Indian economy grew a 1.6 per cent in the January-December quarter, data released by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) showed on Monday. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been severely affected by coronavirus pandemic during the fiscal ended in March. The economy contracted 7.3 per cent in the financial year 2020-21. It was better than what Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had forecast earlier.

The gross value added (GVA) in the March quarter stood at 3.7 per cent. For FY21, GVA declined 6.2 per cent. Only two sectors bucked the trend of negative GVA growth — Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (which rose 3.6%) and Electricity, Gas, Water Supply and other Utility Services (up 1.9%). GVA from Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication and Broadcasting-related services recorded the sharpest decline of 18.2%, followed by Construction (-8.6%), Mining and quarrying (-8.5%) and Manufacturing (-7.2%).

A number of petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court seeking to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikant Das, Chief Executive of Indian Banks Association (IBA) and others for allegedly flouting the SC`s earlier order, by turning and declaring the account of the petitioners as Non Performing Assets (NPA) in connection with the moratorium matter. 

The petitioners - M/s Azeez Trading Company, Umrazz Trading Corporation, Ajay Hotel and Restaurant, Latur, Maharashtra -- have filed their plea through lawyer Vishal Tiwari and Advocate On Record (AOR) Abhigya.The respondents, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikant Das, Chief Executive of Indian Banks Association (IBA) were duty-bound to promulgate and ensure the compliance of the order of this court throughout the country but they deliberately didn`t, the petition said.

The GST Council on Friday left taxes on COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies unchanged but exempted duty on import of a medicine used for treatment of black fungus. Sitharaman said the GST Council decided to continue a waiver of IGST on free COVID-19 related supplies imported from abroad.

The GST Committee decided that the Centre will borrow Rs 1.58 lakh crore and pass it on to the states to make up for the shortfall in their revenues from the implementation of the GST. A special session of the Council will be held soon to consider extending the five-year GST shortfall compensation period to states beyond 2022.

Google has “continued to engage closely” with Reliance Jio in order to bring an affordable phone to the market, chief executive Sundar Pichai said earlier today. The top executive had made similar commitments at last year’s Google For India 2020 conference, where the company had announced that it will work closely with Jio to develop an affordable 5G smartphone tailored for the Indian market. However, while Pichai has reiterated his commitment made about a year ago, he has still not given any concrete information around what the said affordable smartphone may feature, or any particular details about it – such as pricing or launch dates.    

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has asked the Indian government for a firm pre-order along with advance payment for COVID-19 vaccine supply, similar to how other countries have procured doses.

Pfizer's top brass communicated this in various meetings with Indian authorities, The Economic Times has reported. Pfizer's condition of an indemnity clause was also discussed during the meetings but the focus was on orders and advance payments.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar who is visiting the United States is also expected to meet Pfizer representatives to discuss vaccine supplies to India.