Work in Progress

Happy Dussehra!

With India welcoming the festive season amid the coronavirus pandemic, several reports of the country’s economic revival emerged last week. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the Indian economy is almost ready to recover, adding that policymakers can overcome COVID-19 related challenges with accommodative fiscal and monetary policies.

Additionally, Mint’s emerging markets tracker reported a manufacturing-led recovery in the country - which helped Indian exports grow by 6% in September. With the latest data, India now takes the third position among key emerging markets -with only China and Brazil ranking better than us.

The apparel industry, one of the most hit sectors during the pandemic, has finally reported a 10% rise in exports last month. This data is likely to further improve with the upcoming holiday season in the west.

Manufacturing growth puts India among top three emerging economies

A steady recovery in the manufacturing sector helped India climb two notches to the third position among key emerging markets in September. Only China and Brazil rank better, shows the latest update of Mint’s emerging markets tracker. The manufacturing growth reflected in the first year-on-year rise in exports in seven months, and the highest reading of the purchasing managers’ index in over eight years. In September, India’s merchandise exports rose 6% on-year to $27.6 billion.

Apparel exports rise 10% in September; on path of V-shaped recovery: AEPC

Apparel exports logged double-digit growth in September, which indicates the segment is on course to a V-shaped recovery, apparel exporters' body AEPC on saturday said. Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel said apparel exports rose for the first time this fiscal in September and the steep recovery from 90 per cent fall in April to 10 per cent rise last month "corroborates our belief that the apparel sector is already on the path of V-shaped recovery".

Exporters feel pinch as sea freight to US and Europe rises by 30-40%

Sea freight rates from Indian ports to the US and European ports have increased by 30-40 per cent to $4,000-4,500 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container, and with further increases expected in October, the rate could soon breach $5,000. Traditional export-oriented industries like textiles, leather, automotive and others are feeling the pinch as they dealt with very thin margins only.

India at doorstep of post-Covid recovery; RBI deployed instruments that were not in toolkit, says RBI Guv

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das today said that Indian is at the doorstep of the revival process. Shaktikanta Das added that confident policymakers will be able to overcome challenges due to Covid and at the moment, both fiscal and monetary policies are accommodative. Speaking about the bank reforms, the RBI Governor further said that governance reforms are most important in the bank and non-bank sectors and the bank governance reforms are ownership agnostic. He underlined that RBI has deployed instruments that were not in the toolkit and it is looking to innovate on instruments to respond to the pandemic.

India has a great opportunity to become a leader in Mobile and Mobile Accessories Exporter post the pandemic

This is how India has an extraordinary chance to set up itself as an alternative to the destination for mobile phone and accessories manufacturing and become a global exporter in worldwide at derisking manufacturing from China in the post pandemic, a strategy report by ICEAEY. The statement, which has been shared with government officials, has underlined a three phase Resume, Re-establish, and Resurgence plan to help India achieve exports of USD 100 billion in mobile phones and accessory and nearly US 40 billion in components by 2025.