
“In the context of the slight economic slowdown that we observed in the second quarter, and overall, there is a need to boost growth and make it more robust, more sustainable.
“The finance minister would do well to continue this momentum (in Budget 2025-26), which she herself started two years ago, of putting great emphasis on capex, infrastructure spending and increasing it to very healthy levels,” he said in an interview to PTI Videos.
The Union Budget for 2025-26, set to be presented by Sitharaman on February 1, arrives amidst global economic uncertainties and moderating domestic growth.
“Because after suffering from the COVID pandemic, the Indian economy suffered a lot, after that it showed a robust recovery, but this pent up demand which drove the Indian economic growth for the past few years, is now coming to an end.
“And so then the Indian economy is back to the trajectory which was there in pre-COVID times, and it now needs to be given a little bit of a boost to public spending,” he said.
Sitharaman in her last year’s budget had said that the government will provide Rs 11.11 lakh crore for capital expenditure for 2024-25 and introduce viability gap funding to spur private investment in infrastructure.
India’s second quarter (July-September) GDP growth has slumped to a seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent.
Responding to a question on weakening of rupee, Kumar said it is more than rupee depreciation, it is the strengthening of the dollar.
According to him, all different currencies are weakening vis-a-vis dollar, because the dollar is becoming very strong, and that is largely due to the strong performance of the American economy and the expectation that the new administration led by Donald Trump will do something to strengthen the US economy.
“So this weakness of the rupee is largely the strengthening of the dollar and which is also leading to the outflows of FII positions from India. So when there is too much demand for dollars, the rupee tends to depreciate,” Kumar observed.
He said the fact that other currencies are also depreciating, one has to take a relative look.
“My feeling is that rupee is still in real terms a bit appreciated and overvalued,” Kumar said, adding that managing rupee at a more competitive exchange rate, which is not overvalued, is healthy for exports, for India’s manufacturing efforts.
The rupee is currently hovering around 86.60 against the greenback. It had also touched an all-time closing low of 86.70 on January 13.
Replying to a question on resurgence of giveaways, also called freebies, Kumar said it is a concern for long-term development.
“Because the resources which could have been used for development purposes, for building infrastructure, for closing the gaps in the infrastructure that exist in the lagging regions or different states are promised to be given as handouts.
“It is not a very healthy trend, and should be curbed, because people should be aware of where the money will come from,” he said.
Emphasising that there is a need to make voters aware that resources which are promised to them are not really freebies, Kumar said freebies cost the public in other forms in terms of development.
“Do you want long-term development prospects of your state or your constituency, or do you want a short-term gain in the form of a freebie?,” he questioned.
“…I hope people will realize sooner than later that this is a false promise of giving freebies, because ultimately it hurts them more than anybody,” he said. PTI BKS DRR

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BIZ-ECONOMY-RBI MPC MEMBER
Sustained growth of 7 pc feasible for India: RBI MPC member Shashanka Bhide
By Bijay Kumar Singh
New Delhi, Apr 22 (PTI) Sustaining the economic growth momentum of 7 per cent in 2024-25 and beyond is feasible on the back of favorable monsoon, higher farm productivity and improved global trade, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Shashanka Bhide said on Monday.
During 2023-24, the economy is likely to record a growth rate of near 8 per cent on account of good performance of manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.
“(India’s economic) Growth in the current year is likely to be supported by agriculture with a favourable monsoon and improved global trade. Sustaining the growth momentum of 7 per cent seems feasible,” he told PTI.
Bhide further said that in the long-term, the need for productivity improvements will remain the key factor to achieve food price stability.
Asked what are some of the headwinds he is wary of, Bhide said one area of concern is the global environment.
“The slow pace of recovery in global demand on one hand and supply chain disruptions on the other hand… if the ongoing geopolitical conflicts are not resolved quickly, (it will) pose significant challenge in terms of demand as well as input prices.
“We should also be prepared for minimising the adverse impact of extreme weather events on output,” he said.
Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised India’s growth projection to 6.8 per cent for 2024 from its January forecast of 6.5 per cent citing bullish domestic demand conditions and a rising working-age population.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also raised India’s GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7 per cent from 6.7 per cent earlier, saying the robust growth will be driven by public and private sector investment demand and gradual improvement in consumer demand.
Asked what is the long-term solution for high food prices, Bhide noted that one aspect of high food inflation in the recent years has been the impact of weather conditions on the perishable commodities such as vegetables.
According to him, although such price spikes may be short-term, their impact is significant.
As many have pointed out, Bhide said processing and preservation of commodities that help in their storage would be a part of the solution in the longer term, just as the supply-side measures that help raise crop resistance to adverse weather.
While noting that the investments in market infrastructure, modernisation of markets for agricultural commodities to help improve supply response to changing demand conditions would also reduce the excessive price spikes, he said. “In the long-term, the need for productivity improvements will remain the key factor to achieve food price stability.”
The eminent economist observed that inflation has remained above the policy target for several countries.
“There are also differences in the growth conditions, with some countries experiencing significant slowdown while some experiencing reasonable positive momentum,” he said, adding that the priority towards bringing down inflation rate to the target appears to be keeping the monetary policies restrictive.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has recently said the baseline projections show inflation moderating to 4.5 per cent in 2024-25 from 5.4 per cent in 2023-24 and 6.7 per cent in 2022-23.
