News on Indian Economy
In the first phase, NHAI has prepared an action plan covering 17 land parcels spread across 62.8 hectares, where around 67,462 medicinal trees will be planted. The sites are located along highway projects in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh.
The latest figures also show that women-led MSEs received contracts worth more than ₹28,000 crore in FY 2025–26, marking 27.6% growth over the previous year. Their share reached 5.6% of GeM’s total order value, comfortably above the mandated 3% public procurement target for women-owned and women-led enterprises.
An e-way bill is the electronic permit required under GST before transporting consignments valued at more than ₹50,000. Under CBIC rules, the registered supplier, recipient, or transporter must generate it on the common portal before movement begins, after which a unique e-way bill number is issued and can be checked in transit.
The proposed approach goes beyond simple extraction. It includes expanding exploration for lithium resources within India, securing overseas supply arrangements, and building up refining capacity through both public- and private-sector participation. In effect, the government is trying to move India higher up the value chain instead of remaining dependent on imported processed materials.
Since its launch, the Vande Bharat network has carried more than 9.1 crore passengers through about 1 lakh trips, showing how quickly the service has moved from flagship experiment to a widely accepted part of India’s railway system. First introduced on the New Delhi–Varanasi route in February 2019, the train has since become a major symbol of indigenous rail modernisation under the Make in India push.
To reduce that lag, RBI has asked banks to reconcile and confirm credits in nostro accounts much more frequently, either on a near real-time basis or at periodic intervals. The regulator said the reconciliation interval should normally not exceed one hour, marking a clear move toward more time-sensitive processing of international inward payments.
The shift to composite sleepers marks an important upgrade in track infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Railways, these sleepers are lighter than the iron and concrete variants currently used, yet they are designed to carry higher loads, offer better cushioning and allow easier laying and repair. The ministry also said the sleepers can be tailored to local site conditions, which is expected to improve passenger comfort, especially on bridge approaches and turnout sections where ride quality can otherwise be affected.
The MoU was signed by Amit Mohan Govil, Director of FIU-IND, and Rajesh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of I4C. According to the release, the agreement is intended to create a more structured framework for collaborative intelligence sharing between the two agencies, both of which play key roles in tackling financial crime and cyber fraud in India’s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem.
Growth during the fiscal year was broad-based, with five out of six vehicle categories achieving record annual sales, driven by improved affordability, rising consumer demand, and an expanding mix of powertrain technologies.
In India’s broader fuel-cycle logic, spent fuel from Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors is reprocessed to recover plutonium, that plutonium is used in mixed oxide fuel for the PFBR, and the fast neutrons in the reactor then convert fertile material into new fissile material.
