Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market
1. India’s trade deficit has increased by 87% to $192.41 billion in FY22.
- This increase is as per preliminary data recently released by the government.
- In FY 2021-22, goods imports increased at a faster rate than exports.
- Goods imports increased by 54.71% (year on year) to $610.22 billion.
- Faster increase in imports is mainly driven (caused) by petroleum, electronics, gold, coal and machinery sectors.
- India’s exports in FY22 (fiscal year 2021-22) reached to a record level of $417.81 billion. This was 43% higher than exports in previous fiscal.
- Exports of petroleum products, engineering goods, electronics, agriculture produce, textiles and chemicals have increased.
Topic: Reports and Indices
2. FICCI’s latest Economic Outlook Survey estimated the growth of Indian economy at 7.4% in 2022-23.
- The FICCI’s survey has kept medium forecast for exports at $434.4 billion and for imports at $669.4 billion in 2022-23.
- It has kept median fiscal deficit to GDP ratio at 6.4% for the fiscal year 2022-23.
- S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has declined from 54.9 in February to 54 in March. It has declined to lowest level in last six months.
- PMI is compiled by S&P Global. In February 2022, S&P Global and IHS Markit have completed their merger. HS Markit has now become part of S&P Global.
Topic: Reports and Indices
3. CII’s Harnessing India’s Demographic Dividend for Boosting Growth report and Refinitiv’s report on M&A activity involving India.
- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has released report titled as Harnessing India’s Demographic Dividend for Boosting Growth.
- The report says that if India’s working age population is productively employed, its GDP can grow from current $3 trillion to $9 trillion and $40 trillion by 2030 and 2047, respectively.
- CII report notes excess employment in agriculture event though its contribution to gross value added (GVA) is low and stagnant.
- It says that creation of jobs for low skill labour will be a challenge for India.
- It also says that 24.3% of incremental global workforce over next decade will come from India.
- As per the report, focus should be on labour-intensive industries. It talks about raising of R&D expenditure from 0.7% to at least 2%.
- As per Refinitiv’s report, Mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity involving India stood at $30.3 billion in January-March 2022.
- This was a four-year high level. US was the most active foreign acquirer in India. Refinitiv provides financial market data.
Topic: MoUs/ Agreements
4. IndAus ECTA will help increasing bilateral trade between India and Australia from current $27 billion to $45-50 billion in the next five years.
- IndAus ECTA excludes agriculture and dairy items, gold, silver, platinum, jewellery, iron ore, and most medical devices.
- The agreement has a provision that both countries will work towards concluding an enhanced agricultural Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
- Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment said that Government of Australia’s goal is to include India into top three markets of Australia by 2035.
- India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA) covers trade in both goods and services between India and Australia.
- Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Government of Australia signed IndAus ECTA in a virtual ceremony on 02 April 2022.
- India is Australia's fifth-largest trading partner. In February 2022, Indo- UAE CEPA was signed. It is a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Topic: Agriculture
5. India’s coffee exports during 2021-22 grew by 42% to $1.042 billion.
- Last year, the exports stood at $734.98 million. In volume terms, exports grew at 35%.
- Commerce Ministry’s target for coffee exports is $1.07 billion for fiscal 2022.
- Russia accounts for about 15% of the shipments from India. It is the largest buyer of Indian instant coffee.
- More than two-thirds of the over 3 lakh tonnes of coffee produced in India is exported.
Topic: Corporates/Companies
6. Indian Oil Corporation, L&T and ReNew Power will form a joint venture for developing India’s green hydrogen sector.
- Additionally, Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will also form a joint venture to manufacture and sell electrolysers used in green hydrogen production.
- The joint ventures aim to make India’s transition from a grey hydrogen economy to green hydrogen economy.
- Green hydrogen is hydrogen made via electrolysis powered by renewable energy.
- In February 2022, centre has notified Green Hydrogen Policy.
- ReNew Power is largest renewable energy company of India in terms of operational capacity.
Topic: Appointments
7. Ex-IAS officer RK Singh appointed as principal advisor to MD by IndiGo.
- RK Singh is former CMD of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. He was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
- In February 2022, Rahul Bhatia was appointed as Managing Director of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo).
- IndiGo is largest airline in India by passenger carried and fleet size. It is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana.
Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market
8. The business volume of Receivables Exchange of India Ltd (RXIL) has been doubled to over ₹13,400 crore in 2021-22.
- RXIL has achieved the volume of ₹2,000 crore in March 2022.
- It is the most successful invoice discounting platform for MSMEs.
- It was launched in 2016. It is the first TReDS platform in the country that has completed five years of existence.
- It is a joint venture between Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).
- State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and YES Bank are the other stakeholders of RXIL.
- Trade Receivables e-Discounting System (TReDS):
- TReDS is an electronic platform to help in financing/discounting of trade receivables of MSMEs through multiple financiers.
- As of now, only three main TReDS platforms registered with RBI are operating in India. They are given below.
1. ATREDS Ltd (also called invoicemart)
2. Receivables Exchange of India Ltd (RXIL)
3. Mynd Solutions (M1 exchange)
Topic: Banking System
9. HDFC Ltd and HDFC Bank will be merged.
- HDFC Bank, India's most valuable lender, agreed to acquire HDFC Limited, India’s largest housing finance company, in a USD 40 billion deal.
- Once the deal goes into effect, HDFC Bank will be 100% owned by public shareholders, and existing shareholders of HDFC will hold 41% of the bank.
- Subject to regulatory approvals, the merger is expected to be completed in the second or third quarter of FY24.
- Under the deal, HDFC and its two wholly owned subsidiaries HDFC Holdings and HDFC Investments will be merged with HDFC Bank.
- This is the banking sector's such second merger after ICICI Ltd's merger with its banking unit, ICICI Bank, in October 2001.
- HDFC Bank:
- HDFC Bank is India's largest private sector bank. It is India’s second largest lender after State Bank of India.
- It is headquartered in Mumbai. It was founded in 1994. The CEO of HDFC Bank is Sashidhar Jagdishan.
Topic: MoUs/Agreements
10. State Bank of India (SBI) and Border Security Force (BSF) have signed MoU.
- SBI and BSF have signed an MoU to give special benefits to the serving and retired BSF personnel and family pensioners.
- As part of the MoU, SBI will offer following facilities to BSF personnel. Some of them are given below.
- Personal and Air Accidental Insurance (Death) cover, Additional cover in case of on-duty death
- Permanent Total Disability/ Partial Disability cover, Zero-balance savings bank accounts
- Furthermore, the Bank will give Home, Car, Education, and Xpress Credit Personal loans at low rates.
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