Pandemic-hit Indian economy begins to show signs of revival greekherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greekherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New projects involving setting up of factories, buildings and other assets fell to their lowest levels since the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic began. While there were Rs 7.01 trillion worth of new assets in December 2019, this fell 88.6 per cent to Rs 80,000 crore for the three months ending December 2020, shows data from project tracker Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Money spent on creating new assets like manufacturing plants is called capital expenditure and can be a key driver of economic growth. Companies typically invest in setting up additional manufacturing or production capacity when they anticipate that their existing capacity will not be able to keep up with demand. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic hit demand sharply, shows official data.
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Byline: Debmalya Nandy
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act tracker released by the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee as well as a research report presented by LibTech India reveal why the rural job programme has not been able to cater to the needs of the poorest during this steep rural job crisis.
Earlier, a survey by the Azim Premji University had shown that 6 out of 10 rural workers had lost their jobs during the lockdown. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy also stated that about 1.1 crore daily wage workers were unemployed. Corroborating these claims, the Right to Food Campaign survey has shown that about 43 per cent of its respondents had no work in the month of April and May and that 62 per cent of the workers are now earning considerably less than pre-Covid times. These are adequate evidence of the crisis of employment in India during and after the lockdown.
AstraZeneca vaccine set to become first to get approval in India: Report India’s drug regulator is set to approve on Friday a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. The decision would pave the way for the vaccine’s rollout in the world’s second-most populous country which, after the United States, has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world. Britain and Argentina have already authorised the vaccine for urgent public use.
GST mop up rose to highest ever level at over Rs 1.15 trillion in December
2020-12-31 13:35:21 GMT2020-12-31 21:35:21(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
by Pankaj Yadav
NEW DELHI, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) India witnessed a year of calamity and economic recession as the South Asian nation remained the second worst-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic with the tally standing at 10,266,674 and death toll at 148,738 by the last day of the year.
ECONOMIC RECESSION
The 68-day long lockdown, beginning from March 25, had a cascading effect on India with a population of over 1.3 billion, as almost all the manufacturing activities came to a grinding halt, unemployment shot up like never before, and people were left with minimal spending power at their command.