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<ul><li>Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the <keyword id="20613906" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-survey" source="keywords">Economic Survey</keyword> 2023-2024 in the Lok Sabha on Monday.</li><li>The Union Budget 2024 is scheduled to be tabled on Tuesday, July 23.</li><li> <keyword id="19935818" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="industries" source="keywords">Industries</keyword> grew by 9.5% in FY24 as per the <keyword id="19967933" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Economic-Survey-2024" source="Orion">Economic Survey 2024</keyword>.</li></ul> Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday tabled the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2024-live-news-top-things-every-indian-should-know-about-the-economic-survey-2023-24/articleshow/111918064.cms">Economic Survey</a> 2023-2024 in the Lok Sabha, a day ahead of the Budget being tabled. The upcoming budget will be the first budget in the third term of the Narendra Modi-led government. As per the Economic Survey, India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.2% in FY24, while <keyword id="19948494" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-economic-growth" source="keywords">global economic growth</keyword> was at 3.2% in 2023. <h2>What is an Economic Survey?</h2>The Economic Survey is a is a report card on the economy and presents the growth outlook of the country. It is prepared by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111918064" title="Economic Survey 2024: GDP grew by 8.2%, to sustain 7%+ growth momentum, fiscal deficit down to 6.4% of GDP" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> It provides statistical information and analyses the various sectors of the economy, economic growth, employment, inflation and more. <h2>Industries grow by 9.5%</h2>As per the report, the economic growth of 8.2% was fueled by an industrial growth of 9.5%. The manufacturing and construction sector nearly doubled, while other sectors also reported growth. The manufacturing sector has achieved an average annual growth rate of 5.2% in the last decade. Chemicals, wood products and furniture, transport equipment, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and equipment have emerged as the key drivers of the sector. From an importer, India has emerged as a net exporter of finished steel products in the last decade and the industry has achieved its best-ever numbers in FY24. Another area where imports have been reigned is coal. Coal production in India has rapidly grown over the last five years, reducing import dependence. In FY24, India produced 997.2 million tonnes of coal, imported 261 million tonnes, and consumed 1233.86 million tonnes. The export of textiles and apparel increased by 1% in FY24, reaching ₹2.97 lakh crore. The electronics industry, a key sector has reported good growth in the last decade. While the domestic production of electronic items increased to ₹8.22 lakh crore, the exports increased to ₹1.9 lakh crore. Patents are a key part of an industry’s growth as they show an investment in research and development. The number of granted patents increased seventeen-fold from 5,978 in 2014-15 to 1,03,057 in 2023-24. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2024-live-news-top-things-every-indian-should-know-about-the-economic-survey-2024-25/articleshow/111918064.cms">What is the Economic Survey all about? Top 10 things every Indian should know from the Economic Survey 2023-24</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/webstories/biggest-crypto-hacks-in-the-world-so-far-from-binance-to-ftx/slidelist/111917081.cms">Biggest crypto hacks in the world so far – from Binance to FTX</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2024-expectations-fame-scheme-aid-for-vehicle-scrapping-and-other-expectations-of-the-auto-industry/articleshow/111783199.cms">Budget 2024 Expectations: FAME scheme, aid for vehicle scrapping and other expectations of the auto industry</a>

Economic Survey 2024 – industries grow by 9.5%, fueling economic growth to 8.2%

<ul><li>34.7 crore <keyword id="20290357" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ayushmann-bharat" source="keywords">Ayushmann Bharat</keyword> cards generated </li><li>Avg growth of the manufacturing sector at 5% over last decade</li><li>Reduction in dependence on non-institutional credit </li></ul> The <keyword id="6354872" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="economic-survey" source="Orion">Economic Survey</keyword> 2023-24 noted that the country's energy requirements are set to burgeon by 2-2.5x by 2027, underlining the need for energy efficiency and seamlessly transitioning to clean energy solutions. By means of sovereign green bonds, the government managed to raise Rs 16,000 crore between January-February 2023, alongside an additional Rs 20,000 crore between October and December 2023. As for social security, Ayushmann Bharat, of which over 34.7 crore cards have been generated, has saved over Rs 1.25 lakh crore of OPD expenses of the poor and under-privileged families. The country's labor market has also seen solid improvement, with unemployment rates declining to 3.2% in 2022-23. The net payroll additions under Employee Provident Fund Organization has also doubled over the past 5 years, signaling a healthy growth in formal employment. As per the survey, care economy and agro-processing are the two key areas where there is untapped potential for boosting quality employment, and increasing women participation in the labor force. The agriculture sector has registered an average annual growth of 4.18% over the last 5 years, with the sector growing about 1.4% during 2023-24, as per provisional estimates. To provide further fillip to the sector, the government has been focused on reducing the sector's dependence on non-institutional, informal credit. As a result, its share has come down from 90% in 1950, to just 23.4% in 2021-22. However, as the survey observed, the country's agricultural growth policies should be consistent with climate change and water security practises. <h2>Thrust on MSMEs, manufacturing and clean energy</h2>Over the last decade, the manufacturing sector managed to mark an average annual growth rate of 5.2%, majorly driven by chemicals, wood products and furniture, transport equipment, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and equipment. <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="keywords">India</keyword> also emerged as a net exporter of finished steel over the last 10 years, and was a significant producer and consumer of the same during FY24. India's indigenous coal production also jumped up, with India actively working to reduce its import dependence. In FY 24, India producued 997.2 million tonnes of coal, imported 261 million tonnes, and consumed 1233.86 million tonnes. India's pharma market, valued at $50 billion, is the 3rd largest in the world, and India ranks prominently amongst clothing manufacturing nations as well. As of FY24, it is the second largest manufacturer, and one of the top 5 exporting nations of clothing, with the export of textiles and apparel, including handicrafts increasing by 1% to reach Rs 2.97 lakh crore. A similar growth was witnessed in India's electronics manufacturing segment, making up for 3.7% of global market share, with exports rising to Rs 1.9 lakh Crore in FY23. Per the survey, "the PLI schemes for key sectors have attracted significant investments, boosted production, sales and exports and generated jobs, particularly in the case of white goods. Keeping in view India’s vision of becoming ‘Aatmanirbhar’, over Rs 1.28 Lakh Crore of investment was reported until May 2024, which has led to production/sales of Rs 10.8 Lakh Crore and employment generation (direct &amp; indirect) of over Rs 8.5 Lakh under PLI scheme". Focus has also been on boosting research, development, innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. The number of granted patents increased seventeen-fold from 5,978 in 2014-15 to 1,03,057 in 2023-24. More than 45% of the recognised start-ups are emerging from Tier 2/3 cities. The country's services sector contributed to about 55% of the total size of the economy in FY24. The clean energy sector in the country also saw new investment of Rs 8.5 lakh crore between 2014 and 2023. India is prominently making a mark in space, with 55 active space assets, out of which 18 are communication satellites, nine navigation satellites, five scientific satellites, three Meteorological Satellites, and 20 are Earth Observation satellites.

