作者： bharat.cn

India is expected to become a much bigger driver of global growth than the world’s current largest economy, the US, in just five years, according to Bloomberg calculations based on International Monetary Fund (IMF) data.
The global economic watchdog warned about the risks of the slowdown that the world is currently facing as it downgraded growth to three percent, the weakest since the global financial crisis. This is the result of multiple factors, including the US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions, as well as Brexit-related risks, according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook released earlier this week.

However, some countries are projected to contribute more to the development of the world economy. China is set to remain the indisputable leader despite its share is set to fall from 32.7 percent in 2019 to 28.3 percent in 2024.

India’s growth can outpace that of the US, Bloomberg reported, citing IMF estimates adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). In five years, the South Asian nation will account for 15.5 percent of global growth, jumping two percent from the current figures. Meanwhile, the US contribution is set to fall by more than 3.5 percent from its current 13.8 percent, to 9.2 percent.

Other changes in the top five include Russia pushing Japan off fifth place with its share of GDP growth expected to stay at its current level of two percent in 2024. Indonesia will remain in fourth place.

This week, the IMF cut India’s GDP growth forecast for 2019 to 6.1 percent, which is 1.2 percent lower than the body’s April projections. Despite the gloomier prognosis, the country’s finance minister argued on Thursday that the Indian economy is “still growing as the fastest,” although it remains far behind China.

Air India will have to cease operations if a renewed attempt to sell the debt-laden company fails to find a buyer, the country’s Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
“Once we invite bids, then we’ll see how many bids will come in,” he told Parliament.

A group of officials is currently finalizing the process of inviting bids from the private sector. Last year, the government failed to attract any bidders when it tried to sell a 76 percent stake in the airline and offload about $5.1 billion in debt. Air India is saddled with an $11 billion overall debt.

According to Puri, the government is now re-evaluating some of the terms and is open to selling the airline in its entirety. One of the biggest hurdles, he said, is its large number of employees.

Air India has about 9,400 permanent staff and 4,200 contract workers.The minister said the government is committed to securing a deal that is favorable for the employees.

The carrier has struggled to pay salaries and buy fuel, with losses mounting following earlier privatization attempts. Air India spokesman Dhananjay Kumar told AFP the company is unable to pay its debts and its outlook is gloomy.

“We are concentrating on day-to-day operations and not focusing on the future,” he said, adding “Whatever resources we have, we are trying to use them in an optimum manner and trying to run our flights.”

Air India, which started as Tata Airlines in 1932 and later became state-owned, has been losing money for more than a decade. The company, which was once known as the ‘Maharaja of the skies’, has lost market share to low-cost rivals in one of the world’s fastest-growing but most competitive airline markets.

A truck delivering onions worth $30,000 for an Indian trader was found totally emptied out in what police suspect was a brazen robbery amid skyrocketing prices for India’s staple food.
The vehicle, loaded with a whopping 40 tons of onions, set off from the state of Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh in mid-November, but never reached its destination. It disappeared halfway to its intended customer last week and was found empty, deep in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.

Police say the cargo – worth up to 2.2 million rupees (roughly $30,000) – could have been an outright bonanza for those who dared to steal it. One kilogram of onions is retailing at 100 rupees ($1.40) in most Indian states, often peaking at 120-130 rupees in major cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune.

Onion is a mandatory ingredient in India’s most iconic meals © Global Look Press / Hu Xiaoming / Source: Xinhua
There were other onion thefts this week, however, these were not as grand as the one in Madhiya Pradesh. On Thursday, five 50kg sacks of onions were stolen early in the morning from a Gujarat vegetable shop. In a similar incident, thieves targeted a market in West Bengal, walking off with bags full of onions, potatoes, garlic and ginger.

Skyrocketing prices for onions have become one of the major issues in India, with local politicians seizing on it. Some of them weren’t shy about sending a bold message to the government.

The price spikes have been blamed on unseasonal rainfall, which delayed the planting of the winter-sown crop across the country. Coping with the crisis, the Indian government vowed to extend a ban on onion exports and moved to import the bulb from neighboring countries.