INDIA'S GROWTH FACES GLOBAL RISKS, CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM NEED OF HOUR

THE latest endorsement of India's commendable growth has come from the Reserve Bank. On Friday, while keeping the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent, the central bank raised its 2023-24 growth projection by half a percentage point to 7 percent.

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The news is good not solely because of the numerical increase, but also because the RBI considers the revised number conservative. Deputy governor Michael Patra said that high-frequency data from October and November confirm robust growth. If we take into account the growth in the first half of the financial year, chances are that the final print would exceed 7 percent. Rural demand, the important missing piece in the second quarter, seems to have turned a corner. As governor Shaktikanta Das explained, despite the kharif season's late harvest, the October-November period witnessed two-thirds of rabi sowing, which means agricultural output will likely grow fa