India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) highlights that the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) delivered steady growth at 7.5% yoy in February 2025 (February 2024: 9.2% yoy; Source: Pharmatrac), on account of price growth (5.2% yoy) and new launches (2.4% yoy). However, volume growth (negative 0.2% yoy) remained weak during this period. Key therapies such as cardiac (9.5%), gastro (9.6%), central nervous system (CNS; 8.1%), and derma (8.3%) outperformed IPM growth, while respiratory (2.7%), gynaecology (2.2%), anti-infectives (4.3%), analgesic (6.5%), and anti-diabetic (6.0%) underperformed in February 2025. During April 2024 to February 2025, IPM on average grew 7.4% yoy (monthly) with volume growth at negative 0.8% yoy. Ind-Ra expects IPM to grow 8%-9% yoy in FY26 (FY24: 6.5% yoy; FY23: 9.9% yoy).

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects the fiscal deficit ratio of Andhra Pradesh (AP) to come in at 4.4% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) in FY26, same as the budgeted estimate (BE), due to the combination of lower-than-budgeted revenue receipts and lower-than-targeted revenue and capital expenditure. The revenue deficit is budgeted at 1.8% in FY26, which Ind-Ra expects to come in marginally higher at around 2% of GSDP, as the state’s revenue receipts growth estimate is on the higher side than the past performance. The state’s committed expenditure and obligations to meet social sector expenditures would entail revenue expenditure to be closer to BE. The state government has projected a debt/GSDP of 35.5% for FY26. The debt ratio would be outside the indicative level of the 15th Finance Commission (15FC, 32.1% of the GSDP) in FY26.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects Punjab’s fiscal ratios to be higher than budgeted in FY26. The state has budgeted the revenue and fiscal deficit at 2.7% and 3.8%, respectively, of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) in FY26. “However, optimistic nominal GSDP growth and own-tax revenue assumptions may result in the revenue deficit coming in 50bp higher than budgeted in FY26. The fiscal deficit would be higher by 30bp than budgeted in FY26, due to capex compression. Nevertheless, the fiscal deficit would be outside the indicative limits allowed by the union government (3.0% of GSDP and 0.5% of GSDP as incentives for power sector reforms)”, says Paras Jasrai, Associate Director & Economist, Ind-Ra.