Last week, at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Ambani urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India to end what he calls “data colonisation” by global corporations and believes that Indians should own and control their own data online.

RIL’s market valuation surged Rs 53,918.87 crore to Rs 7,49,829.58 crore, emerging as the biggest gainer among the top-10 firms when six of the top-10 most valued Indian companies together added Rs 1,08,274.79 crore in market valuation last week, with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) becoming the star performer.

Post-demonetisation, the government re-introduced Rs. 500 bank notes but the Rs. 1,000 currency notes were discontinued. However, the RBI introduced bank notes of denomination 2,000 during the period. The central bank official said there has been a decline in counterfeit notes and whatever is in circulation at present is “very crude counterfeiting”.   

A fast-growing emerging economy like India can ill-afford such a low inflation rate. If high inflation acts as a threat to growth, ultra-low inflation does the same. It is no surprise that this low inflation is symptomatic of the agrarian crisis, wherein rural wages are stagnating and earnings have collapsed for many farmers. Growth brings income and a collapse in inflation will threaten to erase the incentive to produce.

With effect from 6 am on January 14, petrol prices were at Rs. 70.13 per litre in Delhi, Rs. 72.24 per litre in Kolkata, Rs. 75.77 per litre in Mumbai and Rs. 72.79 per litre in Chennai, according to Indian Oil Corporation – the country’s largest fuel retailer. Diesel prices stood at Rs. 64.18 per litre, Rs. 65.95 per litre, Rs. 67.18 per litre and Rs. 67.78 per litre respectively.

The government had budgeted fiscal deficit of Rs 6.24 lakh crore, or 3.3 per cent of the GDP, for FY19. Fiscal deficit for April-November stood at Rs 7.16 lakh crore, or 114.8 per cent of the target. It is slightly more than the 112 per cent recorded in the same period last fiscal.