The Broadening Horizons of Rural Investment
2 months ago

The Broadening Horizons of Rural Investment

Live Mint  

If someone suggests investing in rural opportunities, it’s natural to assume they are referring to investments in agriculture. Non-agricultural rural income is also rising, as the significant welfare schemes expenditure by the government is pegged at Rs—3.1 trillion, along with a rebound in real rural wage growth. Some other key drivers that are also adding to the positive sentiment in rural demand are plenty of water availability, which suggests strong crop output in the upcoming seasons. Besides MGNREGA, the additional work available suggests that the demand for labour is increasing, which is a positive sign for the over 240 million daily wage earners in rural areas. The experience of these companies in 2024 points out how rural demand increased, emphasising that India's rural markets boast of dynamic growth.

India Growth Rural Areas Demand Agricultural Rural Demand Rural Markets Rural Investment  reported  future  horizons  growth  increased  demand  suggests  economy  agricultural  rural  investment  broadening  companies

History of this topic

Mint Explainer: How sustainable is India's rural consumption boom?
4 months ago

Mint Explainer: How sustainable is India's rural consumption boom?

Live Mint  

India’s consumer goods giants found an unexpected saviour this past quarter: rural demand. The periodic labour force survey data show a jump in women’s participation in economic activities in rural India since the Covid-19 pandemic. The easing of labour law provisions by some states to allow women to work night shifts also contributed to raising their participation in economic activities …

Mint Explainer: How sustainable is India's rural consumption boom?
4 months ago

Mint Explainer: How sustainable is India's rural consumption boom?

Live Mint  

India’s consumer goods giants found an unexpected saviour this past quarter: rural demand. The periodic labour force survey data show a jump in women’s participation in economic activities in rural India since the Covid-19 pandemic. The easing of labour law provisions by some states to allow women to work night shifts also contributed to raising their participation in economic activities …

India's Growth Outlook: A Beacon of Stability Despite Temporary Slowdown
4 months, 3 weeks ago

India's Growth Outlook: A Beacon of Stability Despite Temporary Slowdown

Deccan Chronicle  

India's growth outlook remains steady despite a temporary slowdown in momentum in the second quarter of 2024-25. The country's aggregate demand is expected to shrug off the slowdown due to the pick-up in festival demand and consumer confidence. Domestic manufacturing and services PMI have shown signs of improvement, while rural demand is expected to get a boost from the improved …

Fast Moving Consumer Goods: Time for a strategic pivot
7 months, 2 weeks ago

Fast Moving Consumer Goods: Time for a strategic pivot

Live Mint  

The strategic measures initiated by the government to boost agricultural incomes coupled with forecasts of a normal monsoon offer potential for a rural growth revival and turnaround in India’s fast-moving consumer goods sector. This is explained by inflation since 2012, which has eroded consumer affordability, curtailed consumption and driven consumers towards more economical options like low-unit packs, thereby intensifying the …

Rural-Urban Consumption Dynamics in India
9 months, 1 week ago

Rural-Urban Consumption Dynamics in India

Deccan Chronicle  

Over the past decade, India has witnessed a notable rise in consumption spending in both rural and urban areas, indicating a shift in economic dynamics and lifestyle choices. Furthermore, the changing food habits of the Indian populace have contributed to the evolving consumption patterns observed in both rural and urban areas. In conclusion, the equivalent rise in consumption spending in …

GDP growth impresses, but rural demand remains a worry
9 months, 3 weeks ago

GDP growth impresses, but rural demand remains a worry

New Indian Express  

India’s economic growth seems to be going gangbusters. Ending nearly a decade-long wait, real GDP growth crossed the 8 percent mark, touching 8.2 percent in 2023-24. Provisional data released by the National Statistics Office also showed that the gross value added—net of subsidies and taxes, and hence considered a better measure of economic activity—grew by 7.2 percent. Agriculture and allied …

Indian economy is resilient amid global slowdown: Sitharaman
1 year, 3 months ago

Indian economy is resilient amid global slowdown: Sitharaman

Hindustan Times  

The Indian economy is “remarkably resilient” amid a global slowdown because of “solid” domestic demand, moderate inflation, sustained capital expenditure and continued buoyancy in revenue collections, the finance ministry said in its monthly review on Tuesday. “Despite rising input costs, overall sentiment in the services sector remains upbeat, driven, among others, by an upswing in the tourism cum hotel industry …

