Report showing higher GDP growth during Manmohan era removed from govt website
New Delhi : A report that showed higher GDP growth during the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) tenure in government has been removed from the Statistics and Programme Implementation ministry's website.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government changed the base year for GDP calculation to 2010-11 from 2004-05 -- the benchmark used by the UPA. The back series GDP growth report extrapolated figures for the UPA tenure using the changed base year.
The report was published on the ministry's website on July 25; it said India grew at 10.8 per cent in 2010-11 (when Manmohan Singh was prime minister) if the same base was used as the benchmark.
"Truth has triumphed," former Union Minister P Chidambaram said last week. "The back series calculation of GDP has proved that the best years of economic growth were the UPA years 2004-2014."
"I wish the Modi government well in its fifth year. It can never catch up with UPA I, but I wish it catches up with UPA II," he said.
This triggered a political war of words. The BJP went on the offensive as the report's findings were attacking the very foundation of its narrative on the 'growth story during the NDA being a marked improvement over the UPA regime'.
In a Facebook blog published Sunday, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said India grew "at a high rate" between 2003 and 2008 thanks to the work done by the outgoing Vajpayee government, "continuous incremental reforms from 1991 to 2004", growing exports and conducive global tailwinds.
"However, when this honeymoon ended, growth started slipping down and to ensure that growth is maintained, two significant steps were taken," Jaitley said. "Firstly, fiscal discipline was compromised and the banking system was advised to go in for reckless lending notwithstanding the fact that it would eventually put the banks at a risk. And yet when the UPA moved out of power in 2014, the last three year record, even in terms of growth, was less than modest."
S.B.I. ANALYSIS
The Economic Research Department of the largest public sector bank - the State Bank of India -- published a quick analysis of the data, claiming that India clocked the highest growth of 10.8 per cent in 2010-11, and that it could sustain the high growth due to high inflation.
The department said, "In fact, most of the information about the GDP series was already in the public domain (for example, we already had a 10.3 per cent growth in 2010-11 as per the old data, now revised to 10.8 per cent) and thus the buzz about the recent data is intriguing."
The report has created red faces in the goverment as it was presented by a government-backed forum headed by the economist Sudipto Mundle.
Within the government, the view is that the report -- which became public just ahead of the 2019 elections -- will become part of the Opposition's poll campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party.
courtesy : indiatoday.in
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Trump launches new effort to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Dubai (AP): US forces on Monday launched an effort to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began.
Two American-flagged merchant ships have “successfully transited” through the critical waterway, the US military said. Separately, the US military denied Iran's claims that it struck an American Navy vessel southeast of the strait.
Iran handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the US to mediators in Pakistan, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday. Trump subsequently said he's “not satisfied” with it, but did not elaborate on the proposal's apparent shortcomings. The shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran has lasted for three weeks.
Here's the latest:
European leaders see Trump's troop drawdown from Germany as new proof they must go it alone
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European leaders on Monday said President Trump's snap decision to pull thousands of US troops out of Germany came as a surprise but is a fresh sign that Europe must take care of its own security.
The Pentagon announced last week that it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but Trump told reporters Saturday that “we're going to cut way down. And we're cutting a lot further than 5,000.”
He offered no reason for the move, which blindsided NATO, but his decision came amid an escalating dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the US-Israeli war on Iran, and Trump's anger over European allies' reluctance to get involved in the conflict in the Middle East.
Wall Street hesitates and oil prices climb with uncertainty about the Strait of Hormuz
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The US stock market is holding tentatively near its record heights Monday, while oil prices climb with uncertainty about when oil tankers can resume crossing the Strait of Hormuz and restore the world's flow of crude. Dueling claims about a possible Iranian strike on a U.S. Navy vessel in the strait heightened the tensions.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 216 points, or 0.4 per cent, as of 9:35 am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1 per cent.
The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 2 per cent to USD 110.37 and briefly topped USD 114 during the morning. Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to its war with the United States has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide. That in turn has sent the price of Brent soaring from roughly USD 70 per barrel before the war.
Iran stands firm on its grip of the strait
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The disruption of the waterway has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf oil and gas, raising prices far beyond the region.
Trump has promised to bring down gas prices as he faces midterm elections this year.
The US has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran for transit of the strait. It has enacted a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13, telling 49 commercial ships to turn back, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. The blockade has deprived Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.
US officials have expressed hope the blockade forces Iran back to the negotiation table.
US claims progress in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying two merchant ships have transited
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The US military said Monday that two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz and Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf were helping to restore shipping traffic. It separately denied Iran's claims to have struck an American Navy vessel.
The announcement came a day after US President Donald Trump announced a new initiative to help guide ships through the critical waterway for global energy. Iran has effectively closed the strait since the US and Israel started the war Feb 28, rattling the global economy.
The US-led Joint Maritime Information Center has advised ships to cross the strait in Oman's waters, saying it set up an “enhanced security area.” U.S. Central Command didn't say when the Navy ships arrived or when the merchant vessels departed.
It was unclear whether shipping companies, and their insurers, will feel comfortable taking the risk given that Iran has fired on ships in the waterway and vowed to keep doing so.
