GDP growth slows down Auto drivers’ strike a blow to 7.1%, but there’s hope for commuters in suburbs

WHAT TO EXPECT Monsoon and upcoming festive season may provide boost

India’s economy grew 7.1% during April to June, the slowest in 15 months, but a pick up is likely in the next few months riding on good rains, a pay bonanza for government employees and festive-season buying.

The slowdown could also be partly because of a high base effect — a statistical phenomenon that magnifies small changes, although the real fall may not be very large.

Growth of real or inflationadjusted gross domestic product (GDP) — the value of all goods and services produced in the country — moderated from 7.9% in January to March and from 7.5% in April-June 2015, national income data released on Wednesday showed.

Despite the slowdown, India remains the world’s fastestgrowing major economy, ahead of 6.7% growth in China that is battling an industrial deceleration.

The manufacturing sector grew 9.1% during the quarter from 7.3% in the same quarter of the previous year and 9.3% in January to March.

Growth in the construction sector slowed to 1.5% in April-June from 5.6% in the same period of 2015 and 4.5% in January to March 2016.

Abheek Barua, chief economist, HDFC Bank, said, “While an unfavourable base effect is at play, there is a likely slowdown in services sector activity, which alone explains more than half of the moderation in overall growth.”

The latest data came on a day the government eased dispute settlement rules, which will make more funds available and speed up stalled construction and realty projects.

Commuters in the suburbs struggled on Wednesday as a majority of autorickshaws were off the roads because of a strike called by the Mumbai Autorickshawmen’s Union. The union’s primary demand: Regulation of app-based cabs such as Ola and Uber. No other taxi or autorickshaw union supported the strike.

After suburban trains and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) buses, autorickshaws are the third-largest mode of public transport in the financial Commuters struggle to get in a BEST bus outside Kurla station (West) on Wednesday.

capital of the country. So after more than 80,000 autorickshaws went off the roads, commuters were left in the lurch and had to opt for other options like BEST

buses, black-and-yellow cabs, Ola and Uber cabs and private vehicles.