Industrial growth hit 14-month high of 10.3% in August
1 year, 5 months ago

Industrial growth hit 14-month high of 10.3% in August

The Hindu  

India’s industrial output surged at a 14-month high pace of 10.3% in August, from a 6% rise in July, aided by favourable base effects from last year when production levels had contracted 0.7% and the best manufacturing performance since this April. Consumer goods’ production reflected a mixed trend, although durables’ output grew for the first time in three months, at …

Indian economic prospects may require a more realistic analysis
1 year, 6 months ago

Indian economic prospects may require a more realistic analysis

Live Mint  

The chaos and cacophony of bazaars have a life-affirming quality. Walking through a Delhi bazaar last week, chatting with friendly shopkeepers and roadside merchants and revelling in the warm glow of traditional India, it was impossible not to feel optimistic about the country’s prospects. Recall that, in 2020-21, India’s economy, still recovering from an unwarranted demonetization, contracted by 7% as …

Retail inflation for farm, rural workers rises marginally in June
1 year, 8 months ago

Retail inflation for farm, rural workers rises marginally in June

India TV News  

Retail inflation for farm workers and rural labourers inched up marginally to 6.31 per cent and 6.16 per cent, respectively in June as compared to 5.99 per cent and 5.84 per cent in May this year. "Point-to-point rate of inflation based on CPI-AL and CPI-RL stood at 6.31 per cent and 6.16 per cent in June 2023 compared to 5.99 …

How falling farm incomes impact India’s economy
1 year, 11 months ago

How falling farm incomes impact India’s economy

Live Mint  

After a period of robust crop prices, farm incomes are likely to take a hit in 2023 following a glut in perishable prices and damage wreaked by unseasonal rains. In March, ready-to-harvest winter crops like wheat, chick peas and mustard were damaged by hailstorms and unseasonal rains in several states. But higher prices for rice and wheat are a result …

Rural demand recovery may drive next bout of inflation in India, say economists
2 years, 1 month ago

Rural demand recovery may drive next bout of inflation in India, say economists

India Today  

The Indian economy could see another bout of inflation as the rural demand revives and the informal sector recovers from the pandemic-lows, economists at HSBC Securities and Capital Markets said. While rural demand was weak in the early part of last year, wage growth, adjusted for inflation, has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, HSBC's research showed. "Even if the winter crop …

Elevated inflation leads to negative growth in real rural wages: Economic Survey
2 years, 1 month ago

Elevated inflation leads to negative growth in real rural wages: Economic Survey

The Hindu  

There has been nominal increase in rural wages but when calculated against the rate of inflation, the real rural wages have had a negative growth, the Economic Survey that was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday revealed. “However, growth in real rural wages has been negative due to elevated inflation. Positive signs of recovery There are though other positive signs of …

Budget 2023: ’Rural income growth, women empowerment should be priority’
2 years, 1 month ago

Budget 2023: ’Rural income growth, women empowerment should be priority’

Live Mint  

With global geopolitical uncertainties and the slowing growth of the world economy, it is crucial to address job creation challenges and boost consumer demand in the country. The upcoming budget should be focused on rural income growth and our target should be at least 100% growth in every household income in near future. Through women's self-help groups, millions of jobs …

Year in Review | Indian economy amid global headwinds
2 years, 2 months ago

Year in Review | Indian economy amid global headwinds

The Hindu  

Multiple headwinds at varied points of time impacted the Indian economy’s thorough economic revival in the calendar year 2022. “India’s growth rates in real terms of 9.7% in the first half of this year is well above the trend in other countries and is happening amid tightening global financial conditions and the commodity price shock since the Ukraine invasion by …

The rise of rural manufacturing
2 years, 3 months ago

The rise of rural manufacturing

The Hindu  

There is growing evidence to suggest that the most conspicuous trend in the manufacturing sector in India has been a shift of manufacturing activity and employment from bigger cities to smaller towns and rural areas. This study investigated the urbanisation of the Indian manufacturing sector by “combining enterprise data from formal and informal sectors and found that manufacturing plants in …

Data | Rural inflation peaks across States, except in Tamil Nadu and Kerala
2 years, 9 months ago

Data | Rural inflation peaks across States, except in Tamil Nadu and Kerala

The Hindu  

In April 2022, rural inflation accelerated to double digits in at least four big States — West Bengal, Telangana, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh — and was between 9% and 10% in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Rural food inflation accelerated to over 11% in Telangana and Haryana and between 10% and 11% in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. General rural …

Explained | What’s fuelling higher inflation in rural India?
2 years, 11 months ago

Explained | What’s fuelling higher inflation in rural India?

