Daily News - Tuesday, 18 March 2025

India, NZ ink defence pact to mute rising Indo-Pacific threat (Financial Express)

⁠India and New Zealand signed a defence cooperation pact during New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s five-day visit to India, aiming to enhance maritime safety and strengthen security ties in response to China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. Both leaders agreed to initiate negotiations for a free trade agreement, aiming to boost trade and investment in sectors such as dairy, food processing, and pharmaceuticals. They also addressed shared concerns, including India’s objections to Khalistan separatist activities in New Zealand, and reaffirmed their commitment to a free, open, and rules-based Indo-Pacific.

Tackle consumer plaints on priority, says RBI gov (Financial Chronicle)

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra urged banks and NBFCs to improve customer service and grievance redressal, highlighting that complaints under the RBI’s Integrated Ombudsman Scheme surged by nearly 50% annually over the past two years, reaching 9.34 lakh in 2023-24, with 2.94 lakh complaints processed—up 25% from the previous year. He noted that 57% of maintainable complaints required RBI Ombudsman intervention, calling the situation highly unsatisfactory and warning that unresolved issues could erode consumer trust. Malhotra also revealed that 95 scheduled commercial banks alone received over 1 crore complaints last year and announced the RBI’s plan to review the citizen’s charter to include all services with defined timelines. 

Feb. WPI inflation grows at 2.38% (Financial Chronicle)

⁠India’s Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation rose marginally to 2.38% in February, up from 2.31% in January, driven by higher fuel and power prices along with rising manufacturing costs, while the month-over-month WPI change was 0.06%. Inflation in manufactured food products surged to 11.06%, and vegetable oil prices increased by 33.59%, with the overall manufactured products index rising by 0.42%. Despite expectations of cooling WPI-food inflation due to a healthy crop output, elevated temperatures pose an upside risk to the inflation trajectory, while core WPI inflation (non-food manufacturing) hit a 24-month high of 1.3%.

⁠India now exporting railway equipment to Europe, Australia and Saudi Arabia: Vaishnaw (The Indian Express)

India’s Railways is expanding its global presence by exporting metro coaches to Australia, locomotives to Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Senegal, and passenger coaches to Mozambique and Sri Lanka, with propulsion systems and bogies being shipped to Europe, including France, Germany, and the UK. In 2022, India exported Rs 608.70 crore worth of rolling stock to Mozambique and Sri Lanka, including one 3000HP diesel-electric locomotive (Rs 30.59 crore) and 58 passenger coaches with five DEMU sets (Rs 293.32 crore) to Mozambique, and 40 broad gauge passenger coaches (Rs 164.77 crore) to Sri Lanka. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that in FY25, Indian Railways aims to transport 1.6 billion tonnes of cargo, placing it among the top three global freight carriers alongside China and the USA. 

Feb trade deficit narrows to $14 bn, lowest in three years (The Indian Express)

India’s merchandise trade deficit fell to a three-year low of $14.05 billion in February, driven by a 30% drop in petroleum exports to Europe due to US sanctions on Russia’s oil trade and a 60% decline in gold imports, while petroleum imports also fell by 26%. Exports contracted by 10.8% to $36.9 billion, while imports declined by a sharper 16.3% to $50.96 billion, with chemicals and gems and jewellery exports falling by 24.5% and 20.7%, respectively. Despite global trade challenges, India’s services exports surged by 23% to $35 billion in February and rose 14% year-on-year to $354.9 billion during April-February, indicating resilience in the services sector amid slowing merchandise trade.