The various initiatives launched over the past 100 days are aimed at promoting growth, boosting entrepreneurship, creating employment opportunities, Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Jitan Ram Majhi, said here on Tuesday.

The achievements are reflective of the government’s commitment to ensuring the sustainable growth of the MSME sector, fostering innovation, and enhancing job creation, the minister told reporters.

Majhi informed that the MSME sector has continued to play a pivotal role in driving economic growth, employment, and entrepreneurship across the nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently emphasised commitment towards promoting sustainability, innovation, and ease of doing business for MSMEs, aligning with the larger national vision of making India a global leader and highlighted the importance of MSMEs.

The government on Tuesday advised leading edible oil associations to ensure that the MRP of each oil is maintained till the availability of edible oil stocks imported at zero per cent and 12.5 per cent basic customs duty (BCD), and take up the issue with their members immediately.

This was conveyed by the government during a meeting with the representatives from the Solvent Extraction Association of India (SEAI), the Indian Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association (IVPA), and the Soybean Oil Producers Association (SOPA) here to discuss the pricing strategy.

The government has implemented an increase in the basic customs duty on various edible oils to support domestic oilseed prices.

Effective September 14, the BCD on crude soybean oil, crude palm oil and crude sunflower oil has been raised from 0 per cent to 20 per cent, making the effective duty on crude oils 27.5 per cent.

As the country aspires to reach $500 billion electronics manufacturing by FY30 while creating 60 lakh jobs, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said on Tuesday it is keen to chart out a comprehensive strategy with the government to help the industry achieve this goal.

The electronics industry is currently at around $115 billion and global value chains (GVCs) will be key to boosting production and exports from the country, said Pankaj Mohindroo, ICEA Chairman.

Mohindroo said that the electronics industry needs to grow over 20 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to achieve the target of $500 billion by FY30, adding that the association seeks to have a presentation with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama on the elements that are essential for the industry to achieve the outlined vision of $500 billion by 2030.

GVCs not only drive large-scale job creation but also build technology capabilities within the domestic industry.

They bring in large-scale manufacturing, driving the scale of production, reducing costs, and enhancing competitiveness, according to Mohindroo.

The softening of wholesale price index (WPI) inflation in August on the back of decline in prices of food articles, especially vegetables and milk is encouraging, which will lead to reduction in production costs and increase in demand for consumption within the country, industry experts said on Tuesday.

The lower-than-expected WPI number is primarily owing to a fall in fuel and electricity components as global crude prices have softened given the Chinese demand worries as well as headwinds in Europe and the US.

“The vegetables component has also dropped significantly that is expected given the boost in production that takes place during monsoon months,” said Ranen Banerjee, Partner and Leader, Economic Advisory, PwC India.

Gujarat has seen a significant increase in its share in India’s GDP in the last two decades, while consistently performing well throughout the study period from 1960-61, a paper by the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister said on Tuesday.

The state’s share had increased from 5.8 per cent in 1960-61 to 6.7 per cent in 1970-71. It, however, then remained at broadly the same levels until 2000-01, before beginning to increase rapidly.

As the market for luxury cars and top-notch electric vehicles (EVs) ramp up in India amid friendly government policies and shifting 'generational mindset’, more and more global automakers are lining up to manufacture/assemble vehicles in India.

The German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has just launched the EQS SUV which is assembled locally in India, which is now the second country to assemble the EQS SUV outside of the US. The made-in-India luxury EV is priced at Rs 1.41 crore.

The auto giant has already been making the EQS sedan in India and has sold around 500 units, as per reports.

India’s domestic passenger air traffic rose 6 per cent (year-on-year) to 13.1 million in August and daily traffic trends for September indicate a moderate growth of 4 per cent YoY to date, a report showed on Tuesday.

SpiceJet hit a new low with its market share shrinking by 80 bps to 2.3 per cent (month-on-month), largely due to financial woes and increased grounding, according to the report by Emkay Global Financial Services.

Indigo continues to dominate the domestic space, boosting its market share by 40 bps to 62.4 per cent in August, the report mentioned.

Tata Group’s market share also saw an uptick, at 60 bps MoM to 29.4 per cent, driven by Air India and Vistara gaining 40 bps and 30 bps MoM, respectively, thereby reaching 14.7 per cent and 10.3 per cent market share.

The rupee has emerged as one of the least volatile currencies worldwide, remaining "very stable against the US dollar" and the volatility index, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has said.

According to Das, the central bank’s stated policy is to prevent excessive volatility of the rupee.

“Stable rupee fosters confidence among market participants, investors and the wider economy,” Das was quoted as saying in reports.

The RBI has actively engaged in the foreign exchange market to manage fluctuations in the rupee, primarily employing public sector banks (PSUs) as intermediaries to sell US dollars.

Social media giant Meta announced that it has banned Russian state media broadcaster RT and other Kremlin-controlled networks over the alleged "foreign interference activity."

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has alleged that the outlets were involved in deceptive influence operations and tried to avoid detection.

Announcing the move in a statement on Monday, a Meta spokesperson stated, "After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity."

The ban will be implemented in the upcoming days across Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. The social media giant has been shrinking the influence of the Russian state-controlled media across its platforms since 2022.

With rising disposable incomes, availability of affordable device options, a growing Gen Z population and the expanding digital content consumption, India’s audio devices market is experiencing remarkable growth, according to a new report.

The audio devices market in offline retail has reached Rs 5,000 crore, driven by a 61 per cent volume growth (year-on-year) in the personal audio segment, according to GfK– An NIQ Company, a leading global market and consumer intelligence firm.

Loudspeakers, led by soundbars, saw 24 per cent YoY growth, with sales from lower-tier towns rising to 30 per cent in the July 2023 till June 2024 period.

The home audio segment, valued at Rs 1,600 crore, experienced a 6 per cent YoY growth in volume. The personal audio market, valued at Rs 3,400 crore, experienced a 32 per cent YoY growth.