- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a pipeline of road projects worth Rs 19.63 trillion. The new pipeline comprises 39% projects each of the Centre and states, and 22% of the private sector.
- Until FY25, the expected investment in the Railways sector comes to around Rs 13.7 trillion, of which 87% is likely to be contributed by the Centre government. The share of the private sector is as low as 12% and that of states is only 1%.
- The Centre unveiled the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) with projects worth ₹102-lakh crore. It aims to ensure timely implementation of these projects, spread across 18 States and Union Territories, over the next five years.
- India will struggle to achieve 5% GDP growth in 2020 as the significant deceleration in past few quarters was largely owing to credit squeeze which is a cyclical problem, not a structural problem said American economist Steve Hanke.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office has proposed waiving a tax on coal to help finance pollution-curbing equipment, according to documents, but the move would also make coal more competitive in price with solar and wind energy.
- Modi’s office has proposed waiving the carbon tax of 400 rupees ($5.61) per tonne that was levied on the production and import of coal, according to the documents.
- NITI Aayog released the second edition of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index which comprehensively documents the progress made by states and union territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.