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Proceeds from the goods and services tax (GST) will continue to grow, enabling India to step up public spending on infrastructure, which would in the medium term result in faster economic growth, Asian Development Bank chief economist Yasuyuki Sawada said in an interview. Sawada said the indirect tax reform along with the lingering effect of demonetization, having temporarily led to a slowdown in growth in the fiscal year ended 31 March 2018 to 6.6% from 7.1% in the year before, will now yield strong revenue growth in the medium term and help higher public investments in infrastructure, energy and information and communication technology. Sawada, who is also director general of the ADB’s Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, said India’s economic growth will “bounce back this year and in the next, it will be faster.” ADB’s Asian Development Outlook 2018, released in April, projected the Indian economy to grow at 7.3% in 2018-19 and by 7.6% in 2019-20. “It is ...

The Hindustan Times,   NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, MAY 4 A month after Reserve Bank of India barred regulated lenders from facilitating cryptocurrency transactions, trading volumes have surged dramatically alongside a sharp rally in prices. Exchange operators, investors and analysts say people are rushing to take advantage of a three-month window the Reserve Bank of India has given banks to sever ties with cryptocurrency traders and exchanges. Getting in now enables investors to convert rupees into cryptocurrencies, which they can later swap for other coins via private trading platforms even after the central bank’s rules take hold. “There is a positive sentiment in the industry that the government will not ban trading in cryptocurrencies, and even if formal banking channels cannot be used, people can move to crypto-crypto trading platforms,” Shivam Thakral, Chief Executive of BuyUcoin, a cryptocurrency exchange. “New investors are coming to our exchanges while existing o...

BY PTI, THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE,  NEW YORK, MAY 4 India tops the list of the fastest growing economies in the world for the coming decade and is projected to grow at 7.9 per cent annually, ahead of China and the US, according to a Harvard University report. The Centre for International Development at Harvard University (CID) said in new growth projections that countries that have diversified their economies into more complex sectors, such as India and Vietnam, are those that will grow the fastest in the coming decade. “India tops the list as the fastest growing country for the coming decade, at 7.9 per cent annually, in the economic complexity growth projections. India has made inroads in diversifying its export base to include more complex sectors, such as chemicals, vehicles, and certain electronics,” the report said. It said that India’s productive capabilities far exceed expectations for its current income level, which contributes to the projection of rapid growth for...

The Hindu, NEW DELHI, MAY 04, 2018  Overseas investment proposals are getting the nod in 40 days as against nine months Among foreign countries, the maximum investment proposals in critical sectors like telecom and defence that was cleared by the Home Ministry in 2017, were from China, United Kingdom, U.S. and Mauritius. The Ministry said it has given security clearance to more than 5,000 investment proposals, including for Foreign Direct Investment, in the last four years. A senior Ministry official said that earlier the time taken for security clearance for a project was eight-nine months on an average. This has been brought down to 40 days since last year. The Ministry had formulated a new national security clearance policy in 2015 after the government decided to speed up projects, which were stuck for lack of approval by Intelligence Bureau (IB) or other agencies including the State police. 15 parameters The policy has 15 parameters on which inputs...