Economic Survey shows India's energy needs to grow 2.5x, healthy growth in formal employment

Did you know that your high-speed <keyword id="6357247" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Internet" source="Orion">internet</keyword> might be making you a bit, well… sluggish? According to new research, faster internet connections could actually be helping to drive up <keyword id="6364492" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Obesity" source="Orion">obesity</keyword> rates in Australia. The study examined years of data from the Household, Income, and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, tracking the expansion of high-speed internet across the country from 2006 to 2019. The result? The faster the internet, the more likely people are to gain weight. <h3 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:14.0pt;margin-bottom:4.0pt;">Fast internet changing daily habits</h3>According to Dr. Klaus Ackermann from Monash Business School, the connection between fast internet and weight gain has to do with “sedentary behavior.” He explains, “Access to high-speed internet connection decreases the likelihood of individuals meeting the minimum physical activity recommendation proposed by the WHO. That is, individuals become more inactive and exhibit more sedentary behaviour.” Basically, with high-speed internet, we’re more likely to spend hours watching streaming shows or playing online games. And, as Dr. Ackermann says, “Sedentary behavior is induced by the need to stay connected online for longer hours, which leads to lower metabolic rates and contributes to obesity.” And that’s not all — the more we’re sitting around, the more we’re likely to snack. “This problem is elevated by the need to frequently consume snacks during computer usage, which increases the daily intake of calories that contribute to obesity,” Ackermann points out. <h3 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:14.0pt;margin-bottom:4.0pt;">A growing (and costly) problem</h3>Beyond individual health, Australia’s obesity crisis is also creating a big economic issue. Obesity cost the country $11.8 billion in 2018, and that number is projected to reach an astonishing $87.7 billion by 2032. According to the study, a mere 1% increase in National Broadband Network adoption is linked with a jump in <keyword id="20107050" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Body-Mass-Index" source="keywords">Body Mass Index</keyword> (BMI) of 1.57 kg/m² and a 6.6% increase in the prevalence of obesity. In simple terms, fast internet is allowing people to live slower lives—lives that involve a lot more sitting and a lot less moving. <h3 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:14.0pt;margin-bottom:4.0pt;">Breaking the cycle</h3>So, what’s the solution? Dr. Ackermann suggests that we might need <keyword id="21876118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="public-health-campaigns" source="keywords">public health campaigns</keyword> to remind people of the risks that come with endless screen time. “One avenue of suggestion could be creating awareness of the potential increase in <keyword id="23729054" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sedentary-behavior" source="keywords">sedentary behavior</keyword> with internet access; this could motivate people to take breaks between screen time to reduce sedentary behavior and engage in physical activity to promote a healthier lifestyle,” he says. He adds that encouraging people to take breaks and do more physical activities might be key. “Such public health campaigns could encourage the need to physically engage in errands, if possible, as opposed to strictly accessing goods and services online,” Ackermann advises. High-speed internet may be part of modern life, but maybe it’s worth taking a step back now and then to get off the couch. As Dr. Ackermann puts it, “Public health campaigns that encourage short but vigorous physical activity… could be useful for individuals with busy lifestyles who may only have limited time.” The findings of this research have been published in Economics &amp; Human Biology.

The faster your internet, the more likely you are to be obese, a study has found

New Delhi [India], May 20 (ANI): A recent Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) Australia survey has revealed an overwhelming optimism among <keyword id="21735155" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-small-businesses" source="keywords">Indian small businesses</keyword>, with 84 per cent anticipating continued growth in 2024, significantly surpassing the market average of 70 per cent. Despite global <keyword id="20413867" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-uncertainties" source="keywords">economic uncertainties</keyword>, 80 per cent of Indian respondents remain confident about the local economy's prospects for 2024, well above the survey average of 65 per cent. This buoyant outlook has been on an upward trajectory since 2022, highlighting the resilience and dynamism of India's small business sector. <keyword id="21735156" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CPA-Australia-survey" source="keywords">CPA Australia survey</keyword> showed a rise in the growth rate of Indian <keyword id="390673" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="small-businesses" source="Orion">small businesses</keyword> from 73 per cent in 2022 to 77 per cent in 2023--the highest since 2019. Indian small businesses are riding a wave of optimism and growth, according to <keyword id="21735157" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CPA-Australia" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="CPA Australia" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="CPA Australia">CPA Australia</keyword>'s latest annual Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey. The survey reveals that over three-quarters of Indian small businesses reported growth in 2023, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and making India's small business sector one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing in the Asia-Pacific region. Prafulla Chhajed, a CPA member of CPA Australia in India, emphasized the critical role of Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (<keyword id="19910977" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="MSMEs" source="keywords">MSMEs</keyword>) in driving India's economic success. Chhajed said, "Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are making a significant contribution to India's economic success. Not only is India's rapid economic growth and improving business environment boosting their confidence, support from the government ranging from digitalisation to access to funds, is assisting businesses to recover from the pandemic." He further said, "India's small businesses are enthusiastically improving their performance through innovation, adopting technologies, and building connections with overseas markets. 'Good staff' was nominated as the top positive factor that benefited India small business performance in 2023. It explains why Indian respondents have been so willing to add new employees over the past two years". "This year the pace in jobs creation by small businesses is expected to slow, although remain high in comparison to other markets. This is most likely due to a combination of factors including increasing levels of automation and rising labour costs," he added. However, Chhajed cautioned that the pace of job creation might slow down due to rising automation and labor costs, though it will still remain high compared to other markets. The survey highlighted several challenges faced by Indian small businesses, including increasing costs, competition, and cashflow difficulties. Staff and material costs were particularly detrimental in 2023, rising slightly from the previous year. To cope with these expenses and support growth, 68 per cent of small businesses sought external funding last year, though this figure dropped 20 percentage points from 2022. This year, 81 per cent plan to seek finance, despite tougher financing conditions. Only 42 per cent of respondents found it easy to secure funds in 2023, a sharp decline from 69 per cent in 2022. This trend is expected to continue, with just 43 per cent anticipating ease in accessing funds this year, down from 64 per cent previously. "Difficulty in accessing finance is a common challenge for small businesses worldwide. Though government loans like <keyword id="20151906" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pradhan-mantri-mudra-yojana" source="keywords">Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana</keyword> (PMMY) helps to foster entrepreneurship by offering financial support, MSMEs should not solely rely on borrowing to fund their long-term development, particularly in a high-interest rate environment", Chhajed explained. A significant number of Indian small businesses focused on managing costs and cash flow last year. Among the technologies they invested in, accounting software was particularly popular, with 23 per cent adoption. Professional advice was also sought frequently, with 34 per cent consulting accountants and 38 per cent seeking advice from friends and family. "Indian MSMEs are very competitive in many areas such as digitalisation and innovation, now they should focus on cost management and cashflow to increase their financial return. It's wise to use accounting software to control cost and analyse financial performance regularly. Further, financial experts like qualified accountants may provide professional advice to small businesses to manage technical issues like taxation and improve financial performance", Chhajed suggested. Indian small businesses also show a strong inclination towards innovation and global expansion. Leading the 11 surveyed markets, 34 per cent of respondents expect substantial revenue growth from overseas markets this year, significantly higher than the survey average of 19 per cent. Additionally, 44 per cent plan to introduce new products or services, compared to the market average of 29 per cent. Chhajed said, "The Indian government has established good platforms to bolster our MSMEs' global expansion, for example, international trade fairs for MSMEs. He added, "They could leverage these opportunities to connect with overseas customers and promote their novel products globally. Besides, our thriving digital economy also fosters MSMEs' innovation and revolution in the digital era." The survey gathered insights from 4,222 small businesses across 11 Asia-Pacific markets, including 505 respondents from India, providing a comprehensive overview of the region's small business landscape. (ANI)

