As much as 60 per cent of all resolution plans under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) were approved in the last three years alone, with over 30,000 cases having an underlying default of Rs 13.8 trillion getting settled even before admission, according to data till December 2024 released by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
'We believe that in the new world order FTAs or bilateral trade agreements (BTAs) are the way forward.' 'They are enablers for our participation in global value chains. Today, around 70 per cent of global trade is tied to these chains.'
A decline in the initiation of the corporate insolvency process last year is spurring most Big Four firms to rethink and rejig their insolvency verticals to focus on business beyond Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), industry experts said. Between the June and December quarter of FY25, the number of insolvency applications initiated by financial creditors went down from 150 to 84.
The prospect of protracted uncertainties in the global economic landscape not only pose a risk for India's growth outlook in 2025-26, but are also likely to dent the private sector's capital raising and investment plans, the finance ministry averred on Tuesday, cautioning the country's corporates that the era of 'easy pickings' was over.
The government is considering initiating a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) against Gensol Engineering and its promoters, according to sources familiar with the matter. "It is under consideration at this stage. A final decision will be taken soon," a government official said.
Geopolitical tensions, trade policy uncertainties, volatility in international commodity prices and financial market uncertainties pose considerable risks to India's economic growth in the coming year, the finance ministry cautioned on Wednesday. "Global trade continues to be affected by uncertainty in the policy environment... tariff-related developments in multiple countries have heightened trade-related risks, affecting investment and trade flows globally.
'Indian players in the digital market should not be dominated by global players, and they should not dominate the smaller players -- these discussions are on.'
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen has the highest unutilised amount (Rs 13,111 crore) compared to any other centrally sponsored scheme.
For the first time, the government is likely to dip into the Oil Industry Development Fund (OIDF) to finance part of its fertiliser subsidy programme for 2025-26, according to official sources. The finance ministry has accounted for Rs 23,000 crore in the FY26 Budget as net additional resources to be drawn from dedicated reserve funds, including the OIDF, the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Fund, and the Universal Service Obligation Fund.
The interest rate on these schemes have remained unchanged for over a year now.
'We are getting to understand the mind of this generation.' 'Minor tweaks are being made to ease the process as we go along.'
'Spend, but create assets, spend but make sure that people benefit from it.' 'This has been a beautiful guiding principle. And I think as a finance minister I owe so much to the prime minister for keeping this path clear before us.'
'Our attempt to honour the taxpayer has been since 2014 and more actively since 2019-2020 onwards.'
'Nearly 10 million people will benefit from the increase in the rebate limit for those earning up to Rs 12 lakh.' 'We expect all that money will come back into the economy in either savings, consumption, or investments.'
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
The government may save over Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) on capital and revenue expenditure allocated towards new schemes in the FY25 Budget that are yet to be implemented.
The upcoming Union Budget to be presented on February 1 is likely to assume a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth between 10 and 10.5 per cent for FY26, a Business Standard poll of 10 economists showed. The first advance estimates released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) had estimated a nominal GDP growth of 9.7 per cent for FY25. Nominal GDP, calculated at current market prices, factors in the effect of inflation. It is used as the base to calculate crucial macroeconomic indicators, such as fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, and debt-to-GDP ratio.
The Budget assumes significance as it comes on the back of lower-than-expected growth numbers during the second quarter and geopolitical uncertainty.
Following the lacklustre growth numbers in the second quarter (Q2FY25), economists believe the upcoming Union Budget for 2025-26 should focus on reforms that will stimulate consumption, manufacturing and spur employment. India's growth unexpectedly slowed to 5.4 per cent in the second quarter, due to low capital formation, weak consumption, besides adverse weather impact.
The government's capital expenditure in the April-November period of financial year 2024-25 (FY25) continued to contract with a 12.3 per cent decline year-on-year (Y-o-Y), according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts on Tuesday.