LIVE: Retail inflation rises to 5.08% in July; India’s industrial output grows 5.9% in May | India News

Retail inflation increased to 5.08 per cent in June as kitchen items became dearer, according to government data released on Friday. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was 4.8 per cent in May 2024 and 4.87 per cent in June 2023 (previous low).

India’s industrial production grew 5.9 per cent in May this year, mainly due to good show by mining and power sectors, according to official data released on Friday. The factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) witnessed a growth of 5.7 per cent in May 2023.

Rain with thunderstorms are likely to continue in the northern and eastern parts of Rajasthan on Friday, while rainfall activities are expected to decrease in the southern and western parts, the Jaipur Meteorological Centre said. In the last 24 hours, the highest rainfall was recorded in Parbatsar (Nagaur) at 89 mm followed by Sepau (Dholpur) at 65 mm, the weather office said.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Friday said its arm has launched a Rs 750-crore agri fund for startups and rural enterprises. The fund called ‘Agri-SURE’ is announced by NABVENTURES, a subsidiary of NABARD, with an initial corpus of Rs 750 crore with Rs 250 crore each from NABARD and the Ministry of Agriculture, and Rs 250 crore from other institutions.

India and Qatar have agreed to expeditiously address all impending bilateral trade issues and have identified several areas of focus for enhancing both bilateral trade as well as mutually beneficial cooperation sectors. Representatives from both nations reviewed recent developments in a Joint Working Group meeting in Doha this week, the Commerce Ministry said on Friday. Both sides undertook a detailed review of recent developments in bilateral trade and economic cooperation and noted that the relationship has a huge potential to be scaled up even further, the Commerce Ministry stated.

Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh virtually inaugurated 321 projects at the Fisheries Summer Meet held in Madurai, Tamil Nadu on Friday. These initiatives, approved under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), represent a total investment of Rs 114 crore, an official statement said. The projects covering 19 states and Union Territories include fish retail kiosks, shrimp hatcheries, brood banks, ornamental fish units, biofloc units, fish feed mills, and fish value-added enterprises.

Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia on Friday said his role would primarily be that of a facilitator, ensuring that aspirations of the states in the region are realised. He emphasised the importance of showcasing the North Eastern region’s rich cultural heritage, traditions, and natural resources to the world. Talking to reporters at the airport here on his first visit to the North East since assuming charge, Scindia said he will work towards realising the government’s vision of making the region the “gateway of India’s progress”. “Work to achieve it has already been on track for the last 10 years,” he added.

Amid heavy rains in different parts of the country, water levels in 150 main reservoirs of the country have increased to 26 per cent of the total live storage capacity, still lower than in the same period last year, according to official data. Last week, the water level was at 22 per cent. The current live storage stands at 46.311 billion cubic meters (BCM), which is 26 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. This is a significant drop compared to the same period last year, when the live storage was 58.864 BCM, according to Central Water Commission’s (CWC’s) Friday bulletin.

Shatrugan Singh, the Chairman of the Rules and Implementation, released the report of the Expert Committee on the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand on Friday. The report was released at the Circuit House Annexe, Dehradun. While speaking to the media, Singh said, “The details of the UCC are given on the website http://ucc.uk.gov.in . You can read the report of the Expert Committee on the website.” Uttarakhand CM, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said, “The UCC is a very big thing for our state. The people of the state had elected us for the same reason. I congratulate all the people of Uttarakhand on the implementation of the UCC. After the implementation, several complexities would be made easier.”

With the new government taking charge in Britain, the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK will get a renewed push and a comprehensive pact would deliver a win-win result for both economies, said experts. They said that promoting export of services seem to be a priority for the UK’s Labour government and it will seek to negotiate standalone sector deals, such as digital, or mutual recognition agreements, to promote services exports.

Benchmark stock market indices hit fresh record highs on Friday, with the S&P BSE Sensex rising over 900 points and the NSE Nifty50 jumping nearly 250 points. The Sensex hit a lifetime high of 80,893 during intraday trade and the 50-share Nifty hit a new record high of 24,592.20.

Courts should refrain from staying bail orders in a mechanical manner and without giving any reason, the Supreme Court said Friday, underlining that the relief should be denied to an accused only in rare and exceptional cases. A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih said courts cannot curtail the liberty of an accused in a casual manner. “The courts should stay bail order only in rare and exceptional cases like somebody is involved in terrorist cases, where order is perverse or provisions of law have been bypassed. You cannot restrict liberty like this. This will be disastrous. If we grant stay like this, this will be disaster. Where will Article 21 go,” the bench observed.

The Supreme Court on Friday said establishing ‘Gram Nyayalayas’ would help in providing affordable and speedy justice to the citizens at their doorsteps and also reduce the huge pendency of cases in trial courts. An Act passed by Parliament in 2008 provided for the setting up of Gram Nyayalayas at the grassroots level for providing access to justice to citizens and to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to anyone by reason of social, economic or other disabilities.