84% of Indian small businesses anticipate robust growth in 2024: CPA Australia survey

The vulnerable GOP congressman convinced that economic interest voters will save him from the Trump and abortion backlash

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Texas' economy is growing faster than California's as it woos big companies and new residents.</li><li>While California still has the highest GDP in the US, Texas is close behind.</li></ul>California may boast the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-economy-ranks-5th-in-the-world-beating-the-uk-2018-5">top economy</a> in the country, but Texas is close on its heels.Since 2020, big-name companies and hundreds of thousands of residents have ditched California for Texas, and the Lone Star State's economic growth has surpassed that of its coastal counterpart.California's economy, while still on the up and up, has grown "relatively slowly" in recent years, according to an October 2024 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-economy/?utm_source=ppic&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=epub">fact sheet</a> from the Public Policy Institute of California, averaging an uptick of 2.3% annually from 2020 to 2023. That figure is down from a 3.9% average increase in California's gross domestic product in the prior four years, according to the nonprofit research institute.Meanwhile, Texas has seen its GDP grow at a rate of 3.9% since 2020, according to the Public Policy Institute. That figure is even stronger for the fourth quarter of 2023, which saw Texas' GDP grow at an annual rate of 5% — a jump that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/texas-economy-again-expands-faster-than-nation#:~:text=%E2%80%9CTexas%20is%20again%20outpacing%20the,America%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20Governor%20Abbott.">attributed</a> to the state being "the best business climate" in the country.The margins between the behemoths are close and growing closer. California's economy ranks 5th internationally, per the report. Its $3.9 trillion GDP accounts for 14% of the national GDP, according to the report. But Texas isn't far behind, comprising 9% of the country's total economy and coming in eighth internationally, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bea.gov/news/2024/gross-domestic-product-state-and-personal-income-state-4th-quarter-2023-and-preliminary">data</a> released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis earlier this year.California and Texas, which rank first and second in US population, respectively, have both seen their economies grow faster than the nation's overall economy in the last quarter-century. Since 1998, the US economy has increased 75%, while California's has jumped 111%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.But Texas has them both beat with growth of 128% over that same time period, per the fact sheet.<h2 id="9e346c45-d5ad-41de-84b8-ba0fb92f4093">Texas has wooed major money-makers</h2>Texas' speedy financial growth comes as the state has increasingly <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-moving-spacex-x-texas-headquarters-california-law-2024-7">marketed itself as a corporate haven</a> for businesses and an economic refuge for people seeking a more affordable cost of living.Many of the businesses and people who have flocked to Texas come directly from California.A wave of large companies, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-wants-move-spacex-x-headquarters-texas-tesla-california-2024-7">Tesla</a>, Charles Schwab, and Oracle, have ditched The Golden State for Texas in recent years. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-company-headquarters-hq-tesla-chevron-charles-schwab-california-economy-2024-8">Chevron</a>, which had been in California since 1879, is the latest business to leave for Texas after California sued the company last year over fossil fuel risks.Gov. Abbott welcomed Chevron to the state last month with a clear message: "Drill baby drill," he tweeted.Corporate fans of Texas, chief among them billionaire Elon Musk, say the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-to-texas-because-california-regulations-too-tough-on-business-2024-2">state offers lower taxes and less regulation</a>. The Tesla CEO moved the company's HQ from Palo Alto, California, to Austin in 2021.Since then, several major corporations have followed suit. As of 2024, Texas is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-the-number-of-fortune-500-companies-in-each-u-s-state/">home</a> to 52 Fortune 500 companies, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://fortune.com/ranking/fortune500/search/?statename=California">Fortune</a>.While California still has Texas beat with 55 Fortune 500 companies based in the state, including tech giants like Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Nvidia, the state's lead is growing ever thinner. According to CBRE, a global real estate company that itself moved from California to Texas in 2020, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cbre.com/insights/local-response/the-shifting-landscape-of-headquarters-change-among-the-fortune-500">found</a> that eight Fortune 500 companies left California from 2018 to 2023, seven of which moved to Texas.<h2 id="baf0885e-765f-4f23-b1e6-69005786fc91">Some Texas residents are less happy</h2>As Texas' economy soars, some residents are feeling <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-housing-market-home-prices-falling-austin-dallas-moving-trends-2024-10">increasingly fed up and priced out.</a>Hundreds of thousands of Americans <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moved-california-to-texas-will-never-go-back-expensive-2023-5">flocked to Texas</a> in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, many seeking cheaper living and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/conservative-moved-california-to-texas-back-orange-county-dallas-2024-7">pandemic and political freedoms</a>. Between 2021 and 2022, the state gained 668,000 new residents, according to the US Census Bureau <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/geographic-mobility/state-to-state-migration.html">data</a>.During that same period, however, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leaving-texas-political-freedom-property-taxes-housing-costs-2023-11">Texas also lost nearly half a million people</a>, per census data.Some people <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-moved-texas-homeless-want-to-go-back-2024-9">who left California for Texas</a> in recent years ended up returning to the Golden State, telling BI that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/couple-moved-california-texas-back-santa-cruz-rosenberg-2023-11">intense weather</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leaving-texas-political-freedom-property-taxes-housing-costs-2023-11">politics</a> in Texas were too much for them. Others told Business Insider they were dismayed to discover that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moved-california-to-texas-not-cheap-politics-2024-8">cost of living in Texas </a>didn't meet their expectations.In the Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington areas, consumer prices have jumped 25% over the last five years, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUURA316SA0">according</a> to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The state's big cities have primarily been the site of these small-scale exoduses, Business Insider's Jennifer Sor previously reported. Dallas has seen a slight population decline over recent years, losing about 5,000 people from mid-2020 to mid-2023, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-cities-and-towns.html">census data. </a>Meanwhile, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/austin-home-prices-falling-texas-mortgage-rates-housing-crisis-success-2024-9">Austin</a> ranks as the fifth most moved-out-of city in the US year to date, according to a May <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pods.com/blog/moving-trends">analysis</a> from moving firm PODS.Texas realtors also told BI that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-prices-falling-florida-texas-us-housing-market-pandemic-boomtowns-2024-10">housing market has cooled</a> amid less demand. Median home prices, meanwhile, have fallen about 7% from the mid-2022 highs, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.redfin.com/state/Texas/housing-market">data</a> from Redfin previously <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-housing-market-home-prices-falling-austin-dallas-moving-trends-2024-10">cited</a> by BI.

