Indholdsfortegnelse for 31 August 2025 i Business Today

Donald Trump has built much of his political persona on the “art of the deal.” Yet, in his dealings with India, the US President appears to have mistaken India’s quiet resolve for weakness—a miscalculation fraught with consequences for the broader US-India relationship, not just bilateral trade. While most nations, save China, have at some point bent to Trump’s tariff diktats, India is holding its ground. The European Union, Britain, Japan—even corporate America with its trillion-dollar balance sheets—have all played along, offering tribute to the “Emperor of Washington, D.C.” Even a bankrupt country like Pakistan is offering the mineral riches of Balochistan to ingratiate itself with Trump. New Delhi’s approach has been markedly different. From the outset, India resisted provocation, focusing on substance rather than theatre. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and…

WITH AN EXPECTED gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of between 6% and 6.5%, India is likely to remain the fastest-growing big economy in FY26. It is already set to become the fourth-largest economy this year. This is surely a cause for celebration. However, that is half the story. Economic growth this fiscal is seen to be much slower than in previous years, even amid expectations of a revival in private consumption, powered by the needs of 1.45 billion Indians, good rains, low inflation and interest rates, as well as personal income tax cuts. No wonder then that the sentiment in India Inc about growth prospects—despite falling inflation, an accommodative monetary policy and good monsoon rains—is muted. This is ref lected in the BT-C Fore Business Confidence Survey of 500 chief…

IN 2005, INDIA and the US announced a decision to go ahead with the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative. That the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, decided to risk his government’s survival to get the deal passed in Parliament showed the importance he attached to the development of nuclear power for India’s energy security. Have those hopes materialised? Not really. Twenty years later, nuclear accounts for around 8.8 GW of India’s 476 GW power capacity. The country added just 2.9 GW nuclear capacity between 2015 and 2024. China, in contrast, added 32.8 GW. With the goal of reaching 100 GW nuclear power capacity by 2047, India’s 100th year of Independence, nowhere in sight, Union Budget 2025-26 came up with a radical solution—allow private players to build nuclear power plants, ending the…

THE STEEP TARIFFS on India are an outcome of the so-called personal friendship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump gone sour, says P. Chidambaram, Member of Parliament and former finance and home minister of India. In a conversation with Archna Shukla, he speaks about the randomness of Trump’s decisions, their impact on the world trade order, the US and the Indian economies. Edited excerpts: If the steep tariffs, as threatened by the US President, stay, what impact will it have on the Indian economy? Do you agree with the view that this is another 1991 moment for India? If yes, how should India chart a new course? India in 2025 is not the India that was in 1991. We are much stronger today. We have a large…

‘‘Leadership is about bridging the old and new’’ What was the problem you were grappling with? V-Guard was founded in 1977. By the 1990s, it had grown into a trusted brand in South India. In 2012, my father asked me to lead the company as managing director. As a young entrepreneur stepping into a legacy-rich organisation, I faced a human challenge. V-Guard was shaped by many employees who had dedicated decades to the company. But I knew that to take the company into its next phase of growth, we needed to attract and empower new talent. The dilemma was: how to integrate these two worlds without losing the essence of either? This balance, I believed, was the key to driving V-Guard forward without losing sight of its roots. Whom did…

THE US HAS IMPOSED THE HIGHEST TARIFFS ON INDIA AMONG THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES WITH WHICH IT HAS A TRADE DEFICIT SOURCE INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE, TRADE MAP, RUBIX BILATERAL TRADE INDIA’S TOTAL TRADE WITH THE US HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED IN THE PAST 10 YEARS SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK WHAT INDIA SELLS ELECTRONIC GOODS, CHEMICAL & PHARMA, AND TEXTILES ACCOUNT FOR MORE THAN 46% OF INDIA’S EXPORTS TO US SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK WHAT INDIA BUYS PETROLEUM PRODUCTS, ENGINEERING GOODS ACCOUNT FOR 20% OF INDIA’S IMPORTS SOURCE CMIE THE IMPACT THE FURNITURE SEGMENT COULD FACE THE BIGGEST IMPACT CONSIDERING ITS EXPOSURE TO THE US MARKET SOURCE DGCI&S, USITC, GTRI 2.2% THE SHARE OF INDIA’S EXPORTS TO THE US AS PERCENTAGE OF GDP 0.4% THE POTENTIAL DIRECT IMPACT TO THE COUNTRY’S GDP FROM…

