In India's economic pick-up, who's leading the pack and who's losing out?

India’s economic activity is picking up, boosted by a long-awaited recovery in consumption that’s helped cut down slack in the economy and underpinned sales of everything from cars to housing.

Almost 60 per cent of gross domestic product comes from private spending, according to estimates from New York-based CEIC Data Co., with the pick-up helping to fuel growth of more than 7 per cent this year, making India the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Yet the performance isn’t uniform across all industries, with the banking and power sectors facing distress and global trade tensions clouding the outlook for exports.

Here’s a detailed look at which sectors are ticking and those that are ailing:

The Leaders

Automobiles: The auto industry is on a strong footing. While demand is broad-based across markets, rural India appears to be doing particularly well, which is reflected in sales of two-wheelers and tractors. Companies such as Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland are taking advantage of stronger demand by passing on higher prices to consumers.

News digest: Exports rise 30%, Adani to build highways, and more

Exports jump 30%, trade deficit high at $13.8 bn

The GST Council's efforts to resolve exporters' woes on refunds seem to have started yielding results. Exports grew 30.55 per cent in November, a month after it contracted 1.1 per cent, also due to the low base effect and rising petroleum prices. In fact, petroleum products, along with engineering goods, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, drove nearly 80 per cent of the rise in merchandise exports. Read more


Govt okays sops for leather sector, waives fee for small digital payments

The Cabinet on Friday cleared a Rs 2,600-crore proposal to boost job creation in the leather industry, lowered the merchant discount rate (MDR) on transactions up to Rs 2,000 through debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems to promote digital transactions, and approved a series of Bills, including one amending the Specific Relief Act to smoothen enforcement of contracts. Read more

Growth slowdown bottoming out, says RBI governor

While expectations on price rise remain stable for the moment, “considerable caution and vigilance is warranted on the inflation front” but the slowing in growth could be over, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel. Read more

Adani group to foray into highway construction sector

The Adani group, which has a presence in the power, coal and maritime sectors, would soon foray into the highway construction sector. Read more
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Indian Bank brings 2-tier interest rate for savings A/Cs

PSU lender Indian Bank on Friday said it will offer an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum on savings account with an incremental balance of over Rs 50 lakh and 3.50 per cent per annum for deposits up to Rs 50 lakh.

The lender in a statement said it "has introduced two tier interest rate structure for saving bank accounts and will offer 4 per cent interest per annum for incremental balance over Rs 50 lakh and 3.50 per cent per annum for balance up to Rs 50 lakh."

The new interest rate will be effective from August 16, 2017, the bank said in a BSE filing.

Recently, the country's largest lender State Bank of India had slashed interest rate on savings account deposits by 50 basis points to 3.5 per on balance of Rs 1 crore and below.

However, SBI continues to offer 4 per cent interest on savings account balance of Rs 1 crore and above.

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Bank of India sees further improvement in bad loans in Dec quarter

Latest News - Bank of India Ltd does not expect any additional bad loans in the current quarter on a net basis, its chief said on Thursday, as India's sixth-biggest lender by assets reported its second consecutive quarter of profit after a stretch of losses.

The state-run lender booked a net profit of 1.02 billion rupees ($15 million) for the three months ending in December, compared with a net loss of 15.06 billion rupees a year earlier.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans as at the end of December eased to 13.38 per cent from 13.45 per cent as at September-end.

For the fourth quarter through March, the bank expects gross bad loan additions of (Read More)