California's economic growth is slipping behind Texas as the Lone Star state draws corporate HQs and people 

Anyone following the rhetoric around <keyword id="107950" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Artificial-Intelligence" source="Orion">artificial intelligence</keyword> in recent years has heard one version or another of the cl<keyword id="6355999" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI" source="Orion">ai</keyword>m that AI is inevitable. Common themes are that AI is already here and indispensable, and people who are bearish on it harm themselves. In the business world, AI advocates tell companies and workers that they will fall behind if they fail to integrate generative AI into their operations. In the sciences, AI advocates promise that AI will aid in curing hitherto intractable diseases. In higher education, AI promoters admonish teachers that students must learn how to use AI or risk becoming uncompetitive when it comes time to find a job. In national security, AI's champions say that either the nation invests heavily in AI weaponry, or it will be at a disadvantage against the Chinese and Russians, who are already doing so. The argument across these different domains is essentially the same: The time for AI skepticism has come and gone. The <keyword id="6355118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology" source="Orion">technology</keyword> will shape the future, whether you like it or not. You have the choice to learn how to use it or be left out of that future. Anyone trying to stand in the technology's way is as hopeless as the manual weavers who resisted the mechanical looms in the early 19th century. In the past few years, my colleagues and I (Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass Boston) have been studying the ethical questions raised by the widespread adoption of AI, and I believe the inevitability argument is misleading. <h2>History and hindsight</h2> This claim is the most recent version of a deterministic view of technological development. It's the belief that innovations are unstoppable once people start working on them. In other words, some genies don't go back in their bottles. The best you can do is harness them for your good purposes. This deterministic approach to tech has a long history. It's been applied to the influence of the printing press as well as to the rise of automobiles and the infrastructure they require, among other developments. But I believe that when it comes to AI, the technological determinism argument is both exaggerated and oversimplified. <h2>AI in the field(s)</h2> Consider the contention that businesses can't afford to stay out of the AI game. The case has yet to be made that AI is delivering significant productivity gains to the firms that use it. A report in The <keyword id="20856675" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economist" source="keywords">Economist</keyword> in July 2024 suggests that so far, the technology has had almost no economic impact. AI's role in higher education is also still very much an open question. Though universities have, in the past two years, invested heavily in AI-related initiatives, evidence suggests they may have jumped the gun. The technology can serve as an interesting pedagogical tool. For example, creating a Plato chatbot that lets students have a text conversation with a bot posing as Plato is a cool gimmick. However, AI is already starting to displace some of the best tools teachers have for assessment and for developing critical thinking, such as writing assignments. The college essay is going the way of the dinosaurs as more teachers give up on the ability to tell whether their students are writing their papers themselves. What's the cost-benefit argument for giving up on writing, an important and useful traditional skill? In the sciences and medicine, the use of AI seems promising. Its role in understanding the structure of proteins, for example, will likely be significant for curing diseases. The technology is also transforming medical imaging and has been helpful in accelerating the drug discovery process. But the excitement can become exaggerated. AI-based predictions about which cases of COVID-19 would become severe have roundly failed, and doctors rely excessively on the technology's diagnostic ability, often against their own better clinical judgment. And so, even in this area, where the potential is great, AI's ultimate impact is unclear. In national security, the argument for investing in AI development is compelling. Since the stakes can be high, the argument that if the Chinese and the Russians are developing AI-driven autonomous weapons, the United States can't afford to fall behind has real purchase. But a complete surrender to this form of reasoning, though tempting, is likely to lead the <keyword id="19899807" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="u-s-" source="keywords">U.S.</keyword> to overlook the disproportionate impact of these systems on nations that are too poor to participate in the AI arms race. The major powers could deploy the technology in conflicts in these nations. And, just as significantly, this argument de-emphasizes the possibility of collaborating with adversaries on limiting military AI systems, favoring arms race over arms control.<h2> One step at a time</h2> Surveying the potential significance and risks of AI in these different domains merits some skepticism about the technology. I believe that AI should be adopted piecemeal and with a nuanced approach rather than subject to sweeping claims of inevitability. In developing this careful take, there are two things to keep in mind: -First, companies and entrepreneurs working on artificial intelligence have an obvious interest in the technology being perceived as inevitable and necessary, since they make a living from its adoption. It's important to pay attention to who is making claims of inevitability, and why. -Second, it's worth taking a lesson from recent history. Over the past 15 years, smartphones and the social media apps that run on them have come to be seen as a fact of life - a technology as transformative as it is inevitable. Then data started emerging about the <keyword id="6354774" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mental-health" source="Orion">mental health</keyword> harms they cause teens, especially young girls. School districts across the United States started to ban phones to protect the attention spans and mental health of their students. And some people have reverted to using flip phones as a quality of life change to avoid smartphones. After a long experiment with the mental health of kids, facilitated by claims of technological determinism, Americans changed course. What seemed fixed turned out to be alterable. There is still time to avoid repeating the same mistake with artificial intelligence, which potentially could have larger consequences for society.

