Business Today 2 February 2025

If you look at the customary picture taken before the Interim Budget was presented last February (on page 35), it is evident that crucial mandarins of that time—Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi, CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta, and Minister of State Bhagwat Karad—are no longer in the team shaping Budget 2025-26. Their successors, veterans in economic policymaking, are burning the midnight oil under Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, set to present her eighth Budget, to craft a policy document that must address pressing economic realities. The task is complicated, as the Indian economy is grappling with a complex set of domestic and external circumstances. Economic growth is projected to decelerate to a four-year low this fiscal, as highlighted by Surabhi in the lead story…

MAHA KUMBH TENT CITY SPREAD OVER 4,000 HECTARES ON THE BANKS OF THE GANGA MAHA KUMBH MELA 2025, BEING HELD IN PRAYAGRAJ, UTTAR PRADESH (UP), FROM JANUARY 13 TO FEBRUARY 26, IS EXPECTED TO ATTRACT OVER 400 MILLION PILGRIMS. HERE’S HOW THE 45-DAY EVENT CAN BOOST THE STATE’S ECONOMY: ₹ 2 LAKH CRORE Expected income from economic activities, per CAIT. Kumbh Mela 2019 generated ₹1.2 lakh crore, per CII 78 PER CENT Increase in the budget—from ₹4,200 crore in 2019 to ₹7,500 crore in ₹ 5,500 CRORE Worth of development projects launched by PM Narendra Modi to boost the infrastructure of the city ₹ 25.48 LAKH CRORE Gross State Domestic Product of UP at current prices in FY24, up from ₹22.58 lakh crore in FY23 SOURCE PIB, INVEST.UP.GOV.IN, CII, CAIT, MEDIA REPORTS…

LOSING APPETITE AFTER RISING TO A SEVEN-QUARTER HIGH IN Q1FY25, PRIVATE FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE GROWTH SLOWED TO 6% DURING THE JULY-SEPTEMBER QUARTER NOTE DATA FOR THE RESPECTIVE QUARTERS; SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK IN THE SLOW LANE IN 2024, AUTOMOBILE REGISTRATION, A KEY INDICATOR OF ECONOMIC HEALTH, GREW IN SINGLE DIGITS DECELERATING GROWTH GROWTH IN REVENUE AND OPERATING PROFIT OF FMCG FIRMS IN Q3FY25 WAS BELOW THE AVERAGE OF THE LAST EIGHT QUARTERS THE PAY PICTURE IN FY24, INDIA INC. SAW A GROWTH OF 28% IN EBITDA AND 32% IN PAT, WHILE EMPLOYEE EXPENSES INCREASED BY JUST 13% WEAK SENTIMENT GROSS FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION, A MEASURE OF INVESTMENT ACTIVITY, GREW AT 5.4% IN Q2FY25 AGAINST 11.6% A YEAR AGO 4% CONSUMPTION GROWTH IN FY24, THE LOWEST IN 21 YEARS BARRING THE…

THE YEAR 2024 ended on a sombre note for India Inc. amidst a sharper-than-anticipated slowdown in economic growth in the second quarter of the fiscal, stubbornly high inflation, and external uncertainties, especially a lack of clarity on US President-Elect Donald Trump’s tariff policies. This was reflected in the BT-C Fore Business Confidence Survey of 500 chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs) for the October to December 2024 quarter, which revealed that the business confidence index (BCI) dipped to 53.8 from a nine-year high of 56.7 in the previous quarter. The BCI for the October-December 2024 quarter was the lowest in this calendar year and was in fact the weakest since the April-June 2023 quarter when the reading came in at 52.7. Business confidence dipped across sectors and…

A JANUARY 2 INTERIM order by capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has reignited memories of the infamous market manipulation that took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The investigation found that former stockbroker Ketan Parekh—one of the main accused in the 1999-2001 market manipulation scam—was allegedly involved in a front-running scam. Front-running is an unethical practice. It involves the use of confidential information about pending transactions by traders or brokers to profit unfairly by taking advance positions. This is a violation of Section 12A of the Sebi Act and the Sebi (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) Regulations, 2003. Parekh’s manipulation of the stocks in the late ’90s led to the subsequent market crash. A group of 10 stocks—which were mostly…

THE INDIAN CEMENT industry has been abuzz with mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Ever since the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group acquired cement companies ACC and Ambuja Cements from Swiss cement major Holcim in 2022 for $10.5 billion, there has been a string of acquisitions. Adani acquired cement companies like Sanghi, Penna and Orient, while Aditya Birla Group-owned UltraTech bought over Kesoram Industries’ cement business and India Cements. The M&A story in the cement sector has primarily revolved around South and West India. Now, UltraTech Cement has made a significant move in Northeast India by picking up an 8.69% non-controlling minority stake in listed company Star Cement for an outgo of ₹851 crore or at ₹235 per share. The target company is the largest in the region with a 26% share in…