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ET World Leaders Forum on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured business of a stable policy environment to facilitate innovation. Policy facilitation and business disruption will, indeed, be required in equal measure to accelerate India's development over the next two decades to capitalise on its demographic dividend. Indian companies need to grow much faster than they are accustomed to, so that the economy makes productive use of its immense work force.

northern India. Air pollution is back on the agenda. Last week, the Supreme Court criticised air pollution boards of Delhi/NCR, Punjab and Haryana for being 'ineffective' due to inadequate staffing.

data analytics, predictive tech and AI, data points are valuable not so much for what they tell us about the past but for how well they can predict the future. By that yardstick, Q1 GDP numbers released by NSO last Friday for the quarter ended June 2024 are likely to fail the test. In a world dogged by uncertainty, where black swan events are seemingly no longer the exception, macroeconomic numbers like GDP are incredibly hard to predict. The past is no guide to the future. No one foresaw the pandemic or, further back in time, the Global Financial Crisis, both of which saw GDP growth collapse dramatically. Sure, these were catastrophic events. But, thanks to geopolitics, there are just too many unknown unknowns in the world today to expect GDP estimates for a single quarter to give us more than a very rough idea of how growth is likely to pan out in future.

Kolkata: Mauritius is inviting Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to set up their units in the island country to capitalise on duty-free export benefit under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an envoy said here. This AGOA offers duty-free shipments to the US market, presenting significant opportunities for Indian businesses, he said. Replying to a question, High Commissioner of Mauritius to India Haymandoyal Dillum said, «Indian industries should make the most of the AGOA agreement with African countries and the US.» Dillum, who visited Kolkata on Saturday to attend a programme of the Bharat Chamber of Commerce, encouraged the leather industry to explore value-added opportunities in Mauritius to gain a competitive edge in the US market.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have starkly different visions on how to address a changing climate while ensuring a reliable energy supply

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to be reconstituted soon, as per its usual schedule, and its revised composition will be of interest. The approach so far has been to have three members from RBI, including its governor, and three external members. These members are appointed by the central government for a term of four years.

Mint in July compared to their performance four months earlier. Only six indicators were above their five-year average trends, whereas three were below it. In comparison, 10 indicators were above their five-year average four months ago.

Europe, setting the stage for policymakers in both regions to lower interest rates in September. On a three-month annualized basis, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying US inflation advanced 1.7% in July, the slowest this year. In Europe, consumer prices rose 2.2% in August from a year ago — the tamest since mid-2021 and significantly lower than the 2.6% pace a month earlier. Meantime, inflation in Tokyo — a leading indicator of the national data due in September — picked up speed in August, supporting the case for the Bank of Japan to continue raising rates at a gradual pace as the bank balances the need to support the economy.

Narendra Modi addressed the gathering at the ET World Leaders Forum. He began his address by saying 'I am sure, at ET WLF, many discussions happened with regard to India’s bright future. He went on to say, 'India is writing a different success story today.' 'We have seen the effect of reforms on our economy success. India has outperformed its peers and beat expectations. Global economy grew 35 pc in 10 years, but Indian economy grew 90 pc and this sustained growth will continue.'

Visa is focusing on leading the digital economy with more women entrepreneurs, said Kelly Mahon Tullier, Vice Chair and Chair People and Corporate Affairs Officer at Visa. She was speaking at the Economic Times World Leader Forum being held in New Delhi on Saturday. «The purpose of Visa (company) is to uplift the world by engaging them in the digital economy...Visa is so much more than a credit card,» she said in the session called The New Paradigm of Payments, chaired by Arijit Barman, Associate Editor, The Economic Times. Tullier also spoke on Visa's work with uplifting women in India in collaboration with United Way of Mumbai.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum on Saturday. “In the global economy, the contribution of tourism is about 10.4%. Compared to that we are at 7.9%. Our 7.9% contribution to the economy is going to be more than 10%. And we will exceed the global average in the next five years,” said Shekhawat as he spoke about Destination India and driving tourism to new heights. “By 2047, when the country will be on the cusp of being Viksit Bharat, one of the most crucial agents for driving that vision will be tourism. The world is looking at India with a new sense of curiosity,” he added.

