Mumbai: India is witnessing broad-based economic growth with companies increasing capital expenditure as capacity utilisation levels rise, FICCI President and RPG Group Vice Chairman Anant Goenka said on Tuesday, adding that strong momentum in sectors such as automobiles is creating positive spillover effects across the entire value chain.
Speaking on the sidelines of the FICCI FRAMES event here, Goenka said businesses are becoming increasingly confident about expanding investments as demand conditions improve across industries.
“We do see overall broad-based growth. We see increased capex across the board now, as utilisation levels are going up,” he said.
“Of course, certain sectors like automotive have seen substantially higher growth, and therefore, the entire value chain gets positively affected,” he added.
At the same time, Goenka cautioned that businesses continue to face pressure on profit margins due to rising commodity prices. He said while companies are passing on some of the higher costs to consumers, there is usually a lag before the impact is fully reflected in prices.
“Margin pressure will continue until commodity prices stabilise,” he said, pointing to the sharp rise in crude oil prices. According to Goenka, crude oil, which was around $90 per barrel, has climbed to about $100 per barrel or higher, adding to input cost pressures across industries.
Commenting on the media and entertainment sector, Goenka described FICCI FRAMES as one of the industry’s most significant platforms, noting that the event has completed 26 years.
“We think FRAMES is an iconic property that we have. It has been 26 years of running FRAMES. Especially in today’s time, there is so much change with respect to how media is viewed, how it is transmitted, multiple screens, shorter attention spans, artificial intelligence, and synthetic data coming in,” he stated.
“So, all of that converging today, it is a point of dramatic flux and change. So, FRAMES is somewhere where all these creators and users can all come together and see how the future of the media industry will unfold,” Goenka added.
(IANS)
