Indian Economy: News and Discussion

[Haldilal]

Ya'll Nibbiars

I. MERCHANDISE TRADE.

EXPORTS including re-exports.

1 . Exports in August 2021 were USD 33.28 Billion, as compared to USD 22.83 Billion in August
2020, exhibiting a positive growth of 45.76 per cent. In Rupee terms, exports were Rs.
2,46,863.37 Crore in August 2021, as compared to Rs. 1,70,470.61 Crore in August 2020,
registering a positive growth of 44.81 per cent. As compared to August 2019, exports in August exhibited 2021 exhibited a positive growth of 28.03 per cent in Dollar terms and 33.50 per cent in Rupee terms.

2 . The commodities/commodity groups which have recorded positive growth during August
2021 vis-à-vis August 2020 are Petroleum products 144.6%, Gems & jewellery 88.3%,
Engineering goods 59.01%, Cotton yarn/fabs./made-ups, handloom products etc. 55.84%,
Man-made yarn/fabs./made-ups etc. 51.71%, Marine products 50.7%, Coffee 42.31%,
Mica, Coal & other ores, minerals including processed minerals 38.56%, Organic &
inorganic chemicals 35.94%, Electronic goods 31.67%, Jute mfg. including floor covering
25.3%, Handicrafts excl. handmade Carpet 24.67%, Ceramic products & glassware
18.07%, Plastic & Linoleum 16.33%, RMG of all textiles 14.15%, Cashew 12.58%,
Cereal preparations & miscellaneous processed items 12.19%n Fruits & Vegetables
10.13%, Tea 8.55%, Leather & leather products 8.37%, Carpet 6.93%, Rice 6.78%,
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals 1.36% and Spices 0.23%.

3 . The commodities/commodity groups which have recorded negative growth during August
2021 vis-à-vis August 2020 are Iron ore -64.58%, Oil meals -45.75%, Meat, dairy & poultry
products -15.39%, Oil seeds -5.78%, Other cereals -2.56% and Tobacco -2.55%.

4 . Cumulative value of exports for the period April-August 2021 was USD 164.10 Billion Rs.
12,14,442.50 Crore as against USD 98.06 Billion Rs. 7,38,849.55 Crore during the period
April-August 2020, registering a positive growth of 67.33 per cent in Dollar terms positive
growth of 64.37 per cent in Rupee terms. As compared to April-August 2019, exports in April
August 2021 exhibited a positive growth of 23.25 per cent in Dollar terms and 30.83 per cent
in Rupee terms.

5 . Non-petroleum and Non-Gems and Jewellery exports in August 2021 were USD 25.19 Billion, as compared to USD 19.10 Billion in August 2020, registering a positive growth of 31.87 percent. As compared to August 2019, Non-petroleum and Non-Gems and Jewellery exports in August 2021 registered a positive growth of 28.73 per cent. Non-petroleum and Non-Gems
and Jewellery exports in April-August 2021 were USD 124.55 Billion, as compared to USD
83.48 Billion for the corresponding period in 2020-21, which is an increase of 49.21 per cent.
As compared to April-August 2019, Non-petroleum and Non-Gems and Jewellery exports in
April-August 2021 registered a positive growth of 24.99 per cent.

II. TRADE IN SERVICES.

EXPORTS Receipts.

1 . As per the latest press release by RBI dated 1st September 2021, exports in July 2021 were USD 18.52 Billion Rs. 1,38,053.81 Crore registering a positive growth of 10.87 per cent in
Dollar terms, vis-à-vis July 2020. The estimated value of services export for August 2021 is
USD 18.92 Billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 17.33 per cent vis-a-vis August 2020 (USD
16.13 Billion and a positive growth of 7.83 per cent vis-à-vis August 2019 USD 17.55
Billion.

 

[Knowitall]

@ezsasa it seems that the govt might finally take the much needed decision and bring fuel prices under control once and for all.

Govt to consider bringing petrol, diesel under GST: Report

Proposal to bring diesel, petrol under a single national rate, according to people familiar with the matter

www.livemint.com

 

[FalconSlayers]

@ezsasa it seems that the govt might finally take the much needed decision and bring fuel prices under control once and for all.

Govt to consider bringing petrol, diesel under GST: Report

Proposal to bring diesel, petrol under a single national rate, according to people familiar with the matter

www.livemint.com

Will affect their revenue, they should increase duties in alcohol, pan masala, cigarettes and tobacco to compensate partially.

