Latest news with #CMIE
Mint
15 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
June turns quieter as animal spirits fade
Indian companies began 2025-26 on a subdued note, with investment appetite for new projects sinking to one of the lowest in nearly five years. While the June quarter is often a quieter period, new government capital expenditure (capex) announcements were the lowest this year in at least a decade. According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy's (CMIE) project-tracking database, new projects worth ₹4.1 trillion were announced across the country during the first quarter of the current fiscal. This marks one of the lowest investment proposals since the first three quarters of 2020-21 (amid pandemic lockdowns) and the first quarter of 2024-25 (during general elections). Also Read: GVA data haze: Has India been overcounting the output of its informal sector? 'There is usually a seasonal dip observed in project announcements in the June quarter after the ramp-up in March. But this year the decline was unusually sharp," said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at Icra Ltd. A sharp decline in government projects, accounting for only 13% of overall new investments, primarily drove the slowdown in the recently concluded June quarter. Government investments totalled a mere ₹0.5 trillion, marking the lowest for a June quarter in at least a decade. This figure was even lower than public sector projects announced during April-June 2020, when the country had undergone an unprecedented lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Icra's Nayar, the notable decline in Q1FY26's new projects should be read carefully, as it follows the unusual spike in Q4FY25 of worth ₹6.8 trillion, which was more than double the year-ago levels and also exceeded the amounts seen in the rest of 2024-25 together. Also Read: Public capex is doing the heavy lifting, and the figures aim at a decade's high 'The chunking up of such announcements in Q4FY25 is likely to have led to the lull in Q1FY26," she added. Private sector investments, at ₹3.5 trillion, though accounting for the bulk of new project announcements in Q1FY26, still hit a four-quarter low. Among the 10 largest new project announcements in the June quarter—which collectively represented approximately 67% of total investments—only one was government-funded: the Chandrapura Ultra Supercritical Power Plant Expansion Project worth ₹0.2 trillion in Giridih, Jharkhand. Vedanta's Dhenkalan Aluminium Smelter Project led new investments in Q1FY26 at ₹1.3 trillion, followed by InterGlobe's purchase of 30 more Airbus A350-900 aircraft valued at ₹0.4 trillion. Sector-wise analysis reveals that manufacturing primarily dominated new investments in the quarter, accounting for more than half of all announcements, yet investments in this segment remained at a near two-year low. Also Read: Sixteenth Finance Commission likely to keep states' tax share unchanged amid Centre's defence, capex needs Despite the subdued pace of new investment announcements in Q1FY26, project completions showed relative strength, with projects worth ₹2 trillion completed during the quarter, marginally lower than projects worth ₹2.4 trillion completed in the previous quarter.
Economic Times
a day ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Odisha leads in Q1 private capex
New private sector project announcements in India hit a four-quarter low in the three months ending June, as per CMIE data. Despite this dip in project numbers, total investments more than doubled year-on-year, reaching ₹3.5 lakh crore, with Odisha leading the way. Experts attribute the moderation to tariff uncertainties and subdued domestic demand, impacting capacity expansion plans. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads New Delhi: New project announcements by private sector companies fell to a four-quarter low in the three months ended June, showed data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Total investments in these projects at ₹3.5 lakh crore, however, more than doubled from Rs 1.4 lakh crore a year earlier, the data states dominated the investments, accounting for 85.7% of the newly-announced projects. Odisha led at Rs 1.4 lakh crore, followed by Andhra Pradesh (₹47,110.7 crore) and Haryana (₹45,934 crore).Experts attributed moderation in investments to prevailing uncertainty around tariffs, and muted domestic demand, both weighing on capacity expansion plans."The unprecedented economic uncertainty due to tariffs and geopolitical reasons appear to have been behind the decline in new project announcements," said Paras Jasrai, associate director at India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra).India and the US are negotiating a trade agreement, which is expected to be finalised before July Gupta, principal economist at HDFC Bank , noted that a broader and sustainable recovery in domestic consumer demand is essential for driving private capex. "Clarity on external demand is also crucial for sectors with significant export exposure."The drop in new project announcements aligns with a government survey on private sector capex investment intentions released in fiscal year, private capex is expected to reach ₹4.9 lakh crore, declining from ₹6.6 lakh crore in FY25, according to the survey released by the statistics ministry."Private capex is expected to remain subdued going by the survey, though a pick up could occur in the second half of this fiscal year, as domestic demand strengthens from August with the start of the festive season," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda Government capex rose 54% to ₹2.2 lakh crore in April-May, official data released Monday 324, new private projects announced in the first quarter of FY26 were the lowest since Q1FY23, according to an ET analysis. CMIE tracks projects with capex of Rs 1 crore or sectors, metals and metal products saw the highest value of new project announcements at ₹1.4 lakh crore, followed by electricity (₹63,207.3 crore) and transport services (₹44,893.5 crore).