INDIA’S MACROECONOMIC DATAare set for an overhaul by early 2026. The reason? Updation of the base years of GDP, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP), along with use of additional data sources. The Census exercise, slated to start next year, is also expected to provide critical data to India’s statistical system. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), says the new series GDP with a base year of FY23 will be released on February 27, 2026. “For calculating the GDP with revised base, the ministry is exploring enhanced use of data from various sources such as the goods and services tax data as well as tapping new data sources like E-Vahan portal and UPI transactions from the National Payments Corporation of India,” he tells…

US TARIFFS may have a modest impact on India’s GDP growth, but ongoing export promotion efforts, strengthening brand-building efforts and active diplomatic engagement are expected to help cushion the impact and sustain investor and business confidence, says Sanjay Nayar, President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, and Founder and Chairman of Sorin Investment Fund. He tells BT that the domestic economy remains the primary engine of growth. Edited excerpts: How will the US tariffs impact the Indian economy? India’s economy remains robust and resilient even though uncertainty has increased due to global headwinds. Economic growth remains stronger than that of many peers, underpinned by strong domestic demand, fiscal prudence and supportive monetary policy. The International Monetary Fund has upgraded India’s GDP forecasts for FY26 and FY27. Favourable…

THE LATEST ENTRANT to the world of haute horlogerie doesn’t come from Switzerland or France but from India. What’s more, inspired by Jaipur, it did not begin with gears or gold, but with a squirrel-hair brush! It took three years, countless iterations, and the hand of Padma Shri awardee Shakir Ali—a master of traditional miniature painting—to complete the dial artwork for Jalsa, a limited-edition tourbillon watch from Nebula by Titan launched in early July this year. With only 10 pieces produced, each featuring hand-painted depictions of royal processions against Jaipur’s iconic Hawa Mahal, Jalsa marks Titan’s most ambitious foray into haute horlogerie. At ₹40.5 lakh (approximately $48,500), the timepiece reflects both Indian heritage and watchmaking precision—and represents Titan’s official entry into the 2025 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), the…

INDIA WAS ONE of the early movers on initiating trade talks with the US, soon after Donald Trump took over as President in January. But five rounds of negotiations later, it has been unable to clinch a trade deal with the US, and what’s worse, it now faces tariffs of 50%, including a 25% penalty from August 27 because of the purchase of crude oil from Russia. Faced with pressure from the US on opening sensitive sectors like agriculture and dairy, as well as scrutiny over Russian oil purchase, India has reiterated that it will protect its national interests while remaining hopeful of concluding a deal in the coming months. A REPORT BY GTRI SAYS EXPORTS THAT MAY PLUMMET BY 50-70% INCLUDE SHRIMPS, ORGANIC CHEMICALS, CARPETS, READYMADE GARMENTS For the…

THE AIR INDIA CRASH ON JUNE 12, WHICH KILLED 260 PEOPLE, SECONDS AFTER TAKE-OFF FROM THE AHMEDABAD AIRPORT, WAS THE DEADLIEST AVIATION DISASTER IN INDIA IN OVER A DECADE. IT ALSO RUPTURED THE TATA GROUP’S CAREFULLY MANAGED NARRATIVE OF THE AIRLINE’S REVIVAL. The AI171 Dreamliner crash, amid the much-touted five-year transformation plan, Vihaan. AI, cannot be more nightmarish for an airline struggling to shed the baggage of decades-old state control. To add to the injuries, Air India will discontinue its non-stop flights between Delhi and Washington, DC, due to a temporary shortage of aircraft. A former Air India director provides the crucial context to the crash: “In my over 20 years in the aviation sector, I’ve never witnessed a crash of this scale. But we need to put this into…

IN 2017, MUMBAI-BASED businessman Rakesh Shah bought a house in Alibaug, a coastal town in the Konkan region of Maharashtra just a ferry ride away from India’s financial capital. Shah wanted it to be a place for his family to spend fun weekends and earn him a tidy profit over time. Things didn’t quite pan out the way he imagined they would. “It just wasn’t adding up financially,” Shah, 47, says. The house was rarely used, rental demand was weak, and its upkeep was expensive, he says. In 2023, he sold the property and chose to invest the proceeds in an alternative investment fund (AIF), typically a pooled investment vehicle that invests in non-traditional assets like private equity and hedge funds. They have a minimum investment of ₹1 crore. Sure,…