 

[FalconSlayers]

 

[another_armchair]

@ezsasa it seems that the govt might finally take the much needed decision and bring fuel prices under control once and for all.

Govt to consider bringing petrol, diesel under GST: Report

Proposal to bring diesel, petrol under a single national rate, according to people familiar with the matter

www.livemint.com

Even if they do bring it under GST, will the excess cess go?

 

[SimplyIndian]

As long as the BOP outlook stays healthy, the Import surge is not a bad sign. Just need to watch out for non-essential or non-value adding stuff like- Gold, Electronics, Cars.

Gold should be imported as much as possible. That is currency of last resort. Each central bank has some % in gold reserves for a reason.

Gold is just gold. Using INR to get gold is priceless.

 

[Knowitall]

Even if they do bring it under GST, will the excess cess go?

Both the central and state govts charge their own amounts for fuel.

If fuel is brought under GST then technically atleast state govt charges should go out.

 

[aystle]

 

[Covfefe]

Gold should be imported as much as possible. That is currency of last resort. Each central bank has some % in gold reserves for a reason.

Gold is just gold. Using INR to get gold is priceless.

We use up our foreign reserves to add to our non-productive capital. India already has around worth $1 trillion worth of Gold most of which never see its usefulness in the capital market. While saving some for the bad times is fine, but it amounting to the second-largest line item in the import bills hardly makes any sense. At an individual level, Gold-indexed bonds make more sense.

 

[another_armchair]

Both the central and state govts charge their own amounts for fuel.

If fuel is brought under GST then technically atleast state govt charges should go out.

Wonder what will stop the Govt. from leaving fuel under the highest GST slab/bracket of 28%.

That would effectively kill all hopes of reducing 'fuel cess' with the Govt. continuing to reap a bounty of over Rs. 2-3 lakh crores in fuel cess alone.

 

[Knowitall]

Wonder what will stop the Govt. from leaving fuel under the highest GST slab/bracket of 28%.

That would effectively kill all hopes of reducing 'fuel cess' with the Govt. continuing to reap a bounty of over Rs. 2-3 lakh crores in fuel cess alone.

The amount of political capital needed for such a decision is not something this govt can afford.

Look at this pie chart for example.

If the govt just magically decides to add the 23% in their own percentage it will be pure madness. I expect the govt to add a bit and then relieve the public by removing the remaining amount.

The govt needs to keep in mind that the more money the public has on it's hand the more it will spend thus boosting the GDP.

 

[FalconSlayers]

Never knew 3.1 comes between 4 and 6.

 

[no smoking]

Ya'll Nibbiars you simply assumed and mixed electronics with optical. In pre WW2 USN used Japanese made optical sights. I literally laughed when you jumbled the electronics parts with success and not the with some Success probabaly your translation problem or simply you jumped.

Yes, I know: Yagi antenna. The Japanese professor was the leading researcher in early stage.
However, as I point out, it was Japanese industrial capability drag her down. Japanese factories were struggling to turn his work into a qualified product.
The first Japanese radar was introduced in late 1942. Until the end of war, these radars proved to be useless except wasting ammunition.

 

[no smoking]

Japan already was a world power before ww2 and was even colonizing other countries at that time ex china and korea and that was largely the reason they could rebuild so fast because all the knowledge was there only the infrastructure was gone

No, she was a regional power. She was losing the economic competition to western powers in her own backyard - Asia. That was why she need to go to war: she was losing the market.
The reason she can colonize her neighbors because they were in much worse status. Most of Asians, except India, were still in the agricultural stage.

 

[no smoking]

Japan jumped into Industrialization train back in 19th Century itself during Meiji Restoration.
They were quite developed before WWII.

Yes, but only true when comparing to her poor neighbors.

They had expertise in Biology, chemistry, physics and had Nobel winner too already. Only thing they lacked was in house natural resources.

They were lagging behind major western powers on all these areas until 1970s.

 

[FalconSlayers]

 

[FalconSlayers]

 

[HitmanBlood]

Little late but I want to add my analysis on Ford motor company's exit from Indian market.

Story of Ford in India began in 1998. Before this time they were just testing the waters from outside but in 1998 they became fully committed to Indian business. In the first decade they sold very uninspiring cars at a steep price tag. This strategy got them little success.

However things changed in second decade of their operations when they launched two crowd favorite models Figo Hatch and Ecosport Cross.

