The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan has the potential to save over Rs 10 lakh crore annually by improving logistics efficiency, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said.

Addressing the National Workshop on PM GatiShakti held to mark the first anniversary of the rollout of the National Master Plan, Goyal said, “PM GatiShakti is increasingly being used in the social sector for better infrastructure development, thereby, taking fruits of technology to every citizen of the country and improving ease of life for the common man.”

The minister said that the PM GatiShakti would help bring in balanced and inclusive, equitable development in the country by helping remote areas, especially those in the North East undertake integrated infrastructure planning and close development gaps.

He referred to the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE) scheme launched on  Oct 12 and said that by dovetailing PM GatiShakti into the scheme would help utilise resources much more efficiently.

India has emerged as 'a bright light' at a time when the world is facing imminent prospects of a recession, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Oct 12 , noting that the country, however, needed key structural reforms in order to achieve the ambitious target of being a USD 10 trillion economy.

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, chief economist of the IMF said: "Well, India is, I want to say, sort of bright light. The Indian economy has been doing reasonably well."

In its World Economic Outlook on Oct 11 , the IMF projected a growth rate of 6.8 per cent in 2022 as compared to 8.7 per cent in 2021 for India. The projection for 2023 slides down further to 6.1 per cent, he noted.

Responding to a question on the ambitious goal of India becoming a USD 10 trillion economy, Gourinchas told that he certainly believes this is achievable.

To do so, India needs to carry out a number of structural reforms, he observed.

In response to a question, the chief economist said the Indian economy had rebounded from the pandemic downturn.

The slowdown between 22-23 is going to be reflecting basically, the fact that the global economy is also slowing down and that the external factors are going to reflect on today's economy, high energy prices, the slowdown in external demand and the weakening of global confidence in general, he stressed.

The Indian economy is a bright spot in today's world because its growth is still fairly robust, he said.

India's debt ratio is projected to be 84 per cent of its GDP by the end of 2022, which is higher than many emerging economies, but its debt is a little bit easier to sustain, a senior IMF official has said.

Stressing that it is important for India to now have a very clear medium-term objective on the fiscal, Paolo Mauro, Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund, said there's still not a whole lot of clarity on the fiscal anchor.

"In terms of the debt ratio, India right now at the end of 2022, we're projecting it at about 84 per cent of GDP. That is higher than in many emerging economies," he said.

Of course, India has a lot of special features being the most populous country in the world by now and being a very large, emerging economy, he said.

The other things that are special in a way or distinctive compared with other emerging economies are that most of India's debt is in non-indexed domestic currency and there's a large investor base from India.

"So those are good features to have and that's what makes this debt a little bit easier to sustain," Mauro said.

It's about 15 per cent of the GDP, he said."So, in some ways, the debt vulnerabilities are something that one needs to keep an eye on and be mindful of the fiscal deficit," he said.

He noted that the fiscal deficit is about 10 per cent of the GDP right now. That is quite a bit higher than in most emerging economies.

About six-and-a-half per cent of the GDP is from the central government the rest is from the states, he said.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) will set up a 1,190-MW solar power plant in the Bikaner district of Rajasthan.

For this, the CIL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RUVNL).

The solar plant will be set up in a 2,000-MW solar park being developed by RVUNL in Poogal, Bikaner.

The state government has allotted 4,846-hectare land to develop the park in which the RVUNL will set up its own solar project of 810 MW, and a power project of 1,190 will be set up by the CIL.

Chairman and Managing Director of RVUNL RK Sharma and CIL's Technical Director V Reddy signed the MoU in the presence of Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

The nation's largest lender State Bank on  OCT 13 said its home loan book has surpassed the Rs 6-lakh-crore-mark, making it the largest in the industry.

To mark the occasion, the bank also announced a festive offer for home loan buyers, offering up to 25 bps discount on interest rates starting at 8.40 per cent and also the waiver of the processing fee till January 31, 2023.

The lower interest will also be applicable to balance transfers.

The bank had crossed the Rs 5 lakh crore mark in January 2021, the bank said in a statement, adding it is the first lender to achieve the Rs 6 lakh crore milestone in the residential home category.

As a part of the festive offer, SBI will offer a concession of up to 0.25 per cent on home loans, 0.15 per cent on top-up loans, and 0.30 per cent on loans against property, the bank said, adding the offer also includes waiving off the processing fees up to January 31, 2023.

Commenting on the milestone, its chairman Dinesh Khara said SBI has over 28 lakh home loan customers.

Alok Kumar Choudhary, managing director-retail banking & operations, said the interest rate for new loan buyers and loan takeovers starts at 8.40 per cent and top-up loans begin at 8.80 per cent.

 For a few months now, moonlighting or having a second job has become a heated debate in the tech industry. All major IT companies that announced their Q2 results also warned their employees against moonlighting.

Both Infosys and Mindtree which announced their Q2 results on  Oct 13 said they do not support dual employment. Though Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh didn’t give the exact number of people that the firm terminated due to dual employment, he said in the post Q2 result press conference that they have let go of some employees over the past 12 months who were doing blatant work in two specific companies where there were confidentiality issues. “We have let go of them,” he said.

No dual employment, says Infosys, Mindtree

Both Infosys and Mindtree which announced their Q2 results and said they don’t support dual employment. Though Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh didn’t give exact number of people that the firm terminated due to dual employment, he said in the post-Q2 result press conference that they have let go of some employees over the past 12 months

The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Gujarat unit head Gopal Italia was detained on  Oct 13 from the National Commission of Women's office in the capital by the Delhi Police. Italia had been summoned by NCW chief Rekha Sharma over a controversial video.

Union minister of state for personnel, Jitendra Singh on Oct 12 approved 111 new members of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), including nine newly recruited Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers serving as assistant secretaries at the Centre.

IIPA was set up to equip public servants with domain knowledge. Singh is also the chairman of IIPA.

Over 500 members have joined IIPA since Singh started its enrollment drive for membership of serving officers in November last year. Singh urged the regional branches of the institute to speed up their membership drive to bring quality manpower.

The Union minister also inaugurated the new conference hall of the institute ‘Sambhav’ and held its 321st meeting of executive council. He also approved the prestigious Paul H Appleby award to be conferred to ex-IAS officers V Balasubramanian, Arun Kumar Rath and professor D Ravindra Prasad.