Is AI dominance inevitable? A technology ethicist says no, actually

Raising concerns over growing <keyword id="20260846" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="obesity" source="keywords">obesity</keyword> and increase of consumption of highly <keyword id="20490015" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="processed-foods" source="keywords">processed foods</keyword> laden with sugars and fat, the Economic Survey said 54 per cent of the total disease burden in India is due to <keyword id="21833035" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="unhealthy-diets" source="keywords">unhealthy diets</keyword>. Obesity presents a "concerning situation" and <keyword id="19948547" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="preventive-measures" source="keywords">preventive measures</keyword> must be taken to enable citizens to have a <keyword id="20000886" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="healthier-lifestyle" source="keywords">healthier lifestyle</keyword>, it said. "Obesity is emerging as a serious concern among India's adult population," said the Survey, which was tabled on Monday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament. If India needs to "reap the gains of its demographic dividend, it is critical that its population's health parameters transition towards a balanced and diverse diet", it said. Citing a report from the Indian Council for Medical Research, the Economic Survey observed that the rise in consumption of highly processed foods laden with sugars and fat, coupled with reduced physical activity and limited access to diverse foods, exacerbate micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity problems. Estimates show that the adult obesity rate in India has more than tripled, and the rise in children is the steepest in the world for India, behind Vietnam and Namibia, the survey stated, referring to a World Obesity Federation report. The survey further said as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the incidence of obesity is significantly higher in urban India than in rural India. In urban India, it is 29.8 per cent in men versus 19.3 per cent of rural India. The percentage of men facing obesity in the 18-69 age bracket has increased to 22.9 per cent in NFHS-5 from 18.9 per cent in NFHS-4. For women, it has increased from 20.6 per cent (NFHS-4) to 24 per cent (NFHS-5). "Combined with an ageing population in some states, obesity presents a concerning situation. Preventive measures must be taken to enable citizens to have a healthier lifestyle," the survey said. In some states, such as in the NCT (Delhi), the proportion of women with obesity is 41.3 per cent, as against 38 per cent for men. In Tamil Nadu, for men, obesity is 37 per cent and it is 40.4 per cent for women. In Andhra, it is 36.3 per cent for women while for men it is 31.1 per cent. SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/google-pixel-9-pro-fold-to-launch-in-india-on-august-14-alongside-the-pixel-9-series/articleshow/111855704.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/google-pixel-9-pro-fold-to-launch-in-india-on-august-14-alongside-the-pixel-9-series/articleshow/111855704.cms" target="_blank">Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold to launch in India on August 14 alongside the Pixel 9 series</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/webstories/oneplus-nord-4-vs-realme-gt-6t-which-mid-range-phone-should-you-buy-under-35000/slidelist/111803604.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/webstories/oneplus-nord-4-vs-realme-gt-6t-which-mid-range-phone-should-you-buy-under-35000/slidelist/111803604.cms" target="_blank">OnePlus Nord 4 vs Realme GT 6T – which mid-range phone should you buy under ₹35,000?</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/reliance-jio-and-airtel-added-3-45-million-subscribers-in-may-2024-while-vi-lost-nearly-a-million/articleshow/111800758.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/reliance-jio-and-airtel-added-3-45-million-subscribers-in-may-2024-while-vi-lost-nearly-a-million/articleshow/111800758.cms" target="_blank">Reliance Jio and Airtel added 3.45 million subscribers in May 2024, while Vi lost nearly a million</a>

Rising obesity a concern, preventive measures must be taken for healthier lifestyle: Eco Survey

New Delhi [India], June 5 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (<keyword id="19894848" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bjp" source="keywords">BJP</keyword>)-led National Democratic Alliance (<keyword id="19938590" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NDA" source="keywords">NDA</keyword>) secured a majority in the general elections, securing a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This victory indicates continuity in policy, particularly in <keyword id="21785272" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="infrastructure-spending" source="keywords">infrastructure spending</keyword> and boosting domestic manufacturing, which are expected to support robust <keyword id="19900794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-growth" source="keywords">economic growth</keyword>. However, the NDA's slim margin of victory and the BJP's loss of an outright majority in parliament may slow down more extensive economic and fiscal reforms, potentially impeding <keyword id="20101140" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fiscal-consolidation" source="keywords">fiscal consolidation</keyword> efforts. In fiscal 2023-24, India's real GDP accelerated to 8.2 per cent from 7.0 per cent the previous year, driven by significant gains in gross fixed capital formation as the government's infrastructure programs gained momentum, even as private consumption remained subdued. <keyword id="20227907" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Moodys" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Moody's" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Moody's">Moody's</keyword> projects India's economic strength to continue, with an anticipated real <keyword id="19972825" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GDP-growth" source="keywords">GDP growth</keyword> of around 7 per cent over the three-year period from fiscal 2023-24 to 2025-26. This growth is expected to benefit from ongoing infrastructure development and digitalization efforts. Despite this outlook, structural weaknesses pose risks to long-term growth potential. High youth unemployment and low productivity growth in the agriculture sector constrain economic expansion. The agricultural sector's modernization has been stalled by political challenges, as evidenced by the repeal of key reforms in 2021 following widespread farmer protests. Additionally, gains in manufacturing have been uneven, limiting labour force diversification away from agriculture, which still accounts for 40 per cent of total employment. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have declined over the past three years, despite a favourable geopolitical climate amid US-China tensions. This trend suggests persistent constraints within India's investment climate. To address these challenges, further structural reforms and enhanced implementation of existing initiatives, such as the production-linked incentive schemes to promote manufacturing, calibrated liberalisation of cross-border trade, and reconsideration of labour reforms, are necessary. The government's focus on fiscal consolidation is expected to continue, but significant improvements in debt ratios and interest servicing have yet to be realised. Since the trough in fiscal 2020-21, the central government's deficit has likely narrowed for three consecutive years. The interim budget for fiscal 2024-25 projects a deficit of around 5 per cent of GDP, aiming for a 4.5 per cent deficit by fiscal 2025-26. However, India's fiscal consolidation post-pandemic has not outpaced other emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, and its fiscal and debt metrics remain weaker than those of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other Baa-rated peers globally. India's general government debt is projected to stabilise above 80 per cent of GDP over the next three years, compared to 70.5 per cent in fiscal 2018-19. General government interest payments are forecast to fall to around 24 per cent of general government revenue over the next two years, down from over 28 per cent in fiscal 2020-21, but still higher than the pre-pandemic ratio of less than 23 per cent. While increased budgetary allocations for infrastructure indicate an improvement in spending quality, debt servicing remains a significant portion of expenditure, reflecting ongoing constraints on fiscal flexibility. This situation underscores the need for the incoming government to balance fiscal consolidation with growth-supportive measures. The upcoming final budget for the fiscal year ending March 2025 will provide further insights into India's fiscal policy direction through 2029. As the Modi administration embarks on its third term, the focus will likely remain on sustaining economic growth while addressing the persistent <keyword id="21500054" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fiscal-challenges" source="keywords">fiscal challenges</keyword> that hinder India's long-term economic potential.

