India slips to 7th spot in Global GDP Rankings of 2018, France, UK push ahead: World Bank:

India has slipped down to the 7th place in the global GDP rankings of 2018, reveals data compiled by the World Bank. According to the 2017 World Bank report, India had become the fifth largest economy, displacing UK and France.

According to the 2018 data, the UK and France once again moved ahead of India to reclaim their 5th and 6th spots respectively in the global GDP rankings.

Global GDP rankings 2018:

The United States continues to top the list with a GDP of $20.5 trillion, followed by China at second place with GDP of $13.6 trillion and Japan at third place with a GDP of $5 trillion.

India recorded a GDP of $2.73 trillion in 2018, which is less than that of the UK and France, which had a GDP of $2.82 trillion and $2.78 trillion respectively in the same year.

Global GDP rankings 2017:

India had emerged as the fifth largest economy in 2017, pushing ahead of the UK and France in the global GDP table. While the UK was pushed to sixth place, France was pushed to the seventh position. In the Global GDP rankings of 2017, India had recorded a GDP of $2.65 trillion, while the UK’s GDP was $2.64 trillion and France’s $2.59 trillion.

India’s economic slowdown:

The drop in India’s position on the global GDP table reflects the slump in India’s overall economic growth. India’s GDP in 2018 shows a growth of mere 3.01 percent in dollar terms in 2018, as against 15.72 percent in 2017. On the other hand, the UK’s GDP grew by 6.81 percent and France’s economy expanded by 7.33 percent.

India’s economic slowdown- Key Reasons:

According to economists, India has slipped to the 7th place in Global GDP ranking due to currency fluctuations and a slowdown in economic growth.

While in 2017, the Indian rupee had appreciated by 3 percent against the dollar, in 2018 it depreciated by 5 percent against the dollar.

The Indian economy grew by 11.2 percent in 2018-19 in rupee terms, while it grew by 11.3 percent in 2017-18.

India is, however, still the fastest-growing major economy in the world. According to a research firm, IHS Markit, India will overtake the UK as the fifth-largest economy in the world in 2019 and is likely to even overtake Japan and emerge as the third-largest economy by 2025.

In the Union Budget 2019-20, the Indian government set a goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025. To achieve this goal, India will need to sustain a GDP growth rate of 8 percent. India has identified certain key areas to boost work upon such as Indian MSMEs, increasing focus on private investment, introducing people-centric policies and invoking a behavioral change to address issues such as gender equality, a healthy and a beautiful India, savings, tax compliance and credit quality.

Flipkart set to take on Amazon with free video streaming service:

• Walmart’s Flipkart unit to introduce a free video streaming service to draw new users from small towns and cities in India. 
• Flipkart is the next 200 million consumers who are coming online. 
• The company believes that most consumers are introduced to the internet through online videos. 

The video content offering is focused on three primary aspects: 

• It’s free, curated and personalized. The content market is still evolving, considering the number of customers paying partly or fully for subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar.
• The pricing is too high for a customer base that is accustomed to free or cheap content.
• Amazon India started its Prime video service in December 2016 since developed a strong fan base with hit shows such as Made in Heaven and Mirzapur.The main aim to ensure that the consumer is hooked to Flipkart.
• It may be less expensive or more profitable to service existing customers by expanding the share of wallet than to acquire new customers.
• India’s video streaming industry is set to grow at an annual average pace of 21.8% to reach ?11,977 crore by 2023The video-on-demand platforms are projected to grow at an average yearly rate of 23.3% to reach ?10,712 crore between 2018 and 2023.The 34 companies present in the cluttered market comprise US platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as Indian services such as ZEE5, Voot, Eros Now and ALTBalaji.