TMS Ep379: GDP slowdown, fake websites, textile stocks, Jan Vishwas Bill

As expected, the GDP growth slowed down to 4.4% in the third quarter of Financial Year 2023. While releasing the figures, the government said that the GDP is estimated to grow at 7.0 per cent during 2022-23, against 9.1 per cent in 2021-22. What else do the government figures say? And what do they mean? What led to this slowdown? And what the road ahead looks like? 

Ashima Goyal, one of the members of the RBI’s rate setting panel, recently told Business Standard that a further tightening could bring down the GDP growth to 5%. Another MPC member, Jayanth Verma, also had a similar view. Moving on, pandemic catapulted online transactions to a new high. But, with it, cases of online frauds have also hit a new peak. Cybercriminals are now using various ways to cheat people. One of them is through fake websites. Co-founder of Mumbai-based audio company Boat recently took to Twitter to request customers to buy products from the original website -- and not from fake ones selling counterfeit products. So how big is the fake website problem? 

Moving on to stock markets, as cotton prices soften 41% from last year’s high, analysts foresee silver lining emerging for the sector. That apart, they expect improved capacity utilisations, lowering of domestic cotton premium over international prices, and demand rebound to benefit the overall sector.

Meanwhile, in a good news for the industry, the government is planning to table The Jan Vishwas Bill in the second phase of the Budget session of the Parliament. The bill seeks to decriminalise 183 offences across 42 central Acts to ensure ease of doing business. We tell more about this proposed amendment in this episode of the podcast.