Modi 3.0 will offer policy continuity, but BJP's loss of outright majority may slow down fiscal reforms: Moody's

As <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> doubles down on local manufacturing of electronics hardware, the country saw an investment of Rs 2,595 crore and production worth Rs 67,275 crore under the Production Linked Incentive (<keyword id="53367" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="pli" source="Orion">PLI</keyword>) scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, of which, 31 per cent or Rs 20,568 crore worth products were exported (till June 2021), the <keyword id="13014635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Economic-Survey-2021-22" source="Orion">Economic Survey 2021-22</keyword> said. The PLI for large-scale electronics manufacturing was notified on April 1, 2020 which provides an incentive of 4 to 6 percent on incremental sales (over base year) to eligible companies involved in mobile phone manufacturing and manufacturing of specified electronic components, including assembly, testing, marking and packaging (<keyword id="2035122" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atmp" source="Orion">ATMP</keyword>) units. According to the Survey, under the PLI scheme for IT hardware (notified on March 3, 2021) the total sales of manufactured goods in the target segment stood at Rs 503 crore, with Rs 16.50 crore investment (as per Q2 FY21). The target segment under the PLI scheme includes laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs and servers. This PLI scheme extends an incentive in the range of 1 to 4 per cent on net incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under the target segment, to eligible companies, for a period of four years. Recently, the government approved an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore ($10 billion) for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem. "The government's intervention to boost this industry has come at a time when the global economy is facing an acute shortage of semiconductors due to severe disruptions in supply chains," said the Survey. The PLI and other schemes to boost semiconductors will not only help domestic companies to overcome the challenges posed by Covid-19 but also assist them to become globally competitive, especially in chip making, it added. Semiconductors are an integral part of modern technology used in automobiles and its components, electronic and medical devices. The government had notified the National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019) scheme to position India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (<keyword id="819123" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="esdm" source="Orion">ESDM</keyword>) by encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/opinion-there-should-be-continued-focus-on-building-urban-infrastructure-and-sustainable-smart-cities/articleshow/89247793.cms">OPINION: There should be continued focus on building urban infrastructure and sustainable smart cities</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/india-climbs-35-ranks-in-global-innovation-index-but-lags-in-patents-economic-survey/articleshow/89247222.cms">India climbs 35 ranks in Global Innovation Index but lags in patents: Economic Survey</a>

India saw production worth ₹67,275 crore under PLI for large-scale electronics, reveals Economic Survey 2021-22