The Hindu  

The story so far: The retail inflation rate surged to 6.95% this March — its highest level in nearly one and a half years, capping off six successive months of accelerating prices for consumers. Official data pegs rural inflation in March at 7.66%, with several States reporting even higher inflation, including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam as well as …

The rural economy can jump-start a revival
3 years, 8 months ago

The rural economy can jump-start a revival

The Hindu  

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic could be slowly receding with a decline in the official estimates of daily infections and deaths. Making things worse But what makes economic recovery challenging is that this decline followed three years of sharp decline in GDP even before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the country. While a strict national lockdown certainly hit …

India’s farm sector to sustain momentum, but that’s not enough
3 years, 10 months ago

India’s farm sector to sustain momentum, but that’s not enough

Hindustan Times  

India’s farm sector is forecast to maintain its remarkable expansion in 2021-22 on the back of robust output and prices despite the coronavirus pandemic. A normal monsoon will continue to see an expansion of the agriculture sector, aside from good encouraging prices and acreage trends,” said Abhishek Agrawal of Comtrade, an agricultural trading firm. Better performance of the agriculture sector …

A path for the Indian economy to find its way out of the woods
4 years, 3 months ago

A path for the Indian economy to find its way out of the woods

Live Mint  

As much we would like to forget 2020, it is unlikely we will anytime soon. The rural economy accounts for almost half of India’s GDP and has done better than its urban counterpart, as reflected in the better performance of sectors with a rural footprint, such as tractors, two-wheelers, fertilizers and agrochemicals. Second, government support is tilted towards the rural …

Don’t take rural demand for granted as a growth driver
4 years, 5 months ago

Don’t take rural demand for granted as a growth driver

Live Mint  

Rising covid afflictions in the hinterland are indeed worrying—not just because of the relatively poor health infrastructure there, but also the wider disruption to economic activity it portends. Two, India’s rural-focused measures such as higher spending under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, extension of concessional credit to farmers, and front-loading of payments to farmers under the Pradhan …

Retail Inflation For Farm, Rural Workers Drops in July Due to Lower Food Item Prices: Labour Ministry
4 years, 7 months ago

Retail Inflation For Farm, Rural Workers Drops in July Due to Lower Food Item Prices: Labour Ministry

News 18  

Retail inflation for farm and rural workers eased to 6.58 per cent and 6.53 per cent, respectively in July this year on account of lower prices of certain food items, the labour ministry said on Thursday. Amongst states, the maximum increase in the consumer price index numbers for agricultural labourers was experienced by Meghalaya and for rural labourers, it was …

Growing sales of tractors may not propel recovery
4 years, 7 months ago

Growing sales of tractors may not propel recovery

Live Mint  

In June 2020, tractor sales within India jumped 22.5% to 92,888 units. If we just compare June 2020 sales with June 2019 sales, it hints at a revival in the rural economy. Only if tractor sales numbers remain robust between July and September can we suggest a marginal revival in the rural economy. As Panagariya, the first vice-chairman of NITI …

Measures taken by Indian govt. will boost economic growth: SBI MD Dinesh Khara
5 years ago

Measures taken by Indian govt. will boost economic growth: SBI MD Dinesh Khara

The Hindu  

Slowdown in the Indian economy has bottomed out and measures taken by the government in the recent budget to improve capacity to spend in rural sector, infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investments will boost growth, State Bank of India Managing Director Dinesh Khara has said. “These kinds of measures which have been taken will go a long way in terms …

Budget 2020: Govt must give priority to agriculture, empower farm sector to revive economy; don't hand out doles and sops
5 years, 1 month ago

Budget 2020: Govt must give priority to agriculture, empower farm sector to revive economy; don't hand out doles and sops

Firstpost  

In Budget 2020, it is fervently hoped that the government will focus on genuinely empowering the farm sector. For instance, while the average farmer gets only Rs 711 a month from livestock rearing, farmers in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and other progressive states get around Rs 100 per milch cattle per day for 300 days a year. Except in the …

No festive cheer in the economy
5 years, 4 months ago

No festive cheer in the economy

Live Mint  

The Indian economy’s momentum continued to slow in September, with most indicators of domestic demand still flashing red, the latest edition of the Mint Macro Tracker shows. All four variables of the consumer economy—passenger sales growth, broadband subscriber growth, tractor sales growth and domestic air passenger growth—have been in red for eight successive months now. The production side of the …

A rural stimulus: On MGNREGA wage hike
5 years, 6 months ago

A rural stimulus: On MGNREGA wage hike

The Hindu  

The government’s statistical machinery has begun work on revising the indices that capture the trends in consumer prices experienced in rural India. But two-thirds of the dated inflation index is still driven by food prices, which may effectively end up understating the price pressures facing rural households. This depressant effect could be accentuated when low food inflation coincides with decelerating …

