A Current Event session was conducted by A section of IIBS MBA (Mysore University) under Prof. Samiya Mubeen with technical help from Rahul Parashar on 9th Nov, 2017. This session aimed to increase awareness of digital news (e-newspapers). A few students came forward to talk about the given topic.
The first student to speak was Saurabh Sudhakar Rao. He talked about demonetization. As it was the first year since the demonetisation initiative, a short report was presented on its impact so far. Post-demonetisation the real estate sector saw a drop in prices by up to 5-10 percent, according to data shared by the housing and urban affairs ministry. In fact, there could be further price correction and the ministry is optimistic most of the non-serious and fly-by-night players will vanish soon, housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Next came Himanshu Shrivastav who talked about the recent changes in the GST rates. Tax rates on over 200 items were slashed. The massive pruning was done in the 28% slab which will now be imposed on just 50 items from 227 earlier. Many of the items and services which were earlier taxed at 28% will now attract the tax of 18% only, while a uniform 5% tax was prescribed for all restaurants both air-conditioned and nonairconditioned as announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
After Himanshu came Waseem Khan who talked about the article “Oil turns from Modi’s blessing to burden threatening economy”.The article talks about how Modi’s first term as leader of the world’s fastest-growing oil market coincided with the biggest price crash in a generation. Crude’s rebound into a bull market is set to test the Indian Prime Minister as he gears up for re-election in 2019. A 33% jump in a global benchmark crude since June has lifted oil to $65 a barrel. If it hits and stays at that level in the year through March inflation could rise by 30 basis points and the key major of growth may weaken by 15 basis points the central bank estimates.
Lastly, Abu came forward to speak about how the Agriculture sector’s contribution to the GDP increased. Union Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the role of agriculture sector in GDP has increased by 2% and now the efforts will have to be made to further enhance it. Initiatives are being taken to double the income of farmers by the year 2022.
By the end of the session, we felt that our knowledge was increased in a meaningful way. We learned much new information which may prove to be useful in our future management careers.