Businesses hate bike lanes. Sure, they reduce pollution, slow the pace of climate change, cut traffic fatalities, and make cities healthier and more pleasant. But they also take away parking spaces, which makes it tougher for shoppers to load up their cars with piles of stuff. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mitt-romney-calls-new-bike-lanes-safety-height-of-stupidity-2023-3">Freaked-out business owners</a> have been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cycling-boom-us-streets-infrastructure-bike-lanes-history-united-states-2020-12">fighting bike lanes</a> coast to coast, in cities from San Diego to Cambridge, Massachusetts. They worry — not unreasonably — that anything that makes it harder for customers to get to their stops will eat into their already precarious margins. “As someone whose family had a small business when I was growing up, I know how invested you get in it,” says Joseph Poirier, a senior researcher at the urban-planning consultancy Nelson Nygaard. “It’s your whole life. Anything you think could threaten that, even if the government and their consultants tell you it’s not going to be a problem, is very scary. It makes sense.”It’s also wrong. Four decades’ worth of research proves it. I know this because I’ve read every study and report I could find that looked specifically at the economics of bike lanes since 1984 — 32 research articles, to be exact. The results show that making <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/road-rage-traffic-deaths-car-crashes-pedestrians-los-angeles-vermont-2024-2">streets friendlier for bikes</a> — and sidewalks friendlier for pedestrians — is actually good for business. The rise of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/e-bike-bicycle-lanes-infrastructure-save-money-fight-climate-change-2023-3">“complete streets” and “road diets,”</a> as urban planners call them, has been a huge boon to businesses in cities. I won’t walk you through every study, because most of them actually use survey data. Do you think bike lanes discourage shopping? How much do you spend when you ride your bike here? Surveys aren’t the most reliable way to look at this question. People lie, they misremember, they get stuff wrong. And anecdotal experience tends to loom too large. One angry customer who complains about <a target="_blank" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0739456X9701700102">not being able to find parking</a> trumps the 10 who rode their bikes to your shop and didn’t say boo.More confoundingly, survey after survey has shown that business owners overestimate <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-parking-spots-in-us-affect-environment-and-affordable-housing-2023-4">how many of their customers drive</a> to their stores, versus walking or biking. In a study of the effects of street improvements on a <a target="_blank" href="https://nacto.org/docs/usdg/yorkblvd_mccormick.pdf">shopping corridor in Los Angeles</a> published in 2012, more than half of the store owners on the bike-laned part of the boulevard thought most of their customers drove. The actual number was 15%.So what we need is financial data. Revenue numbers. Sales taxes. Credit-card receipts. Employment figures. That’s the good stuff. And for methodological rigor, we want to case-match our study areas to similar neighborhoods that didn’t get bike lanes — and to numbers for the city overall, to establish a baseline.That cuts the number of useful studies to just about half a dozen. Here, in brief, is what they tell us.In 2013, a researcher at the University of Washington named Kyle Rowe looked at <a target="_blank" href="https://bikewalkkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bikenomics_v4.pdf">two shopping districts in Seattle</a> that got put on road diets. Rowe compared sales taxes in these “Neighborhood Business Districts” with those in similar districts in the city that didn’t get bike lanes. In one NBD, which replaced car lanes and three parking spots with two bike lanes, sales closely tracked those in the bike-less areas, both in peaks and troughs. Conclusion: Bike lanes did nothing to reduce business. And in the other NBD, which replaced 12 parking spaces with a bike lane, sales quadrupled.Was the spike in business because more cyclists came to shop? Rowe, a careful researcher, declines to make that leap. “It would be logical to assume that more bicyclists were coming to the NBD because of the new facility,” he writes, “but no conclusion can be made to connect mode choice to economic performance.” Still, there’s no mistaking the data: Adding bike lanes certainly didn’t hurt sales — and may have boosted them dramatically.A year later, the New York City Department of Transportation conducted the same kind of study on a larger scale, examining sales-tax data in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/dot-economic-benefits-of-sustainable-streets.pdf">seven retail-heavy neighborhoods</a>. A few were plaza-type hubs; the others were more linear retail corridors. All had been through the kind of extensive changes to pedestrian access, mass transit, traffic calming, landscaping, and bike paths that New York was pushing at the time. The results were striking. Compared with the overall business climate in each borough, sales in the bike-friendly areas soared by 84 percentage points in Brooklyn, 9 percentage points in Manhattan, and 32 percentage points in the Bronx. “Better streets,” the report concludes, “provide benefits to businesses in all types of neighborhoods,” from “lower-income neighborhoods with ‘mom &amp; pop’ retail” to “glitzier areas with sky-high rents.”The next couple of studies got even more specific. In 2018, Joseph Poirier, the urban planner I quoted earlier, looked at sales data from <a target="_blank" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0361198118792321">three retail neighborhoods in San Francisco</a> with newly installed bike lanes. Drawing on everything from industry coding conventions to map data, he was able to draw detailed distinctions among hundreds of businesses: what they sold (retail versus restaurants), where they were located (right next to a bike lane versus a few blocks away), and who their customers were (coffee shops serving locals, say, versus a furniture store serving the entire city).The results were mixed. In two of the three districts, shops and restaurants serving locals did way better than places serving a wider area. In the other district, sales tanked relative to the number of people a shop employed, suggesting that bike lanes gave an advantage to smaller businesses. “The takeaway is that it’s probably a minimal effect on businesses when you put in a bike lane,” Poirer says. “That actually makes a lot of sense. If you think of a busy downtown district, there’s not that many parking spaces relative to the number of people who come to the business.” In this case, bike lanes didn’t seem to help businesses much. But overall, it didn’t hurt them.In 2019 Poirer was on a team that did another study of San Francisco. They looked at <a target="_blank" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0361198119850465">businesses directly adjacent</a> to two kinds of bike infrastructure — Class II, which creates dedicated bike lanes denoted by a paint stripe, and Class III, where signs instruct cars and bikes to share the street. (Either way, blocks with the new lanes lost an average of three parking spaces.) Once again, the results were mixed. On Class II lanes, bars and barber shops and banks enjoyed increases in sales, while furniture stores and gas stations were more likely to experience decreases. Older businesses tended to decline more than new ones. Overall, in the year after the bike infrastructure went in, businesses on Class II streets lost a median of $27,921 compared with $19,390 for those on Class III lanes. But similar shops that weren’t on a bike lane lost $25,296. When it came to bike lanes, there were lots and lots of winners. But there were some losers, too.The most definitive study, to my eye, came in 2020. Jenny Liu and Wei Shi, researchers at Portland State University in Oregon produced a 260-page report looking at <a target="_blank" href="https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33394">neighborhoods that got bike lanes and other street improvements</a> in Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Memphis. The team cross-referenced financial information like sales taxes with geographic data, so they could tell exactly where businesses were in relation to the street improvements. They ran three kinds of econometric analyses on each site. And they looked not only at revenue but also at the number of employees — per business and in total — in each study area. “I was really trying to be rigorous methodologically, to provide the kind of evidence that people can use to talk to their communities,” says Liu, the director of the Center for Urban Studies at Portland State.<div type="image" title="An older man in a baseball cap and parka rides a blue bicycle on a city shopping street, past parked cars and a yoga studio" height="2771" width="4000" msid="108304344" hostid="261" sizebytes="696084"></div>Like Poirier, Liu and Shi found that in many cases, only certain kinds of businesses benefited from the bike lanes and street improvements. Food and beverage did better; retail did worse. And just slapping a bike lane on a hectic thoroughfare didn’t do anyone any good. “On really large streets with high traffic volumes or speeds, even if you add a bike lane or pedestrian improvements, it still isn’t really inviting,” Liu says. “Just having street calming doesn’t always have positive results.”But overall, Liu’s team found, retail areas benefited from better streets. Sometimes nothing changed, but more often the areas near bike lanes wound up with more employees and more revenue. That was true in Portland, at two sites in San Francisco, one site in Minneapolis (at the other, retail did better than food), and one site in Memphis (at the other, food did a bit better than retail). Across the country, again and again, the numbers told the same story: Either “business activity remained pretty much constant,” Liu says, or “certain types of businesses became much more prosperous.” Back in the 1960s, when the advent of suburban flight and climate-controlled malls began to draw business away from America’s once thriving downtowns, cities tried to stanch the flow by banning cars on shopping streets. It was called, not exactly trippingly, “<a target="_blank" href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944368408977171">pedestrianization</a>,” and it was a disaster. Pedestrian-only plazas couldn’t compete with the Golden Age of the Automobile, and many downtowns turned into boarded-up wastelands. That extinction event is still encoded in the genetic memories of today’s retailers and restaurateurs.But things have changed. Nowadays, online retail is crushing brick-and-mortar worse than any half-assed pedestrian plaza ever could. What’s more, demand for new homes means lots of cities are putting them downtown, trading daytime workers for all-the-time residents close enough to ride a bike. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bicycle-lanes-cycling-pandemic-coronavirus-2020-10">COVID showed us</a> it’s worth giving up parking spaces for outdoor restaurants. America’s cities are undergoing nothing short of a total rethink of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-pandemic-might-have-redesigned-cities-forever/">what and whom downtowns are for</a>.<div type="image" title="A bike lane painted bright green separates a busy sidewalk with a pizza place and other shops from a bikeshare facility full of blue Citibikes and automotive traffic." height="3024" width="4032" msid="108304345" hostid="261" sizebytes="1827558"></div><a target="_blank" href="https://infrastructure.peopleforbikes.org/map/">Nationwide numbers</a> of bike lanes are tough to come by. By one count, there are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/us-bicycle-route-system/">nearly 20,000 miles</a> of bike-ready paths in the United States, but that includes rural routes and trails. Still, city after city is working to create European-style streets. <a target="_blank" href="https://bikeportland.org/2023/01/13/which-part-of-portland-is-winning-the-bikeway-network-race-369311">Portland</a> has over 430 miles of bike lanes, about the same as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/bike/news/2023/march/cdot-releases-updated-cycling-strategy-to-expand-bike-network-an.html#:~:text=Chicago%27s%20network%20of%20bicycle%20infrastructure,and%20other%20on%2Dstreet%20bikeways.">Chicago</a>; <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/cyclinginthecity.shtml">New York City</a> has more than 1,500; <a target="_blank" href="https://la.streetsblog.org/2023/10/17/too-many-disappointments-in-l-a-city-bikeway-mileage-during-fiscal-year-2022-23">Los Angeles has added</a> almost 1,000 miles since 2010. And every new mile of bike lane per square mile of city <a target="_blank" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3141/1828-14">increases the number of cyclists</a> by 1%. The training wheels are about to come off the “complete street” movement.Now, advocates and policymakers should be honest about all this. Even if bike lanes boost revenues and employment overall, some individual businesses are going to win and some are going to lose. An older business selling heavier goods, or drawing from a wider watershed for its customer base, might well be in trouble. “Newer businesses who are thrilled with density and development around them are pivoting to a customer who’s younger, who’s arriving on a scooter or a bike,” says Larisa Ortiz, a managing director at the urban-planning consultancy Streetsense. “But this process of evolution toward bike lanes and mobility does not come without loss.”One way I’d propose to help businesses adjust to the total remaking of the urban landscape is the most American solution of all: Just hand them some money. All you’d have to do is build funds into the budgets for street-improvement projects to compensate adjacent businesses for any sales they wind up losing. If your business takes a hit from all the bikes, you get a pay-out.The most effective way to deal with opposition from local businesses is to just get the bike lanes built. Before-and-after surveys tend to show that in the long run, everyone winds up satisfied. “It’s a political question, and oftentimes it’s a very divided community when it comes to these types of projects,” Poirier says. “But once a street is changed, generally speaking, after six months or a year, nobody remembers what it used to look like. It’s the new normal.” All the data in the world may prove that bike lanes are good for business. But nothing beats experiencing them.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/adam-rogers">Adam Rogers</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