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Odisha leads in Q1 private capex
New Delhi: New project announcements by private sector companies fell to a four-quarter low in the three months ended June, showed data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Total investments in these projects at ₹3.5 lakh crore, however, more than doubled from Rs 1.4 lakh crore a year earlier, the data showed. Five states dominated the investments, accounting for 85.7% of the newly-announced projects. Odisha led at Rs 1.4 lakh crore, followed by Andhra Pradesh (₹47,110.7 crore) and Haryana (₹45,934 crore). Experts attributed moderation in investments to prevailing uncertainty around tariffs, and muted domestic demand, both weighing on capacity expansion plans. "The unprecedented economic uncertainty due to tariffs and geopolitical reasons appear to have been behind the decline in new project announcements," said Paras Jasrai, associate director at India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra). India and the US are negotiating a trade agreement, which is expected to be finalised before July 9. Live Events Sakshi Gupta, principal economist at HDFC Bank , noted that a broader and sustainable recovery in domestic consumer demand is essential for driving private capex. "Clarity on external demand is also crucial for sectors with significant export exposure." The drop in new project announcements aligns with a government survey on private sector capex investment intentions released in April. This fiscal year, private capex is expected to reach ₹4.9 lakh crore, declining from ₹6.6 lakh crore in FY25, according to the survey released by the statistics ministry. "Private capex is expected to remain subdued going by the survey, though a pick up could occur in the second half of this fiscal year, as domestic demand strengthens from August with the start of the festive season," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda . Government capex rose 54% to ₹2.2 lakh crore in April-May, official data released Monday showed. At 324, new private projects announced in the first quarter of FY26 were the lowest since Q1FY23, according to an ET analysis. CMIE tracks projects with capex of Rs 1 crore or above. Across sectors, metals and metal products saw the highest value of new project announcements at ₹1.4 lakh crore, followed by electricity (₹63,207.3 crore) and transport services (₹44,893.5 crore).
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
a day ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Private capital expenditure announcements fall 81% in Q1 FY25: CMIE
Private capex fell sharply in April-June 2025 to Rs 4.1 trillion from Rs 21.7 trillion in the previous quarter, with stalling and uncertainty affecting investment flow Sneha Sasikumar Himanshi Bhardwaj New Delhi Listen to This Article Despite a slight uptick, the amount of capital expenditure announced by the private sector in the April–June quarter (Q1) of the current financial year witnessed the second sharpest sequential decline in any quarter in the past 15 years, showed latest data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The new announcements of industrial and infrastructural capacity expansion fell by 81 per cent to Rs 4.1 trillion from Rs 21.7 trillion in the January–March (Q4) quarter of the previous financial year. Experts attribute the fall in private capex announcements to uncertainty due to tariff wars and lack of proper implementation
New Indian Express
6 days ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
A jobless future? Rethinking work, worth, and what young graduates must do
In 1930, John Maynard Keynes prophesied that within a century, technology would advance so rapidly that we'd work just fifteen hours a week. The rest, he said, would be 'leisure filled with wisdom.' It is 2025 now. We have the technology; indeed, machines now write code, generate poetry, diagnose illnesses, and trade stocks. But Keynes' utopia has curdled into something else entirely; underemployment, precarity, and a deepening crisis of human worth in an age where artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly renders human labour redundant. The real crisis isn't just economic; it is existential. The collapse of work as we knew it We live in a world where there are more job seekers than jobs. This is not just a cyclical issue of economic downturns. It's structural. AI has magnified this structural imbalance. It can do more, for less, and often better. As Kai-Fu Lee, the former President of Google China and author of AI Superpowers, argues, 'AI will replace 40% of the world's jobs within 15 years.' What's more alarming is that it's not just factory workers or clerks, it's writers, lawyers, teachers, designers, and even software engineers. When one person with the help of AI can do the work of ten, what happens to the nine? A strange silence fills the space where policy should speak. Governments tinker with skilling programmes, universities revise syllabi, but none address the fundamental dislocation underway. And the young, especially fresh graduates, find themselves caught in a world they