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India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) clocked a higher-than-expected growth rate of 6.1 per cent in January-March 2023, in turn pushing up the growth estimate for full year 2022-23 to 7.2 per cent, by the National Statistical Office (NSO). This is higher than NSO’s advance estimates of 7 per cent for 2022-23.
A pickup in services sector growth led by construction, and trade, hotels, transport sectors along with higher investment supported growth even as private final consumption expenditure registered a muted growth.
India’s GDP in FY23, however, will be lower than the growth rate of 9.1 per cent in 2021-22. Sequentially, in quarterly terms in 2022-23, the economy grew 13.1 per cent in April-June (earlier 13.2 per cent), 6.2 per cent in July-September (earlier 6.3 per cent), 4.5 per cent in October-December (earlier 4.4 per cent).
Agricultural growth was estimated at 5.5 per cent in Q4 as against 4.1 per cent in the year-ago period and 4.7 per cent in the previous quarter.
Manufacturing growth rebounded to a year-on-year growth of 4.5 per cent in Q4 FY2023 after having contracted in each of the previous two quarters. For the full year though, revisions for the previous quarter ensured manufacturing growth being estimated now at 1.3 per cent for FY23 as against 0.6 per cent earlier.
Experts said the uptick in manufacturing reflects growth in volumes as well as an improvement in margins during the fourth quarter, partly on account of a sustained moderation in input costs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet said the 2022-23 GDP growth figures “underscore the resilience of the Indian economy amidst global challenges”.
This robust performance along with overall optimism and compelling macro-economic indicators, exemplify the promising trajectory of our economy and the tenacity of our people.
City
Idols, coins, seals: Latest finds at Purana Qila excavation site (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
Excavations at Purana Qila, where the ‘sixth city’ of Delhi once stood, have so far revealed nine cultural levels and a continuous history spanning over 2,500 years.
The artefacts recovered — ranging from idols of Hindu deities to over a hundred coins and almost three dozen seals among others — will be showcased as an Open Air Site Museum at the fort.
Minister of Culture and Tourism and Development of Northeast Region, G Kishan Reddy, made an announcement to this effect following his visit to the site to inspect ongoing excavation work, which was first attempted over six decades ago. “This is the only site in Delhi-NCR where one can witness the continuous history of Delhi from the Pre-Mauryan to Mughal period through the excavated remains. The findings showcase the rich cultural heritage of our country.
Purana Qila will be reopened, and the excavated remains will be preserved, conserved, and provided with a shed. The site will be showcased as an Open Air Site Museum, allowing visitors to experience the rich historical legacy of Delhi.
As per the Ministry of Culture, the ongoing leg of excavation work, which was initiated in January, aims to establish “a complete chronology of the site”, which has yielded artefacts
from different historical periods: Pre-Mauryan, Mauryan, Sunga, Kushana, Gupta, Post Gupta, Rajput, Sultanate and Mughal.
Currently, after reaching a depth of 5.50 metres, according to the Ministry, structures from early Kushana level have been exposed, and the excavation is expected to provide further insights into the ancient city of Indraprastha.
The ministry listed a stone image of Vaikuntha Vishnu, a terracotta plaque of Gaja Laxmi, a stone image of Ganesha, seals and sealings, coins, terracotta figurines, beads of various stones and a bone needle among the notable recoveries from the site.
These artefacts, along with pottery and other antiquities, offer valuable insights into the ancient civilisation and trade activities at the site.
More than 136 coins and 35 seals and sealings have been discovered from a small excavated area, indicating the site’s pivotal role as a centre for trade activities.
Govt & Politics
Scheme for circular economy in smart cities gets approval (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Union Cabinet approved the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) 2.0 to promote circular economy in 18 smart cities to be selected through a competition.
The total funding for the scheme — Rs 1,760 crore — will come from loans from French Development Agency (AFD) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), a German development bank; and a grant of Rs 106 crore from the European Union, the government said in a statement.
The programme starts this year and will run until 2027, with the support of the National Institute of Urban Affairs.
The programme envisages to support competitively selected projects promoting circular economy with focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the state level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the National level.
The first iteration of the programme, CITIIS, was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), AFD, the EU and the NIUA with a total outlay of Rs 933 crore.
Twelve cities out of the 100 smart cities were selected for this.
CITIIS 2.0 will include financial and technical support for 18 cities to develop projects on climate resilience, with a focus on integrated waste management.
In the second component, all states and UTs will be eligible for support to set up climate centres, creating state- and city-level climate data observatories and capacity-building for municipal staff.
Express Network
China can play active role to make Russia withdraw from Ukraine: Norway minister (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Underlining that China has a “very problematic narrative” that it is pushing forward on the Russia-Ukraine war and that Beijing could play a more active role to encourage Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory, Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said India “will never ever defend might before right”, as it is a “very strong supporter of territorial integrity”.
Huitfeldt spoke to The Indian Express on the sidelines of the informal two-day NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Oslo, which began Wednesday.
We only mediate when requested by both parties, and during mediation we only play the role as a facilitator and never put pressure on the parties. We are never ever looking for taking a role in such conflicts or wars. We are only doing this on behalf of invitation from both parties.
We play the role of being impartial, and in this war we are not impartial. We are siding with Ukraine and defending their right to defend their own territory.
India is a very strong supporter of territorial integrity, and also defenders of international law. India will never ever defend might before right. So, on that we have a very common stance and I have had very fruitful discussions with my Indian colleagues.
Explained
The food supply situation (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Even as kharif plantings are set to take off with the southwest monsoon, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has reiterated its earlier forecast of just-about normal rainfall during the season (June-September), the supply and demand balances in key food commodities is comfortable, yet tight.
While there are no shortages for now, a great deal hinges on the monsoon, especially its spatial (rain across major agricultural regions) and temporal (during the crucial sowing and vegetative growth stages) distribution.
That has implications both for the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy (whether to raise, cut or not change interest rates depending on the outlook for inflation) and the government (in a year leading to national elections in March-April 2024).
Barely two months ago, there were two commodities giving policymakers the jitters: wheat and milk.
Unseasonal rain accompanied by gusty winds during the second half of March and early-April had caused the standing wheat to “lodge” (bend over or even fall flat) in many places.
However, the yield losses – the crop was in the final grain-filling and ripening stages – seemingly weren’t as much as initially apprehended.
This is borne out by government agencies procuring about 26.2 million tonnes (mt) of wheat during the current marketing season, as against last year’s 18.8 mt, the lowest since 2007.
Although public wheat stocks of 29 mt as on May 1 are at a 15-year-low for this date (see chart), that’s misleading at least on two counts.
Economy
Govt reopens window to apply for 76k cr manufacturing plan (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Centre will reopen the window for applying to its Rs 76,000 crore semiconductor manufacturing plan as the three applications it had received under the previous window last year have run into hurdles in setting up their respective plants.
The government opened the first window for entities to apply to the scheme in January 2022 and closed it in 45 days. The new window, set to open on June 1, will remain until December 2024.
Government can receive more proposals after it had sweetened the scheme last September by allowing for uniform fiscal support of 50 per cent of project cost for semiconductor fabs across technology nodes and display manufacturing.
The government had received three proposals to set up a fab in the country – from a Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture, international consortium ISMC and Singapore-based IGSS Ventures.
However, at the moment, the Vedanta-Foxconn proposal is the only one that the Centre has on its table, and even that has been unable to find a partner that could licence them the technology to manufacture 28-nanometre chips.