Raking it in.

"Factory activity in India picked up last month, bolstered by a solid increase in demand," as "International demand also jumped robustly to a 9-month high after contracting in March and domestic demand was above average. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) compiled by S&P Global, improved to 54.7 in April from 54.0 in March." "Demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) saw an 11.1% dip year-on-year (YoY) in April, suggesting reduced dependence on the Centre's flagship rural jobs scheme for livelihood," ET. Household demand fell to 23.2 million this April from 26.1 million in April 2021. This is a great relief for the government because it spent Rs 1.09 trillion on the scheme against an allocation of Rs 616 billion in the budget in 2020-21, and Rs 982.47 billion in 2021-22 against an allocation of Rs 730 billion. As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) rural unemployment fell from 8.35% in February to 7.18% in April, while urban unemployment increased from 7.55% to 9.22% in the same period. India's gold demand "in the first quarter of 2022 was down by 18 per cent to 135.5 tonnes," contrary to global demand which went up by 203% YoY to 550.7 tonnes, while the global demand for the whole year went up by 34% to 1,234 tonnes as a hedge against inflation, BS. This saves precious foreign exchange reserves which fell by $3.271 billion to $600.423 billion in the week ended 22 April, RBI said.   "Pharma exports have touched Rs 1,83,422 crore (Rs 1.824 trillion) in 2021-22 against Rs 90,415 crore ( Rs 904.15 billion) in 2013-14, the Commerce Ministry said," ET. The top five export destinations are the US, UK, South Africa, Russia and Nigeria. However, "The core sector growth moderated to 4.3% in March 2022 compared to 6% in February 2022 as five out of eight sectors witnessed a slowdown during the month, according to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)," TNIE. "The Indian economy may take more than a decade to overcome the losses emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)," The Wire. "The report has estimated the output losses during the pandemic period at around Rs 52 lakh crore (Rs 52 trillion)." "With the rising cost of vehicles due to various factors, including new regulations, high taxes and rise in commodity prices making entry level cars more expensive," for customers wishing to upgrade from two-wheelers to cars, moneycontrol. The government is thinking of reducing cess, which is a tax on taxes, on imported palm oil to reduce the rise in prices of cooking oil, Mint. Jet fuel prices were hiked by 3.22% - the ninth increase this year - to a record level, ET. GST collections soared to a record Rs 1.68 trillion in April, ET. The economy may take a decade but the government isn't waiting. Wring taxes out. Whatever it takes.