We’ve got a new podcast episode covering recent developments between India and China — specifically, the Doklam standoff and the Belt & Road Initiative:
[embed][play.radiopublic.com/drishti-t...](https://play.radiopublic.com/drishti-talk-WDppjE/ep/s1!3205d64b7e578b3cf7151e16fb9fb271d3cb46c6)[/embed]If this is something you find interesting, you can find our previous episodes. You’ll also find subscribe links and our Patreon page if you’d like to support us.
On this week’s episode of Drishti talk, we discuss the recent developments between India and China—the Doklam standoff and India’ s objections to the Belt & Road Initiative/OBOR:
[embed][play.radiopublic.com/drishti-t...](https://play.radiopublic.com/drishti-talk-WDppjE/ep/s1!3205d64b7e578b3cf7151e16fb9fb271d3cb46c6)[/embed]You can also subscribe in a podcast player of your choice using our subscribe links or using our RSS feed.
Chirag Desai
l grew 102%Finished steel production (for sale) saw over 10% growth year-on-year in FY2016–17 at 100.74 million tonnes (mt), while crude steel production grew 8.5% to finish at 97.44 mt. This is in stark contrast to the YoY growth in FY2015–16 which sat at –1.3% and 0.9% respectively.
The trend seems to be continuing into the current financial year, with the provisional growth numbers for FY2017–18 until the month of May showing a 6.4% rise in production compared to the same time last fiscal for finished steel, while crude steel is up 4.8%.
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Domestic steel consumption grew 2.4 during FY2016–17 against the 10% growth in production. In turn, India’s steel exports grew 102% to reach 8.24 mt as compared to a 27% decline in FY2015–16. The top 10 countries exported to account for more 73% of India’s export during the last year.
Exports made up nearly 10% of all production
A further analysis of export data showed a significant change in export trend—8 out of the top 10 countries by growth in FY2016–17 saw a negative growth of exports just the previous year, while the remaining two saw grow rates above 200%.
The top 3 countries by growth are all in India’s eastern neighbourhood—Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.
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In 2015, the Central Government extended the anti-dumping duty on stainless steel products — instituted in April 2014 — by five years. The duty is based on the margin of dumping and affects the following countries:
A review of this duty was recently concluded found that while dumping has continued, the net volume has declined since 2014. The Government has decided that the duty will not be revoked in light of this effect and the expected negative impact of such revokation on the domestic steel industry.
Consumer inflation in June cooled to a new record-low of 1.54 per cent, driven by a drop in food and oil prices, government data showed on Wednesday. In May consumer price inflation stood at 2.18 per cent, which was also a record low.
This follows a consistent decline in inflation rates since 2014, and record decreases since the start of January 2017.
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey has written to the states asking them to identify centres within government premises for enrolment and updation activities by July 31.
Great. I had hoped for this in my initial Aadhaar notes now that Aadhaar enrolment has crossed 95%.
UIDAI has said the process of shifting enrolment operations to such centres should be completed by August 31, 2017
With the press of a button at midnight in Parliament’s Central Hall, India switched to GST, the single biggest tax reform undertaken by the country in 70 years of independence.
Hello to the GST era.
The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) has published a lengthy FAQ published here, along with a compilation of various questions asked over their dedicated Twitter handle here.
https://www.cbec.gov.in/resources//htdocs-cbec/gst/new-faq-on-gst-second-edition.pdf[embed]play.radiopublic.com/d89e951b-…[/embed]
Special guest and Civil Services aspirant Bhushan Shah returns to the show to talk about the Presidential race and the farmer loan waiver epidemic across the country. But first, a shoutout to everyone who witnessed the Emergency—a sorded reminder of how bad things can be without our powerful democracy.
The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines in the current calendar year registered a 17.63% growth compared to the same period in 2016¹.
4.66 crore passengers have taken domestic flights this year, compared to 3.96 crore.
Following a dip between January and February, total domestic passengers consistently grew for the remaining 4 months of the year. May saw a little over 1 crore domestic travelers, the highest this year.
Indigo currently holds the largest market share crossing 40% of total passengers up to May, followed by Jet at 17.9% and Air India at 13.3% of total passengers.
Airline traffic saw a similar trend as overall passenger traffic, dipping in February across all airlines before picking up during the remaining months of the year.
In the current year, 716 complaints have been registered across various airlines. Despite the largest volume share, Indigo has significantly fewer complaints registered (109, at a complaints/10000 ratio of 0.58) compared to Air India (245, 3.95) and the Jet group (231, 2.77).
Indigo also led in terms of on-time performance, with an OTP of 85% of flights at the four major metros (Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai). SpiceJet is a close second at 82.4% while Air India ranks fourth at 77.8%.
A majority of the delays among the four metro cities seem to have occurred at Mumbai Domestic Airport.
In 2016, baggage earned the largest share of complaints (28%) during the same period, Customer Service took this title in 2017 (27.8%). Refunds saw a good reduction in complaints, down to 2.7% of total complaints compared to 6.2% in 2016. Flight problems, baggage and customer service continue to be the top 3 reasons for complaints by quite a margin.
A total of 2,267 passengers have been denied boarding this year, leading to compensations worth ₹1.37cr. 19,175 passengers experienced flight cancellations (₹55 lakhs) while 91,213 suffered delays (₹89 lakhs).
¹ All data as per data provided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation
Bihar Governor Shri Ram Nath Kovind, 71, will be NDA’s Presidential Candidate for the upcoming presidential polls in July.
Kovind was formerly elected to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh where he served two terms from 1994–2006, head of BJP’s Dalit Morcha from 1998–2002, and Union Government Advocate in the Delhi High Court (1977–79), Advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court (1978) and Union Government Standing Counsel in the Supreme Court (1980–93).
Kovind was governor of Bihar starting August 2015 until he resigned June 20. West Bengal Governor Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi takes additional charge of Bihar until a full-time governor is appointed.
Telangana CM and TRS Chief KC Rao, BJD and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik have extended their support to the candidature.
See our podcast on the President elections:
[embed][talk.ekdrishti.in/e/3548a27...](http://talk.ekdrishti.in/e/3548a272b78440/)[/embed][embed]play.radiopublic.com/d89e951b-…[/embed]
Special guest Girish Alva joins me on the show to talk about the new Rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the slaughter of a calf in Kerala in protest and the #GiveUpAMeal campaign.
Links: