Tight race

Overall vehicle sales grew by 10% year-on-year in June, data released last week by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) said. Three segments—three-wheelers, passenger vehicles (PVs), and tractors—reached their highest-ever sales for the month of June, and commercial vehicle sales surpassed pre-covid levels for the first time. Maruti Suzuki continued to lead the market with over 40% share. But the battle for the second spotcontinued between Hyundai Motor and Tata Motors.

Rain misery

This was a particularly rainy week in northern India, with loss of lives and property reported in multiple states, especially the hills. Delhi received 40% of its seasonal rainfall in just a two-day period. Till 30 June, the monsoon deficit for the entire country was 10% of the long-period average. In just 10 days of deluge the numbers have turned around, with a surplus of 2%. The India Meteorological Department said the heavy rains were caused by a western disturbance interacting with the monsoon flow.

Gamed out

28%: That's the goods and services tax (GST) rate that you will need to pay on the entire entry fee as well as the platform fee if you are an online real-money gamer. The GST Council announced the decision after its 50th meeting on Tuesday. Earlier, only the platform fee was taxed under GST. Industry associations and companies argue that this move will not only restrict cash flow, but also diminish players' motivation to participate on legitimate sites, driving them towards illegal offshore betting companies, Mint reported.

Feather in the 'cap'

Last week, the combined market capitalization of BSE-listed companies hit the ₹300-trillion mark. India's stock market has outperformed most large markets over the last three years, a howindialives.com analysis explained. This has raised its share in global market capitalization, breaking into the top five in March 2022 by overtaking the UK. The ranking dropped earlier this year, but has again recovered. India trails only the US, China, Japan and Hong Kong on this measure.

Inflation report

India's retail inflation jumped for the first time in five months to 4.81% in June, up from 4.31% in May on the back of a rise in vegetable prices, data released by the statistics ministry showed. The figure is still in the Reserve Bank of India's tolerance range. However, it exceeded market estimates: a Mint poll of 19 economists had predicted the figure at 4.6%. Chhattisgarh and Delhi reported the lowest state-level inflation, and Tripura and Tamil Nadu the highest.

Incredible feat

415 million: The estimated number of people that India lifted out of poverty between 2005 and 2021, according to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index released by the UN Development Programme. India was one of the 25 countries that halved their multidimensional poverty indices in the period, the others being Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam. The index measures not just poverty but its impact across other dimensions of life such as education, health, and living standards.

Dull start

Tata Consultancy Services reported a 16.8% year-on-year growth in its net profit in the quarter ended June. However, it was 2.8% lower than the preceding quarter. Revenue growth slowed down to 13.5% year-on-year and was almost flat sequentially. In dollar terms, the revenue inched up 0.4% sequentially, the slowest start to a fiscal year since the company went public in 2004. The slowdown can be attributed to the company's inability to generate more business from its largest customers, banks, in the US market, Mint reported.

Chart of the week: Card games

The use of credit cards has picked up in India in recent years, with the outstanding amount owed to credit card issuers reaching ₹2 trillion in April for the first time. This marks a year of massive growth. Yet, credit card ownership in India trails other peer economies, World Bank data shows.