巴拉特

分类： bharat

  • India halved its poverty rate since 1990s – World Bank

    India halved its poverty rate since 1990s – World Bank

    India, the second-most populous country in the world, has achieved annual growth exceeding 7 percent over the last 15 years and continues to pull millions of people out of poverty, according to the World Bank.
    The country has halved its poverty rate over the past three decades and has seen strong improvements in most human development outcomes, a report by the international financial institution has found.

    Growth is expected to continue and the elimination of extreme poverty in the next decade is within reach, said the bank, which warned that the country’s development trajectory faces considerable challenges.

    It explained that the South Asian nation will need to achieve greater resource efficiency as it sustains growth, given its resource endowments and large population. Land must be used more productively in urban areas through the spatial transformation of cities to achieve agglomeration economies, and in rural areas through increased agricultural productivity. Water management will need to prepare for shifting water allocation to higher-value uses and for policies to increase the value of water use within sectors.

    The World Bank pointed out that 230 million people are not properly connected to the electricity grid. It said that India’s rapidly growing economy needs investment in infrastructure, an estimated 8.8 percent of GDP, or $343 billion a year until 2030.

    A particular challenge lies in the country’s declining female labor force participation, according to the bank. It is at about 27 percent and is among the lowest in the world, despite overcoming gender gaps in education, the financial institution said.

  • India set to eclipse US with global economic growth share by 2024

    India is expected to become a much bigger driver of global growth than the world’s current largest economy, the US, in just five years, according to Bloomberg calculations based on International Monetary Fund (IMF) data.
    The global economic watchdog warned about the risks of the slowdown that the world is currently facing as it downgraded growth to three percent, the weakest since the global financial crisis. This is the result of multiple factors, including the US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions, as well as Brexit-related risks, according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook released earlier this week.

    However, some countries are projected to contribute more to the development of the world economy. China is set to remain the indisputable leader despite its share is set to fall from 32.7 percent in 2019 to 28.3 percent in 2024.

    India’s growth can outpace that of the US, Bloomberg reported, citing IMF estimates adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). In five years, the South Asian nation will account for 15.5 percent of global growth, jumping two percent from the current figures. Meanwhile, the US contribution is set to fall by more than 3.5 percent from its current 13.8 percent, to 9.2 percent.

    Other changes in the top five include Russia pushing Japan off fifth place with its share of GDP growth expected to stay at its current level of two percent in 2024. Indonesia will remain in fourth place.

    This week, the IMF cut India’s GDP growth forecast for 2019 to 6.1 percent, which is 1.2 percent lower than the body’s April projections. Despite the gloomier prognosis, the country’s finance minister argued on Thursday that the Indian economy is “still growing as the fastest,” although it remains far behind China.

  • India’s debt-crippled national carrier focused on day-to-day survival, will have to shut down if not privatized

    Air India will have to cease operations if a renewed attempt to sell the debt-laden company fails to find a buyer, the country’s Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
    “Once we invite bids, then we’ll see how many bids will come in,” he told Parliament.

    A group of officials is currently finalizing the process of inviting bids from the private sector. Last year, the government failed to attract any bidders when it tried to sell a 76 percent stake in the airline and offload about $5.1 billion in debt. Air India is saddled with an $11 billion overall debt.

    According to Puri, the government is now re-evaluating some of the terms and is open to selling the airline in its entirety. One of the biggest hurdles, he said, is its large number of employees.

    Air India has about 9,400 permanent staff and 4,200 contract workers.The minister said the government is committed to securing a deal that is favorable for the employees.

    The carrier has struggled to pay salaries and buy fuel, with losses mounting following earlier privatization attempts. Air India spokesman Dhananjay Kumar told AFP the company is unable to pay its debts and its outlook is gloomy.

    “We are concentrating on day-to-day operations and not focusing on the future,” he said, adding “Whatever resources we have, we are trying to use them in an optimum manner and trying to run our flights.”

    Air India, which started as Tata Airlines in 1932 and later became state-owned, has been losing money for more than a decade. The company, which was once known as the ‘Maharaja of the skies’, has lost market share to low-cost rivals in one of the world’s fastest-growing but most competitive airline markets.