Economy

The April print shows that industrial growth was led by manufacturing, which expanded 6.2 per cent year-on-year. This is significant because manufacturing carries the largest weight in the IIP basket and remains central to India’s ambition of becoming a larger global production hub. The general IIP index stood at 118.9 in April 2026, compared with 113.1 in April 2025, indicating a broad rise in industrial activity.

The May number is important because it shows that India’s indirect tax system continues to operate at a high monthly base. A few years ago, a ₹1.5 lakh crore GST collection was treated as a strong month. Today, collections around ₹2 lakh crore have become more common, showing the widening of the tax base, greater digitisation of invoices, improved compliance systems and a larger formal economy.

India’s economy is expected to remain resilient in FY27, with the Reserve Bank of India

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that India is on its way to becoming self-reliant in mobile manufacturing, with complete domestic production of mobile phone components expected within two years. His statement reflects a broader shift in India’s electronics strategy: the focus is now moving from assembling finished devices to manufacturing the critical parts that give real depth to the industry.

This is a striking number because India already has one of the world’s largest technology talent pools. The country has millions of software engineers, a huge start-up base, deep IT services capacity, a fast-growing SaaS sector and a young population comfortable with digital tools. When a coding-focused AI system sees such rapid adoption in India, it reflects more than curiosity. It shows that developers and digital workers are beginning to treat AI as a practical execution layer.

BCG’s 2026 Global Wealth Report describes this as part of a wider “reordering” of global wealth. Emerging markets are expected to generate roughly 10% of global financial wealth growth by 2030, adding about US$12 trillion in financial wealth and more than one million new dollar millionaires. India alone is expected to contribute more than US$2 trillion to this expansion, making it one of the standout markets in the emerging-world wealth cycle.

PM SVANidhi is a Central Sector Scheme jointly implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Department of Financial Services. The scheme provides collateral-free working capital loans to street vendors, helping them restart, stabilise and expand their small businesses. The government has now approved restructuring and extension of the scheme, with the lending period extended up to March 2030.

This development shows how India’s biological wealth is gradually being integrated into a structured conservation-linked economic model. The ABS mechanism ensures that industries using biological resources and associated traditional knowledge contribute back to the communities, farmers, Biodiversity Management Committees and knowledge holders connected to those resources.