As per ADB's Asian Development Outlook report, India is the fastest growing economy in Asia with the GDP of __________.

In its latest report, the US has said that it could remove India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners citing certain developments and steps taken by New Delhi, which address some of its major concerns. India was for the first time, in April, placed by the US in its currency monitoring list of countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange policies along with five other countries - China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. This represented a notable change from 2017, when purchases over the first three quarters of the year pushed net purchases of foreign exchange above 2% of GDP. Recent sales came amid a turnaround in foreign portfolio inflows, as foreign investors pulled portfolio capital out of India (and many other emerging markets) over the first half of the year.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has launched a mobile app 'GST Verify' developed by B Raghu Kiran, joint commissioner GST Hyderabad. It is an android app to verify if the person collecting GST from the consumer is eligible to collect it or not.

As per the IMF's latest report, India is projected to grow at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.4% in 2019. The report predicted India to regain the tag of the world's fastest-growing major economy this year, crossing China with more than 0.7 percentage points. In China, growth is projected to moderate from 6.9 per cent in 2017 to 6.6% in 2018 and 6.2 % in 2019. In India, important reforms have been implemented in recent years, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the inflation-targeting framework, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and steps to liberalise foreign investment and make it easier to do business.

Moody's expects the real gross domestic product (GDP) in India to grow 7.2 per cent in the year ending March 2019 and 7.4 per cent in the following year. Earlier Moody's Investors service growth prediction for India was 7.5% in 2018-19, 7.5% in 2019-20 released on 23rd August,2018. This growth is driven by investment growth and strong consumption. The stable outlook is based on six parameters - operating environment, asset quality, capital, funding and liquidity, profitability and efficiency, and government support.

The U.S. revoked duty-free concessions on the import of at least 50 Indian products, mostly from handloom and agriculture sectors. The revocation is to reflect the Trump administration's tough stand on trade-related issues with New Delhi. The Federal Register issued a notification, listing 90 products which were so far subject to duty-free provisions under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), an oldest and largest U.S. trade preference programme. The GSP is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary-countries. A count of these products indicated that at least 50 of them are from India. Notably, India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP.

The Finance Ministry increased interest rates for non-governmental provident funds, gratuity and superannuation to 8 percent from existing 7.6 percent. Also, the interest rates for small savings schemes has been hiked by 40 basis points. These include: Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme, National Savings Certificate and post office time deposits. The changes are effective from October 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018, for the 3rd quarter.

Global research agency Fitch has raised India's growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7.8 per cent from the earlier 7.4 per cent. However, forecast for the next two fiscal, 2019-20 and 2020-21, have been shaved by 20 basis points (100 basis points means 1 per cent) to 7.3 per cent. Fitch's latest projection for the current fiscal is higher than what is estimated by the Reserve Bank of India and even the Government. While the RBI's estimate is 7.4 per cent, the Government feels that it could be 7.5 per cent. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its projection to 7.3 per cent from 7.4 per cent. India Ratings too lowered its growth projection by 20 bps to 7.2 per cent.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at the Reliance Industries' 41st Annual General Meeting announced that Reliance is India's largest payer of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Excise and Customs Duty, and Income Tax in the private sector paying Rs.9844 crore in FY18. Reliance has become the first Indian company to record PBDIT (Profit Before Depreciation Interest and Taxes) of over $10 billion.

India with immediate effect has boosted the Customs Duty on all the goods imported from Pakistan to 200% followed by the day after India repealed Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status from Pakistan. This punitory move followed by the Pulwana Terrorist attack that led to the death of 42 CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force). This step is likely to strike Pakistan's exports to India which were $381 million in the April-Nov period and for overall FY18, it was $489 million. This 200% tariff rate is higher than the average bound rate of 113.5% for agriculture products and 34.6% for non-agriculture products. The MFN applied rates are 32.8% and 10.7%, respectively for farm and non-farm products.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its Trade and Development Report predicted the GDP growth of India for 2018 to be at 7%. Previously in 2017, it was 6.2%. According to the report, India's GDP grew 8.2% in the April-June quarter especially due to manufacturing and better farm sector performance. The main reasons for overall 7% growth are: Expansion in services and higher demand for exports.