Low India inflation a double-edged sword for Modi before Elections 2019
6 years ago

Low India inflation a double-edged sword for Modi before Elections 2019

Live Mint  

Mumbai: Subdued inflation in India is proving to be a dilemma for Prime Minister Narendra Modi weeks before Lok Sabha Elections 2019. “While Modi has managed to keep inflation under control, it has come at a cost,” said Priyanka Kishore, head India and South-east Asia economist at Oxford Economics in Singapore. The Consumer Price Index -based retail inflation rose 2.57% …

Indian economy is losing momentum, data shows
6 years ago

Indian economy is losing momentum, data shows

Live Mint  

Mumbai/New Delhi: The Indian economy’s momentum continues to slow, shows the latest update of the Mint Macro Tracker, launched in October last year to provide a state-of-the-economy report each month based on trends across 16 high-frequency economic indicators. January’s score is also a shade worse than that of December 2018—which itself marked a downward slide compared to previous months—when five …

It’s a great leap backward on the employment front in India’s rural areas
6 years, 1 month ago

It’s a great leap backward on the employment front in India’s rural areas

Live Mint  

Shiv Prasad has a plan—one that he feels can change his destiny. “The problem is that we, being part of the government, cannot acknowledge that demonetization seriously disrupted the flow of activity and massively contributed to employment-related problems.” A visit to a government-run industrial training institute in Banda, nestled inside a village named Motihari, is testimony to the utter lack …

Core inflation flourishes in Rural India amid growing agrarian crisis
6 years, 3 months ago

Core inflation flourishes in Rural India amid growing agrarian crisis

Live Mint  

When income is stagnant, a logical outcome could be curtailing expenditure. But rural India seems to be fine with paying higher prices for services that range from education to matinee shows. The chart above shows inflation for services and a few discretionary items has been higher in rural areas compared to urban centres. It is also clear that farm income …

Agrarian crisis clear & present danger for Indian economy
6 years, 3 months ago

Agrarian crisis clear & present danger for Indian economy

Live Mint  

India’s gross domestic product growth for the second quarter has laid bare the deepening distress in its villages. The country’s agricultural output, measured as gross value added, grew at a sedate pace of 2.8%, far slower than the 5.3% in the June quarter. Consumption demand from the rural economy also needs to hold up for the overall growth rate to …

Rural distress can’t get buried in growth story
6 years, 9 months ago

Rural distress can’t get buried in growth story

Live Mint  

Data released by the Central Statistics Office last month suggested a recovery in economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2017-18, with the economy expanding by 7.7% compared to that in the first quarter, when growth was at its lowest at 5.7%. The misery is no longer about rural India growing slower than the rest of the economy; it is …

India’s rural consumption surges in boost for FMCG firms
6 years, 10 months ago

India’s rural consumption surges in boost for FMCG firms

Live Mint  

Mumbai: Consumption growth in rural India has outpaced urban spending by the widest margin in five years, encouraged by relatively good rainfall last year and an increase in government spending on infrastructure. Rural consumption rose by 9.7% in the year ended 31 March, faster than the 8.6% growth in urban spending, according to market researcher Nielsen. Things have improved in …

Rural India: focus on non-agriculture sector
7 years, 1 month ago

Rural India: focus on non-agriculture sector

Live Mint  

Around two-thirds of India’s population is in rural areas and a large proportion of this population lives in abject poverty. According to the ICE 360° Household Survey conducted in 2016, of the bottom 20% of India’s income quintile, 89% live in rural areas. Apart from the agriculture sector, there needs to be increased focus on agriculture-allied sectors if we want …

Budget 2018: Will govt be able to work a miracle for hopeful consumer firms?
7 years, 1 month ago

Budget 2018: Will govt be able to work a miracle for hopeful consumer firms?

Live Mint  

Mumbai: Consumer packaged goods firms are hoping for a budget miracle that will boost rural demand and, in turn, drive earnings revival. However, the government may not have enough legroom to increase its budget expenditure allocation for rural spending because it continues to struggle to meet its fiscal deficit target, say economists. “In the 2017-18 Budget, while the target was …

Budget 2018: India can bet on agriculture, but support sectors like warehousing, cold storage need equal attention
7 years, 1 month ago

Budget 2018: India can bet on agriculture, but support sectors like warehousing, cold storage need equal attention

Firstpost  

The agriculture sector is recognised as the backbone of the Indian economy and has always received special attention in the Finance Bill. It incorporates several areas that require coverage such as food and income security, irrigation and water conservation, soil fertility, connectivity from farm to markets, infrastructure and funding, organic value chain in production, farmer security and protection including credit …

Can Budget 2018 address slowdown in rural economy?
7 years, 2 months ago

Can Budget 2018 address slowdown in rural economy?

