The week in charts: New RBI guv, ₹100 trillion infra plan, rising coffee prices

Mint Street has a new leader, who has his task cut out on restoring the inflation-growth balance; the government has ambitious goals for an infrastructure overhaul over the next five years; and coffee prices have risen sharply in the past few months.

Sanjay Malhotra takes over at RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has a new governor – former revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra – marking the end of Shaktikanta Das's six-year tenure. The new governor joins under difficult circumstances, with high inflationary pressure and a slowdown in growth. Malhotra, a career bureaucrat like Das, is widely expected to deliver a rate cut in February. Das’s tenure saw both sharp rate hikes and cuts, and he received praised for his balancing act during the volatile covid and post-covid years. Malhotra will be expected to strike a similarly delicate balance between inflation and growth.

E-way bills at five-month low

The generation of e-way bills, which are required for the shipment of goods within and across states, slowed to a five-month low of 101.8 million in November. E-way bills are a key indicator of goods and services tax (GST) collections, but this does not indicate a slowdown in economic activity. On a year-on-year basis, e-way bill generation rose 16.3%, in line with the general trend. In October, a record 117.2 million e-way bills were generated, mainly due to the festive season. The numbers have normalised since then.

Also read | Inflation likely eased to 5.5% in November: Mint poll

Infra overhaul

₹100 trillion: That's how much the government plan to spend for a massive infrastructure overhaul over the next five years, Mint reported. Key components of the ambitious plan include a ₹20 trillion expressway network, ₹2 trillion for port development, and ₹10-12 trillion for railway upgrades. The goal is to enhance connectivity, reduce logistics costs and boost economic growth. This initiative builds on the momentum of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), which aims for ₹111 trillion in investments between 2020 and 2025.

Brics boost

India is looking to boost trade with Brics nations by extending customs privileges to trusted merchants from these countries, Mint reported. The government is working on mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) with South Africa, Brazil, and potentially China. Once implemented, these agreements will speed up customs clearances, reduce inspections, and offer other benefits for Indian and Brics exporters. India already has an MRA with Brics partner Russia and other countries including South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US.

Market yo-yo

It has been a year of mixed fortunes for the Indian stock market. After a strong start, the market experienced a significant correction owing to concerns about overvaluation, Mint’s year-end review showed. The Nifty 50 posted positive returns in 2024 but fell short of its robust double-digit gains in previous years. With foreign investors being net sellers, domestic retail investors stepped up their participation. Real estate and pharmaceuticals have outperformed, while sectors like media and FMCG have lagged. With geopolitical tensions and domestic challenges posing risks, the outlook for markets remains uncertain.

Also read | The great unknown: how a Trump presidency could affect the world, in five charts

Blackstone's gem of a year

$3 billion: That how much private equity firm Blackstone has made through exits in 2024, which makes this one of its most profitable years out of India, according to a Mint analysis. The company raked in over ₹4,050 crore from the IPO of International Gemological Institute (IGI), in which it holds a 100% stake, earlier this week. Other prominent exits include selling a 15% stake in Mphasis for ₹6,700 crore in June and offloading a portion of its holding in Aadhar Housing Finance during its IPO in May.

AI companies hungry for data

Artificial intelligence companies are hungrier than ever for more data as they race against time to build competitive models. After being trained on massive datasets, some of these models have even outperformed humans in tasks such as reading, writing, predictive reasoning, and image recognition, a Mint analysis showed. The need for more data has sparked copyright wars between companies and publishers, while the companies are looking to gain access to more human-generated data to train AI models beyond 2026.

Also read: Why the increase in farm worker population is a worry

Chart of the week: Bitter coffee

Your morning cup of coffee is getting more expensive by the day. The price of Arabica beans – which account for most of the world's coffee – topped $6.7 a kg. The surge is mainly due to adverse weather in Brazil and Vietnam, two of the largest coffee producers.

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