The Reserve Bank of India will shortly issue Rs100 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, bearing the signature of Dr Urjit R. Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The new denomination has Motif of "RANI KI VAV" on the reverse, depicting the country's cultural heritage. The base colour of the note is Lavender. The dimension of the banknote will be 66 mm x 142 mm.

Government panel recommended lowering GST on under-construction residential properties to 5%. The GST rate for under-construction flats earlier was 12%.The Group of Ministers headed by Nithin Patel was formed to analyse tax rates and issues or challenges being faced by the real estate sector under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.The seven member ministerial panel also favoured lowering GST on affordable housing from 8% earlier to 3%.The move will give relief to homebuyers as the tax rate had lowered sharply with no input tax credit. Any cut in GST should reduce the adverse impact on the land abatement rate also.

According to Moody's, Indian economy is expected to grow at 7.3 percent in the calendar year 2019 and 2020, and the government spending announced ahead of elections this year which will support near-term growth. Moody's stated in its quarterly Global Macro Outlook for 2019 and 2020. In 2018-19 fiscal, ending March 2019, Indian economy is estimated to have grown 7 percent, lower than 7.2 percent in 2017-18.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared at an outlay of Rs.1,623 crore to get more disaster warning systems and desalination plants along Indian coasts. The system will be functioning under the programme called O-SMART (Ocean Services, Technology, Observations, Resources Modelling and Science). O-SMART is monitored by the Union earth sciences ministry. O-SMART provides economic benefits to a number of user communities in the coastal and ocean sectors, namely, fisheries, offshore industry, coastal States, defence, shipping, ports, etc.

China, UAE, Cyprus and significantly, Mauritius, along with 21other countries have been tagged as "high-risk jurisdictions" by global banks acting as custodians for foreign funds which comprise the largest group of investors in the Indian stock market. Large investors and beneficial owners of these funds entering India through these high-risk jurisdictions will face close scrutiny while non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin will run into new hurdles in participating in funds set up in these countries for trading on Indian exchanges.

Growth Outlook for 2019', Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) stated that India will remain the fastest growing major economy with GDP growth estimated to be 7.5% in FY19. The reasons cited for the growth are: Better demand conditions, settled GST implementation, capacity expansion resulting from growing investments in infrastructure and better credit inflow especially in the service sector (that is of 24%). Additionally, CII had suggested the following: only three slabs for GST - a standard rate, a higher rate for demerit goods and a lower rate for some mass consumption items - and the inclusion of fuels, real estate, electricity and alcohol in the ambit of the levy. RBI to have lending restrictions on banks under the PCA (prompt and corrective action) and create a limited special liquidity window to meet emergencies of financial institutions. the digitization of land records.

The World Bank projected India' GDP, expected to grow at 7.3% in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5% in the following two years. The Bank said India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy in the world. In India, the growth has accelerated, driven by an upswing in consumption, and investment growth has firmed as the effects of temporary factors wane, the World Bank said in its latest report. Domestic demand has strengthened as the benefits of structural reforms such as Goods and services Tax (GST) harmonization and bank recapitalization take effect. In 2018,China's Projection is 6.5 and 6.2% each in 2019 and 2020 and 6% in 2021, according to the January 2019 Global Economic Prospects report released by the World Bank. Strong domestic demand is envisioned to widen the current account deficit to 2.6 per cent of GDP next year. The World Bank's estimate suggest that India's potential growth rate is around 7%, and is expected to remain around 7%.

According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s annual data, Mauritius accounted for the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India in the financial year FY18 followed by Singapore. The data shows that the total India's FDI stood at $37.36 billion in the FY18, which is a marginal rise over the $36.31 billion recorded in the previous fiscal FY17. The provisional data for the financial year ended March revealed that FDI into the manufacturing sector witnessed a substantial decline to $7.06 billion, as against $11.97 billion in the year-ago period. However, FDI into communication services rose to $8.8 billion in 2017-18 as compared to $5.8 billion.

As a result of China's trade war with the US and its campaign to cut debt, the value of China's stock market fell to $6.09 trillion, losing its position as the World's second biggest stock market to Japan ($6.17 trillion). The U.S. has the world's largest stock market at just over $31 trillion. China's stock market overtook Japan's in 2014 and soared to an all-time high of over $10 trillion in 2015.

India achieved another milestone when Indian Stock market overtakes Germany for the first time in seven years to become the world's seventh largest stock market. This move reflects India's positive returns this year as companies dependency on domestic demand enabled them to avoid meltdown in other emerging markets spurred due to U.S. - China trade war. South Asian Giant, India is projected to grow at 7.5 percent in 2018 and 7.3 percent in 2019 whereas Germany managed to achieve a growth rate of only 1.6 percent in 2018. After the exit of United Kingdom from European Union, now European Union has only one country in top seven economies of the world - France.