The uptick in India’s rural economy —with gross valued added in agriculture, forestry, and fishing registering average growth of 4.4% in the five years to FY25 and 3.7% in Q1FY26—is good news for India’s growth story. Higher farm incomes from larger food grain production due to a run of normal and above-normal southwest monsoons, barring 2023-24, and robust prices have led to more demand for fast-moving consumer goods ( FMCG ) and tractors which favourably impact overall industrial production with a lag. Although US President Donald Trump’s punitive 50% tariffs on India are bound to cast a shadow over rural sentiments, the fact that 72.8% of rural households in September still expect their incomes to increase in the next year—which is down from 75% in July—according to a bi-monthly sur

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