Jayant Pankaj

2 months ago | thehindubusinessline.com | Jayant Pankaj

The strong growth in domestic tourism has resulted in the highest-ever average room rate (ARR) in the December quarter of 2024. A businessline analysis of eight of the largest hotel stocks shows that the luxury hotels have recorded a higher increase in the third quarter of this fiscal year, compared to the year-ago period. They also have the pricing power to hike prices sharply on a sequential basis.

2 months ago | thehindubusinessline.com | Jayant Pankaj

The delay in doing the latest round of census has been a matter of much debate. But the Budget allocation for ‘Census, survey and statistics/ registrar general of India’ received allocation of just ₹574 crore for FY26. This is just 6.5 per cent of the government’s recent projections for cost of conducting census and also down 57 per cent from the revised estimate of ₹1,341 crore in FY25.

2 months ago | thehindubusinessline.com | Jayant Pankaj

Budget documents show that both the budget estimates and actual spending on the census survey have declined  in recent years. The Budget estimate for FY26 was just ₹R574 crore, down from ₹1,341 crore of revised estimates in FY25. This seems to imply that census activity may not gain traction next fiscal year either. After COVID-19, both estimates and actual spending on census have continuously declined. In FY22, ₹3,768 crore was estimated, but actual spending was only ₹505 crore.

2 months ago | thehindubusinessline.com | Jayant Pankaj

The monthly survey data on the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) show that India’s PMI across manufacturing and services is growing faster than most of the global economies, such as the US, China and Brazil, as of January. Particularly, India’s PMI manufacturing recorded six-month high in January, showcasing optimistic outlook of companies regarding the future.

2 months ago | thehindubusinessline.com | Jayant Pankaj

Following the recent decision by the newly appointed Trump administration to dismantle the humanitarian aid agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), data show that this decision will not impact India substantially. From 2015 to 2024, India received around $1.5 billion from the USAID, and the share of funding to India remained flat in this period in the range of 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent of USAID’s total global funding.