I read all the studies on the economic impact of bike lanes. Here's what I learned.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="12002054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="university-of-michigan" source="Orion">University of Michigan</keyword>'s sentiment index slid to 61.7 in early February, the lowest since 2011.</li><li>Households earning more than $100,000 powered the entire decline, the university said.</li></ul>Wealthy Americans were far better equipped to weather the pandemic recession. Yet they're now the gloomiest as the <keyword id="11893570" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy" source="Orion">economy</keyword> continues to rebound.While the latest data shows the US <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/january-jobs-report-467000-payrolls-unemployment-rate-omicron-labor-market-2022-2">squarely on the mend</a>, Americans aren't feeling great about the recovery. The University of Michigan's <a href="http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/">Consumer Sentiment Index</a> plummeted to 61.7 from 67.2 in a preliminary February reading, according to a Friday report. That's the lowest print since October 2011 and down 15.1 points from levels seen one year ago. Expectations for the economy also cratered to the weakest level in a decade.The latest leg lower was entirely fueled by souring sentiments among households with incomes of at least $100,000, Richard Curtin, chief economist at the University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers, said. While the final February reading could show sentiment falling among other groups, the early data signals wealthier Americans are feeling the greatest pressure as the economy heals.To be sure, they have plenty to be upset about. The stock market only partially recovered January losses in the first weeks of February and has traded with greater volatility. Since wealthy adults are the most likely to hold their cash in stocks, the market turbulence likely hampered optimism.Soaring prices continued to drag on moods. Data out Thursday showed inflation <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-cpi-january-price-growth-report-omicron-wave-supply-chains-2022-2">accelerating in January</a> to its fastest pace since 1982. One-third of surveyed adults cited higher inflation and its effect on personal finances for their weak sentiments, Curtin said. Nearly half of all adults expect their inflation-adjusted earnings to drop in the next 12 months, he added.Americans' inflation fears also worsened through the first weeks of February, according to the University of Michigan survey. Adults now expect inflation to trend at 5% over the next year, up from January's reading of 4.9%. They also expect prices to climb at an annual rate of 3.1% over the next five to 10 years, well above the Fed's target of 2% inflation.Dwindling confidence in the government also knocked sentiments. Inadequate economic policy was mentioned by 51% of surveyed adults, according to the report, marking the largest share since 2014. Pessimism toward government policy has plagued sentiments since late 2021 when it became clear the Build Back Better plan lacked a path forward. With Sen. Joe Manchin and GOP senators <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-manchin-bidens-spending-bill-inflation-timeline-2022-2">still opposing the social-spending package</a>, it's unlikely the Biden administration approves major economic policy in the near term.Yet the weak Friday data hint the country might need more support soon if consumers' darkening moods lead to changes in real economic activity. The recent declines in sentiment now signal "the onset of a sustained downturn in consumer spending," Curtin said. Spending already tumbled in December, with retail sales <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-sales-december-inflation-consumer-spending-holiday-season-economic-recovery-2022-1">unexpectedly dropping 1.9%</a> through the month despite holiday-season shopping. Worsened sentiments could lead to a prolonged drop in spending and weaken broad economic activity.Just how deep spending slumps depends on several factors, Curtin said. Households could still have unspent stimulus cash to deploy, and the pandemic's continued disruption to work and spending patterns could either prolong or shorten the decline. There could be a lessened need to save and a greater push toward discretionary spending if the health crisis improves, Curtin added.The outlook for the pandemic is promising. The seven-day average for daily virus infections hit the lowest since Christmas on Thursday, and cities that first faced the Omicron variant have seen case counts drop even faster. Yet with wealthy Americans powering the latest drop in sentiment, look to stocks, not infections, for the first signs of fresh optimism.

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