were not prepared for. Degrees without direction For decades, education has been sold as a passport to prosperity. Get a degree, any degree and you'll find a job. But this promise has frayed. In India, nearly 42% of graduates under 25 are unemployed (CMIE, 2024). The situation is not much better in many parts of the developed world. Even in the United States, the so-called land of innovation, graduates struggle with underemployment, debt, and gig-economy drudgery. It's not just about supply-demand mismatch. It's a value mismatch. Most formal education continues to reward repetition, compliance, and memory, all the things machines now do better. Creativity, synthesis, moral judgment, and emotional intelligence, the truly human capacities, remain undernourished. So, what should a young graduate do? Learning how to learn and unlearn The first and most urgent shift required is psychological. No job is for life anymore. The linear career path, education, job, promotion, retirement is dead. In its place is the zigzag of projects, reinventions, collaborations, failures, and perhaps, something deeper 'vocation'. Graduates must understand that 'learning to learn' is the only skill with lasting value. As Yuval Noah Harari, author of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, points out, 'In a world flooded with irrelevant information, clarity is power.' This clarity comes not from memorizing facts, but from knowing how to think, critically, ethically, and contextually. The young must cultivate the courage to unlearn: to discard stale notions of prestige and 'safe' careers, and instead explore what problems are worth solving, not just what skills are worth selling. Build for the human future, not the machine's Technology isn't destiny. It reflects values. AI is not some cosmic force; it is built by people, trained on data, and shaped by incentives. The real question is: What kind of society are we building with AI? Tristan Harris, the former Google ethicist who now runs the Centre for Humane Technology, warns against 'technology that hacks human weaknesses.' He calls for a renaissance of humane design, technologies that augment human agency rather than automate human obsolescence. Graduates from every stream, whether arts, sciences, or commerce, must ask: What is the human role in a machine world? The answers won't come from textbooks but from interdisciplinary exploration. The philosopher Martha Nussbaum, for instance, argues that a liberal arts education is more essential than ever not to churn out 'job-ready' employees but citizens capable of compassion, curiosity, and democratic judgment. Think local, act planetary The AI boom has exposed another stark world is connected, but the gains are not. Most AI tools are built for urban, Western contexts. But the crises of hunger, health, education, and climate disproportionately affect the Global South. Young graduates, especially in India, must think of their work as service, not survival alone. The future is not in chasing scarce jobs, but in creating new forms of value rooted in local needs. This is where Gandhi becomes relevant again, not as a figure of nostalgia but as a thinker of radical modernity. His idea of Nai Talim (basic education) was to blend learning with livelihood, knowledge with character. Imagine a generation of graduates who build AI tools for farmers, who design educational games in regional languages, who run micro-health networks in remote villages. These are not 'jobs' in the conventional sense but works of purpose. Community, not just individual genius We are sold the myth of the solitary tech wizard who changes the world with a startup. But meaningful innovation rarely happens in isolation. It emerges in communities of trust, where different minds bring different strengths. Young graduates must therefore invest in relationships, collaborations, and networks of mutual aid. In an age of hyper-individualism, the future will belong to those who can build teams, share credit, and solve problems collectively. The corporate economy extracts; the living economy regenerates. The young must turn their gaze from extractive metrics, salaries, designations, packages, to regenerative are we restoring, healing, building? These questions matter more than ever in a time when work must serve not just profit, but purpose. The future will not be built by those who merely seek to compete with machines, but by those who can reimagine what it means to be human in a world remade by them. The work of being human Let us be clear. AI will continue to advance. It will outstrip us in efficiency, consistency, and speed. But it will never replace meaning, beauty, empathy, or love, the things that make life worth living. A young graduate, therefore, must not ask 'What job can I get?' but 'What human role can I inhabit that AI never can?' This is not the end of work. It is the beginning of a new imagination of work, not as a market commodity, but as an act of creation, care, and contribution. That, Keynes might agree, is the real future worth building. (The author is a Bangalore-based management professional, literary critic, translator, and curator)