KB Advisory Group founder Kristin Bentz analyzes the disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street on 'Making Money.'

MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with search giant Google to set up the 'Tamil Nadu AI Labs' in Chennai. The MoU was signed as part of the TN CM MK Stalin's 17-day visit to the United States to garner fresh investments. «Say hello to what I would like to call 'Chenn.ai,'» Industrie Minister Dr TRB Rajaa said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). «With this partnership we aim to skill 2 million youngsters in AI via Naan Mudhalvan, collaborate with startups, and enable MSMEs and the rural economy. We want our youth to be a future-ready workforce.»

Chinese manufacturing contracted for a fourth consecutive month in August, official data showed Saturday, a worse-than-expected result reflecting the world's second-largest economy's struggle to recover. China is facing a crisis in its vast real estate sector as well as lackluster confidence among households and businesses, which is hindering consumption, while geopolitical tensions with Washington and the European Union threaten foreign trade. In August, the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) — a key barometer of industrial output — stood at 49.1 points, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced.

The quarterly figure was in line with an ET poll median estimate of 6.85%, slipping from 7.8% in the last quarter of FY24 and 8.3% in the year before. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had forecast 7.1% growth for the quarter. However, gross value added, which strips out indirect tax and subsidies, is estimated to have grown 6.8% compared with 6.3% in the preceding quarter. «India was the fastest-growing major economy in the June quarter. Data shows better alignment between demand and supply sides of the economy in the quarter,» said chief economic adviser V Anantha Nageswaran.

Canada’s gross domestic product for the second quarter came in stronger than expected, but the details of the GDP report and the accompanying outlook for the start of the next quarter hinted at a stalling economy, economists warned.

Canada’s top banks may still be facing credit headwinds, but analysts say that the relatively stable earnings display in the last quarter suggests that they are not going to “fall off the cliff” anytime soon.

Kamala Harris reveals what she would do on day one of being president. When asked about her early actions during her first interview as the Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris said she would start implementing her plans for an opportunity economy on her first day in office. Her first and foremost, one of her highest priorities is to do what she can to support and strengthen the middle class. Executive orders that quickly change federal policy have been signed into law by previous presidents on their first day in office. On his first day in office, President Biden signed 17 executive orders, one of which was to stop building the wall between the US and Mexico that former President Donald Trump had planned.

The Canadian economy grew at a faster-than-expected annualized pace of 2.1 per cent in the second quarter of the year, but early indications point to a loss of momentum going into the third quarter.

Electronics has become the country's fifth largest export commodity, growing by 23 per cent annually, a senior official in the Ministry of Electronics and IT said on Friday. Electronics manufacturing in India has crossed USD 100 billion market in March 2024, which was USD 49 billion in 2017, Bhuvnesh Kumar, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and IT, said at the launch of indigenously-built Tyronne AMD servers by Netweb Technologies. «The electronics exports are rapidly growing at rate of 23 per cent annually. Last year we did USD 30 billion of exports from India. »Surprisingly for many, it has become 5th largest commodity being exported from India," Kumar said.

Modi Friday laid the foundation stone for the Vadhavan Port project in Maharashtra's Palghar district, near Dahanu town. The port is set to become one of India’s largest deep-water ports, with a total project cost of Rs 76,220 crore. Vadhavan Port, a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and Maharashtra Maritime Board, will enhance India’s maritime infrastructure. It will feature 9 container terminals, 4 multipurpose berths, 4 liquid cargo berths, a Ro-Ro berth, and a Coast Guard berth, with a depth of 20 meters, handling vessels up to 24,000 TEUs. Modi described the day as historic for both Maharashtra and India’s development. He stated, “The Vadhavan Port will be the country’s largest container port and will be counted among the world’s deep-water ports. It will become an epicenter of trade and industrial development for Maharashtra and India.”