The daily wage for unskilled workers was increased from Rs 300 to Rs 500 with retrospective effect from July 11, 2022, Labour Minister Lok Nath Sharma said. The daily wage for semi-skilled workers was increased to Rs 520 from Rs 320, while skilled workers will get Rs 535 instead of Rs 335 earlier, he said.
The wage hike, as per ICRA estimates, would lead to an increase in the cost of production by Rs. 14per kg for bulk tea producers based out of Assam, which contributes 60% and 50% of the North India and all India production respectively.
India's exports in the month of August rose marginally by 1.62% to $33.92 billion while the trade deficit more than doubled to $27.98 billion, government data showed on Wednesday.
In a note, Rahul Bajoria, the chief economist at Barclays Securities India, said elevated inflation on both the retail and wholesale fronts suggests the need for the RBI's monetary policy committee to maintain vigilance over evolving price trends and accordingly he expects the MPC to front-load rate hikes, and deliver another 50 bps rate hike on September 30.
Across India’s 1000 towns and cities, demand for a wide range of festival services like idol makers, mandap decorators, sweet shops, flower decorators, pooja item dealers, and caterers for Navratri and Durga Puja shot up by (YoY) 29%. The demand in Tier-I cities grew by 33% and that in Tier-II by 60%
The Indian government on Thursday imposed a 20 per cent export duty on non-basmati rice except for parboiled rice to boost domestic supplies amid a fall in area under the paddy crop in the current Kharif season. After that, it also banned the export of broken rice with an aim to increase domestic availability.
India's thermal coal imports are expected to rise 7% on year to 158 million in 2022, and a further 3% to 163 million tonnes in 2023, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said. In contrast, shipments of the fuel resource into China, the world's biggest importer, could fall to 182 million tonnes in 2022 and 176 million tonnes in 2023, from 246 million tonnes in 2021, Woodmac said.
"The Ministry has constructed 2,912 km of National Highways up to August 2022, as compared to 3,355 km up to August last year. The Award figure is 2,706 km during this period as compared to 3,261 km in the previous year," the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said in its monthly summary for the Cabinet for August 2022.
The US Federal Reserve is expected to strike the inflation monster with a sledgehammer rate hike of 75 basis points in its next meeting on September 21. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell made his intentions of going after inflation with full force pretty much clear at the Jackson Hole speech.