Indian economy is estimated to grow by 6.9% in 2011-12 mainly due to weakening industrial growth. This indicates a slowdown compared not just to the previous two years, when the economy grew by 8.4%, but also from 2003 to 2011, except 2008-9 economic downturn, when the growth rate was 6.7 percent. The Economic Survey 2011-12, presented by the Finance Minister however predicts 7.6% GDP growth in 2012-13 and 8.6% in 2013-14. With agriculture and services continuing to perform well, the slowdown can be attributed almost entirely to weakening industrial growth. The services sector continues to be a star performer as its share in GDP has climbed from 58% in 2010-11 to 59% in 2011-12 with a growth rate of 9.4%. Similarly, agriculture and allied sectors are estimated to achieve a growth rate of 2.5% in 2011-12 with foodgrains production likely to cross 250.42 million tonnes owing to increase in the production of rice in some States. The industrial sector has performed poorly, retreating to a 27% share of the GDP.

Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Resistance

The 'Occupy' protests around the world raise serious questions about the viability of free market doctrine and globalisation of the economy. Occupy Wall Street is a "leaderless resistance movement" with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The official website says - "The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants. Occupy Resistance is a nationwide network supporting the Occupy Wall Street revolution against financial greed and corruption. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don't need Wall Street and we don't need politicians to build a better society."

RBI sells dollars to arrest rupee's slide; first time since Lehman Brothers

The Reserve Bank of India joined central banks in Indonesia and South Korea in selling US dollars to save the local currency from a sharp slide as investors fled for safety amid worsening sovereign crisis in Europe and deteriorating outlook for emerging economies. The Indian central bank sold dollars for the first time since Lehman Brothers triggered credit crisis to avert disorderly movement in the currency as it fell to its worst levels in two years. A depreciating rupee may compound the macroeconomic problems as prices of imported goods will surge and worsen the current account deficit. India won't be able to take advantage even if commodity prices ease due to global slowdown. 

India plans to join sovereign fund club

According to ET, India plans to float a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), which would potentially invest in overseas projects and companies to secure access to natural resources for one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Corporate India may have been encouraged to suggest the formation of a sovereign fund seeing the experience of China, which has used its overseas investment vehicle, China Investment Corporation or CIC, with a corpus of over $400 billion, to buy natural resources abroad.Curretly the interest on foreign reserves like dollar, pound and euro is less than 2%. So there is no harm in allocating a small share of our reserves to buy commodities including oil, or shares of commodity companies.

Goods and Service Tax (GST) is going to be the biggest taxation reform in India and it is all set to integrate central and state economies and boost overall growth. GST will create a single, unified Indian market to make the economy stronger. The implementation of GST will lead to the abolition of other taxes such as octroi, Central Sales Tax, State-level sales tax, entry tax, stamp duty, telecom licence fees, turnover tax, tax on consumption or sale of electricity, taxes on transportation of goods and services, thus avoiding multiple layers of taxation that currently exist in India.GST is expected to rollout in April 1st 2012.

PMEAC suggests 49% FDI for all sectors

Charting the boldest reform ever, the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC) has suggested uniform 49 per cent direct foreign direct investment in all sectors, except the negative ones (defence, nuclear energy, etc) in its Economic Outlook for the financial year 2011-12. At present, key financial sectors, such as banking, have a 33 per cent cap on FDI while for insurance, the ceiling is 26 per cent. Nothing has been decided about the pension sector but it is believed that the FDI cap will be on the same lines as insurance.