India's Growth Pulse December 2025

India’s Growth Pulse: Tracking India’s Economic Momentum

December 2025
7th Issue
15 min read

Contributors

Manasa Sriram

Lead Editor

Shankarjeet Panda

Author

Yash Khandelwal

Policy Spotlight Author

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Executive Summary

The December 2025 edition of India’s Growth Pulse reviews India’s economic performance through November 2025 and presents a constructive macroeconomic picture despite a difficult external environment. Growth remained strong, inflation eased sharply, the trade balance improved, GST collections stayed buoyant and labour indicators strengthened. The edition also places a policy spotlight on India’s nuclear energy transition, especially the role of Small Modular Reactors and the SHANTI Bill in opening the sector to private participation, improving regulatory certainty and supporting reliable non-fossil baseload capacity.

Key Developments

Real GDP expanded 8.2% year-on-year in Q2 FY2025-26, led by services and the secondary sector.
Industrial activity re-accelerated, with IIP growing 6.7% year-on-year and manufacturing rising 8.0%.
CPI inflation eased to 0.71%, with food prices in deflation, creating policy space for a more growth-supportive stance.
Exports of goods and services reached $73.99 billion and the trade deficit narrowed to $6.64 billion.
Credit growth stood at 11.5% year-on-year and foreign exchange reserves remained strong at $688.1 billion.
GST collections reached ₹1.70 lakh crore, growing 8.9% year-on-year, while capital expenditure continued to support infrastructure-led demand.
Labour indicators improved, with unemployment at 4.7%, LFPR at 55.8% and WPR at 53.2%.
Services continued to anchor growth, while manufacturing moderated but stayed expansionary.
Core industry growth returned to positive territory, supported by non-energy sectors.
The policy spotlight highlighted Small Modular Reactors, the National Nuclear Mission and the SHANTI Bill as key enablers for India’s next phase of clean and reliable energy expansion.

Key Takeaways

India’s November 2025 data shows strong growth combined with falling inflation and improving external buffers.
The macroeconomic environment created room for continued reforms and policy support.
Infrastructure, services and improving labour market participation remain important growth anchors.
Nuclear energy and SMRs are positioned as long-term complements to renewable energy for reliable, round-the-clock power.
This PDF appears to contain the same December 2025 / 7th Issue content as another December PDF in the folder, but it has been retained as a separate Google Doc for file-wise identification.