Mumbai, Dec 7: The Reserve Bank on Wednesday marginally lowered the country’s GDP growth projection for the current fiscal at 6.8 per cent from its earlier estimate of 7 per cent.
However, despite the downward revision in the economic growth projection, India will remain among the fastest growing major economies in the world, said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das while announcing the latest bi-monthly monetary policy.
He said the Indian economy remains resilient and is a bright spot in a gloomy world.
It is to be noted that the RBI had also pared its growth projection in September as well.
The World Bank on Tuesday revised upwards its GDP growth forecast for India to 6.9 per cent for 2022-23 from its earlier estimate of 6.5 per cent, saying the economy was showing higher resilience to global shocks. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged leaders of all parties to make collective efforts to make Parliament’s winter session more productive.
Speaking to media ahead of the session’s start, he said Parliamentarians, including from the opposition, have told him that disruption and adjournment in Parliament is not good and this also denies younger MPs an opportunity to learn.
The Prime Minister urged all political parties to give first time MPs a chance to participate in debates for their bright future and also for preparing the next generation in democracy.
He also said that India hosting the G20 summit, which will be held next year, is not merely a diplomatic event but also a chance to showcase the country’s capabilities before the world.
The Prime Minister said he had a cordial discussion with leaders of different parties recently at an all-party meeting on G20 and expressed hope that it will be reflected in Parliament as well. (Agencies)

New Delhi, Dec 7: India recorded 166 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases declined to 4,255, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The total tally of Covid cases stands at 4.46 crore (4,46,73,949).
The death toll climbed to 5,30,638 with five fatalities which includes three deaths reconciled by Kerala. One death each has been reported from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 98.80 per cent, the ministry said.
A decrease of 90 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,39,056 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent. According to the ministry’s website, 219.94 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year. (AGENCIES)

In a neck-and-neck contest so far, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has gained an edge over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as per the initial trends in the counting of votes for the Delhi civic body polls on Wednesday.

As per the official data by the Election Commission till 10 am, the AAP which was trailing since the counting began at 8 am, gained a lead over the ruling BJP. The latest data shows the AAP leading in 114 municipal wards as against the BJP which is leading in 110.

Congress, which was trailing since morning on the third spot, maintains its position with its lead in 11 wards, while the BSP is leading 1n 1 ward. 4 independents are also leading.

The high-decibel battle which was fought in the election campaign ahead of the polling on December 4, witnessed the claims and counter-claims by both parties (BJP, AAP) of winning the elections, however, it all boils down to December 7 when the outcome of the election would be revealed.

The polls for 250 wards in the national capital were held on December 4 with about 50 per cent voter turnout and a total of 1,349 candidates were in the fray. However, the low voter turnout may not be an indicator of pro-incumbency with the exit polls predicting the AAP win in the MCD polls.

Congress, which is mostly focussing on the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, was not predicted (in the exit polls) to be a prominent challenger in the recently conducted polling. The party is predicted to get only a handful of seats.

However, the high-stakes civic polls are largely seen as a three-way contest between the BJP, the AAP and the Congress.

For the counting, the Commission has set up 42 counting centres across the city. 68 Election Observers have already been deployed by the Commission under whose supervision the counting of votes shall be carried out by the Returning Officers in the presence of candidates or their representatives.

Further, the Commission has also deployed 136 engineers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) at these counting centres to attend to any technical issues regarding the EVMs which may arise during the counting of votes.

Special Media Rooms to facilitate viewing of live results on the Commission’s web portal on the LED screens at these 42 counting centres.

These centres are under multi-layered security and entry of persons authorized by the Commission shall only be allowed by the security personnel deployed at these centres.

Delhi had witnessed highly charged campaigning by AAP and BJP which made top leaders, including Union ministers, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and MPs hit the streets for door-to-door campaigning and meetings to garner public support.

The BJP, which has governed the civic body in Delhi since 2007, is looking to maintain its winning streak.

This was the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise. There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations – NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC in Delhi from 2012-2022 that later reunified into an MCD that had formally come into existence on May 22.