Figo was designed as urban middle class car with lot of features and a good diesel engine that captured trend of diesel in small cars. For many years Figo was one of the best option for diesel heads in India. Hance this model received tremendous sucess compared to any other model they were selling before. After sucess of Figo they launched Ecosport Cross. Which was the first Crossover SUV in India and it got market by strom. It was first time buyers can get SUV look and comfort at a reasonable price. This sucess forced every other company to introduce their crossovers in market. Today Indian car market is a crossover market all thanks to market first Ford Ecosport.

So at this point it seemed Ford was doing everything great but things wasn't as rosy on the inside as it seemed. Here I as a previous Ford owner during their short golden era in India can chime in.

Here is my experience

I decided to buy Ford in 2010, because I loved the looks of the car and build quality. The Ford was giving features like bluetooth, LCD screens, etc when most of the industry was stuck with analogue stuff. My experience from buying at Ford dealership was good. Staff was well behaved and I got a decent discount on top.

Here I must add that driving a Ford or any non japanese brand is for some reason more fun. This is something that can't be described but you have to feel it yourself.

So everything was fine until I realised milage I was getting was pathetic in comparison to other companies. This was first sign of trouble. Another problem was engine didn't have enough power in mids. So initial pick up and top speed are great but middle part felt sluggish. It felt like engine wasn't refined at all. There are problems in all cars so I looked the other way.

The biggest problem with me was when I went for servicing. The service was too expensive and there was no pick up and drop facilities that I was used to before. I literally had to drive to service center and wait hours as they serviced my car. In the end they would give me a steep bill. So I started searching for other dealership. In my surprise I realised there is only one Ford dealership in my city. Although I live in a large metro city. This one dealership maintains multiple showrooms and services centers. So changing service center ment nothing as everything was same. Still I changed service center and as expected nothing changed.

Coming to my service experience with Ford this one incident made me so angry at the time. I pre booked my service with Ford dealership one week in advance. I took one day off for car service as it was a regular thing. So I drove 20kms within city from my house to nearest Ford service center where appointment was booked. I waited one hour but no service guy came. When one did came he said we can't service your car as there is too many cars they have on that day. I argued that I have an appointment still they refused. I called Ford the company and they said this is a dealership issue so they can't fo anything. I decided to go to other dealership but they refused as my appointment was booked at that perticular center. In the end I had to go back to my house and return 15 days later for that service.

This was a one off incident but other stuff happened a lot at their services centers. Their mechanical staff would not listen to problems, they would not give proper answers, they would make you wait hours for a simple job sheet, they would charge any ammount of money. My service bill was getting too much but I couldn't do anything as there was only one Ford dealership in my city. So I was stuck.

Coming to quality of car itself. Now car was made with stong heavy metal sheets. So it was sturdy but internals were not that great. Car's suspension wasn't that good and headlights where terrible on highways at night. First problem I had was with hydraulics system and Ford refused to fix it for free and asked 55000 rupees for it. I was willing to give the money but they didn't have part so they asked me to deposit the money in advance and wait for part to arrive from factory. Of course i refused and lived with that problem. Another problem was electronics and gear shifter. These two problems also mad me live with it. After just three years my suspension was going bad and it shortened the life of my tyres and wheel bearings. More spending.

Around 2016 the service center closest to my house (still 20kms) shut down and I was advised to go to only remaining service center 40kms away on outskirts of my city. Although I loved my car so much, but the trouble was too much for me and I decided to sell it.

Our first family car was Maruti. Other than weak metal sheets there was no trouble with the car and fuel milage was amazing too. When I bought Ford my mentality was anything but Maruti. After suffering all this problems I once again bought Maruti and then another one as well. So today I am happy with both of my cars and service is smooth. They pick up from my house and return back in evening. Also there is so many centers to choose from. The cost of service and parts are also less. In short I am happy.

So when I heard the news that Ford was shutting down in India. I wasn't surprised. The way they were milking their customers, the way dealership had made monopolies, this was bound to happen. They even replaced crowd favorite Figo with an uglier Figo/Aspire model and increased pricing of Ecosport. Meanwhile they didn't do proper upgrades to their cars and didn't adress genuine issues of customers.

I am not alone with my experience with Ford india. There are many others who have similar or even worst experience. Ford India's CEO was once asked about their success with Fogo and Ecosport in India. This is back in 2013 era. He said he wasn't too happy as margins on these cheap cars low and he wanted high margin vehicle sales to pick up in India like Endeavour and Mustang. This interview sums up Ford's mentality and is reson for their decline worldwide.

 

[BlackViking]

look at bihar !!

View attachment 109999

JJM Dashboard

ejalshakti.gov.in

look at delhi

 

[Maharaj samudragupt]

Jaguar engines