GDP gaps

India's 8.2% GDP growth in the July-September quarter surprised everyone as expectations ranged from 7% to 7.7%. However, coming against the backdrop of a 'C' rating given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the data quality of the national accounts, the figure led to further confusion.

Experts have always raised questions about some of the issues in GDP data, such as high discrepancies and a lack of transparency over deflators, among others. In Q2 as well, high discrepancies—the mismatch in estimates between production and expenditure approaches—were witnessed, a Mint analysis showed. Nearly half of the growth came from this. The good thing is that the statistics ministry will release a new series in February 2026, which may address many of these issues.

Revenue sacrifice

After the lower GST tax rates kicked in from 22 September, India finally witnessed its full revenue impact in the November collection figures, which is for sales made in October. The gross GST mop-up was up only 0.7% year-on-year in November after removing the compensation cess component, which has largely been withdrawn now. Including this, collections actually declined 4%.

While the decline in collections was expected, a consumption boost due to lower rates may help offset the losses over time. According to government officials, the taxable value of supplies covered under the GST grew 15% in September-October, compared to 8.6% a year ago, indicating a pick-up in consumption, Mint reported.

H1-B hope

Amid US' tightening immigration policies, a new bill has brought hope for migrants, including those from India. Democrat lawmaker Raja Krishnamoorthi has reintroduced the High-Skilled Immigration Reform for Employment (HIRE) Act in the US' House of Representatives that aims at raising the cap on H-1B visa from 65,000 to 1,30,000.

This comes days after US President Donald Trump remarked that the country needs skilled workers from abroad, but at the same time vowed to freeze migration from third-world countries.

The new bill, if passed, may prove beneficial for Indians as they account for more than 70% of H-1B visa approvals. Moreover, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is among the companies with higher H-1B petitions.

Numbers talk

₹41,455 crore: The amount of net extra spending for which the government has sought Parliament's approval in the current financial year to meet administrative and subsidy obligations. This is unlikely to impact the fiscal deficit aim of ₹15.69 trillion due to some savings under other heads.

Below 90: The rupee this week finally breached the psychological mark of 90 as foreign investors continued to flee India, while impasse over the trade deal with the US and high trade deficit in recent months soured sentiments.

₹852 crore: The amount for which investment firm Xander Group Inc. has sold an office building in Bengaluru's Embassy Golf Links business park to Embassy Office Parks Reit, Mint reported. Embassy Reit is India's first publicly listed Reit and the largest office Reit in Asia.

₹227 crore: The amount for which Tata Communications has acquired 51% stake in Commotion Inc., a leading AI-native enterprise SaaS platform with operations in US and India. Tata Communications expects the acquisition to strengthen its customer interaction suite portfolio by integrating agentic AI and orchestration capabilities.

$2 billion: The value of the investment Nvidia Corp. has made into Synopsys Inc. stocks as part of a broader engineering and design tie-up, the latest massive investment by the chipmaker into one of its own suppliers. It represents 2.6% of Synopsys' total outstanding shares.

FDI inflows

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in equity grew 19.7% year-on-year to $36.2 billion in the April-September period of FY26, the data showed. A significant boost came from FDI flows from the US during the period despite the tariff frictions. Inflows of FDI from the US reached $6.6 billion in the same period, rising 157% from the same period last year.

US inflows even surpassed the full-year figures of the past three fiscals. FDI inflows from the world's largest economy were $6 billion in FY23, $5 billion in FY24, and $5.5 billion in FY25. Accounting for 18% of India's FDI inflows, the US was the second largest contributor to India's equity FDI, behind Singapore.

Production pause

After recording decent growth in the past two months in anticipation of festive demand, industrial production slowed to a 14-month low of 0.4% in October, data from the statistics ministry showed. Industrial output was far lower than the 4.6% growth in the previous month and 3.7% growth recorded a year ago.

Manufacturing, which accounts for 78% of the index of industrial production, grew 1.8% year-on-year in October, down from 5.6% in September. Mining output contracted to 1.8% year-on-year in October, compared with a 0.4% contraction in September. Electricity generation slipped into the negative territory in October, registering a 6.9% drop against a 3.1% growth in September.