India’s consumer spending on goods is worth $1.29 trillion in 2024 and is expected to increase to 7.0 per cent in the next five years, according to a new report.

India’s expansion in electronics has, thus far, followed an assembly-to-component strategy, using tariffs and production-linked incentives to draw investment in the manufacturing of smartphones and other network-connected devices.

The sheer scale of sales opportunity in the Indian market has also provided “in-market, for-market” justifications for investments in manufacturing in the country, according to a latest forecast by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

“India’s consumer spending on goods is worth $1.29 trillion in 2024, S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts show, with the inflation-adjusted growth of 4.8 per cent in the past five years, expected to increase to 7.0 per cent in the next five years,” according to the report.

State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) stepped into its 50th year of inception, recording a spectacular 8.7-fold growth in production from 89 million tonne (MT) during 1975-76, to a massive 773.6 MT output in the FY 2024.

With 80 per cent of its entire supplies directed to coal-based power plants at highly competitive rates, CIL plays a key role in enabling citizens to get power at a just price.

The country’s largest coal company came into being on November 1, 1975, as an apex holding company of the nationalised coking coal (1971) and non-coking mines (1973).

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Friday announced the launch of its first analog space mission, to study the challenges of extraterrestrial conditions that will help in future space missions.

The mission, which includes a compact, inflatable habitat named Hab-1 will simulate life in an interplanetary habitat. It is being held in Leh, in Ladakh.

Even as India plans to launch several space missions, the new mission will help understand the challenges that future astronauts may encounter on missions beyond Earth.

As the Indian stock market ended Samvat year 2080, investors' wealth surged by a whopping Rs 128 lakh crore (about $1.5 trillion at current exchange rate) to Rs 453 lakh crore in just one year.

This made Samvat 2080 the biggest wealth-creating year on record, banking upon a stable government, strong fundamentals s and record inflows by domestic funds which was at Rs 4.7 lakh crore.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw its investor base crossing 20 crore. Amid strong interest from retail investors, 336 companies made their stock market debuts in Samvat 2080 — with 248 coming from the SME segment.

The Indian stock market closed in the red on Diwali day as Sensex fell more than 500 points. There was heavy selling in the IT sector.

Sensex closed at 79,389.06 after falling 553.12 points or 0.69 per cent. At the same time, Nifty closed at 24,205.35 after falling 135.50 points or 0.56 per cent.

The Nifty Bank fell 332.15 points or 0.64 per cent to 51,475.35. The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at 56,112.85 after falling 226.40 points or 0.40 per cent at the end of trading.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 18,602.60 after rising 211.70 points or 1.15 per cent.

On the auspicious occasion of Diwali, the Indian stock market opened flat on Thursday as selling was seen in auto, IT, PSU bank and FMCG sectors in early trade.

The Sensex was trading at 79,800.49 after slipping 141.69 points or 0.18 per cent. At the same time, Nifty was trading at 24,311.10 after slipping 29.75 points or 0.12 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1030 stocks were trading in green, while 613 stocks were trading in red.

The Nifty Bank was at 51,844.45 after rising 36.95 points or 0.07 per cent. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 56,167.45 after slipping 171.80 points or 0.30 per cent. At the same time, the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,359.60 after slipping 31.30 points or 0.14 per cent.

Indian equity indices snapped a two-day gaining streak and ended in the red on Wednesday as selling was seen in the large-cap stocks like Infosys, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, M&M, SBI, and HCL Tech.

At closing, Sensex was down 426 points, or 0.53 per cent, at 79,942 and Nifty was down 126 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 24,340.

Selling was largely driven by banking stocks. Nifty Bank settled at 51,807, down 513 points or 0.98 per cent.

In the Sensex pack, Infosys, HCLTech, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, M&M, SBI, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, NTPC, and HDFC Bank were the top losers. Maruti, IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports, ITC, UltraTech Cement, L&T, and Titan were the top gainers.

As UPI-based digital payments surge, debit card-based transactions dropped almost 8 per cent from nearly Rs 43,350 crore in August to about Rs 39,920 crore in September, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s monthly data.

On the other hand, credit card transactions grew in the country, which saw a nearly 5 per cent increase in the month of September at Rs 1.76 lakh crore, from Rs 1.68 lakh crore in August, according to the latest data from the central bank.

As per market experts, the growth in credit card spending is driven by a lower base in the previous year and the festival season as there has been an uptick in promotional schemes like equated monthly instalments during the festival season.

The Indian stock market opened in red for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as selling was seen in PSU bank and pharma sectors in early trade.

Sensex was trading at 80,057.15 after falling 311.88 points or 0.39 per cent. At the same time. Nifty was trading at 24,372.75 after falling 94.10 points or 0.38 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,666 stocks were trading in green, while 586 stocks were trading in red.

The Nifty Bank was at 52,890.30 after slipping 430.40 points or 0.82 per cent. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 56,460.75 after climbing 209.45 points or 0.37 per cent. The Nifty Small cap 100 index was at 18,355.35 after climbing 156.40 points or 0.86 per cent.

Maruti, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, TCS and ITC were the top gainers in the Sensex pack. At the same time, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, HCL Tech, PowerGrid and Asian Paints were the top losers.

As gold prices continue to surge amid geo-political tensions, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had 854.73 metric tonnes of gold as of September 30 and out of which, 510.46 metric tonnes were held domestically.

Gold held domestically surged more than 102 tonnes between April and September this year to 510.46 metric tonnes, against 408 metric tonnes at the end of March.

While 324.01 metric tonnes of gold were kept in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 20.26 metric tonnes were held in the form of gold deposits, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ‘Half Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves: April-September 2024.’