From Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging austerity measures as the West Asia war inflated India’s import bills, to the Centre raising minimum support prices for key kharif crops to ensure food security, retail inflation edging up on rising energy-linked items, the government banning sugar exports to protect domestic supplies, and India among top countries for disaster-related displacements in 2025—here is a compilation of this week’s news in numbers.
Austerity call
As the West Asia war disrupts global supply chains and pushes up India’s import bill, PM Modi has urged citizens to adopt austerity measures to ease pressure on the economy.
In the public address, Modi called on households to avoid non-essential gold purchases, overseas holidays and destination weddings for a year, while urging farmers to reduce fertilizer use by half.
The appeal comes amid mounting stress on India’s external balances, with the rupee weakening and the current account deficit facing renewed pressure.
India remains heavily dependent on imports of crude oil, vegetable oils, fertilizers, gold and silver. Trade data show that India imported over $290 billion worth of these commodities in 2025-26 — nearly 38% of the total import bill of $776 billion.
Farm incentive
Amid heightened global volatility and supply chain concerns stemming from the West Asia war, the Union cabinet this week approved a series of measures aimed at strengthening India’s food security, including higher minimum support prices (MSPs) for key kharif crops.
The government raised MSPs for 14 kharif crops for the 2026-27 marketing season, with the total procurement outlay estimated at ₹2.6 trillion. The hikes were skewed toward pulses and oilseeds as the government seeks to curb food inflation and reduce reliance on imported edible oils and pulses.
Among major revisions, sunflower seed recorded the steepest hike at ₹622 per quintal, followed by cotton at ₹557, niger seed at ₹515 and sesamum at ₹500. Meanwhile, MSP increases for paddy and moong were relatively small at ₹72 and ₹12, respectively.
Creeping costs
India’s retail inflation edged up to 3.5% in April 2026 from 3.4% in March, as rising prices of food, clothing, housing and utilities added to pressures amid elevated global energy prices linked to the West Asia war, government data showed.
Headline inflation, however, remained below the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4%.
Energy-linked consumer price index (CPI) items are increasingly driving the uptick, with kerosene, coal, firewood, stove burners and induction all recording sharper inflation over the past two months.
Eating out has also become costlier as restaurants and cafes absorbed successive hikes in commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
On the other hand, inflation measured by the wholesale price index (WPI) rose to 8.3%, its fastest pace in 42 months, driven by a sharp rise in fuel, crude, petroleum and manufactured product prices.
Numbers talk
60 days: That is India’s available crude oil and natural gas rolling stock amid the ongoing West Asia war, said petroleum minister Hardeep Puri. He, however, added there was no problem on the supply side.
15%: The revised import duty on gold and silver, raised from 6% as the government seeks to curb precious metal imports and ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves. The higher duty could dampen demand in India – the world’s second-largest consumer of precious metals.
10,000 km: The likely highway construction target retained for FY27 as the Centre’s focus on completing delayed projects while attempting to revive private-sector investment in road building through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) route.
₹56,000 crore: The amount state-run NTPC Ltd is considering investing to set up 2.8 gigawatt (GW) of nuclear power generation capacity in Bihar through its subsidiary NTPC Parmanu Urja Nigam Ltd, Mint reported.
₹503.86 crore: The amount cleared by the heavy industries ministry for installing 4,874 public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations under the flagship PM E-Drive scheme. The approvals are part of the broader plan to set up more than 72,000 EV chargers across the country.
Sugar sanction
The Centre has banned sugar exports until 30 September 2026 to cool domestic prices, marking one of the strictest trade restrictions in years as production is projected to trail consumption for a second consecutive year amid weakening cane yield in key growing regions, Reuters reported.
India first imposed restrictions on sugar exports in May 2022, introducing shipment caps to safeguard domestic supplies, even as exports climbed to a record $5.8 billion in 2022-23. Restrictions tightened further from 2023-24, pulling exports down to $2.8 billion, less than half the 2022-23 level, before easing to around $2.1-2.2 billion in subsequent years.
Displacement crisis
India was among the top 10 most-affected countries reporting high levels of disaster-linked internal displacements in 2025, underscoring the growing human cost of extreme weather events, according to the Geneva-based non-governmental organization (NGO), Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s latest 2026 report. India recorded 672,000 new disaster displacements during the year.
The report noted that disaster displacements across South Asia fell sharply from a year earlier after a milder monsoon season with fewer cyclones and floods. Despite the decline, the region continued to face significant exposure to weather-related hazards and recurring climate shocks.
The report also highlighted conflict-linked displacement, including 125,000 displacements near the Line of Control (LoC) during India-Pakistan tensions last year and 78,000 people still displaced in Manipur following ethnic violence.