Economy

The report also reduced India's estimated GDP growth rate to 5.8 per cent for the current fiscal year, from its earlier estimate of 6.3 per cent.

Fitch Solutions also trimmed GDP forecast for the current fiscal year to 6.4 per cent from 6.8 per cent previously.

The slump will put the onus on the RBI to continue cutting interest rates after 110 basis points of easing already this year, the economists said.

The World Gold Council has said up to 95 tonnes of gold was smuggled into India in 2018.

Core sector comprises of eight sectors such as coal, crude oil and electricity, accounts for nearly 40 per cent of India's industrial output.

A sub-index tracking overall demand hit its weakest in more than a year and foreign orders increased at their slowest pace in 16 months.

The gross revenue collections from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July stood at Rs 1.02 lakh crore.

The government on Friday announced a mega plan to merge 10 state-run public sector banks into four large entities to address economic concerns.

Sovereign bonds fell in August, with the yield on benchmark 10-year notes rising by 19 basis points amid worries the government may borrow more to finance any potential fiscal stimulus to boost a slowing economy.

Contract manufacturing is the outsourcing of part of the manufacturing process of a product to a third-party, specializing in design, production, assembly and distribution.

India's economy had annual growth of 5.0 per cent in the April-June quarter, the slowest in more than six years.

India's economy expanded at its slowest pace in over six years, government data showed on Friday. Growth in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 5 per cent in the first quarter of current financial year (2019-20), compared with 5.8 per cent in the previous quarter, and 8.0 per cent in the quarter ended June 30, 2018. Decelerating for the fifth quarter in a row, economic expansion came in at the slowest pace since the quarter ended March 2013, when it had stood at 4.3 per cent. A slowdown in sales of cars to biscuits and lakhs of estimated job cuts across sectors plagued the economic growth of the country, say analysts.

State-run banks will be merged to form a dozen strong lenders, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Friday. The Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank will merge to form the country's second largest public sector bank with a business of Rs. 17.95 lakh crore, "1.5 times the size of Punjab National Bank". Three more such mergers were announced as the Finance Minister said the government "wants a strong financial system" to clear the path towards making India a $5-trillion economy.

Net tax receipts in the first four months of the fiscal year were Rs 3.39 lakh crorerupees, while total expenditure was Rs 9.47 lakh crore rupees, government data showed.

The Finance Minister said gross non-performing assets (NPAs) - or bad loans - have come down from Rs 8.65 lakh crore to Rs 7.90 lakh crore.