Economic Survey 2022

Further, decline in housing transactions have also been much less during second COVID-19 wave than the decline during first COVID-19 wave. During first COVID-19 wave housing transactions declined in almost all selected cities. However, during second wave of COVID-19, the housing transactions in many cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Noida, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru increased relative to the pre-pandemic levels.

As per the Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, these reforms will also create an enabling environment for investment in 5G networks. Recently, the Centre had undertaken structural and procedure reforms in the sector, it said.

As per the Survey, which was tabled in Parliament on Monday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the average headline Consumer Price Index-Combined (CPI-C) inflation in India moderated to 5.2 per cent in 2021-22 (April-December) from 6.6 per cent in the corresponding period of 2020-21 and was recorded at 5.6 per cent in December 2021.

Most of India's startups are in the IT/knowledge-based sector and intellectual property, specifically patents, are key to this knowledge-based economy. India's ranking in Global Innovation Index has climbed 35 ranks which is a "remarkable progress, but the number of patents granted in India is still a fraction compared to patents granted in China, the US, Japan and Korea", according to the Survey, tabled in the Parliament on Monday.

Over 5,000 recognised startups were added in Delhi while 4,514 startups were added in Bengaluru between April 2019 and December 2021, according to the survey document. Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised startups at 11,308. India now has more than 61,400 startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). At least 14,000 recognised startups have been added in 2021-22 fiscal, according to the Survey.

Presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the survey document revealed that the number of new recognised startups increased to over 14,000 in 2021-22 from 733 in 2016-17. "India has become the third largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China," read the document. Forty-four Indian startups have achieved unicorn status in 2021 taking the overall tally of unicorns to 83, most of which are in the services sector, it added.

Despite all the disruptions caused by the global pandemic, India's balance of payments remained in surplus throughout the last two years. This allowed the Reserve Bank of India to keep accumulating foreign exchange reserves, which stands at $634 billion on December 31, 202). This is equivalent to 13.2 months of imports and higher than the country's external debt.

This increase was driven by almost 400 per cent growth in food subsidies from Rs 1.09 lakh crore in 2019-20 to Rs 5.25 lakh crore in 2020-21. The steep rise in food subsidy bill was on account of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana introduced as part of the Economic Response to COVID-19, and the pre-payment of around Rs 1.5 lakh crore of outstanding food subsidy related loans of the Food Corporation of India.

Economic survey 2021-22 was tabled in Parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It provides detailed information about the current economic status of the country. It further recommends policies, blueprints and strategies on resource allocations to bring about social and economic reforms. It is prepared under the aegis of the Chief Economic Advisor and is approved by the Union Finance Minister. Here are the key highlights.

Sensex settled at 58,014 points, up 1.4 per cent or 813 points, whereas Nifty at 17,339 points, up 1.4 per cent or 237 points. "Indian markets tried to bounce back on Friday, but due to weak global cues it couldn't sustain and lost momentum in the last hour of trade. As the market has seen some correction from the top and also, we have a budget lined up this week, there could be a bounce back in the indices," said Rajesh Bhatia -- MD and CIO -- ITI Long Short Equity Fund.