(MENAFN- Live Mint)

From the early impact of US tariffs on India's exports, modest growth in foodgrain production, women facing higher levels of unemployment, and the government looking to mobilize $1 billion in green finance, here is a compilation of this week's news in numbers.

Warning signs

India's provisional trade data has revealed the early impact of US tariffs. Overall merchandise exports rose 6.7% year-on-year to $35.1 billion in August, but export growth to the US slowed to a nine-month low of 7.2%.

This is down from the 25.6% average growth between January and July, which was aided by frontloading of shipments ahead of tariffs. Key sectors reliant on the US market struggled, with overall garment exports declining 2.7%, carpets 7.2%, and jute 8.3%. India, however, increased shipments to the UAE and the Netherlands, which supported the overall export growth.

Also Read | Mint Explainer | Have US tariffs begun impacting India's exports

Monsoon mayhem?

The government has projected a 2.4% growth in foodgrains production to 362.96 million tonnes in 2025-26 . Food production had grown 6.5% to 353.96mt in the previous year. The modest projection has come against the backdrop of excess rainfall and flooding in recent weeks in key agricultural states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Telangana.

Overall, India has received 'above-normal rainfall' this monsoon season, aiding an increase in sowing area. However, excess rainfall in some parts in early September is expected to have led to some crop damage.

5 million: That is the number of active individual investors who exited the equity markets in the past year, data from the National Stock Exchange showed . Retail investors on the active direct route-who trade at least once a month-fell 32% to 10.7 million between September 2024 and August 2025. The fall has happened on the back of the Nifty plunging 17% from its peak in September 2024, before staging a partial recovery. In contrast, mutual fund investors grew 12.5% during the same period, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) data, reflecting a preference for patient investing amid volatility.

Also Read | How India is using UAE's strategic location to weather US tariff

Exporting deflation

Several countries in Asia, including India, are currently seeing disinflationary trends, a Mint analysis showed. A key factor driving this is China's prolonged economic weakness marked by sluggish demand and industrial overcapacity, economists noted. China's Producer Price Index (PPI) has remained in deflation since September 2022.

With several economies interconnected with China, due to its dominance in global manufacturing output, the low prices have had ripple effects on other countries. This includes India, which relies heavily on China for imports. Data shows that India's wholesale inflation closely tracks the PPI, underscoring the linkage between the two economies.

Independent bonanza

Independent directors in the Nifty 50 companies have seen their pay sharply jump during the last five years, according to a study, 'Nifty 50 Independent Director Remuneration Study-2025 Edition,' by consulting firm Deloitte. The average compensation for them at the Nifty 50 companies nearly doubled from ₹52 lakh in 2019-20 to ₹1 crore in 2024-25, the report pointed out.

However, compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) has not grown at the same pace, but still maintained a strong growth of 50%. Independent directors on the board of the Nifty 50 companies make up around 60% of the total share of active directors, Mint reported .

Also Read | Monsoon mayhem: Is it time to worry about food inflation

Green money

$1 trillion: That is the amount the government is looking to mobilize in green finance to boost investments in renewable energy, Mint reported . Non-fossil fuels make up about half of India's installed capacity, and India has set a target of installing 500 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2030. The renewable energy ministry has been in talks with state-run power companies such as Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation on funding models. Options under consideration include contracts-for-difference (CfD) for power purchase agreements and mezzanine finance. Renewable energy minister Pralhad Joshi recently said India has already achieved half of its green energy target.

Labour trends

India's unemployment rate eased for the second straight month, falling to a four-month low of 5.1% in August from 5.2% in July, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report. However, gender-wise data showed that while the unemployment rate among men declined in both rural and urban areas in August, it rose for women.

The jobless rate for men declined to 4.5% from 4.6% in July in rural areas, while for women, it inched up to 4.0% from 3.9%. The rise was sharpest for women in urban areas, where the jobless rate rose 20 basis points to 8.9% in August.

Young blood

Young women lawmakers have performed better than their male counterparts in asking questions in the Parliament, displaying an opposite trend from older women parliamentarians, who lag behind men in the same cohort, according to a report by Politics for Impact, which evaluated 482 non-minister MPs from June 2024 to June 2025.

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