Responding to a question on slowing down of foreign direct investment in India, Bhide said the FDI inflows have been strong in the past few years in response to the various policy reforms along with the attraction of a fast growing economy.
“One reason for the slowdown now may also be the slow pace of global demand recovery,” he observed.
While India’s economy has grown rapidly, Bhide explained a weak global demand may not broaden the scope or scale of opportunities for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Asked whether India has been able to leverage China-plus one strategy, Bhide said India’s strategies to support investments in new opportunities in terms of technology and energy have attracted attention.
Domestic demand plus global demand appear to have gained attention, he added.
FDI inflows to China have fallen dramatically from a share of 12.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2022 to only 1.7 per cent in the same period of 2023.
Various other countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Poland and Germany have witnessed significant gains in the global market share, following the decline of FDI flows to China. PTI BKS DRR
2204 1429

BIZ-RAJAN-ECONOMY
India is “dangerously close” to Hindu rate of growth: Raghuram Rajan
By Bijay Kumar Singh
New Delhi, Mar 5 (PTI) Sounding a note of caution, former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that India is “dangerously close” to the Hindu rate of growth in view of subdued private sector investment, high interest rates and slowing global growth.
Rajan said that sequential slowdown in the quarterly growth, as revealed by the latest estimate of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) last month, was worrying.
Hindu rate of growth is a term describing low Indian economic growth rates from the 1950s to the 1980s, which averaged around 4 per cent. The term was coined by Raj Krishna, an Indian economist, in 1978 to describe the slow growth.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter (October-December) of the current fiscal slowed to 4.4 per cent from 6.3 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) and 13.2 per cent in the first quarter (April-June).
The growth in the third quarter of the previous financial year was 5.2 per cent.
“Of course, the optimists will point to the upward revisions in past GDP numbers, but I am worried about the sequential slowdown. With the private sector unwilling to invest, the RBI still hiking rates, and global growth likely to slow later in the year, I am not sure where we find additional growth momentum,” Rajan said in an email interview to PTI.
Recently, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran had attributed the subdued quarterly growth to the upward revision of estimates of national income for the past years.
The key question is what Indian growth will be in fiscal 2023-24, Rajan said, adding “I am worried that earlier we would be lucky if we hit 5 per cent growth. The latest October-December Indian GDP numbers (4.4 per cent on year ago and 1 per cent relative to the previous quarter) suggest slowing growth from the heady numbers in the first half of the year.
“My fears were not misplaced. The RBI projects an even lower 4.2 per cent for the last quarter of this fiscal. At this point, the average annual growth of the October-December quarter relative to the similar pre-pandemic quarter 3 years ago is 3.7 per cent.
“This is dangerously close to our old Hindu rate of growth! We must do better.”
The government, he said, was doing its bit on infrastructure investment but its manufacturing thrust is yet to pay dividends.
The bright spot is services, he said, adding “it seems less central to government efforts.”
On a query regarding the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Rajan said any scheme in which the government pours money will create jobs and any scheme which elevates tariffs on output while offering bonuses for final units produced in India will create production in India, and exports.
“A sensible evaluation would ask how many jobs are being created and at what price per job. By the government’s own statistics, 15 per cent of the proposed investment has come in but only 3 per cent of the predicted jobs have been created. This does not sound like success, at least not yet,” Rajan said.
Furthermore, even if the scheme fully meets the government’s expectations over the next few years, it will create only 0.6 crore jobs, a small dent in the jobs India needs over the same period, the former RBI Governor said.
“Similarly, government spokespersons point to the rise in cell phone exports as evidence that the scheme is working. But if we are subsidising every cell phone that is exported, this is an obvious outcome. The key question is how much value added is done in India. It turns (out to be) very little so far,” he said.
Rajan said cell phone parts imports have also gone up, so net exports in the cell phone sector, the relevant measure that no one in government talks about, is pretty much where it was when the scheme started.
“Except, we have also spent money on subsidies. Foxconn just announced a big factory to produce parts but they have been saying they will invest for a long time. I think we need a lot more evidence before celebrating the success of the PLI scheme,” he said.
Currently, Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
He further said the most developed economies of the world are largely service economies, so you can be a large economy without a large presence in manufacturing.
“Services do not just account for the majority of our unicorns, services can also provide a lot of semi-skilled jobs in construction, transport, tourism, retail, and hospitality.
“So let us not deride service jobs – indeed while the fraction of manufacturing jobs has stagnated in India, services have absorbed the exodus from agriculture.
“We need to work on both manufacturing and services to create the jobs we need, and fortunately, many of the inputs both (services and manufacturing) need schooling, skilling…,” he said.
On what measures the government should take to improve oversight of private family companies to address worries after the Hindenburg allegations on Adani Group, Rajan said: “I don’t think the issue is of more oversight over private companies”.
The issue is of reducing non-transparent links between government and business, and of letting, indeed encouraging, regulators do their job, he said.
“Why has SEBI not yet got to the bottom of the ownership of those Mauritius funds which have been holding and trading Adani stock? Does it need help from the investigative agencies?,” Rajan wondered.
Adani group has been under severe pressure since the US short-seller Hindenburg Research on January 24, accused it of accounting fraud and stock manipulation, allegations that the conglomerate has denied as “malicious”, “baseless” and a “calculated attack on India”. PTI BKS NKD CS DRR
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https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/no-prospect-of-recession-in-india-economy-to-grow-6-7-pc-in-next-fiscal-rajiv-kumar/articleshow/95636781.cms