Inflation faced by Indian consumers raced to an almost eight-year high of 7.8% in April, from 6.95% in March, with rural inflation accelerating to 8.4%, and urban shoppers experiencing an almost 1 percentage point month-on-month quickening at 7.1%, data released by the National Statistical Office on Thursday show. Food costs led the surge with inflation measured by the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) jumping to a 17-month high of 8.4% from March’s 7.7%. Food prices rose at a faster clip of 8.5% in rural India.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday appointed former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as Premier, to restore stability in the island nation amid a political impasse and stifling economic crisis. This is the sixth time Mr. Wickremesinghe, 73, has been appointed to the office — he has never finished a full term — and will have the task of arresting the devastating impact of the island’s economic downturn, that too under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is fiercely detested by disgruntled citizens demanding his resignation.
Finland’s leaders on Thursday came out in favour of applying to join NATO, and Sweden could do the same within days, in a historic realignment on the continent two-and-a-half months after the Russian President’s invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin reacted by warning it will be forced to take retaliatory “military-technical” steps. On the ground, meanwhile, Russian forces pounded areas in Ukraine’s east, including the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, as part of its offensive to take the vital industrial Donbas region, while Ukraine recaptured some towns and villages in the northeast.
Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) facility, at press conferences held simultaneously at several centres around the world on Thursday, revealed the first image of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The image of Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) gave further support to the idea that the compact object at the centre of our galaxy is indeed a black hole, strengthening Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
The capex-driven fiscal path laid out in the Union Budget will help the economy weather inflationary headwinds and post almost 8% real growth in 2022-23, the Finance Ministry said in its monthly economic review on Thursday. The ministry’s GDP growth projection is faster than the 7.2% pace forecast by the RBI last month. Citing the International Monetary Fund’s 8.2% forecast, the ministry said that India would be the fastest growing economy in 2022-23 and added the ‘strong growth in economic activity’ in April lent ‘credence’ to this projection. This was reflected in the ‘robust performance of e-way bill generation, toll collection, electricity consumption, PMI manufacturing and PMI services’ as well as record GST collection for March transactions, it asserted.
India’s industrial output grew by 1.9% in March, only marginally higher than the 1.7% growth recorded in February, with manufacturing growth staying weak at just 0.9%, just a tad better than the 0.8% recorded in the preceding month. This is the fifth month in a row that the Index of Industrial Production growth has been lower than 2%. Electricity generation and mining output grew 6.1% and 4.5%, respectively. On a sequential basis, however, industrial production was up 12.5% in March from the February 2022 levels, as per quick estimates released by the National Statistical Office. While primary and consumer goods’ production rose month-on-month, this was largely offset by a dip in the expansion rates of capital, infrastructure and intermediate goods, noted ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar.
The UN Human Rights Council will decide on Thursday whether to launch an investigation into alleged abuses by Russian troops in the Kyiv area that Ukraine says amount to war crimes. A resolution brought by Ukraine and supported by more than 50 other countries would mandate a newly-formed Commission of Inquiry to investigate events in the regions around Kyiv that were temporarily held by Russian troops. It would prepare a report by early next year.
India’s food production could drop 16% and the number of those at risk for hunger could increase 23% by 2030 due to climate change, says a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on climate change and food systems. These projections are part of a model that was used to evaluate the impact of climate change on aggregate food production, food consumption (kilocalories per person per day), net trade of major food commodity groups, and the population at risk of going hungry. IMPACT, as the model is called, simulates national and international agricultural markets.
In the financial year 2021-22, 90-lakh beneficiaries of the Narendra Modi government’s flagship welfare scheme, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), did not take refill gas cylinders. And over one crore beneficiaries got their refills only once.
Army chief General Manoj Pande on Thursday reviewed the operational preparedness on the ground in Ladakh, during his three-day visit, as the stand-off with China continues in eastern Ladakh. This is Gen. Pande’s first forward area visit since taking over as the 29th Army chief on April 30. “The Army chief was briefed on the security situation along the borders with special focus on eastern Ladakh. The high level of operational readiness being maintained by the forces while maintaining a high tempo of capability development was highlighted,” the Army said in a statement.
On May 4, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to raise the benchmark interest rate by 0.4 percentage points to 4.4%. Over the past few months, there has been a growing clamour to raise rates, mixed with anxiety over retail inflation exceeding the central bank’s tolerance limit of 6% for three months running. The surprise to the markets was in the timing of RBI’s move, via an off-cycle meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). In a discussion moderated by K. Bharat Kumar, Shubhada Rao and U.R. Bhat discuss whether the RBI delayed the rate hike.
A split verdict in the Delhi High Court on the question of criminalising marital rape has reignited the controversy over legal protection for disregard of consent for sex within marriage. On Wednesday, while Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who headed the Bench, struck down as unconstitutional the exception to Section 375 of the IPC, which says that intercourse by a man with his wife aged 18 or above is not rape even if it is without her consent.
Stalled negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme have been unblocked after fresh talks in Tehran, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday, adding that he believed a final deal was within reach. Mr. Borrell said a mission by EU envoy Enrique Mora this week to help revive the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers had gone “better than expected”.“The negotiations had stalled and now they have been reopened,” Mr. Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Germany.