Live Mint  

The results of the Gujarat elections, in which the opposition Congress outperformed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in rural constituencies, and the growing number of farmer agitations in the country have focused attention on rural India ahead of this year’s budget. In fact, the Mint index of rural distress has been declining over the past couple of years after it …

Demonetisation’s Devastating Impact on Rural India: Agriculture, Incomes, and Demand in Crisis
8 years, 3 months ago

Demonetisation’s Devastating Impact on Rural India: Agriculture, Incomes, and Demand in Crisis

The Hindu  

George Orwell once wrote that “in our times, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible” that takes the form of “arguments which are too brutal for most people to face”. In a village economy, 80 per cent of the people take Rs.50 and Rs.100 notes to local mandis and do trading, with hardly two to three …

New RBI chief will face stubborn old foe: rural inflation
8 years, 7 months ago

New RBI chief will face stubborn old foe: rural inflation

Deccan Chronicle  

Sisauli: India's next central bank governor could learn a lot about stubbornly high prices in rural areas by driving down a ramshackle road in Uttar Pradesh state to talk to small farmers like Dharmendra Malik. After cooling last year due largely to lower oil prices, India's old nemesis inflation is back on the prowl and is threatening to breach the …

Rural India shows signs of revival for Mahindra lending unit
8 years, 9 months ago

Rural India shows signs of revival for Mahindra lending unit

Live Mint  

Mumbai: There’s finally good news coming from India’s villages after incomes suffered from two years of drought and frugal government spending. Standard Chartered Plc’s index of rural demand hit a 16-month high in March, and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, the auto-loan unit of the nation’s largest tractor maker, saw business pick up last quarter after a prolonged slump. …

Decoding 5.4% retail inflation: As food prices soar, rural India is worst hit
9 years, 3 months ago

Decoding 5.4% retail inflation: As food prices soar, rural India is worst hit

Firstpost  

One thing is for sure, the current rate spiral is inflicting more pain on the rural India than it does on people in urban centres The inflation picture until March is getting clearer. The CPI inflation, the key price indicator of the Reserve Bank of India for policy purpose, rose to 5.41 percent in November, from 5 percent in the …

Why higher govt spending is crucial to contain rural distress
9 years, 4 months ago

Why higher govt spending is crucial to contain rural distress

Firstpost  

If PM Modi doesn’t act fast enough, the farm distress is likely to prove to be his Achilles heel. A survey by brokerage JM Financial argues that while the farm income has been on the decline in the rural area, non-farm income has remained flat at the best, impacting rural consumption. The report has attributed the decline in farm income …

Investors unhappy over pace of reform: Moody’s
9 years, 8 months ago

Investors unhappy over pace of reform: Moody’s

The Hindu  

Results of polls global ratings agency Moody’s carried out in Mumbai in May reflect some “disappointment amongst investor audiences with regard to the pace of reform” under the Modi government, and “increasing concerns about the risk of policy stagnation.” Almost half of the poll respondents identified “sluggish reform momentum as the greatest risk to India’s macroeconomic story.” Project approval delays, …

Indin rural economy to remain subdued in 2015 16
9 years, 8 months ago

Indin rural economy to remain subdued in 2015 16

India TV News  

Chennai: Credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday said it expects India's rural economy to remain subdued through the fiscal year ending March 2016. "A sustained soft patch for India's rural economy would weigh on private consumption and non-performing assets in the agricultural sector, a credit negative for the sovereign and banks," said Rahul Ghosh, MIS vice-president and senior …

Rising rural wages offsetting inflation pinch: RBI
12 years, 3 months ago

Rising rural wages offsetting inflation pinch: RBI

Firstpost  

Gokarn said, it’s “puzzling” to understand why the recent episodes of high inflation, particularly driven by food prices, have not evoked the kind of sharp provocation that had rocked the nation many times in the past 50-60 years. Mumbai: High inflation may not be generating the same kind of “unrest” that it used to in the past as rural wages …

Insights into rural economy
19 years, 5 months ago

Insights into rural economy

The Hindu  

Rural Transformation in India - The Role of the Non-Farm Sector, edited by Rohini Nayyar and Alakh N. Sharma; Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, 2005, Manohar Publishers and Distributors; pages 536, Rs.950. Thus, normally, when an economy develops, the agricultural sector's share in both GDP and employment will come down with the other two sectors gaining in terms of …

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