Explanation:

• Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited (ICRA India) has revised its real GDP growth forecast for India for Financial Year 2022 . Its GDP forecast has changed from 8.5% to 9 per cent. ICRA is Gurgaon based credit rating agency, owned by Moody’s Corporation.
• ICRA has revisied GDP to the brightening prospects for second quarter of FY22 which is expected to benefit as a result of rapid Covid-19 vaccine administration, healthy advance estimates of kharif output as well as easing of cash management measures related to the spending of Central government.
• A ramp-up in COVID-19 vaccination, healthy advance estimates of kharif (summer) crop and faster government spending were the factors which led to the revision, the agency said in a statement.
• It can be noted that after the 7.3 per cent contraction in 2020-21, there were expectations of a higher growth number in 2021-22.However, the second wave of COVID-19 infections early into the fiscal year, which spread even in the hinterland, made analysts more circumspect. The RBI expects the economy to grow at 9.5 per cent.
• The widening coverage of COVID-19 vaccines is likely to boost confidence, which will in turn re-energise demand for contact-intensive services, helping to revive the portions of the economy affected most by the pandemic, its chief economist Aditi Nayar said.
• The robust kharif harvest is likely to sustain the consumption demand from the farm sector while the expected acceleration in the central government spending after the withdrawal of the earlier cash management guidelines will recharge this key driver of aggregate demand, she added.
• ICRA Founded: 16 January 1991.
• ICRA CEO: N. Sivaraman.