India’s retail inflation remained largely unchanged at 4.83% in April, compared to 4.85% in the previous month, government data showed. The figure is now at an 11-month low, and moving closer to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) medium-term target of 4%. It has now stayed within the RBI’s tolerance range of 2-6% for eight consecutive months. However, food inflation continued to play spoilsport at 8.7%, up from 8.5% in March owing to higher prices of cereals, meat and fish, and fruit.
HCL Technologies has emerged as an outlier in the software services industry, with an increase of 1,537 employees in FY24. In comparison, the headcount at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) dropped by 13,000, Infosys by about 26,000, and by 23,000. The divergence is due to different hiring patterns during the pandemic: the growth in HCLTech’s workforce then was more moderate than that of the others, an industry expert said. That has given the company greater stability at a time of high attrition.
Apple aims to manufacture a quarter of all iPhones in India over the next three to four years, a report said. Instead of relying solely on Chinese suppliers, the tech giant is forging partnerships with Indian vendors and has already started work on setting up supply chains. Even though Foxconn Technology Group and Tata Electronics will undertake the majority of production, it will help local networks increase their manufacturing capacities as well.
The banking sector has been a clear winner in the March-quarter (Q4) earnings season so far, a report explained. India’s largest lender, the State Bank of India, reported a net profit of 20,698 crore, its highest ever, and the largest quarterly profit of any company in the country. It even surpassed India’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries. Private-sector banks have also seen almost 20% profit growth amid healthy disbursals. However, experts are voicing caution, saying much of the profit growth is due to one-time gains and lower provisioning.
India’s merchandise trade deficit hit a four-month high of $19.1 billion in April, data from the commerce ministry showed. The increase was primarily due to a rise in gold and oil imports. Merchandise imports totaled $54.09 billion in April, up from $49.06 billion in the same period last year. On the other hand, goods exports amounted to $34.99 billion in April, down from $41.68 billion in March. A sluggish recovery in global trade in 2024 after a contraction in 2023, influenced by persistently high energy prices and inflation, has affected the growth momentum of exports.
